Columbus’s voyages primarily began what kind of exchange?

Columbus's voyages primarily initiated transatlantic exchange, which refers to the exchange of goods, ideas, people, and cultures between Europe and the Americas across the Atlantic Ocean. This exchange fundamentally changed the dynamics of trade and interaction between the two regions, leading to the Columbian Exchange, a term used to describe the widespread transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and human populations.

The voyages opened up new trade routes and established contact between continents that had previously been closed off from each other in significant ways. This exchange not only involved the movement of tangible goods like crops and livestock but also led to the sharing of technologies and even resulted in the spread of diseases, which had devastating effects on Native American populations.

The other types of exchanges mentioned—diplomatic, cultural, and mercantile—are aspects of the broader implications of transatlantic exchange, but they do not encapsulate the full scope of what Columbus's expeditions set in motion. Diplomatic exchange would refer more specifically to interactions between governments, cultural exchange, while significant, is a subset of the broader interactions that occurred, and mercantile exchange focuses specifically on trade, which is a component of the larger transatlantic interactions initiated by Columbus’s voyages.