Europeanization And The Columbian Exchange

The meaning of Europeanization is Europeans settling down in an unknown land and enforcing their culture and aspects of life. This is exactly what Europeans did to the Fortunate Islands and the habitants who were living on them, who were called the Guanches. The Guanches were indigenous people who lived on seven different islands with primitive technology, Crosby describes, “The Guanches were infidels without armor, ‘nor any knowledge of warfare, and they can receive no help from their neighbors’”(Crosby 73). Crosby explains that the Guanches really had no idea what was taking place around the rest of the world. He also states that they received no help from their neighbors, this is because the Guanches had disputes between each other as each …show more content…
Europeans ventured to the Fortunate Islands in order to produce plantations and grow sugar for trade. Along the way, they also brought with them their culture and aspects of life. The process of Europeanization began with Europeans bringing their flora and fauna. Flora and fauna were the crops and animals Europeans were accustomed to living with. Their flora consisted of wheat, sugar, woad, apples, and pears; however, they primarily were interested in growing sugar. Europeans wanted to produce lots of cash crops for trade and in order to do so Crosby explains,”Settlers wanted to clear space for themselves and their crops and animals faster than what was being accomplished by commercial cutting. Therefore, they set a fire, or fires”(Crosby 76). Europeans wanted to grow cash crops as fast as possible so they decided to burn down the forest instead of taking the time to cut it. This had drastic effects on the environment and on the life of the Guanches because the fires would destroy their homes and food supplies. Their fauna consisted of rabbits, horses, goats, donkeys, and sheep. A man with the name Bartholomeu Perestrello released a single female rabbit with her offspring that began to reproduce around the island. Eventually that single rabbit created an entire colony of rabbits, Crosby quotes the rabbits: “‘Overspread the land, so that our men could sow nothing that was not destroyed by them’”(Crosby 75). The effects the rabbits had on the land were catastrophic because they ate everything in their line of sight which affected the animals native to the land and then soon after, the Guanches as well. As the native animals began to die due to not having food, the Guanches ended up without