Encounter

 

Many of the goods we use in our daily lives come from the Americas. World famous “American” products such as corn, maize, avocados are foods that originated in the Americas or the New World. Although we live in the United States there are many ingredients and foods at the local supermarket which are considered foreign foods. Some of these are wheat, cattles and sheep. Some of these products and animals never existed in the Americas until the Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange was an exchange of goods, flora, fauna, diseases and concepts. This term was created in 1972 by historian Alfred Crosby who saw the biological exchange caused as a result of the conquests and campaigns of European Expansion. This exchange allowed Europe to transition with new products and make it their own. The Italians who are world famous for their “pomodoro pasta”( tomato) and many in our generation believe that tomatoes came from Italy. In reality, tomatoes were a product from the americas which was brought over during the exchange. Although long forgotten by the many, there needs to be an emphasis that food from the Americas played a role in our modern world as a result of the Columbian Exchange. What important foods from the Americas provided new diets for Europe, What were the biological consequences of European colonial expansion, and the spread of chocolate. This is the significance and power of the food from the Americas. 

Food from the Americas were mainly first brought over by Spanish and Portuguese traders. The routes in which these foods spread depended on who and why these traders went about with their routes. “ It was the Portuguese who brought the chile pepper to the Indian subcontinent” ( pg 350 Earle). The way that the food spread from the exchange mainly had to deal with the connection to the European explorers and where they ventured off to. The Spanish were maintaining a steady influx of food to mainland Europe, while Portuguese traders were finding ways around Africa to trade for spices in India. This all started as a result of the Ottoman Empire regulating the spice trade and silk road which came from India and China. After 1492, the biological diet of people in the old world drastically shifted. 

Not all foods that were brought over to the old world were accepted immediately, especially with the Europeans. The aristocracy and the peasants classes at first were not too keen on adopting these new foods and changing their diets. This was the case for the spanish with sweet potatoes. It took nearly 200 years before the Spanish developed a taste for the sweet potatoes and started growing them. Another example of this was the Venetians adopting Maize instead of using millet. The evidence that these foods brought about a biological consequence can be seen in flour tortillas, or bombay potatoes, things we eat in the modern world. Another consequence for this exchange in the new world was the introduction of cattle and other fauna which did not belong first off in the Americas. These are products which would not have existed if not for the columbian exchange. It can also be stated that the columbian exchange and its biological consequences is an early significance for globalization which can still be changed today. Chocolate, which revolutionized the world for its unique taste and addiction is eaten by people from all walks of life today. 

Chocolate spread throughout the world like wildfire. Chocolate is one of the most consumed products in the world for its unique soft tastes. Originally known as “cacao” this product is now mostly cultivated in the Equatorial regions of Africa. Countries like the Ivory coast and Ghana produce a majority of the chocolate that is consumed around the world. Like other products from the Americas, chocolate was not accepted by many at first. The Europeans eventually altered the tastes of chocolate by adding ingredients and made it readily accessible and edible for European consumer tastes which then spread alongside European colonialism. 

In Conclusion, Food from the Americas played a significant role in our modern world as a result of the Columbian Exchange. It was the importance of foods from the Americas that provided new diets for Europe, What were the biological consequences of European colonial expansion, and the spread of chocolate. This is the significance and power of the food from the Americas. It was an early indicator of Globalization and spread around the world products which the old world had never seen before. Alongside it new products were brought to the Americas which we use today when we shop at the supermarket. 

Bibliography: Earl The Columbian Exchange. 

Earle, Rebecca, ' The Columbian Exchange', in Jeffrey M. Pilcher (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Food History, Oxford Handbooks (2012; online edn, Oxford Academic, 21 Nov. 2012), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199729937.013.0019, accessed 22 Sept. 2022.