Spread · Exchange

Columbian exchange

After 1492 ships, armies and settlers carried crops and animals between the Americas and the Old World. Maize, potatoes, sweet potatoes and chili spread to fields and kitchens from Ireland to China and Vietnam, while horses changed war and travel in the Americas and sugar cane grew on plantations worked by enslaved Africans.

1492 – today
35 places reached
Still in use

See it spread on the atlas All spreads Wikipedia

2026

Every place it reached: 34, faint where it ended

Columbian exchangeTook holdFirst recordedCarried

Trade routesRoadSea lane

Trade routes that carried it

Routes on the atlas along which the sources say it travelled.

1565 – 1815 · by land and sea
Manila galleons
The galleons carried American crops from Acapulco to Manila, sweet potato and maize among them; from Luzon a Fujian merchant took the sweet potato to China in 1593.
1525 – 1867 · by sea
Atlantic slave trade
Its ships carried enslaved Africans to work the sugar plantations of Hispaniola, Brazil and Barbados, and the sugar they made went back across the Atlantic to Europe.
c. 1497 – 1800 · by sea
Carreira da Índia
The Portuguese brought chili peppers to Goa, theirs from 1510, and on to their posts in Sri Lanka and Malacca, from where chilies spread through South and Southeast Asia.
1598 – 1882 · by land
Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
Oñate's colonists drove horses, mares among them, and thousands of other livestock north along it from Mexico City to Ohkay Owingeh in 1598.

In its story

Events on timeastra with pages of their own.

1492 – 1493
first voyage of Christopher Columbus
1519 – 1521
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
16 November 1532
Battle of Cajamarca
10 August 1680
Pueblo Revolt
1845 – 1852
Great Irish Famine

People

1451 – 1506
Christopher Columbus

Timeline

35 arrivals in order: when it was first recorded in each place, from where and who carried it, with the sources for the date.

November 1492 · Gibara · Maize
In November 1492 two scouts Columbus sent inland from his anchorage on this coast saw land planted with maize, yams and beans; it is the first European record of the crop.
where it began[1]
December 1492 · La Navidad · Sweet potato
Columbus's crew were the first Europeans to eat sweet potatoes; in December 1492 the cacique Guacanagarí served Columbus several kinds of Taíno roots at his town by this harbour.
[17][1]
January 1493 · Samaná · Chili pepper
In January 1493 Columbus wrote that the people of this bay had plenty of ají, their pepper, and valued it above black pepper; it is the first European record of chili.
[1]
March 1493 · Palos · Maize
Columbus's first voyage ended here on 15 March 1493, and it brought maize from the Caribbean to Spain, the first record of the crop in Europe.
from Gibara · by travellers[3][2]
September 1493 · Cádiz · Horse
The second voyage sailed from here on 25 September 1493 with twenty lancers of the Hermandad of Granada enlisted with their horses, the first horses taken to the Americas.
[23][2][25]
October 1493 · San Sebastián de La Gomera · Sugar cane
Columbus's fleet lay here from 5 to 10 October 1493; cane from the Canaries, where the Spanish already grew it for sugar, went with it to Hispaniola.
[23][35][34][36]
January 1494 · La Isabela · Horse
The colony founded here in January 1494 brought the voyage's horses ashore; in March 1495 Columbus marched out from here against the Taíno with 200 men on foot and 20 on horseback.
from Cádiz · by war and settlers[2][23][24]
January 1494, took hold by 1516 · Hispaniola (La Isabela) · Sugar cane
Cane carried on the second voyage was planted on Hispaniola, where the colony began here in 1494; the island gave its first sugar harvest in 1501 and the Americas' first mill in 1516.
from San Sebastián de La Gomera · by settlers[34][35][2]
c. 1517 · Rome · Maize
Maize was soon taken from Spain to the papal court; frescoes painted in Rome about 1517 hold the oldest known European pictures of it.
from Palos · by travellers[3]
1519, took hold by 1553 · New Spain (Tenochtitlan) · Horse
Cortés brought sixteen horses to the mainland in 1519 for his war on the Aztec state; Mexico had a breeding stock by 1525 and, by one estimate, 10,000 horses running free by 1553.
by war[24][25]
November 1532 · Cajamarca · Horse
Pizarro's force of 180 men, horsemen among them, ambushed the unarmed retinue of the Inca ruler Atahualpa here on 16 November 1532, killing thousands and taking him captive.
by war[26][25]
c. 1534 · São Vicente · Sugar cane
The first Portuguese town in Brazil, founded in 1532; the governor's sugar mill, later called the Erasmos mill, was probably built in 1534, one of the first in Brazil.
by settlers[37][38]
1536 · Buenos Aires · Horse
Pedro de Mendoza's colonists brought horses when they founded the town in 1536; when it was given up a few years later, horses left behind ran wild on the Pampas.
by war and settlers[27][28]
1537 · Vélez · Potato
Men of Jiménez de Quesada's expedition came upon potatoes in 1537 in a village near the later town of Vélez; it is the first European record of the crop.
[8][9]
c. 1537, took hold by 1600 · Pernambuco (Olinda) · Sugar cane
Duarte Coelho's colony, a town from 1537, built Pernambuco's first sugar mills; by about 1600 Pernambuco was the world's largest and richest sugar-producing land.
by settlers[39]
1539 · Hornbach · Maize
Hieronymus Bock, minister at Hornbach, described maize in his German herbal of 1539, the first sure record of it grown in northern Europe.
[3][4]
1560 · Pingliang · Maize
The Pingliang prefectural gazetteer of 1560 lists maize as "foreign wheat", one of the earliest Chinese records; how it reached China, overland or by sea, is debated.
[5][6]
November 1567 · Las Palmas · Potato
Barrels of potatoes went from Gran Canaria to Antwerp in November 1567, the first record of the crop outside the Americas; it was probably grown on the island from about 1562.
from Vélez · by trade[9][8][11]
1573 · Seville · Potato
The Hospital de la Sangre first bought potatoes in 1573, the first record in mainland Europe; bought each December and January, they were most likely grown in Spain.
from Las Palmas · by trade[10][11]
c. 1590, took hold by 1800 · Ireland (Youghal) · Potato
Tradition credits Walter Raleigh with planting potatoes on his estate here soon after 1586; widespread by the late 1600s, they were the staple of one Irish person in three by 1800.
[12]
1591 · Hangzhou · Chili pepper
The earliest known Chinese record of chili comes from this city in 1591; the plant is thought to have reached China some twenty years earlier.
[15]
c. 1593 · Luzon (Manila) · Sweet potato
Galleons from Acapulco carried American crops to Luzon, sweet potato among them; it was grown here by 1593, when a merchant from Fujian took vines home.
by trade[18][19]
c. 1593, took hold by 1594 · Fujian (Fuzhou) · Sweet potato
The merchant Chen Zhenlong brought sweet potato vines home from Luzon; tried in a famine at the governor's order, it soon fed much of Fujian and was called the golden tuber.
from Manila · by trade[19][17]
1597 · London · Potato
John Gerard's Herball of 1597, written beside his garden in Holborn, gave the first English description of the potato, which he wrongly thought came from Virginia.
[13][9]
1598 · Ohkay Owingeh · Horse
Juan de Oñate's colonists came up the royal road from Mexico City in 1598 with thousands of livestock, mares among the horses, and made this pueblo their first seat.
from Tenochtitlan · by settlers[29][31][30]
c. 1600 · Paa'ko · Horse
A horse from this pueblo shows Indigenous people keeping horses by about 1600; dated finds from Idaho to Kansas show horses across the Plains well before the revolt of 1680.
[32][33]
1605 · Noguni · Sweet potato
Noguni Sōkan, an officer of Ryukyu's tribute ships from this village, brought potted sweet potato vines back from Fuzhou in 1605; Gima Shinjō then spread them across Ryukyu.
from Fuzhou · by travellers[20]
1614 · Joseon (Hanseong) · Chili pepper
The first Korean record, Yi Su-gwang's encyclopedia of 1614, says chili came from Japan and was now often grown by farmers; some Japanese texts say it went the other way.
[16]
1637, took hold by 1642 · Barbados (Bridgetown) · Sugar cane
Pieter Blower brought cane from Dutch Brazil in 1637, and by 1642 sugar was Barbados's main crop, grown on plantations by enslaved Africans brought in growing numbers.
from Olinda · by trade[40]
c. 1647 · Pilgramsreuth · Potato
Hans Rogler and other farmers began growing potatoes in the fields here about 1647, the earliest known field crop of potatoes in Germany.
[14]
c. 1685, took hold by 1773 · Sơn Tây · Maize
Lê Quý Đôn wrote in 1773 that the envoy Trần Thế Vinh of Sơn Tây brought maize seed back from Qing China, and that all Sơn Tây now ate maize in place of rice.
by travellers[7]
c. 1700 · Yamagawa · Sweet potato
Sweet potatoes reached Satsuma from Ryukyu in the Genroku era (1688 to 1704), wrote Kaibara Ekiken in 1708; tradition credits Maeda Riemon, a sailor of this port.
from Noguni · by trade[21]
1715 · Tsushima (Fuchū) · Sweet potato
Harada Saburōemon of Kubara village fetched seed tubers from Satsuma in 1715 and began growing sweet potatoes on Tsushima, an island of steep land with few fields.
from Yamagawa · by travellers[21]
1735 · Edo · Sweet potato
On the shogun Yoshimune's order the scholar Aoki Kon'yō grew seed tubers from Satsuma in the Koishikawa garden here in 1735, and the crop then spread across eastern Japan.
from Yamagawa · by trade[21]
1763 · Dongnae · Sweet potato
The envoy Jo Eom had sweet potatoes from Tsushima planted here in 1763; they froze, but in 1764 the magistrate Kang Pil-ri got new roots from Tsushima and grew them.
from Fuchū · by travellers[22][17]

