Perhaps one of the most prominent features of global
             expansion and exploration that occurred during the
             path of recorded history was the many exchanges that
             occurred among civilizations, where anything ranging
             form religious ideals, technology, to various forms of
             cultural diffusion occurred. Unlike previous global
             exchanges that occurred among civilizations before the
             16th and 17th centuries, the "Columbian Exchange" as
             it became to be known set the standard for further
             consequences of exchanges that were to follow on a
             totally new global scale never seen before. The
             demographic, economic, and geographic factors present
             in the Columbian exchange were on another level that
             In the process of the heyday of the imperialist
             western expansion that boomed during the 16th and 17th
             centuries, the process known as the "Columbian
             Exchange" began to take place. What made this
             seemingly harmless western outreach so important in
             the influence of further history is the truly global
             scale that the exchange took place. For example, one
             of the primary "items" that was exchanged, albeit
             harmlessly, was the European diseases that came with
             the explorers to the New Land. Although this would
             seem on the exterior harmless enough, this transaction
             of disease would wreak havoc on the Native population,
             as they had no form of immunity against the diseases
             to the likes of smallpox, etc. Because of the
             introduction of these diseases, whole flourishing
             civilizations were wiped out. This is similar to what
             happened to Europe when the Mongols, through the trade
             networks established by them, began the spread of the
             bubonic plague through out Europe. Some estimations
             placed the destruction as that as high as 80 percent
             of the population was wiped out. With the beginning of
             the Columbian exchange as well, there existed a
             fundamental change in the way that the indigenous
             ...