America Before The Columbian Exchange

On October 12, 1492 three months into his journey to find India, Christopher Columbus traveled upon an already discovered land in the caribbean. Three Spanish ships with 87 men aboard landed in a place they referred to as "The New World." This was just the beginning of how America became the country it is today. Along with this new land came new discoveries, such as exotic plants and animals that were shipped back to Spain. Unlike Europe, this "New World" domesticated corn, chili, pumpkins, tomatoes, and potatoes. In the 17th century a new wave of people headed to the Americas in search of opportunity, and in some cases, religious freedom. Among the nations that wanted to lay claim upon the New World, England settled and claimed what is today

As time went on, gardens became plantations for more than just food production, for example cotton production, and apples became a major industry in North America. European fruits and vegetables dominated the new world in an exchange known as the Columbian exchange. According to the documentary America Before Columbus, the potato was first introduced in Spain from the Americas during the 1600's but it's cultivation and use has now spread to Italy, Northern/Eastern Europe, Austria, Poland, France, Switzerland, England, Ireland and Germany. Since the Irish had a limited amount of food available to them as a result of war, they quickly adopted the potato and one hundred years later the Irish population had more than doubled. Towns, like Berlin, grew into large cities and by the 1700’s the European population had exploded, all because of the introduction of the potato during the Columbian Exchange. Europe didn't have the expansive amount of pasture needed for livestock, nor did they have weeds to take over the areas where livestock had overgrazed or trampled, so as a result the Columbian Exchange primarily worked in one