If this Great Exchange had not taken place, these opportunities would not be available to use. There are many cultural adoptions that were brought to America during the Columbian Exchange. One of the most important adoptions that we brought back was food. Before 1492, the Irish, Spanish, and Swiss didn't eat the same things they eat now. For example, peppers were introduced to the cultural. There were many foods that were native to the Western Hemisphere that were brought back from Europe. Some of the things brought back were corn, cassava, peanuts, avocados, strawberries, pineapple, vanilla, and tobacco. These crops are a very important part of America today. Without tobacco many smokers that make up the United States today would not exist and that would cause billions of dollars to be taken out of the economy. If it weren't for this time period, many resources that make up the staple of the American diet would cease to exist. .
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Another big culture change during the Columbian Exchange was the socio-cultural traditions. American Indians integrated the European cultures into their traditions and vice-versa. Just as potatoes were not brought to America until 1942, so were horses. It didn't take long after the horse was introduced to the New World by Spanish conquistadors for the Indian society to appreciate the strange beast and value the things it could do. It made transportation, hunting and warfare a lot more efficient. The horse did not only transform the Indian Society, it also created new nations. Around the 1700's, the Comanche emerged, which broke free from the Shoshone in order to adapt a new nomadic lifestyle made possible only by the horse. There is now nothing more traditional that the Irish potato and the Comanche being on horseback, but before the Columbian Exchange, these traditions would not have existed. .
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When Europeans first touched the shores of the Americas, Old World crops such as wheat, barley, rice, and turnips had yet traveled west across the Atlantic.