Sources

Works the dates are read from. Each arrival above names its own.

1.The Journal of Christopher Columbus (during his first voyage, 1492–93). Christopher Columbus, abstracted by Bartolomé de las Casas; translated by Clements R. Markham, 1893, Hakluyt Society
2.Voyages of Christopher Columbus. citing no citation on the dates used (return to Palos, 15 March 1493; La Isabela, 2 January 1494)
3.A European perspective on maize history. Maud I. Tenaillon and Alain Charcosset, 2011, Comptes Rendus Biologies 334 (3), 221–228
4.Hieronymus Bock. citing no inline citation on Hornbach (1533–1554) or the 1539 Kreutterbuch
5.明代文獻中記載的玉蜀黍 (Maize recorded in Ming-dynasty documents). Chiba Tokuji, translated by Yu Jingrang, 1973, Kexue Nongye 21 (5/6); reprinted by the Seed Laboratory, National Taiwan University
6.玉米. citing Chiba Tokuji and Yu Jingrang, 明代文獻中記載的玉蜀黍 (for the 1560 Pingliang gazetteer)
7.Nguồn gốc và ý nghĩa của các khái niệm chỉ lúa ngô, ngô, bắp, bẹ... của các tộc người Việt Nam. Lý Tùng Hiếu, 2022, Tạp chí Khoa học Đại học Văn Hiến 8 (2)
8.History of the potato. citing Salaman 1949, p. 36 (Sorocota near Vélez, 1537); Pitrat and Foury 2003, p. 164 (Gran Canaria to Antwerp, 1567)
9.The early history of the potato in Europe. J. G. Hawkes and J. Francisco-Ortega, 1993, Euphytica 70, 1–7
10.The potato in Spain during the late 16th century. J. G. Hawkes and J. Francisco-Ortega, 1992, Economic Botany 46, 86–97
11.DNA from herbarium specimens settles a controversy about origins of the European potato. Mercedes Ames and David M. Spooner, 2008, American Journal of Botany 95 (2), 252–257
12.Great Famine (Ireland). citing O'Sullivan and Downey 2022 (Raleigh at Youghal); Póirtéir 1995, pp. 19–20; Ó Gráda 1993, pp. 138–144
13.John Gerard. citing no inline citation on the 1597 Herball or its potato
14.Pilgramsreuth (Rehau). citing no inline citation on the potato field of about 1647
15.Chili pepper. citing Dott 2020, The Chile Pepper in China, p. 21 ("The earliest known record for chiles in a Chinese source is from Hangzhou, Zhejiang, in 1591")
16.고추. citing Yi Su-gwang, Jibong yuseol (1614), quoted; no secondary citation
17.Sweet potato. citing Herrero 2004, p. 78 (Columbus's men and the Taíno batata, 1492)
18.Manila galleon
19.陳振龍. citing Chen Shiyuan, Jinshu chuanxi lu (1768), quoting the Cailu Minhou hezhi
20.野國總管
21.サツマイモ. citing Kaibara Ekiken, Yamato honzō (1708) for Satsuma in the Genroku era
22.고구마. citing Jo Eom, Haesa ilgi (1763–1764)
23.Segundo viaje de Colón
24.Horses in the United States
25.Colonial Spanish horse
26.Battle of Cajamarca
27.Pedro de Mendoza
28.Criollo horse. citing a breed-society page for the 1535 shipment; no citation for the feral herds of 1580
29.Juan de Oñate
30.Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
31.Plains Indians. citing Haines, The Northward Spread of Horses among the Plains Indians, American Anthropologist 40 (3), 1938, pp. 429–437 (the article prints 1988)
32.The untold history of the horse in the American Plains, a new future for the world. CNRS (press release on Taylor et al. 2023), 2023
33.Early dispersal of domestic horses into the Great Plains and northern Rockies. William Timothy Treal Taylor and others, 2023, Science 379, 1316–1323
34.History of sugar. citing Parker 2011, p. 10 (cane on the second voyage, 1493); Benítez-Rojo 1996, p. 93 (first harvest, 1501)
35.History of the Dominican Republic. citing Sharpe, Sugar Cane: Past and Present, Ethnobotanical Leaflets (cane from the Canaries; first mill, 1516)
36.Beatriz de Bobadilla y Ossorio. citing Abreu y Galindo, Historia de la conquista de las siete islas de Canarias (ed. Cioranescu 1977)
37.Engenho São Jorge dos Erasmos
38.São Vicente, São Paulo
39.Capitania de Pernambuco. citing the article's source "Faina" for the world's largest sugar area about 1600
40.History of Barbados

