Imagine that you’re enjoying a vanilla and chocolate ice cream cone on a hot, sunny day. Did you know that you have something called the Columbian exchange to thank for that sweet treat?
The Columbian exchange was the movement of people, animals, plants, ideas, and even diseases between Europe and the Americas. It began when European explorers reached the Americas.
Vanilla and chocolate come from plants that are indigenous, or native, to Mexico. But before European exploration started moving plants, animals, and people from continent to continent, there were no cows in the Americas to make cream. There was no sugarcane to provide sugar. The Columbian exchange had to happen for all these ingredients to be in one place so they could go into your ice cream cone. The Columbian exchange changed the world forever—in good ways and bad.
