The Origins and History of Corn

Before Europeans came to the Americas, maize was the only one bread culture. Maize, also known as an Indian corn spread at a record speed across in the warmest parts of Europe. Corn produced much more grain that wheat and gave more calories per hectare than wheat. Europeans learned how to grow the corn properly, so it began to replace traditional crops in Europe. As a result, by 18th century, maize spread around the Europe, especially in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. The most important result of transporting the maize from the Americas to Afro-Eurasia is that this crop allowed to use the fallow land. As a result, the food supply increased, which led to the increase of the population. Maize stood alongside with wheat and rice. Corn became a food for poor people, and a great supply pigs and cattle. John Locke claims, “…plots of Maize in several parts, which the country people call Bled d’Espagne, & as they told me, serves poor people for bread… it being good nourishment for their cattle” (Stearns et al. 20). The author states that corn bread was served for the poor people, which had a positive result on the population

When the Europeans explored the Americas, they were introduced to new plants, foods, and animals, as well as riches and land. Foods such as corn, white and sweet potatoes, beans, tomatoes, cacao, fruits,

My focus is on the agriculture and maize domestication of both areas. Maize was first domesticated in Mesoamerica, southern Mexico about 9000 years ago and dispersed into the southwestern United States during the late middle archaic period.

a. The cultivation of maize, introduced heavily by sophisticated civilizations such as the Incas, Mayans, and Aztecs, helped to feed large population sizes, thus facilitating the spread of its cultivation across North America. By 2000 BCE, Pueblo peoples, due to the new cultivation of maize, developed irrigation systems. By 1000 CE, maize reached to modern-day SE America, which influenced Creek, Choctaw, and Cherokee peoples by growing and feeding their populations.

The history of corn can be dated back to the beginning of time, but the use and value of corn had been unnoticed until it was introduce by the Native Americans. Where corn had seemed to be a big part of their everyday life from, being in myths, legends, and for a huge portion of their diet corn was an essential component. "when the Europeans had touched base to the New World during the late fifteenth century, the Native Americans had introduced corn what they had called maize to the Europeans .This crop was then later on grown and adapted from Canada to southern South America very quickly, which then began to form the new basis of the New World civilization" (Leventin & McManhon, 2012). The way corn has been changing and revolutionizing throughout time has been both fascinating and drastic. Rather than conventional corn being grown, it is genetically modified corn that have been dominating today 's crop industry and farming but the question remains as to how the various types of GMO corn has influenced the way it is grown and used and what its ramification are.

Native Americans started the development of maize. In 1491 Mann says, “Indians developed an extraordinary number of maize varieties for different growing conditions, which meant that the crop could and did spread throughout the planet”(pg17). With the spread of maize the Indians caused several

Never would someone had thought that the richness of a crop's production could bring power to early humans, becoming almost as a revolutionary concept. Today maize-fields are cultivated for food, economic and medicinally productions, but it does not represent anything special in today's society as it was before. In the Popol Vuh maize is an important concept and symbol that expands to ideas that many anthropologists and professionals cannot understand completely. Yet, when reading the Popol Vuh there are many examples of when maize is used to represent its importance. Maize is the most important idea in the Popol Vuh because it provides food, it results in wealth, it represents a political system and it shows hierarchy.

This sugar was sent to Europe, and was a very prominent trade item from the Americas to Europe. Several crops, including potatoes, corn, maize, and cassava changed the Old World drastically, increasing the population to sizes it had never previously been. These crops originated in the new world, but caught on very quickly in the Old World for their quick growth and high calorie per acre value. Another large crop export of the New World was tobacco.

After the Spanish settled in America, many new foods and species of plants were introduced to the people of Eurasia, none of which they had said before. Although most of the exchange of food was from the New World to the Old World, Eurasia also introduced the America’s to wheat and grapes, two very important foods for mass. Potatoes and corn were a major part of the Columbian Exchange as they provided a lot of nutrition and were very easy to grow. They could grow in soil that was previously useless for agriculture. Other foods that spread across Europe were tomatoes, peppers, chocolate, beans, pineapples, avocados and blueberries. This exchange of food was the main reason that the worlds population doubled from 545,000,000 in 1600 to 1,128,000,000 in 1850 and historians often describe this massive increase in the nutritional value and variety of

i) Corn reached American Southwest by about 1200 B.C. and the Pueblo people in Rio Grande valley constructed irrigation systems, while other places were less developed.

The plants in the Columbian Exchange impacted both the economic and ethnic aspects of both sides of the Atlantic. The plants that were unknown to the Europeans were Maize also known as corn, potatoes (sweet and white), and many different varieties of beans including snap, kidney, lima and others. The plants that were obscure to the Americans were rice, wheat, barley, oats, wine grapes, melons, coffee, olive, bananas, “Kentucky” bluegrass, daisies and dandelions. This had a big impact on their day to day diet, which affected the way they developed physically because the different amount of calories in the new

Citrus, grapes, bananas, sugar cane, onions, olives turnips, coffee beans, peaches, pears and grains such as wheat, rice barley and oats were some of the plants that were introduced from Europe to the Americas. From the Americas came squash, pumpkins, peanuts, potatoes, tomatoes corn, sweet potatoes, peppers, tobacco, pineapple, cacao, beans and vanilla. This exchange was life changing for everyone involved. According to Crosby, more people were able to have food in both continents because of the variety that was exchanged to each place.

The Europeans were introduced to many crops when coming to America. Beans, potatoes and squash were a few of the crops that were spreading throughout the land. Corn, however, was a very important crop to the Indians and the Europeans made sure to adopt this crop into their culture. As a trade, corn was soon introduced to other continents such as Africa and became one of the main crops for survival.

Cornbread: An American History Story Cornbread has long been a staple of many American family meals. Usually identified as southern side dish, cornbread has a long history outside of the southern colonies in America. The idea of cornbread was perpetuated by Native Americans before the first settlers arrived in the New World. The crude, basic recipe calling for nothing more than corn meal, water and salt has been transformed into a flavorful dish as it has borrowed style and spice from other cultures. These spinoffs have created a historical and commonly loved dish for a wide range of American palates.

Definition: A plant that generates carbon dioxide into four carbon sugar compounds to enter into the Calvin cycle. The Calvin cycle is basically light-independent reactions are taken place in three simple steps, which include carbon fixation, reduction, and regeneration.