Thursday, January 16, 2014

The Columbian Exchange

Introduction

- Columbian Exchange (n.) - the movement of people, cultures, and ideas motivated by the
dynamic transfer of plans and animals, and even poisons, between two hitherto isolated worlds.

- The phenomenon caused some whole populations to either remarkably expand or to mass
migrate. The expansion and migration of whole populations could be attributed to the imported animal and plant resources that were introduced to the people.

- Three key agents of change: - Horses and Cattle - Corn and Potatoes - Sugar

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Paradise Found

- The Columbian Exchange began in earnest after Christopher Columbus discovered South
America in 1496. Columbus first saw three mountain peaks and named them Trinidad, named after the Holy Trinity, and thought that he was near Africa.

- Columbus discovered an otro mundo, another world. He believed that he was sailing among the
islands off Southeast Asia.

- Columbus was, in fact, in South America. However, because he was following an olden map that
tried to perceive the literal truth of the Old Testament, Columbus thought that he was near the Garden of Eden because of the lush flora and fauna that he had seen.

- The significance of this voyage was the cargo that Columbus was carrying: horses.

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The Horse Returns to America

- Ironically, the horse was not a newcomer to the Western Hemisphere when Hernan Cortes, in
1521, sailed from Cuba, carrying these animals. The species had evolved in the Americas but had been extinct in its place of origin by the time of the Spanish conquests.

- After the conquest of Mexico, in the mid-sixteenth century, horses thrived both within Spanish
corrals and on the open range, where some of them escaped to. They multiplied rapidly.

- The horses even reached farther lands than the Europeans and the lives of the Indians in the far
north (Blackfeet) were changed because the horse allowed to them to broaden their concept of
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area and distance, to shorten their concept of travel time, to quicken the tempo of their lives, and to make their hunting quicker and more efficient.

- The Indians would even ride their horses to fight off white settlers.
On the Pampas

- Alfred W. Crosby writes that the pampas, or grasslands, were a paradise for the horses. When the
Spaniards accidentally released these horses in Argentina, a feral herd grew so large that they cover the face of the earth.

- Araucanians, a tribe of people, used these horses and their bolas to ward away the different
settlers.

- In the Argentine pampas arose the equestrian subculture of the gauchos, mestizos/creoles who
followed the herds of wild cattle and horses and lived on the sale of hides and tallow (of horses).

The Plains Transformed

- Since the South American plains were receding, the great ranches and the industry dedicated to
the production of beef rose.

- By the turn of the 20th century, Argentina was grazing over 20 million cattle for the export beef
trade.

- Another vast portion of the Americas was the Great Plains of the American Midwest and the
High Prairie. Since the American people loved eating steak, the men of the western cattle industry used the Texas Longhorn, descendants of cattle abandoned by the Spanish in Texas in the 16th Century.

The Potato: An Unexpected Staple

- The first Europeans to eat papas, potatoes, were the Spaniards who were living in Peru and
Bolivia. They soon found the potatoes in Spanish ships as part of the provisions for the long journey home.

- Europeans thought that potatoes were useful for invalids and eat them roasted and with pepper.
When it finally became an accepted food product, it spread from the elites on down.

A Recipe for Disaster

- The Peruvian papa contributed powerfully to the sharp increase in European population that
began in the 17th century, particularly because it it grew rapidly and was able to bridge cycles of famine.

- The potato then became a cheap, reliable source of nutrition.

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- An example of this sharp increase in population are the Irish. The potato helped them overcome
starvation on their infertile land. From a total population of 500,000 in 1660, the Irish population exponentially increased to one and a quarter million by 1688.

- Disaster fell in the 1845. Various European potatoes were plagued by pests, including the Irish. A
million of their population took to the ships bound for Canada and the US.

- This mass migration, called Caucasian tsunami by Alfred W. Crosby, was of Europeans making
their way to the otro mundo.

- The Caucasian Tsunami explains why there are so many Irish in the US today.
The Quintessential American Crop

- Christopher Columbus encountered corn on his first voyage to the New World. He reported that
the natives land was cultivated with panizo, a bastardised translation of mais, or the stuff of life.

- Today, corn is an important food for both sides of the Atlantic. North Americans use it for a
variety of products other than food, such as adhesives, embalming fluids, etc.

A New Food for Africa

- The Portuguese were already importing harvests of corn in Africas west coast. - Corn was able to grow so well because the land was similar to that of the land in Central and
South America, where it first originated.

- The slave trade encouraged the spread of corn in Africa. Traders used the grain to purchase
captives from cooperating tribes.

The Triangular Trade

- Sugar was almost singlehandedly responsible for the forced relocation of millions of black
Africans into the West Indies.

- The sugarcane plantings that Columbus brought to the Americas on his second voyage found a
hospitable environment.

- The triangular trade happened between the West Indies, Britain, and Africa; it was called
triangular because it happened between three ports. What would happen was that the West Indies would sell sugar, molasses, and rum to the British then British ships would sail to Africa to trade manufactured goods for slaves. The slaves would then be traded in the West Indies for sugar, molasses and rum.

- Without the triangular trade, Londons coffee and chocolate houses would not have boomed. The
trade was crucial for the economies of Britain and the West Indies. However, I fail to see its benefit to the economy of Africa.
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