Agroecology and Miguel Altieri Agroecology and agriculture in general took a giant leap forward in 1492 when Christopher Columbus discovered the New World. Previously, the New and the Old World only shared three species: sweet potato, bottle gourd, and coconut. Now that this New World had been discovered, there was much that could be gained, and it was more than just gold (Bermejo 1994). Many attempts at growing crops in the new and very different environment proved frivolous, but others found success. In fact, it is known today that many crops reach their optimum yield in an environment that is different from their own. The first crops introduced into the Americas were the European grains, vegetables, and fruits; these were unsuccessful at first. However, some crops did adapt well to the tropical environment right from the beginning, including: bananas, sugar cane, and citrus fruits. Potatoes, tomatoes, gourds, beans, and chilies have all found their way into European cuisine; these crops all originated in the Americas. Rice, a now major player in Mexican food, was also introduced by the Spaniards. African grasses also replaced low yield grass species in Latin America. This giant exchange of species would completely change the world’s diet (Bermejo 1994). Although explorers set out in a conquest for “God, gold, and Glory,” and did, in fact, satisfy all of those desires, they discovered something that was way more valuable than anything they could have ever imagined. They discovered a whole new world that had unlimited resources, land, plant species, and anything else they could ever use in their lifetime. In their conquest, however, they managed to almost wipe out a whole population, thousands of years of history, an... ... middle of paper ... ... from http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/wm/60.4/jones.html Lopez, B. (1990) The Rediscovery of North America. The University Press of Kentucky. Lexington. Sandberg, B. (2006). Beyond Encounters: Religion, Ethnicity, and Violence in the Early Modern Atlantic World, 1492-1700. Journal of World History, 17, Retrieved November 10, 2006, from http://historycooperative.press.uiuc.edu/journals/jwh/17.1/sandberg.html Schwartz, B., D'Arcy, H., Schuman, H. (2005, April 1). Elite Revisionists and Popular Beliefs: Christopher Columbus, Hero or Villain?. Public Opinion Quarterly, 69, Retrieved November 10, 2006, from http://80elibrary.bigchalk.com.proxy.uwlib.uwyo.edu/libweb/elib/do/document?set=pbsissue&groupid=1&requestid=issue_docs&resultid=9&edition=&ts=22A09C01D33E00EEC1C57E5266921447_1163398443033&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B106981986
Howarth, William. "Putting Columbus in his place." Southwest Review, Spring/Summer 92, Volume 77, Issue 2/3, p153.
For generations upon generations, students have been taught about the “hero” Christopher Columbus who had discovered our new world. However, to say he was a hero would not exactly be the truth; Columbus was an eccentric man who cared much more about his profits than the well being and even lives of the natives. It is documented in journals that he and his crew had slaughtered entire villages at a time, and that he had even killed people just for the point of testing how sharp his sword was. Not only did Columbus and his crew have a thing for violence, on multiple accounts crew members wrote down every single successful rape of women; and used the voyage to help begin a slave export for the royalty of Spain.
The expansion of European plants into the New World commenced with Columbus's second voyage (Crosby, 67). Columbus loaded his seventeen ship fleet with seeds and crop-producing fruits ...
[2] Columbus is a mainstay of American patriotism. He is the patron saint who planted the seeds of our nation. Our culture has been lulled into his heroic myth for hundreds of years and has celebrated this man with much pomp and circumstance. Columbus’ worthiness has been the subject of much controversy and is now being linked to such un-heroic terms as mass murder, holocaust, and genocide.
When Europeans arrived in the New World, they were provided with crops such as corn, potatoes, chocolate, beans, and tobacco. The Europeans were able to develop a global commodity from the cash crop tobacco, which stimulated the growth of an economy based on agriculture. However, the appropriation of America’s products such as the chocolate drink xocolatl and chica, a corn beer, which were traditionally used in a religious or spiritual manner, disrupted the existing native economies. Europeans were now benefitting from Native American products and discoveries, discrediting the work of native peoples. This lead to around 60% of all global crops grown today having originated in the New World.
The impact of the Columbian exchange from 1400 to 1700 varied on the regions it came in contact with. In Europe, the Columbian exchange was extremely beneficial since it brought new crops from the Americas. The conquest and explorations to the New World caused new crops and food sources to be found and taken back to Europe. These newfound crops were more efficient when growing and harvesting and also were higher in nutritional context then that of the Old World crops. A continuity that remained in this region was the farming and consuming of Old World crops. Although the New World crops were overall better than that of the Old World, production of Old World crops still continued. Many Europeans feared this new food sou...