The Columbian exchange, also known as the Columbian interchange, was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, and diseases between the New World (the Americas) in the Western Hemisphere, and the Old World (Afro-Eurasia) in the Eastern Hemisphere, from the late 15th century on. It is named after the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and is related to the European colonization and global trade following his 1492 voyage. Some of the exchanges were deliberate while others were unintended. Communicable diseases of Old World origin resulted in an 80 to 95 percent reduction in the Indigenous population of the Americas from the 15th century onwards, and their near extinction in the Caribbean.

The cultures of both hemispheres were significantly impacted by the migration of people, both free and enslaved, from the Old World to the New. European colonists and African slaves replaced Indigenous populations across the Americas, to varying degrees. The number of Africans taken to the New World was far greater than the number of Europeans moving there in the first three centuries after Columbus.

The new contacts among the global population resulted in the interchange of many species of crops and livestock, which supported increases in food production and population in the Old World. American crops such as maize, potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco, cassava, sweet potatoes, and chili peppers became important crops around the world. Old World rice, wheat, sugar cane, and livestock, among other crops, became important in the New World.

The term was first used in 1972 by the American historian Alfred W. Crosby in his environmental history book The Columbian Exchange. It was rapidly adopted by other historians and by journalists.

Etymology

In 1972, Alfred W. Crosby, an American historian at the University of Texas at Austin, published the book The Columbian Exchange, thus coining the term. His primary focus was mapping the biological and cultural transfers that occurred between the Old and New Worlds. He studied the effects of Columbus's voyages between the two – specifically, the global diffusion of crops, seeds, and plants from the New World to the Old, which radically transformed agriculture in both regions.

His research made a lasting contribution to the way scholars understand the variety of contemporary ecosystems that arose due to these transfers. His 1986 book Ecological Imperialism presented further research in the field.

Background

The scientific consensus is that humans first came to the New World from Siberia thousands of years ago. There is little additional evidence of contacts between the peoples of the Old World and those of the New World, although the literature speculating on pre-Columbian trans-oceanic journeys is extensive. The first inhabitants of the New World brought with them domestic dogs. The medieval explorations, visits, and brief residence of the Norsemen in Greenland, Newfoundland, and Vinland in the late 10th century and 11th century had no known impact on the Americas, though the small perennial Rumex acetosella (sheep's sorrel) appeared in Greenland at that time.

Many scientists accept that possible contact between Polynesians and coastal peoples in South America around the year 1200 resulted in genetic similarities and the adoption by Polynesians of an American crop, the sweet potato. However, it was only with the first voyage of the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and his crew to the Americas in 1492 that the Columbian exchange began, resulting in major transformations in the cultures and livelihoods of the peoples in both hemispheres.

Biological exchanges

Of plants

Because of the new trading resulting from the Columbian exchange, several plants native to the Americas spread around the world, including potatoes, maize, tomatoes, and tobacco. Before 1500, potatoes were not grown outside of South America. By the 18th century, they were cultivated and consumed widely in Europe and had become important crops in both India and North America. Potatoes eventually became an important staple food in the diets of many Europeans, contributing to an estimated 12 to 25% of the population growth in Afro-Eurasia between 1700 and 1900. The introduction of the potato to the Old World accounts for 47 percent of the increase in urbanization between 1700 and 1900. Cassava was introduced from South America by the Portuguese in the 16th century, and gradually replaced sorghum and millet as Africa's most important food crop. Spanish colonizers of the 16th century introduced new staple crops to Asia from the Americas, including maize and sweet potatoes, contributing to population growth there. On a larger scale, the introduction of potatoes and maize to the Old World improved people's nutrition throughout the Eurasian landmass, enabling more varied and abundant food production.

The discovery of the Americas provided the Old World with new arable landscapes suitable for growing sugarcane and coffee. Coffee, introduced in the Americas circa 1720 from Africa and the Middle East, and sugarcane, introduced from the Indian subcontinent to the Spanish West Indies, subsequently became the primary commodity crops and exported goods of extensive Latin American plantations. Introduced to India by the Portuguese, chili peppers and potatoes from South America in turn became integral parts of Indian cuisine, and starting the process of making curry an international dish.

Because crops traveled widely but at least initially their endemic fungi did not, for a limited time yields were somewhat higher in the new regions to which they were introduced, a form of ecological release or "yield honeymoon". However, the exchange of pathogens has continued alongside globalization, and crops have declined back toward their endemic yields.

The Spanish were the first Europeans to grow cacao, in 1590. Though cacao was usually consumed by European populations in the form of sweets and was at first treated as an expensive luxury item, chocolate helped with fatigue and provided energy. As for vanilla, the pods of the plant after chemical treatment acquired an aroma, which was then used both in cooking and in perfumery.

Rice, including both Oryza glaberrima independently domesticated in West Africa and Oryza sativa naturalized in the Mediterranean, became widely planted in the New World; European planters there relied upon the skills of African slaves to cultivate it. Georgia, South Carolina, Cuba, and Puerto Rico were major centers of rice production during the colonial era. Enslaved Africans brought their knowledge of water control, milling, winnowing, and other agrarian practices to the fields. This widespread knowledge among African slaves eventually made rice a staple food in the New World.

Citrus fruits and grapes were brought to the Americas from the Mediterranean. At first, planters struggled to adapt these crops to New World climates, but by the late 19th century they were cultivated consistently. Bananas were introduced into the Americas in the 16th century by Portuguese sailors, who brought them from West Africa. Despite this early introduction, they were little consumed in the Americas as late as the 1880s, when large plantations were established in the Caribbean. The Manila galleon trading network introduced American plants such as chayote and papaya into Southeast Asia; these were incorporated into the cuisines there.

