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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]
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 .
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.
There had been few livestock species in the New World, with horses, cattle, sheep and goats being completely unknown before their arrival with Old World settlers. Crops moving in both directions across the Atlantic Ocean caused population growth around the world and a lasting effect on many cultures in the Early Modern period. [162] The Harvesters.
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]
[5] Pliny the Elder writes extensively about agriculture from books XII to XIX; in fact, XVIII is The Natural History of Grain. [6] Crops grown on Roman farms included wheat, barley, millet, pea, broad bean, lentil, flax, sesame, chickpea, hemp, turnip, olives, pear, apples, figs, and plums. Others in the Mediterranean include:
The most important crop was maize, usually planted along with beans and squash, including pumpkins. Minor crops such as sunflowers, goosefoot, tobacco, [1] gourds, and plums, little barley (Hordeum pusillum) and marsh elder were also grown. Maize agriculture began on the Great Plains about 900 AD.
There were numerous New World crops, as they are now termed, and domestication began with the potato and the cucurbita (squash) about this time. [14] [15] Other crops began to be harvested over the next 7,500 years including chili peppers, maize, peanut, avocado, beans, cotton, sunflower, cocoa and tomato. [16] [17]