"Gifts" from the Other Side of The Sea: Animals, Plants, People, and Disease

This is a map produced by Diego Gutierrez of North and South America. While the map features mythological creatures in the oceans, it contains great detail about the names and locations of Spanish land and settlements, as well as a general coast line of South America, Mexico, and the Gulf region of what is now the United States of America. https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3290.ct000342 

In addition to the ability to travel long distances, the improvement of cargo space on ships played a vital role in European’s ability to set up agricultural enterprises in the colonies, which in turn helped to facilitate the spread of European diseases among the peoples they encountered in the New World. Along with weapons and men, Europeans also brought many plants and animals to the New World on their ships. These flora and fauna, which included sugar cane, wheat, sheep, pigs, horses, and cattle, came to greatly influence and change the geography and population of the New World. Antonio Vazquez de Espinoza, a Carmelite friar, recorded the spread of European plants and animals in the areas where the Spanish established settlements and colonized native peoples. He notes the spread of thousands of wheat farms, sugar plantations, and ranches for horses, cattle, and pigs in Mexico City and Michoacán (Stearns, et. al.). His account shows that Old World agricultural products became ingrained within the economy of the colonies in the Americas. The increase of sheep alone from sheep 39,000 in 1539 to 4.4 million in 1589 changed valleys that were once used to grow corn into scrub land, revealing that the introduction of Old World animals and plants to the Americas by ship greatly changed the physical environment these species inhabited (Stearns, et. al.).

European ships would not only bring new agricultural products to the new world, but help facilitate social changes in the new lands. The animals brought by European ships also served as vectors for deadly Old World diseases such as smallpox, that went on to decimate the populations of native peoples in the Americas. In his article “Military Revolution or Maritime Evolution? Military Superiorities or Transportation Advantages as Main Causes of European Colonial Conquests to 1788”, George Raudzens notes that ships helped to deliver the pathogens that resulted the massive death rates that befell native populations (Raudzens). Without the innovations to ship technology made before Europeans, it would not have been possible for Europeans to deliver their agricultural cargo and set up settlements quickly, meaning that the spread of disease through animals carriers would not have been possible. Even as some Europeans succumbed to diseases within the colonies, their fast and strong ships enabled them to reinforce and grow their numbers in such a way that could locally overwhelm that of the native populations (Raudzens). By providing a quick way to restore populations of colonizers in the settlements, ships helped to ensure that settlements would not flounder or fail due to low population. The frequency of visits to the Americas also helped European's understanding of the continent's geography to grow as well. The map of the Americas created by Diego Gutiérrez, shown to the right, displays the names and locations of major waterways, cities, islands, and oceans in and around the North and South American continents (Gutierrez). The detail of the map, produced less than 100 years after Columbus made his first voyage, reveals that Europeans, especially the Spanish and the Portuguese, were quickly establishing notable settlements in the Americas. In addition, explorers were using their ships to embark on expeditions to get to know and understand the features and coastlines of the areas they colonized or explored as well as claim land for their respective kingdoms. As European colonies in the Americas began to turn huge profits, countries would also utilize merchant ships, maps, and their shipping prowess to transport raw materials produced in the New World back to Europe for processing and establish powerful trade networks across the Atlantic.