Columbian Exchange

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The on research by the US historian Alfred W. Crosby returning term Columbian Exchange (English for Colombian exchange ) is used since the 1970s to the enormous distribution and interaction of first novel for the respective continents agricultural goods and products from Flora and Fauna to denote between the eastern and western hemisphere . It appeared as one of the repercussions of European expansion after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492 and contributed to an ecological change on both sides of the Atlantic , especially in the natural history of Europe and America from the 16th century onwards.

The processes sometimes referred to as the " Columbus Effect " in German-speaking countries (see the documentary section ) form an important basis for the diverse, sometimes revolutionary, historical developments of the modern era , which have also been reflected in the social, economic and political context of world history since the beginning of the 16th century. Century.

Original home of selected living beings and organisms that are close to humans
Living being /
organism 		Old world New world
Animals
plants
Diseases

Bacterial:

Viral:

Parasitic:

Bacterial:

(disputed, see article )

Parasitic:

Effects

The exchange of plants and animals transformed the European, American, African and Asian ways of life. Food that some peoples had never seen before became indispensable. Virtually no society on earth could escape the effects. This also includes the cultivation of the neobiota .

The year 1492 is chosen as the general reference date, the onset of the effects differs depending on the region: For example, potatoes were unknown outside of South America before 1492 , but indispensable in Ireland in the 18th century . The first European import, the horse that changed lifestyles of many American natives on the prairies in a nomadic lifestyle with the hunting of bison on horseback. Tomato sauce, made with tomatoes from the New World, became an Italian trademark, but coffee and sugar cane from Asia were the main crops in Latin America . Before, there were no oranges in Florida , no bananas in Ecuador , no cattle and dairy products in Argentina , no rubber trees in Africa , no cattle farming in Texas and no chocolate in Switzerland .

See also

literature

  • Charles C. Mann : Columbus' legacy - how people, animals, plants crossed the oceans and created the world of today (translated from English into German by Hainer Kober). Rowohlt-Verlag, Reinbek 2013, ISBN 978-3-498-04524-1 (Review by Michael Kempe: Menschen und Mikroben Neue. Zürcher Zeitung , November 13, 2013; accessed November 20, 2013)
  • The Colombian exchange. In: Jeffrey M. Pilcher: Food and nutrition in the history of mankind. Translated from the English by Christiana Haack. Magnus Verlag, Essen 2006, ISBN 3-88400-330-5 , pp. 38-48. (Original English title: Food in world history ), ( limited preview in Google Book search)
  • Alfred W. Crosby: The Columbian Exchange. Biological and cultural consequences of 1492. Praeger, 2003 (first edition: 1972, limited preview in the Google book search).
  • N. Nunn, N. Qian: The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas. In: Journal of Economic Perspectives. Vol. 24 (1020), No. 2, pp. 163-188, doi: 10.1257 / jep . 24.2.163 .

documentary

Web links