Long before the arrival of the Spaniards, cultivators brought wild tomatoes from Central America to South America. Soon after Columbus's visit, tomatoes were brought to Spain, and from there to other European countries, including Italy. In 1544, Pietro Andrea Mattioli, a Tuscan physician and botanist, wrote that the tomato was eaten fried in oil there. The first Italian cookbook to include tomato sauce, Lo Scalco alla Moderna ("The Modern Steward"), was written by Italian chef Antonio Latini and was published in two volumes in 1692 and 1694. In 1790, the use of tomato sauce with pasta appeared for the first time, in the Italian cookbook L'Apicio Moderno ("The Modern Apicius"), by chef Francesco Leonardi.

Alongside the intentional introductions of cultivated plants that were Crosby's focus, many wild plants including weeds of cultivation, such as dandelions and grasses, were transferred in both directions, permanently affecting the ecology of many parts of the world.

Of animals

Initially, the Columbian exchange of animals largely went in one direction, from Europe to the New World, as the Eurasian regions had domesticated many more animals. Horses, donkeys, mules, pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, dogs, cats, and bees were rapidly adopted by native peoples for transport, food, and other uses. The Plains Indians, for example, made extensive use of horses for hunting.

While mesoamerican peoples, Mayas in particular, already practiced apiculture, producing wax and honey from a variety of bees, such as Melipona or Trigona, European bees (Apis mellifera)—were more productive, delivering a honey with less water content and allowing for easier extraction from beehives—were introduced in New Spain, becoming an important part of farming production.

The Mapuche of Araucanía were fast to adopt the horse from the Spanish, and improve their military capabilities as they fought the Arauco War against Spanish colonizers. Until the arrival of the Spanish, the Mapuches had largely maintained chilihueques (llamas) as livestock. The Spanish introduction of sheep caused some competition between the two domesticated species. Anecdotal evidence of the mid-17th century shows that by then sheep far outnumbered llamas. The decline of llamas reached a point in the late 18th century when only the Mapuche from Mariquina and the Huequén next to Angol raised the species. In the Chiloé Archipelago the introduction of pigs by the Spanish proved a success. They could feed on the abundant shellfish and algae exposed by the large tides.

In the other direction, the turkey, from North America, and the Muscovy duck, from Mexico and South America, were New World domestic animals transferred to Europe.

Of diseases

The first manifestation of the Columbian exchange may have been the spread of syphilis from the native people of the Caribbean Sea to Europe. The history of syphilis has been well-studied, but the origin of the disease remains a subject of debate. There are two primary hypotheses: one proposes that syphilis was carried to Europe from the Americas by the crew of Christopher Columbus in the early 1490s, while the other proposes that syphilis previously existed in Europe but went unrecognized. The first written descriptions of syphilis in the Old World came in 1493. The first large outbreak of syphilis in Europe occurred in 1494–1495 among the army of Charles VIII during its invasion of Naples. Many of the crew members who had served with Columbus had joined this army. After the victory, Charles's largely mercenary army returned to their respective homes, spreading "the Great Pox" across Europe, which killed up to five million people.

The Columbian exchange of diseases toward the New World was far deadlier. The peoples of the Americas had previously had no exposure to Old World diseases and little or no immunity to them. An epidemic of swine influenza beginning in 1493 killed many of the Taino people inhabiting Caribbean islands. The pre-contact population of the island of Hispaniola was probably at least 500,000, but by 1526, fewer than 500 were still alive. Spanish exploitation was part of the cause of the near-extinction of the native people.

In 1518, smallpox was first recorded in the Americas and became the deadliest imported Old World disease. Forty percent of the 200,000 people living in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, later Mexico City, are estimated to have died of smallpox in 1520 during the war of the Aztecs with conquistador Hernán Cortés. Epidemics, possibly of smallpox, spread from Central America, devastating the population of the Inca Empire a few years before the arrival of the Spanish. The ravages of Old World diseases and Spanish exploitation reduced the Mexican population from an estimated 20 million to barely more than a million in the 16th century.

The Indigenous population of Peru decreased from about 9 million in the pre-Columbian era, to 600,000 in 1620. An estimated 80–95 percent of the Native American population died in epidemics within the first 100–150 years following 1492. Nunn and Qian also refer to the calculations of the scientist David Cook: in some cases no one survived due to diseases. The deadliest Old World diseases in the Americas were smallpox, measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, bubonic plague, typhus, and malaria. Yellow fever was brought to the Americas from Africa, probably by the slave trade. Many people in Africa had acquired immunity. Europeans suffered higher rates of death than did people of African descent when exposed to yellow fever in the Americas, as numerous epidemics swept the colonies and sugar plantations.

On the other hand, European exploration of tropical areas was aided by the New World discovery of quinine, the first effective treatment for malaria. Cinchona trees from the Andes were processed and quinine was obtained from their bark. Europeans suffered from this disease, but some Indigenous populations had developed at least partial resistance to it. In Africa, resistance to malaria has been associated with other genetic changes among sub-Saharan Africans and their descendants, which can cause sickle-cell disease. The resistance of sub-Saharan Africans to malaria in the southern United States and the Caribbean made Africa-sourced slavery more profitable in those regions.

Continue reading on Wikipedia

Text from the Wikipedia article “Columbian exchange”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Trade routes that carried it

Routes on the atlas along which the sources say it travelled.

1565 – 1815 · by land and sea
Manila galleons
The galleons carried American crops from Acapulco to Manila, sweet potato and maize among them; from Luzon a Fujian merchant took the sweet potato to China in 1593.
1525 – 1867 · by sea
Atlantic slave trade
Its ships carried enslaved Africans to work the sugar plantations of Hispaniola, Brazil and Barbados, and the sugar they made went back across the Atlantic to Europe.
c. 1497 – 1800 · by sea
Carreira da Índia
The Portuguese brought chili peppers to Goa, theirs from 1510, and on to their posts in Sri Lanka and Malacca, from where chilies spread through South and Southeast Asia.
1598 – 1882 · by land
Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
Oñate's colonists drove horses, mares among them, and thousands of other livestock north along it from Mexico City to Ohkay Owingeh in 1598.

In its story

Events on timeastra with pages of their own.

1492 – 1493
first voyage of Christopher Columbus
1519 – 1521
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
16 November 1532
Battle of Cajamarca
10 August 1680
Pueblo Revolt
1845 – 1852
Great Irish Famine

People

1451 – 1506
Christopher Columbus

Timeline

35 arrivals in order: when it was first recorded in each place, from where and who carried it, with the sources for the date.

