The Europeans’ so-called discovery of the so-called New World goes down in history as one of the most important and earth-shattering moments in human history, ranking right up there with the advent of agriculture, the domestication of animals, and the discovery of the use of fire. Although the Vikings made it to Newfoundland around the year 1000, they apparently decided that Greenland would make for a much better colony and scrammed, leaving the Spanish with all the glory almost five centuries later. The ensuing exchange of plants, animals, people, and diseases has since been named the “Columbian Exchange” after the charismatic Christopher Columbus, who bumped into the Bahamas thinking he’d made it to India.
Over the next few centuries, different groups of European explorers brought crops such as corn, potatoes, cassava, tomatoes, peppers, cocoa, peanuts, strawberries, and tobacco back to the Old World from the Americas – meaning that the potato is no more Irish than the tomato is Italian, the pepper is Spanish, or the cigarette is French. In particular, carb-rich corn and potatoes helped ease the killer food shortages that were all-too common in Europe; Ireland’s population alone swelled 800 percent in 200 years – only to be devastated by the potato blight in the mid-1840’s. So much for putting all your potatoes in one basket. Continue reading “The Columbian Exchange Beginning With Spanish Colonization”
