1493 Uncovering The Columbian Exchange Summary

Xi Ning

Professor Pozefesky

HIST 108

May 5, 2018

The Colombian Exchange

In Charles Mann’s book 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, he describes the history of world of the more than 500 years after Columbus's great discovery with strong visual, descriptive and figurative language. His view starts from the great exchange or Columbian exchange of species that have been ignored in a broader perspective. The exchange affects the subsequent human history. Mann presents the research done by anthropologists, historians and ecologists to show how the modern world with the rise of China, Africa as well as Mexico cities is created through the economic and ecological interactive network originated in 1493’s Colombian Exchange. Therefore,

They signify the creators of the world and the end of the dynasty. Because the growth of the sweet potato is not challenging, the impact on China may be greatest. The arrival of sweet potatoes made the Chinese population break through the original limit of sixty million "Malthus trap" for the first time. From the end of the Ming Dynasty to less than twenty million, it has soared to four hundred million in the late Qing Dynasty. In a sense, the prosperity of Kangxi and Qianlong was the prosperity of sweet potato brought by demographic dividend. The former population was concentrated in the Chinese terrain plain area, but because of the emergence of the sweet potato, the second steps of the hills are full of people. The direct consequence was soil erosion, water and soil erosion which lead to the frequent floods. Combined with the internal worry of external suffering, the Qing Dynasty collapsed. But, the story is not finished as potatoes spread across Europe. Before the arrival of potatoes, the whole of Europe was half starved. The potato ended hunger, maintained political stability, and promoted the rise of Europe. Without potatoes, industrial revolution would not happen. Without potatoes, there would be no continuous hegemony of Portugal, Spain, Holland and Britain. The west also discovered birds manure which is the prefect match for

The prevalence of slavery in the southern United States was due to the fact that Africans are more resistant to malaria and yellow fever than Europeans. It was a rational choice for business considerations. Although Africans did not voluntarily set foot on the American continent, from the demographic point of view, America was not so much an extension of Europe as an extension of Africa. When every European came to America, three Africans came up with it. The two most important migration of human beings on earth is from Africa: once human beings first walked out of the East African grasslands, and the other was the slave trade across the