The Long Purée: Blending Plants and Cultures

Humans started moving thousands of years ago. Since then, we’ve brought crops along with us. For example, Arab empires started a large trade network in the eighth century. This was known as the Islamic Green Revolution. It connected people from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. They traded crops like sugar, coffee, and fruits.

Agricultural trade changed even more in 1492. That year, Christopher Columbus arrived in the Bahamas islands. The Eastern and Western Hemispheres connected for the first time in 10,000 years. History often focuses on the violence at this time. Spanish conquerors came to the Americas. These men destroyed the Aztec and Inca Empires in modern-day Mexico and South America.

Alfred Crosby is a historian who studies the environment. He believes the biggest effect of these conquests was not political. It was biological.

The story of plants tends to disappear behind the story of colonization. Humans brought Afro-Eurasian plants to the Americas. Travelers also brought American plants to Afro-Eurasia. Afro-Eurasia refers to the continents of Africa, Europe and Asia. American plants later became the most important foods in Afro-Eurasia, and they changed farming and diets. These important plants are called staple crops. Crosby called the transfer of crops between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia the “Columbian Exchange.” This exchange changed the size, health, and wealth of people all over the world.  

The spud that could: Potatoes and populations

Why was the Columbian Exchange so important? Let’s start with the potato, which is from Peru in South America.

American crops like potatoes saved millions of people in Afro-Eurasia from starvation. Maize, or corn, was another important American crop. The extra nutrition provided by these foods caused the world’s population to grow.

How did potatoes and other American crops like maize do this? Potatoes are rich in calories. They can be grown in places where rice and wheat cannot.

At first, the Europeans and the Chinese didn’t think potatoes looked tasty. Then, people realized a field of potatoes fed more people than a field of wheat. Governments encouraged farmers to grow potatoes. By the 1800s, potatoes had become a staple crop in Northern Europe.

Potatoes also fueled empires. In China, potatoes were used to feed armies and settlers. This helped China’s empire to grow.

Growing money: Cash crops, plantations, and global trade networks

Potatoes and maize were staple crops. Populations depended on these crops for food. Another type of crop transformed how goods were made and sold. These were called cash crops.

Cash crops are grown to be sold for a profit. Europeans turned American plants like cacao (chocolate) into cash crops. Europeans wanted to make the biggest profit. They began to grow large amounts of the same plant. This process is called monoculture. Then, enslaved people were forced to farm the land for free. This was the plantation system.

Europeans had large trading networks. They traveled to different places to sell cash crops. This trade made European traders very wealthy. European traders often brought other new crops, like potatoes and maize. This helped new foods to spread around the world even faster.

Talking turkey: Biological exchange and cultural integration

Since 1500, the Columbian Exchange has changed cultures around the world. Perhaps what people eat has changed more than anything. People quickly made new foods a part of their cultures. To see just how quickly the Columbian Exchange changed the culture, let’s talk turkey.

In the English language, there is a bird called the turkey. It has that name because the British thought the bird was from a place they called Turkey. But the Turks called the bird hindi. They believed the bird had come from India. So did turkeys come from Turkey or India?

The answer is neither because turkeys are from Mexico. The English believed the birds were Turkish because they bought them from Turkish traders. In reality, the Turkish traders had bought the birds from Spanish traders. The Spanish had gotten the birds from what is now Mexico. The whole thing was one big misunderstanding.  

The turkey is an example of the Columbian Exchange. Changes were fast and reached faraway places. Many new foods were brought into Afro-Eurasian cultures. It took only a few decades before people believed those foods had always been there.

Disaster: Community and environmental disruptions

Cash crops in the Columbian Exchange made European colonizers rich. The staple crops also helped Afro- Eurasian empires to grow.

The Europeans brought their own crops to the Americas. This devastated local ecosystems and environments. European animals, like cattle, destroyed the local plants. The Spanish replaced native crops with wheat and other grains. Animal habitats were destroyed to make farmland.

The Columbian Exchange wasn’t all good news for Afro- Eurasia. Many European populations came to depend on the potato. One plant disease could wipe out all the potatoes. This would remove a major food source for millions of people. One famous example of this is the Irish Famine of 1845. Millions of Irish starved after a plant disease destroyed the potato crop.

Conclusion

The global exchange of plants and animals that started in 1492 continues today. These days, technology helps us bring new plants to new places. This often has harmful effects on native plants and animals. Of course, we also benefit from these exchanges. Just go to the nearest grocery store. You’ll surely find food made from plants that come from a different continent.