The Columbian Exchange

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Earle
Keyword(s):  
Atlantic Ocean ◽  
New World ◽  
Christopher Columbus ◽  
Old World ◽  
European Colonization ◽  
Columbian Exchange ◽  
The Impact

The Columbian Exchange refers to the flow of plants, animals and microbes across the Atlantic Ocean and beyond. Coined in 1972 by the historian Alfred Crosby, the Columbian Exchange set in motion Christopher Columbus' historic voyage to the Americas in 1492. Crosby used the term "Columbian Exchange" to describe the process of biological diffusion that arose following Europe's colonization of the Americas. Crosby's The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 chronicled the wide-ranging consequences of the transfer of diseases, plants and animals that ensued after 1492. The book, essentially consisting of a series of interlocking essays, documented the impact of Old World plants and animals on the Americas, the global dissemination of New World foods, and how European colonization resulted in the transmission of pathogens. Crosby made forceful arguments to support his claim that the most significant consequences of European colonization of the new world were biological in nature.

scholarly journals The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Nunn ◽  
Nancy Qian
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Food Crops ◽  
Christopher Columbus ◽  
Old World ◽  
History Of Disease ◽  
History Of ◽  
Columbian Exchange ◽  
Economic Studies

This paper provides an overview of the long-term impacts of the Columbian Exchange—that is, the exchange of diseases, ideas, food crops, technologies, populations, and cultures between the New World and the Old World after Christopher Columbus' voyage to the Americas in 1492. We focus on the aspects of the exchange that have been most neglected by economic studies; namely the transfer of diseases, food crops, and knowledge between the two Worlds. We pay particular attention to the effects of the exchange on the Old World.

Mistranslation, Unsettlement, La Navidad

PMLA ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 128 (4) ◽  
pp. 938-946
Author(s):  
Anna Brickhouse
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
New World ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Christopher Columbus ◽  
San Salvador ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
European Colonization

On 14 october 1492, on the island that he had just named San Salvador, Christopher Columbus Seized Seven TaÍno indians to serve as translators. The abduction was clearly an act of significant forethought, registering Columbus's intention that these interpreters “inquire and inform … about things in these parts” (Columbus, “Tetter” 118)—a first step toward the subjugation of all the inhabitants of San Salvador, who might one day be “taken to Castile or held captive” on the island (Columbus, Diario 75). The taking of these indigenous translators has been no less momentous for contemporary scholarship, perhaps especially in early modern English and American literary studies: in the year of the Columbian quincentenary, Stephen Greenblatt memorably called it “the primal crime in the New World … committed in the interest of language” (24); Eric Cheyfitz concurs that “translation was, and still is, the central act of European colonization and imperialism in the Americas” (104). Yet the concept of translation as a wholly imperial instrument, as commonplace in Columbus's day as in our own, has limited our thinking in important ways (Adorno, “Polemics” 20). As ethnohistorians and literary critics alike have suggested, the interpretive sway of the “linguistic colonialism” model can obscure as much about its Native objects as it reveals about the purported discursive complexity of its European subjects.

The End of the Old World

1992 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 791-807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Nader
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
World Wide ◽  
New World ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Research Publication ◽  
Old World ◽  
The Past ◽  
World Geography ◽  
The Impact

We are now, in 1992, searching to find the meaning of an event 500 years distant in time. For us as Americans the importance of the Columbian voyages is obvious. In the past ten years the great wealth of research, publication, and debate on ancient American cultures has made the impact on the Americas abundantly clear.For Europe the impact is much less clear. We say that the old world ended almost immediately, that a new world came into being when Europe ended its isolation from America. By this we mean that European perceptions of world geography began to change as early as 1498 —not just dotting the map of the Ocean Sea with more islands, but perceiving that South America was a continent whose existence was never imagined by the ancients. We also mean that the natural world began changing from the old world of two separate ecologies into a new world-wide environment.

First Encounters, Inventing America, and the Columbian Exchange

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Martínez-Fernández
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Christopher Columbus ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Columbian Exchange ◽  
Philosophical Debates

This chapter covers the subject of the discovery of America, including the voyages of Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci. It looks at the theological, scientific, and philosophical debates surrounding the early encounters between Europeans and the indigenous inhabitants, as well as the evolving cartography of the New World. The chapter also examines two useful perspectives: Edmundo O’Gorman’s “Invention of America,” and Alfred W. Crosby’s “Columbian Exchange.”

A Consumer’s Guide to Eggs

EDIS ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanine Beatty ◽  
Karla Shelnutt ◽  
Gail P. A. Kauwell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Fatty Acid ◽  
New World ◽  
The United States ◽  
Omega 3 ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
Christopher Columbus ◽  
Food Stores ◽  
Omega 3 Fatty Acid ◽  
Chicken Eggs

People have been eating eggs for centuries. Records as far back as 1400 BC show that the Chinese and Egyptians raised birds for their eggs. The first domesticated birds to reach the Americas arrived in 1493 on Christopher Columbus' second voyage to the New World. Most food stores in the United States offer many varieties of chicken eggs to choose from — white, brown, organic, cage free, vegetarian, omega-3 fatty acid enriched, and more. The bottom line is that buying eggs is not as simple as it used to be because more choices exist today. This 4-page fact sheet will help you understand the choices you have as a consumer, so you can determine which variety of egg suits you and your family best. Written by Jeanine Beatty, Karla Shelnutt, and Gail Kauwell, and published by the UF Department of Family Youth and Community Sciences, November 2013. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fy1357

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