November 1492 · Gibara · Maize
In November 1492 two scouts Columbus sent inland from his anchorage on this coast saw land planted with maize, yams and beans; it is the first European record of the crop.
where it began[1]
December 1492 · La Navidad · Sweet potato
Columbus's crew were the first Europeans to eat sweet potatoes; in December 1492 the cacique Guacanagarí served Columbus several kinds of Taíno roots at his town by this harbour.
[17][1]
January 1493 · Samaná · Chili pepper
In January 1493 Columbus wrote that the people of this bay had plenty of ají, their pepper, and valued it above black pepper; it is the first European record of chili.
[1]
March 1493 · Palos · Maize
Columbus's first voyage ended here on 15 March 1493, and it brought maize from the Caribbean to Spain, the first record of the crop in Europe.
from Gibara · by travellers[3][2]
September 1493 · Cádiz · Horse
The second voyage sailed from here on 25 September 1493 with twenty lancers of the Hermandad of Granada enlisted with their horses, the first horses taken to the Americas.
[23][2][25]
October 1493 · San Sebastián de La Gomera · Sugar cane
Columbus's fleet lay here from 5 to 10 October 1493; cane from the Canaries, where the Spanish already grew it for sugar, went with it to Hispaniola.
[23][35][34][36]
January 1494 · La Isabela · Horse
The colony founded here in January 1494 brought the voyage's horses ashore; in March 1495 Columbus marched out from here against the Taíno with 200 men on foot and 20 on horseback.
from Cádiz · by war and settlers[2][23][24]
January 1494, took hold by 1516 · Hispaniola (La Isabela) · Sugar cane
Cane carried on the second voyage was planted on Hispaniola, where the colony began here in 1494; the island gave its first sugar harvest in 1501 and the Americas' first mill in 1516.
from San Sebastián de La Gomera · by settlers[34][35][2]
c. 1517 · Rome · Maize
Maize was soon taken from Spain to the papal court; frescoes painted in Rome about 1517 hold the oldest known European pictures of it.
from Palos · by travellers[3]
1519, took hold by 1553 · New Spain (Tenochtitlan) · Horse
Cortés brought sixteen horses to the mainland in 1519 for his war on the Aztec state; Mexico had a breeding stock by 1525 and, by one estimate, 10,000 horses running free by 1553.
by war[24][25]
November 1532 · Cajamarca · Horse
Pizarro's force of 180 men, horsemen among them, ambushed the unarmed retinue of the Inca ruler Atahualpa here on 16 November 1532, killing thousands and taking him captive.
by war[26][25]
c. 1534 · São Vicente · Sugar cane
The first Portuguese town in Brazil, founded in 1532; the governor's sugar mill, later called the Erasmos mill, was probably built in 1534, one of the first in Brazil.
by settlers[37][38]
1536 · Buenos Aires · Horse
Pedro de Mendoza's colonists brought horses when they founded the town in 1536; when it was given up a few years later, horses left behind ran wild on the Pampas.
by war and settlers[27][28]
1537 · Vélez · Potato
Men of Jiménez de Quesada's expedition came upon potatoes in 1537 in a village near the later town of Vélez; it is the first European record of the crop.
[8][9]
c. 1537, took hold by 1600 · Pernambuco (Olinda) · Sugar cane
Duarte Coelho's colony, a town from 1537, built Pernambuco's first sugar mills; by about 1600 Pernambuco was the world's largest and richest sugar-producing land.
by settlers[39]
1539 · Hornbach · Maize
Hieronymus Bock, minister at Hornbach, described maize in his German herbal of 1539, the first sure record of it grown in northern Europe.
[3][4]
1560 · Pingliang · Maize
The Pingliang prefectural gazetteer of 1560 lists maize as "foreign wheat", one of the earliest Chinese records; how it reached China, overland or by sea, is debated.
[5][6]
November 1567 · Las Palmas · Potato
Barrels of potatoes went from Gran Canaria to Antwerp in November 1567, the first record of the crop outside the Americas; it was probably grown on the island from about 1562.
from Vélez · by trade[9][8][11]
1573 · Seville · Potato
The Hospital de la Sangre first bought potatoes in 1573, the first record in mainland Europe; bought each December and January, they were most likely grown in Spain.
from Las Palmas · by trade[10][11]
c. 1590, took hold by 1800 · Ireland (Youghal) · Potato
Tradition credits Walter Raleigh with planting potatoes on his estate here soon after 1586; widespread by the late 1600s, they were the staple of one Irish person in three by 1800.
[12]
1591 · Hangzhou · Chili pepper
The earliest known Chinese record of chili comes from this city in 1591; the plant is thought to have reached China some twenty years earlier.
[15]
c. 1593 · Luzon (Manila) · Sweet potato
Galleons from Acapulco carried American crops to Luzon, sweet potato among them; it was grown here by 1593, when a merchant from Fujian took vines home.
by trade[18][19]
c. 1593, took hold by 1594 · Fujian (Fuzhou) · Sweet potato
The merchant Chen Zhenlong brought sweet potato vines home from Luzon; tried in a famine at the governor's order, it soon fed much of Fujian and was called the golden tuber.
from Manila · by trade[19][17]
1597 · London · Potato
John Gerard's Herball of 1597, written beside his garden in Holborn, gave the first English description of the potato, which he wrongly thought came from Virginia.
[13][9]
1598 · Ohkay Owingeh · Horse
Juan de Oñate's colonists came up the royal road from Mexico City in 1598 with thousands of livestock, mares among the horses, and made this pueblo their first seat.
from Tenochtitlan · by settlers[29][31][30]
c. 1600 · Paa'ko · Horse
A horse from this pueblo shows Indigenous people keeping horses by about 1600; dated finds from Idaho to Kansas show horses across the Plains well before the revolt of 1680.
[32][33]
1605 · Noguni · Sweet potato
Noguni Sōkan, an officer of Ryukyu's tribute ships from this village, brought potted sweet potato vines back from Fuzhou in 1605; Gima Shinjō then spread them across Ryukyu.
from Fuzhou · by travellers[20]
1614 · Joseon (Hanseong) · Chili pepper
The first Korean record, Yi Su-gwang's encyclopedia of 1614, says chili came from Japan and was now often grown by farmers; some Japanese texts say it went the other way.
[16]
1637, took hold by 1642 · Barbados (Bridgetown) · Sugar cane
Pieter Blower brought cane from Dutch Brazil in 1637, and by 1642 sugar was Barbados's main crop, grown on plantations by enslaved Africans brought in growing numbers.
from Olinda · by trade[40]
c. 1647 · Pilgramsreuth · Potato
Hans Rogler and other farmers began growing potatoes in the fields here about 1647, the earliest known field crop of potatoes in Germany.
[14]
c. 1685, took hold by 1773 · Sơn Tây · Maize
Lê Quý Đôn wrote in 1773 that the envoy Trần Thế Vinh of Sơn Tây brought maize seed back from Qing China, and that all Sơn Tây now ate maize in place of rice.
by travellers[7]
c. 1700 · Yamagawa · Sweet potato
Sweet potatoes reached Satsuma from Ryukyu in the Genroku era (1688 to 1704), wrote Kaibara Ekiken in 1708; tradition credits Maeda Riemon, a sailor of this port.
from Noguni · by trade[21]
1715 · Tsushima (Fuchū) · Sweet potato
Harada Saburōemon of Kubara village fetched seed tubers from Satsuma in 1715 and began growing sweet potatoes on Tsushima, an island of steep land with few fields.
from Yamagawa · by travellers[21]
1735 · Edo · Sweet potato
On the shogun Yoshimune's order the scholar Aoki Kon'yō grew seed tubers from Satsuma in the Koishikawa garden here in 1735, and the crop then spread across eastern Japan.
from Yamagawa · by trade[21]
1763 · Dongnae · Sweet potato
The envoy Jo Eom had sweet potatoes from Tsushima planted here in 1763; they froze, but in 1764 the magistrate Kang Pil-ri got new roots from Tsushima and grew them.
from Fuchū · by travellers[22][17]

