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New World crops are those crops, food and otherwise, that are native to the New World (mostly the Americas) and were not found in the Old World before 1492 AD. Many of these crops are now grown around the world and have often become an integral part of the cuisine of various cultures in the Old World .
For a list of food plants and other crops which were only introduced to Old World cultures as a result of the Columbian Exchange touched off by the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, see New World crops. [1]
The Columbian exchange of crop plants, livestock, and diseases in both directions between the Old World and the New World. 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. [1]
Maize, potatoes, sweet potatoes and manioc were the key crops that spread from the New World to the Old, while varieties of wheat, barley, rice and turnips traveled from the Old World to the New. There had been few livestock species in the New World, with horses, cattle, sheep and goats being completely unknown before their arrival with Old ...
Prey animals, sheep, goats, pigs and cattle, were progressively domesticated early in the history of agriculture. [3] Pigs were domesticated in the Near East between 8,500 and 8000 BC, [4] sheep and goats in or near the Fertile Crescent about 8,500 BC, [5] and cattle from wild aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey and Pakistan around 8,500 BC. [6]
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Its production worldwide is over 800 million tons, and is the primary ingredient in animal feed, human food, artificial sweeteners, and even gasoline. For example, maize is still the basis of much of Mexican cuisine. [3] Countless other New World crops were spread among other countries thanks to Christopher Columbus.
While initially a crop of the Indian subcontinent, the cultivation of sugar in the New World had significant effects on Spanish society. New World sugar cultivation added to the growing power of the Spanish and Portuguese economies while also increasing the popularity of slave labor (which had severe impacts on African, American, and European societies).