Columbian Exchange On Potatoes Research Paper

The discovery of the New world or America in the year 1492, and The Columbian Exchange it played a significant role on bring resources to various parts of the world. It brought the exchange of various resources like plants, animals, and diseases across the world. The year was 1492 is when Christopher set sail and put in motion The Columbian Exchange or also known as The Great Exchange. The Columbian Exchange affected the geographic location with the trading routes with Afro-Eurasia to the Americas. Also, The Exchange affected the economic with various countries with the trading. Finally, it affected the social change that made us the county we are to this day. With this exchange set forth the trading of various

They became as important as wheat and rice. After they were settled down, people could not imagine their lives without those accustomed crops. Because of no necessity in cultivated soil, potato and corn grew well almost everywhere. Those crops saved lives of huge numbers of European poor people. Pigs and cattle were feed, which led to the increase of meat on the markets. The population of Europe and Asia grew tremendously since potato and maize were first introduced to the people. “Between 1650 and 1750, the population of Europe, including Asiatic Russia, increased from 103 million to 144; the population of Asia, excluding Russia, increased from 327 million to 475 million” (Stearns et al.

In the new world, Europeans encountered indigenous plant foods cultivated by Native Americas. These plants were potatoes, beans, corn, tobacco, and cocoa. The potato is especially important because it’s known for one of the main foods for Ireland. The European’s influenced oats and barley etc. Domesticated animals as pigs, chickens, sheep, and ox were also brought to the Americas. Horses were also brought to the new world which was a new tool for hunting and used for military.

The Columbian Exchange was important to everyone around the world, it brought all sorts of new food to America and Europe. Chicken Alfredo has ingredients that were from China, Italy, and India so when the Columbian Exchange took place someone decided to mix these ingredients together to make Chicken Alfredo. Most of the stuff in Chicken Alfredo was from Italy so when it was brought down to America many people were shocked about what has just been brought to them. Pasta was not actually from Italy, it was originally from China but people have brought it over. Also chicken was originally from Thailand, China, Vietnam and other Asian

The Columbian Exchange is a huge exchange of goods and ideas between the old world and the new world. The old world is considered Europe, Asia and Africa and the new world is considered America. Their colonies started to trade with each other and that’s when they formed the Columbian Exchange. Many countries were involved in this trade, including China, Africa and Italy. The exchange of the new ideas, traditions, food, religion and diet changed cultures everywhere. The Natives gave and received many items. Even though Europeans and American Indians saw some similarities in each other, their words differed. The introduction of plants into the new world extended a process that had been taking place for centuries in the Old World. Trade

Until the sixteenth century, the experts in that period of time believed that it was impossible to sail west across from the Atlantic to Asia. By his adventure, Christopher Columbus, an Italian navigator, proved that they were wrong. However, based on the theory that the earth was a sphere, he thought that he could reach the East Indies by sailing west. He calculated the distance from Portugal to Asia was shorter than to Congo. In fact, the real distance from Portugal to Japan was much further, over ten thousand miles. With his erroneous estimate, he planned a scheme to prove he was right. After several unsuccessful lobbying in Portugal, Spain, even in England and France, eventually, in 1492, he won financing for his journey from Spanish monarchs,

The Columbian Exchange brought new crops to Europe from the Americas that benefitted the Europeans greatly. The new crops allowed for a higher caloric value and caused the Europeans to adopt American crops. In Document 6 it states “… the people of the Americas realized that crops with higher caloric value could not only feed more people, but also allowed people to work harder because they were more energized” (Document 6). These crops allowed more people to be fed and more labor to be achieved in Europe. In Document 8, it lists the different varieties of crops traded through the Columbian Exchange. One example of such a crop is the potato. Crops like

The Columbian Exchange introduced many things into the New and Old World that changed their culture completely. Ireland is known for potatoes, but potatoes didn’t come from Ireland they came from the New World. Also, horses are one of the symbols of Native Americans, though horses were one of the domesticated animals brought to the New World. The New World eventually benefited from the European exploration to the New World with the introduction of crops, livestock, and European technology.

When the New World was discovered in 1492, European history would soon become shaped by what is

Chocolate wasn’t bad either.” (Document 6). Although the potato and corn were not cash crops, they quickly became apart of every European’s diet. Potatoes were affordable and could be used in many different ways. Although, the New World received livestock such as cattle, pigs and horses, they also recieved diseases.

The benefits of potatoes include originally allowing for populations that were once starving to now have an easy to grow and abundant food source. This lead to birth rates and population rates doubling in Ireland and Europe when it was first introduced. However, since potatoes were susceptible to disease they also lead to famine and death. People became so dependent on this one food source that when the supply ran dry many people starved, such as the famous Irish potato famine. The use of pesticides and fertilizers can be accredited to the cultivation of the potato in the United States. The Colorado potato beetle threatened the supply of potatoes, leading farmers to use the first pesticide on their crops to help protect them. From here the Green Revolution was born in the 1940’s, which further encouraged the development of pesticides and fertilizers in order to increase the yield of any crop that they could. Another benefit of potatoes is that it can take the carbon dioxide we exhale and convert it into oxygen. This is one reason astronaut’s carry them to space as one source of their food

One last factor contributed to the slow spread of potatoes, the constant and constinet mistreatment of the peasent class by the noble class of Europe. Although this may be easy to overlook a genral mistrust exsisted between the two classes and if rulers attempted to force farmers to plant potatoes often they would assume that it would only be to help those in charge and not themselves. In essence the oppression of European Serfs breed the attuide that nothing that was advanced to be good for the richest people could also have some benefit for

The potato could be served baked, boiled, roasted, fried or made into soups, pancakes, dumplings, souffles, pies and even bread! The potato adapted easily to the cool and damp climates of Ireland, Germany, Poland, Russia, Scotland, England, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Scandinavia. And now approximately 3,000 different types of potatoes are grown in America today! In fact, the potato affected Ireland so much that the population expanded from 3.2 million in 1754 to 8.2 million less than a century later. Now China has become the largest sweet potato producer ever, the potato went national faster than Justin

The potato greatly affected diets, agriculture, public health, and ecology in Europe and the Americas. Potatoes produced in the wild contain dangerous toxins such as solanine and tomatine. (Mann) In some locations, wild llamas would lick clay before eating a poisonous plant. (Mann) The poisons would adhere to the clay allowing animals to consume these plants without being harmed. (Mann) Humans began doing this too. The Andean Indians began preparing potatoes different ways. For example, they were boiled, mashed, chopped, peeled and baked. (Mann) The potato also expanded the aspect of agriculture. Potatoes taste different based on the type planted. Many villages grew different types of potatoes for a variety of tastes. (Mann) Hunger was very common in Europe in the 17th and 18th century. (Mann) Since the potato crop could be grow in abundance, it was a great solution hunger. The potato was such an important asset many regions that citizens tried harder to get the potato to succeed. This caused the development of new agricultural advances. For example, they began spreading “Guano, the dried remains of birds’ semisolid urine” over the plants to provide them with nitrogen. The guano was considered a great plant fertilizer. (Mann) In addition, the potato also led to the creation of plant pesticides. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, was the Green Revolution. (Mann) This was all because of the potato. Potatoes had begun to fall ill when the Colorado potato beetle, attacked farmer’s

Formerly, the production and consumption of potatoes was concentrated in the countries of Europe and North America, and the European continent had the highest production. But there are over twenty years when this began to change, because the production of Latin America, Africa and Asia began to grow dramatically, due to the area planted with the crop becoming increasingly larger in this area. Currently the largest potato