ECONOMICS (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -The impact was most severe in the Caribbean, where by 1600 Native American populations on most islands had plummeted by more than 99 percent. Across the Americas, populations fell by 50 percent to 95 percent by 1650. The disease component of the Columbian Exchange was decidedly one-sided.

Detailed explanation-2: -Settlers killed off huge numbers of people in conflicts and also by spreading disease, which reduced the indigenous population by 90% in the century following Christopher Columbus’s initial journey to the Americas and Caribbean in 1492.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Europeans brought technologies, ideas, plants, and animals that were new to America and would transform peoples’ lives: guns, iron tools, and weapons; Christianity and Roman law; sugarcane and wheat; horses and cattle. They also carried diseases against which the Indian peoples had no defenses.

Detailed explanation-4: -Europeans brought horses, cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs, among others. These animals changed agricultural practices and transportation. Horses had a huge effect on the indigenous American economies and culture. Buffalo hunting became far more efficient when done on horseback.