Columbian exchange
Communicable diseases of Old World origin resulted in an 80 to 95 percent reduction in the indigenous population of the Americas from the 15th century onwards, and their extinction in the Caribbean.
In 1972, Alfred W. Crosby, an American historian at the University of Texas at Austin, published the book The Columbian Exchange,[2] thus coining the term.
He studied the effects of Columbus's voyages between the two – specifically, the global diffusion of crops, seeds, and plants from the New World to the Old, which radically transformed agriculture in both regions.
[9] However, it was only with the first voyage of the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and his crew to the Americas in 1492 that the Columbian exchange began, resulting in major transformations in the cultures and livelihoods of the peoples in both hemispheres.
[10] Because of the new trading resulting from the Columbian exchange, several plants native to the Americas spread around the world, including potatoes, maize, tomatoes, and tobacco.
[13] Cassava was introduced from South America by the Portuguese in the 16th century,[14] and gradually replaced sorghum and millet as Africa's most important food crop.
[15] Spanish colonizers of the 16th century introduced new staple crops to Asia from the Americas, including maize and sweet potatoes, contributing to population growth there.
[16] On a larger scale, the introduction of potatoes and maize to the Old World improved people's nutrition throughout the Eurasian landmass,[13] enabling more varied and abundant food production.
Introduced to India by the Portuguese, chili peppers and potatoes from South America in turn became integral parts of Indian cuisine, and starting the process of making curry an international dish.
Though cacao was usually consumed by European populations in the form of sweets and was at first treated as an expensive luxury item, chocolate helped with fatigue and provided energy.
[13] Rice, originally domesticated in China, became widely planted in the New World; European planters there relied upon the skills of African slaves to cultivate it.
[23] The Manila galleon trading network introduced American plants such as chayote and papaya into Southeast Asia; these were incorporated into the cuisines there.
In 1790, the use of tomato sauce with pasta appeared for the first time, in the Italian cookbook L'Apicio Moderno ("The Modern Apicius"), by chef Francesco Leonardi.
Horses, donkeys, mules, pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, dogs, cats, and bees were rapidly adopted by native peoples for transport, food, and other uses.
[33] While mesoamerican peoples, Mayas in particular, already practiced apiculture,[34] producing wax and honey from a variety of bees, such as Melipona or Trigona,[35] European bees (Apis mellifera)—were more productive, delivering a honey with less water content and allowing for easier extraction from beehives—were introduced in New Spain, becoming an important part of farming production.
After the victory, Charles's largely mercenary army returned to their respective homes, spreading "the Great Pox" across Europe, which killed up to five million people.
[54] Epidemics, possibly of smallpox, spread from Central America, devastated the population of the Inca Empire a few years before the arrival of the Spanish.
The deadliest Old World diseases in the Americas were smallpox, measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, bubonic plague, typhus, and malaria.
Europeans suffered higher rates of death than did people of African descent when exposed to yellow fever in the Americas, as numerous epidemics swept the colonies and sugar plantations.
[59] On the other hand, European exploration of tropical areas was aided by the New World discovery of quinine, the first effective treatment for malaria.
[60] The resistance of sub-Saharan Africans to malaria in the southern United States and the Caribbean contributed greatly to the specific character of the Africa-sourced slavery in those regions.
[66] Indigenous people have often been seen as static recipients of transatlantic encounters, but thousands of Native Americans crossed the ocean during the sixteenth century, some by choice.
