Exchange of Flora and Fauna in the Old World and New World

EXCHANGE OF FLORA AND FAUNA IN THE OLD AND NEW WORLD
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Exchange of Flora and Fauna in the Old and New World
The Columbian interaction is one of the defining moments in humanity's civilization. Alfred Crosby, the historian who invented the term Columbian exchange, intended to describe the massive transfer of life, i.e., fauna and flora, between the old world (Afro-Eurasian continents, including Africa, Europe, and Asia) and the new world (America) following Christopher Columbus' 1492 voyage to the Americas. The Columbian exchange is primarily associated with the subsequent White colonization/imperialism and business efforts in the American continent, which involved the extensive bidirectional exchange of numerous plant, animal, and microbe species between Afro-Eurasian continents (the old world) and the Americas or new world. Notably, the subsequent development of Triangular trade between 1492 and 1750 C.E. brought in new species of plants and animals, significantly influencing people's way of life in both regions. The Columbian exchange significantly contributed to global agricultural and industrial revolutions.. Besides, exchanging plants and animals disrupted food consumption and production patterns worldwide.. However, the transfers also involved human population groups and cultures and pathogens, insects, and microbes, leading to major demographic shifts in both continents2. In sum, the transfer of various plant and animal species between the old and new worlds led to agricultural and industrial revolutions, economic transformations, demographic shifts, and ripples in food production and consumption, and improved the Europeans' imperialization efforts.[Crosby, Alfred W. "Reassessing 1492." American Quarterly 41, no. 4 (1989): 661-669.] [Mann, Charles C. 1491: New revelations of the Americas before Columbus. Alfred a Knopf Incorporated, 2005.] [Cusack, Igor. "Ripples from the Columbian Exchange?" (2020).]
The Transfer of New World Food Crops to the Old World and their Impacts
The old world benefited from the massive movement of crops during the Columbian exchange period. The enormous exchange that accompanied the European maritime expansion during the 15th to 19th centuries significantly contributed to Europe's agricultural and industrial revolution and the Americas2. Notably, the Columbian exchange led to the interchange of staple food crops between the old world and the new world across the Pacific. The trade consequently triggered agricultural, industrial, and population explosions in both continents during the past two centuries1. Besides, the Columbian exchange led to the expansion of the world supply of agricultural foods and products by introducing previously unknown food crop varieties to the old world, including tubers like potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, and maize, resulting in significant caloric and nutritional improvements1. These new world staples have been consequently adopted in most new world countries since the old world climate favors them contrary to the unsuitability of cultivation of old world staples.. The American crops, including maize, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and cassava, enabled the new world farmers to produce significant food harvests from the same soils deemed useless due to their sandiness and aridity, among other factors. Also, in most cases, the new-world crops complemented the old-world crops rather than competing for resources.. On the other hand, low-caloric crops, including tomatoes, cacao, and chili peppers, complimented the old world’s existing foods by improving taste and vitamin intake.[Crosby, Alfred W. The Columbian exchange: biological and cultural consequences of 1492. 2003.] [Nunn et al. "The Columbian Exchange: A history of the disease, food, and ideas." Journal of Economic Perspectives 24, no. 2 (2010): 163-88.]
Transferring the new world's crops to the old world significantly affected food production and consumption patterns worldwide. The Columbian exchange led to the most significant disruptions in the world’s food production and consumption in human history3. Potatoes are arguably the new world food crop that had the most significant impact on the new world's food consumption. The enormous implications derive from the potatoes' rich caloric and nutrient supply and hence the ability to sustain human health better than any other cuisine when solely consumed5. South Americans only cultivated Potatoes before the 16th Century. However, by the early 1700s, most European countries primarily grew and consumed potatoes, which also became one of the key crops in North America, Africa, Russia, and India.. Potatoes were a typical Irish diet which, in most cases, the Irish supplemented with milk or butter.. Today, the top world consumers of potatoes besides Ireland include Russia, Ukraine, the U.K., Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, the Republic of Poland, and Portugal. Besides, the empirical estimations of the benefits of potatoes show that their cultivation spurred population growth across Irish counties. Consequently, a difference-in-differences estimation strategy shows that potato cultivation contributed to a significant population growth of 12% population in the entire old world in the post-adoption period compared to the pre-adoption period6. Furthermore, the adoption of potatoes had a remarkable effect on urbanization and, consequently, the GDP of the old world.[Nunn, Nathan, and Nancy Qian. "The potato's contribution to population and urbanization: evidence from a historical experiment." The quarterly journal of economics 126, no. 2 (2011): 593-650.] [Connell, Kenneth H. "The potato in Ireland." Past & Present 23 (1962): 57-71.]
