1492
“Before 1492, there were no
tomatoes in Italy,
no chocolates in Belgium, no
potatoes in Ireland, no oranges
in Florida, and no cattle in
Texas.”
The Columbian Exchange was the global
diffusion of plants, food crops, animals, human
populations, and disease pathogens that took
place after the voyages of Christopher
Columbus and other European mariners. It has
both positive and negative consequences for
the global world.
New World
Old World
Domesticated Animals

Turkey
•Cattle
•Sheep
•Pigs
•Horses
Domesticated Plants













Corn
Tomatoes
Potatoes
Peanuts
Vanilla
Beans
Cacao
Pineapple
Tobacco
Peppers
Sweet Potatoes
Squash
Pumpkins
•Honeybees
•Sugar Cane
•Bananas
•Grapes
•Citrus Fruits
•Onions
•Olives
•Turnips
•Coffee Beans
•Peaches, Pears
•Grains: Wheat, Rice, Barley, Oats
 What
were the three most used food
commodities and its uses?
http://video.pbs.org/video/1580446365/
 Europeans:
• Introduction of new foods
• Varied diet
• Population increases in Europe
• New markets for trade
• Colonization increased power and role as world
leader
 Africans and Natives:
• Introduction of new foods and animals
• Forced labor
• Atlantic Slave Trade and migration of peoples
• Exposure to pathogens causing disease
 Brainstorm
the positive and negative
effects the Columbian Exchange had on
the peoples in the Americas and the rest
of the world.
 Write a summary.
 Using
the documents, analyze how early
Europeans responded to food items of
the New World.
 Comparison
to
Andalusia, plants, the
set up villages, fish
 Observations on the
beauty
 Expecting to find
many herbs
 Unbiased
 Observations
about
meal ingredients
 Meals includes
starch, vegetable,
protein
 Manioc
aka Yuca (not
Yucca Tree) or
Cassava
 Native shrub/root to
tropical regions
 Used as a
carbohydrate
 Eaten boiled, deep
fried or in stews
 Manioc
is poisonous
 Must
be boiled so it
is safe to eat
 Similar to other foods
that are dangers
unless prepared
specially.
• Mushrooms
• Almonds
• Potato and Tomato seeds
 Observations
of land and meal
ingredients (doc 1 &2) & New Crops (doc
3&4)
 Similar to home food (doc 1 &2) &
different to home food (doc 3 & 4)
 Neutral (doc 2), Positive (doc 1 &3),
Negative (doc 4)
Assistant Professor of History, School of Humanities
University of California, Irvine
Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2001,
History
M.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1996,
History
B.A., University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1992, History &
Latin American Studies
Academic Focus:
Colonial Latin America, the Andes, African Diaspora,
Atlantic world, history of race, gender