The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492Thirty years ago, Alfred Crosby published a small work that illuminated a simple point, that the most important changes brought on by the voyages of Columbus were not social or political, but biological in nature. The book told the story of how 1492 sparked the movement of organisms, both large and small, in both directions across the Atlantic. This Columbian exchange, between the Old World and the New, changed the history of our planet drastically and forever. The book The Columbian Exchange changed the field of history drastically and forever as well. It has become one of the foundational works in the burgeoning field of environmental history, and it remains one of the canonical texts for the study of world history. This 30th anniversary edition of The Columbian Exchange includes a new preface from the author, reflecting on the book and its creation, and a new foreword by J. R. McNeill that demonstrates how Crosby established a brand new perspective for understanding ecological and social events. As the foreword indicates, The Columbian Exchange remains a vital book, a small work that contains within the inspiration for future examinations into what happens when two peoples, separated by time and space, finally meet. |
Contents
Conquistador y Pestilencia | 35 |
Old World Plants and Animals in the New World | 64 |
A Reappraisal | 122 |
Copyright | |
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aborigines Acosta Africa Agricultural American crops American foods American Indian animals Antilles Arawaks areas arrived Asia Atlantic beans became Bernabé Cobo Brazil Casas cattle China Christopher Columbus Cieza de León climate Cobo Colonial colonists Columbian exchange Columbus Compendium and Description Conquest conquistadors Cortés cultivation Díaz de Isla diet eighteenth century epidemic Española Europe European food plants Fracastoro Geografía grasslands Guaiacum Hakluytus Posthumus herds horses Huayna Capac human hundred Hutten important Incan Incas increase islands Jean de Léry livestock llanos López de Velasco maize malady manioc Mexico Migration million Moral History native Natural and Moral North America Obras Old World Oviedo pampas percent Peru pigs Pizarro pre-Columbian probably produce Purchas rice Río Sauer seventeenth century sheep sixteenth century smallpox South Spain Spaniards spread staple sugar sweet potato syphilis teenth century tion trans Treponema treponematosis tropical Ulrich von Hutten Vazquez de Espinosa venereal syphilis voyage West Indies wheat wild