Sources

Works the dates are read from. Each arrival above names its own.

1.The Journal of Christopher Columbus (during his first voyage, 1492–93). Christopher Columbus, abstracted by Bartolomé de las Casas; translated by Clements R. Markham, 1893, Hakluyt Society
2.Voyages of Christopher Columbus. citing no citation on the dates used (return to Palos, 15 March 1493; La Isabela, 2 January 1494)
3.A European perspective on maize history. Maud I. Tenaillon and Alain Charcosset, 2011, Comptes Rendus Biologies 334 (3), 221–228
4.Hieronymus Bock. citing no inline citation on Hornbach (1533–1554) or the 1539 Kreutterbuch
5.明代文獻中記載的玉蜀黍 (Maize recorded in Ming-dynasty documents). Chiba Tokuji, translated by Yu Jingrang, 1973, Kexue Nongye 21 (5/6); reprinted by the Seed Laboratory, National Taiwan University
6.玉米. citing Chiba Tokuji and Yu Jingrang, 明代文獻中記載的玉蜀黍 (for the 1560 Pingliang gazetteer)
7.Nguồn gốc và ý nghĩa của các khái niệm chỉ lúa ngô, ngô, bắp, bẹ... của các tộc người Việt Nam. Lý Tùng Hiếu, 2022, Tạp chí Khoa học Đại học Văn Hiến 8 (2)
8.History of the potato. citing Salaman 1949, p. 36 (Sorocota near Vélez, 1537); Pitrat and Foury 2003, p. 164 (Gran Canaria to Antwerp, 1567)
9.The early history of the potato in Europe. J. G. Hawkes and J. Francisco-Ortega, 1993, Euphytica 70, 1–7
10.The potato in Spain during the late 16th century. J. G. Hawkes and J. Francisco-Ortega, 1992, Economic Botany 46, 86–97
11.DNA from herbarium specimens settles a controversy about origins of the European potato. Mercedes Ames and David M. Spooner, 2008, American Journal of Botany 95 (2), 252–257
12.Great Famine (Ireland). citing O'Sullivan and Downey 2022 (Raleigh at Youghal); Póirtéir 1995, pp. 19–20; Ó Gráda 1993, pp. 138–144
13.John Gerard. citing no inline citation on the 1597 Herball or its potato
14.Pilgramsreuth (Rehau). citing no inline citation on the potato field of about 1647
15.Chili pepper. citing Dott 2020, The Chile Pepper in China, p. 21 ("The earliest known record for chiles in a Chinese source is from Hangzhou, Zhejiang, in 1591")
16.고추. citing Yi Su-gwang, Jibong yuseol (1614), quoted; no secondary citation
17.Sweet potato. citing Herrero 2004, p. 78 (Columbus's men and the Taíno batata, 1492)
18.Manila galleon
19.陳振龍. citing Chen Shiyuan, Jinshu chuanxi lu (1768), quoting the Cailu Minhou hezhi
20.野國總管
21.サツマイモ. citing Kaibara Ekiken, Yamato honzō (1708) for Satsuma in the Genroku era
22.고구마. citing Jo Eom, Haesa ilgi (1763–1764)
23.Segundo viaje de Colón
24.Horses in the United States
25.Colonial Spanish horse
26.Battle of Cajamarca
27.Pedro de Mendoza
28.Criollo horse. citing a breed-society page for the 1535 shipment; no citation for the feral herds of 1580
29.Juan de Oñate
30.Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
31.Plains Indians. citing Haines, The Northward Spread of Horses among the Plains Indians, American Anthropologist 40 (3), 1938, pp. 429–437 (the article prints 1988)
32.The untold history of the horse in the American Plains, a new future for the world. CNRS (press release on Taylor et al. 2023), 2023
33.Early dispersal of domestic horses into the Great Plains and northern Rockies. William Timothy Treal Taylor and others, 2023, Science 379, 1316–1323
34.History of sugar. citing Parker 2011, p. 10 (cane on the second voyage, 1493); Benítez-Rojo 1996, p. 93 (first harvest, 1501)
35.History of the Dominican Republic. citing Sharpe, Sugar Cane: Past and Present, Ethnobotanical Leaflets (cane from the Canaries; first mill, 1516)
36.Beatriz de Bobadilla y Ossorio. citing Abreu y Galindo, Historia de la conquista de las siete islas de Canarias (ed. Cioranescu 1977)
37.Engenho São Jorge dos Erasmos
38.São Vicente, São Paulo
39.Capitania de Pernambuco. citing the article's source "Faina" for the world's largest sugar area about 1600
40.History of Barbados

Trade routes that carried it

Routes on the atlas along which the sources say it travelled.

1565 – 1815 · by land and sea
Manila galleons
The galleons carried American crops from Acapulco to Manila, sweet potato and maize among them; from Luzon a Fujian merchant took the sweet potato to China in 1593.
1525 – 1867 · by sea
Atlantic slave trade
Its ships carried enslaved Africans to work the sugar plantations of Hispaniola, Brazil and Barbados, and the sugar they made went back across the Atlantic to Europe.
c. 1497 – 1800 · by sea
Carreira da Índia
The Portuguese brought chili peppers to Goa, theirs from 1510, and on to their posts in Sri Lanka and Malacca, from where chilies spread through South and Southeast Asia.
1598 – 1882 · by land
Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
Oñate's colonists drove horses, mares among them, and thousands of other livestock north along it from Mexico City to Ohkay Owingeh in 1598.

In its story

Events on timeastra with pages of their own.

