The Great Food Exchange

In 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered the New World (the Americas) which opened the East and the West to each other. Many Europeans went to North or South America. They brought many things that the natives of the Americas had not seen before: horses, guns, alcohol and the wheel are just four examples.

While the Native Americans welcomed the horse or the wheel , other things the Europeans brought did them great damage. Lots of new diseases killed millions of Amerindians and alcoholism often destroyed their communities.

However, it wasn't all negative. The Europeans brought many plants with them that did well in the New World. Wheat and rice were produced in large amounts that could feed much bigger populations; and, from the Americas , Europeans borrowed maize corn , potatoes and tomatoes. When these crops were introduced to Asia, Europe and Africa , they also grew well and the populations went up fast.

In Africa, many villages came to depend on maize corn. Manioc (cassava) from Brazil made it possible to grow food on land that had before been useless to humans. But, there were unexpected results.

The growing population in Europe meant that many more Europeans had to leave and go to the Americas to find room to live and farm. The growing number of Africans meant that more and more could be and were forcibly taken to the Americas where they worked as slaves and, in turn, increased food production.

For example, North and South Carolina, in North America , produced massive amounts of rice using African slaves to do the work.

Everywhere, populations went up and up. In Ireland, the potato was grown everywhere and most of the extra population went to the New World to live. In China, maize corn allowed the population to grow quickly. When the Americas were discovered around 1500 , the world's human population was less than one billion; now, it is more than seven billion and growing fast. Only the population of Native Americans has gone down.

In the end, their biggest enemy was not disease or war, but food.