The Columbian exchange was the transatlantic exchange of goods, people and ideas that began when Columbus arrived in the Caribbean, ending the age-old separation of the hemispheres. Spaniards brought many things to the new world including Christianity, sailing ships, iron technology, horses, and wheeled vehicles. They also accidentally brought microorganisms that caused catastrophic epidemics including measles, smallpox, and other diseases that killed many Indians during the sixteenth century and would kill more in later centuries. Ultimately, these diseases helped form the dominant peoples of the New World from descendants of Asians, who had inhabited the hemisphere for millennia, to descendants of Europeans and Africans, the recent arrivals