America's national memory is filled with icons and symbols, avatars of deeply held, yet imperfectly understood, beliefs. The role of history in the iconography of the United States is pervasive, yet the facts behind the fiction are somehow lost in an amorphous haze of patriotism and perceived national identity. Christopher Columbus, as a hero and symbol of the first order in America, is an important figure in this pantheon of American myth. His status, not unlike most American icons, is representative not of his own accomplishments, but the self-perception of the society which raised him to his pedestal in the American gallery of heroism.
There are many opinions that circulate around Christopher Columbus. Some are good, but based with a lack of knowledge, while some may be directed as a general hate towards Europeans of that era. To truly understand what we should think about columbus, we must analyze all sides of the many arguments that are all directed at him. Was Columbus really a famed explorer who sailed in 1492, or was he a man with a heart of stone, who cared for nothing more than his own personal gain? Who may have been driven by pressure to accomplish his goal, no matter what the cost. Opinions aside,he left a legacy that leaves a trail of impressions on modern day America.
Without the existent of the Columbian exchange, we would be able to eat varieties of plants that importantly ate through those years. Plants had a major impact in the Colombian change financial and cultural between New and Old worlds.One of the most vital plants that were discovered where potato and maize. Notwithstanding finding New World plants, many plants were brought from the Old World to end up distinctly massively effective in the Americas. Among these plant, the most common were sugarcane.Sugarcane is originated from New Guinea back to 10,000 years ago and was used as a diet and it's an essential form of sucrose and it's very common in cultures.In the second voyage, Columbus introduced sugarcane to the Americans.Also Maize
For the past eighty years, Columbus Day has been a federal holiday celebrated on the second Monday of October. On that day, we celebrate the great and noble explorer, Christopher Columbus, and all of his epic voyages and groundbreaking discoveries. That's the narrative we mostly hear about. But is that really the truth? It appears as though the actual story of Christopher Columbus is far worse than the romanticized versions we often hear. The morality of Columbus' values, actions, and character are questionable. The things he did and his motives for doing so were quite atrocious. His actions, if done in this day and age, would have been totally and completely unacceptable. Columbus should be judged by today’s standards. Therefore, we should not continue to celebrate Columbus Day because of the materialistic motives of Christopher Columbus, the horrendous acts he carried out against the indigenous people, and the legitimacy of his discoveries. (Dobbs, 1997)
Near the end of the fifteenth century, Europeans started exploring new areas of the world in hopes of finding riches, trade routes, and new lands. Upon discovering the “New World,” Europeans came across native peoples. While the Europeans did learn from the indigenous people, they also tried to change the natives’ ways. This had a negative impact on the natives populations because many died. The overall impact exploration had on native peoples include enslavement, destroyed populations, and forced to change religion.
In America many people are given the day off from work on the second Monday of each October for the national holiday known as Columbus Day. This day is set aside to celebrate a “great” explorer who “discovered” America. The controversy over this particular holiday and whether or not Columbus is someone worth celebrating has intensified in recent years. Our nation should not have a holiday that honors the heinous acts of a man who is responsible for the abuse and annihilation of entire cultures of innocent people. Doing so not only sends a message of acceptance of his actions, but also condones the atrocities he committed. The main opposition against Columbus Day is the way in which the explorer treated the Indigenous People upon his arrival
The first similarity between the regions of America and Africa was the spread of new crops. In America, crops such as bananas and sugarcane had found their way to the region and became heavily cultivated. Evenmore so, livestock had spread like wildfire through the americas, particularly domesticated animals such as cows, sheep, and pigs, and this was due to the fact that the Americas were largely free of natural predators. Similarly, Africa had received crops such as corn and maize had reached the
In An Edible History of Humanity, Tom Standage reveals that massive change in population is followed by advances in farming techniques. The Introduction of potatoes and corn in Europe helps provide workers to the industrial revolution, and even the Green Revolution of today where our world has reached seven billion humans thanks to advances in artificial farming techniques have literally fed every human being and domestic animal that has created the world you live in today, and also the interactions those living people have made. Where would we be if Columbus had not searched for another route to Asia and accidently discovered the Americas? Our need for food to profit off of our stave our hunger can tell our human story. It was the search for a route to Asia for a valuable food, spice, which began the colonization of new continent and the access to new foods that would change the world.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain to try to find a route by sea to East Asia but instead “discovered” America. This led to many positive and negative effects, some of which were intended and some of which were not. While people can’t argue the effects of Columbus’ discovery, many people have different opinions on whether Columbus should be celebrated for discovering America, like he is in the United States, or reveled for the heinous acts he committed. They also argue about whether European’s horrible treatment of Native Americans was worth the progress that resulted from it. In Amsco’s United States History, there is a neutral stance towards Christopher Columbus and the European discovery of the Americas since