preview

New World Cotton Essay

Decent Essays
Open Document

The Industrial Revolution in cotton (to be referred to as the “Industrial Revolution”) was made possible through the combination of Amerindians, New World cotton, and anthropogenic evolution. Russel discusses that anthropogenic evolution facilitated the Industrial Revolution by enhancing the suitability of cotton fiber for mechanization. Amerindians working in the New World were the force that developed the suitable fiber. He also discussed that New World cotton was superior to Old World cotton due to differences in their genetic makeup. Lastly, the slave trade helped England get the evolutionary inheritance of the New World (p.104). England depended on cotton plants that had spinnable fibers and could survive in a variety of ecological conditions …show more content…

Russel mentioned a study that analyzed the two cotton species of the New World against one of the two cotton strains of the Old World. The study showed that New World fibers were 70 and 55 percent longer and 2.75 and 2.27 times stronger than Old World fibers (p.113). New World cotton also had twice the number of genes of Old World cotton, which meant that there was double the chance for beneficial mutations (p.123). Due to variation being “the raw material of evolution, genome doubling probably enabled New World cottons to evolve faster than Old World cottons” thus exaggerating the effect of anthropogenic selection on cotton varieties (p.124). The triangular slave trade between England, the New World, and Africa helped England tap the evolutionary inheritance of the New World (p.128). The slave trade brought the favorable New World cotton to England. It also provided a larger demand for cotton textiles. Textiles from Lancashire were brought to Africa in exchange for slaves. These slaves were then taken to the New World to work on cotton plantations that would export cotton to England

Get Access