Moreover, the new world food crops significantly affected the evolution of the old world's local cuisines. “Even in the current world of increasingly globalized food consumption and production on both sides of the Atlantic, the evidence of ripples still exists today”3 (61). For instance, American chili peppers led to the rise of Indian curries, Hungarian paprika, and the spicy kimchee in Korea, while the transfer of tomatoes into the old world significantly altered Italian cuisine as other Mediterranean countries' diets5. A 2016 study shows that 60% of today's global food supply originates in the Americas.. Another 2000 study shows that American indigenous food crops constitute a significant chunk of the world's diet, including potatoes, cassava, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, maize, sunflower seeds, eggplants, pineapples, and green chilies or peppers5. The American food plants had the advantage of making different and favorable demands for soils, climate, and cultivation than the old world’s crops. As a result, the old-world countries, including Lesotho, Malawi, China, France, India, Italy, Indonesia, Zambia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Timor-Leste, have primarily adopted the new world’s maize5. Even today, cassava is among the most widely adopted food crop in the new world regarding average calories per capita per day. The top ten old-world countries in cassava consumption include Congo, DRC, Angola, Mozambique, Ghana, Benin, Liberia, Togo, Madagascar, and the Central African Republic. Although too much maize could cause pellagra while inadequately processed cassava could result in konzo, the foods currently provide sustenance for millions worldwide.[Park et al. "Native American foods: History, culture, and influence on modern diets." Journal of Ethnic Foods 3, no. 3 (2016): 171-177.]
On the other hand, the old world nations such as China, Solomon Islands, Madagascar, and the East African countries including Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and Tanzania, have primarily adopted sweet potatoes5. The top ten old-world countries consuming tomatoes include Greece, Libya, the UAE, Egypt, Turkey, Italy, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Israel. The top ten old countries that consume pineapples are Thailand, Kenya, Philippines, Samoa, Venezuela, Australia, Malaysia, and Swaziland5. In addition, old-world countries, including India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Nigeria, Turkey, Spain, Indonesia, Egypt, and South Korea, have widely adopted dry and green chili peppers. Thus, to a large extent, the new world food crops have led to the evolution of the old world's diet.
The Transfer of the New World Cash Crops to the Old World and their Impacts
According to historical records, Christopher Columbus introduced samples of cacao pods to the new world's King Ferdinand on his second voyage into the Americas.. The cacao plant produces Chocolate, which in most cases, people consume as a candy sweet, condiment, or dessert. The cacao plant is popularly known for its high energy content and its capabilities of uplifting psychological effects. The cacao plant’s end product, pure Chocolate, is considerably denser and produces more energy than most caloric and protein-rich foods. The Spaniards were the first ones to grow and trade cacao. In the 1600s, the French started growing it, and the Dutch in Indonesia did the same.8. Notably, up to currently, Indonesia is the top producer of cacao beans worldwide. On the other hand, mainland Africa adopted cacao cultivation in the late 19th Century, with the first cultivators being Cameroon, Nigeria, and Ghana. Consequently, even today, the West African countries of Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon, alongside the Ivory Coast, comprise the largest cacao producers in the world.[West, J. A. "A brief history and botany of cacao." Chilies to Chocolate: food the Americas gave the world. Tucson: Univ of Arizona (1992): 105-21.]