1492 – 1493
first voyage of Christopher Columbus
1519 – 1521
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
16 November 1532
Battle of Cajamarca
10 August 1680
Pueblo Revolt
1845 – 1852
Great Irish Famine

People

1451 – 1506
Christopher Columbus

Timeline

35 arrivals in order: when it was first recorded in each place, from where and who carried it, with the sources for the date.

November 1492 · Gibara · Maize
In November 1492 two scouts Columbus sent inland from his anchorage on this coast saw land planted with maize, yams and beans; it is the first European record of the crop.
where it began[1]
December 1492 · La Navidad · Sweet potato
Columbus's crew were the first Europeans to eat sweet potatoes; in December 1492 the cacique Guacanagarí served Columbus several kinds of Taíno roots at his town by this harbour.
[17][1]
January 1493 · Samaná · Chili pepper
In January 1493 Columbus wrote that the people of this bay had plenty of ají, their pepper, and valued it above black pepper; it is the first European record of chili.
[1]
March 1493 · Palos · Maize
Columbus's first voyage ended here on 15 March 1493, and it brought maize from the Caribbean to Spain, the first record of the crop in Europe.
from Gibara · by travellers[3][2]
September 1493 · Cádiz · Horse
The second voyage sailed from here on 25 September 1493 with twenty lancers of the Hermandad of Granada enlisted with their horses, the first horses taken to the Americas.
[23][2][25]
October 1493 · San Sebastián de La Gomera · Sugar cane
Columbus's fleet lay here from 5 to 10 October 1493; cane from the Canaries, where the Spanish already grew it for sugar, went with it to Hispaniola.
[23][35][34][36]
January 1494 · La Isabela · Horse
The colony founded here in January 1494 brought the voyage's horses ashore; in March 1495 Columbus marched out from here against the Taíno with 200 men on foot and 20 on horseback.
from Cádiz · by war and settlers[2][23][24]
January 1494, took hold by 1516 · Hispaniola (La Isabela) · Sugar cane
Cane carried on the second voyage was planted on Hispaniola, where the colony began here in 1494; the island gave its first sugar harvest in 1501 and the Americas' first mill in 1516.
from San Sebastián de La Gomera · by settlers[34][35][2]
c. 1517 · Rome · Maize
Maize was soon taken from Spain to the papal court; frescoes painted in Rome about 1517 hold the oldest known European pictures of it.
from Palos · by travellers[3]
1519, took hold by 1553 · New Spain (Tenochtitlan) · Horse
Cortés brought sixteen horses to the mainland in 1519 for his war on the Aztec state; Mexico had a breeding stock by 1525 and, by one estimate, 10,000 horses running free by 1553.
by war[24][25]
November 1532 · Cajamarca · Horse
Pizarro's force of 180 men, horsemen among them, ambushed the unarmed retinue of the Inca ruler Atahualpa here on 16 November 1532, killing thousands and taking him captive.
by war[26][25]
c. 1534 · São Vicente · Sugar cane
The first Portuguese town in Brazil, founded in 1532; the governor's sugar mill, later called the Erasmos mill, was probably built in 1534, one of the first in Brazil.
by settlers[37][38]
1536 · Buenos Aires · Horse
Pedro de Mendoza's colonists brought horses when they founded the town in 1536; when it was given up a few years later, horses left behind ran wild on the Pampas.
by war and settlers[27][28]
1537 · Vélez · Potato
Men of Jiménez de Quesada's expedition came upon potatoes in 1537 in a village near the later town of Vélez; it is the first European record of the crop.
[8][9]
c. 1537, took hold by 1600 · Pernambuco (Olinda) · Sugar cane
Duarte Coelho's colony, a town from 1537, built Pernambuco's first sugar mills; by about 1600 Pernambuco was the world's largest and richest sugar-producing land.
by settlers[39]
1539 · Hornbach · Maize
Hieronymus Bock, minister at Hornbach, described maize in his German herbal of 1539, the first sure record of it grown in northern Europe.
[3][4]
1560 · Pingliang · Maize
The Pingliang prefectural gazetteer of 1560 lists maize as "foreign wheat", one of the earliest Chinese records; how it reached China, overland or by sea, is debated.
[5][6]
November 1567 · Las Palmas · Potato
Barrels of potatoes went from Gran Canaria to Antwerp in November 1567, the first record of the crop outside the Americas; it was probably grown on the island from about 1562.
from Vélez · by trade[9][8][11]
1573 · Seville · Potato
The Hospital de la Sangre first bought potatoes in 1573, the first record in mainland Europe; bought each December and January, they were most likely grown in Spain.
from Las Palmas · by trade[10][11]
c. 1590, took hold by 1800 · Ireland (Youghal) · Potato
Tradition credits Walter Raleigh with planting potatoes on his estate here soon after 1586; widespread by the late 1600s, they were the staple of one Irish person in three by 1800.
[12]
1591 · Hangzhou · Chili pepper
The earliest known Chinese record of chili comes from this city in 1591; the plant is thought to have reached China some twenty years earlier.
[15]
c. 1593 · Luzon (Manila) · Sweet potato
Galleons from Acapulco carried American crops to Luzon, sweet potato among them; it was grown here by 1593, when a merchant from Fujian took vines home.
by trade[18][19]
c. 1593, took hold by 1594 · Fujian (Fuzhou) · Sweet potato
The merchant Chen Zhenlong brought sweet potato vines home from Luzon; tried in a famine at the governor's order, it soon fed much of Fujian and was called the golden tuber.
from Manila · by trade[19][17]
1597 · London · Potato
John Gerard's Herball of 1597, written beside his garden in Holborn, gave the first English description of the potato, which he wrongly thought came from Virginia.
[13][9]
1598 · Ohkay Owingeh · Horse
Juan de Oñate's colonists came up the royal road from Mexico City in 1598 with thousands of livestock, mares among the horses, and made this pueblo their first seat.
from Tenochtitlan · by settlers[29][31][30]
c. 1600 · Paa'ko · Horse
A horse from this pueblo shows Indigenous people keeping horses by about 1600; dated finds from Idaho to Kansas show horses across the Plains well before the revolt of 1680.
[32][33]
1605 · Noguni · Sweet potato
Noguni Sōkan, an officer of Ryukyu's tribute ships from this village, brought potted sweet potato vines back from Fuzhou in 1605; Gima Shinjō then spread them across Ryukyu.
from Fuzhou · by travellers[20]
1614 · Joseon (Hanseong) · Chili pepper
The first Korean record, Yi Su-gwang's encyclopedia of 1614, says chili came from Japan and was now often grown by farmers; some Japanese texts say it went the other way.
[16]
1637, took hold by 1642 · Barbados (Bridgetown) · Sugar cane
Pieter Blower brought cane from Dutch Brazil in 1637, and by 1642 sugar was Barbados's main crop, grown on plantations by enslaved Africans brought in growing numbers.
from Olinda · by trade[40]
c. 1647 · Pilgramsreuth · Potato
Hans Rogler and other farmers began growing potatoes in the fields here about 1647, the earliest known field crop of potatoes in Germany.
[14]
c. 1685, took hold by 1773 · Sơn Tây · Maize
Lê Quý Đôn wrote in 1773 that the envoy Trần Thế Vinh of Sơn Tây brought maize seed back from Qing China, and that all Sơn Tây now ate maize in place of rice.
by travellers[7]
c. 1700 · Yamagawa · Sweet potato
Sweet potatoes reached Satsuma from Ryukyu in the Genroku era (1688 to 1704), wrote Kaibara Ekiken in 1708; tradition credits Maeda Riemon, a sailor of this port.
from Noguni · by trade[21]
1715 · Tsushima (Fuchū) · Sweet potato
Harada Saburōemon of Kubara village fetched seed tubers from Satsuma in 1715 and began growing sweet potatoes on Tsushima, an island of steep land with few fields.
from Yamagawa · by travellers[21]
1735 · Edo · Sweet potato
On the shogun Yoshimune's order the scholar Aoki Kon'yō grew seed tubers from Satsuma in the Koishikawa garden here in 1735, and the crop then spread across eastern Japan.
from Yamagawa · by trade[21]
1763 · Dongnae · Sweet potato
The envoy Jo Eom had sweet potatoes from Tsushima planted here in 1763; they froze, but in 1764 the magistrate Kang Pil-ri got new roots from Tsushima and grew them.
from Fuchū · by travellers[22][17]