On the other hand, plain vanilla originated from Mexico, particularly its eastern and southern forests and the Central and Northern Southern regions of the Americas.. Plain vanilla is an extraction from vanilla planifolia, which happened to be the only orchid species producing edible fruit. Presumably, Cortes introduced plain vanilla to the old world by Cortes since before 1492. It was utterly unknown in the region. Notably, Spain was the first ancient world to broadly adopt plain vanilla, whereby its factories started to use it as a chocolate flavor in the mid of the 16th century9.[Foster et al. Cordell, eds. Chilies to Chocolate: Food, the Americas, gave the world—University of Arizona Press, 1992.]
Consequently, its use as a luxury drink rapidly spread in other European countries like England and France. The latter country started to use it to flavor confectionaries and ice and to complement the scents of perfumes and tobacco by the 18th Century. However, today, Indonesia, Madagascar, China, Comoros, Tonga, Turkey, and Uganda comprise the largest old-world producers of vanilla per 1000s tons.
The Columbian exchange also led to the transfer of less healthy cash crops of tobacco and coca from the Americas to the old world countries. Historical evidence shows that the Amerindians were the first to cultivate tobacco5. However, initially, the natives did not use tobacco for recreational purposes; instead, they used it as a painkiller and a halogen during religious ceremonies..Also, at first, and especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, Native Americans used tobacco as medicine and money. Following the arrival of Columbus’s second voyage in the Americas, other European countries essentially adopted tobacco, and by the 1600s, it had diffused to almost all regions of Europe.. The Japanese Buddhists also used tobacco seeds as a currency or mode of payment while on their exploratory pilgrimages. However, during the 20th Century, most world populations adopted tobacco smoking, particularly during the 1st world war, when most people considered and called cigarettes "soldier's smoke ."The leading old-world producers and consumers of tobacco today include the Chinese, Brazilians, Indians, Zimbabweans, Turks, Indonesians, Greeks, and Italians. Moreover, the Spanish introduced coca to Europe in the 16th Century. Originally grown in South America's Andes mountains' bushes, coca leaves contain extractable alkaloids that produce commercial cocaine5. The early use of coca is associated with the Incan empire, where the kingdom's people chewed coca leaves during religious rituals.[Penn, William A. The coverage herbe: a history of tobacco. Grant Richards, 1901.] [Brooks, Jerome E. "mighty leaf." (1952).]
Consequently, the early Spaniards adopted the chewing of coca leaves and later introduced it to Europe. Its use became popular in Europe due to its ability to enhance stamina and reduce hunger. However, coca's most famous legal use, mainly marinated coca leaves, is in the manufacture of Coca-Cola soft drinks. Currently, cocaine is among the most illegally traded substances globally. Although the production and consumption of cocaine have rapidly spread to all regions of the world, only Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia account for the significant production and supply of the world's coca leaves. The coca industry's economic significance is enormous, generating a substantial percentage of these countries' income.
The transfer of QuinineQuinine into the Old World and Its Impact on European Colonization of Tropical Africa.
The Columbian exchange also indirectly contributed to the transfer of QuinineQuinine into the old world. Historians consider QuinineQuinine a vital new world medicinal present to the ancient world. It significantly influenced the relationship between Imperialist Europe and its African colonies among its other old-world colonial territories5. Quinine is extracted from the cinchona tree barks initially grown in South America's Andes. The significance of QuinineQuinine is associated with the effective treatment of malaria through the inhibition of plasmodium reproduction. Today, the cinchona trees do well in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia's eastern mountain forests, which grow in scattered clumps.. Besides Quinine's anti-malarial medicinal value, historians regard it a vital “tool of empire” because it significantly enhanced Imperialist Europe’s capability or ability to colonize most of the world's tropical regions.. Although debatable, traditional historiography shows that QuinineQuinine promoted the survival of Europeans in the malaria-prone tropical regions of Africa during the European exploration and colonial expansion era.. Notably, “between 1819 and 1836, the average annual death rate per thousand mean strength of European troops on the West African coast was 483 for enlisted men and 209 for officers, and the annual death rate for officials was 76 and 53 in Gold Coast and Lagos respectively between 1881 and 1897."(110). As a result, the standard and general views are that QuinineQuinine made European colonization of Tropical Africa a reality.[Brockway, L. H. "Science and colonial expansion: the r...