Sources

Works the dates are read from. Each arrival above names its own.

1.The Journal of Christopher Columbus (during his first voyage, 1492–93). Christopher Columbus, abstracted by Bartolomé de las Casas; translated by Clements R. Markham, 1893, Hakluyt Society
2.Voyages of Christopher Columbus. citing no citation on the dates used (return to Palos, 15 March 1493; La Isabela, 2 January 1494)
3.A European perspective on maize history. Maud I. Tenaillon and Alain Charcosset, 2011, Comptes Rendus Biologies 334 (3), 221–228
4.Hieronymus Bock. citing no inline citation on Hornbach (1533–1554) or the 1539 Kreutterbuch
5.明代文獻中記載的玉蜀黍 (Maize recorded in Ming-dynasty documents). Chiba Tokuji, translated by Yu Jingrang, 1973, Kexue Nongye 21 (5/6); reprinted by the Seed Laboratory, National Taiwan University
6.玉米. citing Chiba Tokuji and Yu Jingrang, 明代文獻中記載的玉蜀黍 (for the 1560 Pingliang gazetteer)
7.Nguồn gốc và ý nghĩa của các khái niệm chỉ lúa ngô, ngô, bắp, bẹ... của các tộc người Việt Nam. Lý Tùng Hiếu, 2022, Tạp chí Khoa học Đại học Văn Hiến 8 (2)
8.History of the potato. citing Salaman 1949, p. 36 (Sorocota near Vélez, 1537); Pitrat and Foury 2003, p. 164 (Gran Canaria to Antwerp, 1567)
9.The early history of the potato in Europe. J. G. Hawkes and J. Francisco-Ortega, 1993, Euphytica 70, 1–7
10.The potato in Spain during the late 16th century. J. G. Hawkes and J. Francisco-Ortega, 1992, Economic Botany 46, 86–97
11.DNA from herbarium specimens settles a controversy about origins of the European potato. Mercedes Ames and David M. Spooner, 2008, American Journal of Botany 95 (2), 252–257
12.Great Famine (Ireland). citing O'Sullivan and Downey 2022 (Raleigh at Youghal); Póirtéir 1995, pp. 19–20; Ó Gráda 1993, pp. 138–144
13.John Gerard. citing no inline citation on the 1597 Herball or its potato
14.Pilgramsreuth (Rehau). citing no inline citation on the potato field of about 1647
15.Chili pepper. citing Dott 2020, The Chile Pepper in China, p. 21 ("The earliest known record for chiles in a Chinese source is from Hangzhou, Zhejiang, in 1591")
16.고추. citing Yi Su-gwang, Jibong yuseol (1614), quoted; no secondary citation
17.Sweet potato. citing Herrero 2004, p. 78 (Columbus's men and the Taíno batata, 1492)
18.Manila galleon
19.陳振龍. citing Chen Shiyuan, Jinshu chuanxi lu (1768), quoting the Cailu Minhou hezhi
20.野國總管
21.サツマイモ. citing Kaibara Ekiken, Yamato honzō (1708) for Satsuma in the Genroku era
22.고구마. citing Jo Eom, Haesa ilgi (1763–1764)
23.Segundo viaje de Colón
24.Horses in the United States
25.Colonial Spanish horse
26.Battle of Cajamarca
27.Pedro de Mendoza
28.Criollo horse. citing a breed-society page for the 1535 shipment; no citation for the feral herds of 1580
29.Juan de Oñate
30.Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
31.Plains Indians. citing Haines, The Northward Spread of Horses among the Plains Indians, American Anthropologist 40 (3), 1938, pp. 429–437 (the article prints 1988)
32.The untold history of the horse in the American Plains, a new future for the world. CNRS (press release on Taylor et al. 2023), 2023
33.Early dispersal of domestic horses into the Great Plains and northern Rockies. William Timothy Treal Taylor and others, 2023, Science 379, 1316–1323
34.History of sugar. citing Parker 2011, p. 10 (cane on the second voyage, 1493); Benítez-Rojo 1996, p. 93 (first harvest, 1501)
35.History of the Dominican Republic. citing Sharpe, Sugar Cane: Past and Present, Ethnobotanical Leaflets (cane from the Canaries; first mill, 1516)
36.Beatriz de Bobadilla y Ossorio. citing Abreu y Galindo, Historia de la conquista de las siete islas de Canarias (ed. Cioranescu 1977)
37.Engenho São Jorge dos Erasmos
38.São Vicente, São Paulo
39.Capitania de Pernambuco. citing the article's source "Faina" for the world's largest sugar area about 1600
40.History of Barbados

The term was first used in 1972 by the American historian Alfred W. Crosby in his environmental history book The Columbian Exchange. It was rapidly adopted by other historians and by journalists.

Etymology

Background

Biological exchanges

Of plants

Of animals

In the other direction, the turkey, from North America, and the Muscovy duck, from Mexico and South America, were New World domestic animals transferred to Europe.

Of diseases

Continue reading on Wikipedia

Text from the Wikipedia article “Columbian exchange”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.