Columbian exchange

Agricultural products native to the New World: maize, the tomato, the potato, tobacco, cacao, rubber and vanilla.

Agricultural products native to the Old World: citrus fruits, the apple, the banana, the mango, rice, wheat, coffee and the onion.

The term Columbian exchange is used to describe the process that took place mainly between the 15th and 16th centuries during the colonization of the Americas and the European triangular trade that arose after the discovery of the continent by the European powers, beginning with the voyages of Christopher Columbus, from whom it takes its name.

Numerous agricultural products and species of domestic animals were transferred from the New World (the American continent) to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), and vice versa. A broader definition would also include technological advances, cultural dealings, demography, and even diseases.

Every ship that sailed from Spain to the Americas carried plants and livestock, as Bernabé Cobo documented:

"...in all the entries and discoveries of new provinces that the Spaniards make in these Indies, they are accustomed to take with them the greatest number they can of tame animals and plants and seeds, both as provisions on such journeys and to perpetuate them in the new lands they are going to settle."

In 1493, on his second voyage to the Americas, Columbus carried from the Canary Islands to the Island of Hispaniola horses, rams, cows and heifers, goats, sheep, hens and four sows, vegetables, and seeds of oranges, lemons, melons and citrons. These animals and plants reproduced very quickly, and their descendants were carried to the mainland, where they spread throughout all its regions.

The most significant immediate impact of the Columbian exchange was the cultural exchanges and the movement of people (both free and enslaved) between continents. The new contacts among the world's population circulated a wide variety of crops and livestock, which contributed to population growth in both hemispheres, although epidemics initially caused a precipitous decline in the indigenous population of the Americas, mainly because there was no acquired immunity to many of the diseases originating in other parts of the planet.

In some cases epidemics were used for military purposes, to decimate and subjugate the indigenous peoples, mainly by the British and Dutch forces that invaded North America. The first written reference to what is considered an episode of biological warfare occurred during the 18th century, when in 1764 a plan was made to give the natives blankets infested with smallpox, although there is evidence that the British army had been systematically spreading smallpox among the indigenous people since 1755, as happened with the outbreak that in 1757 decimated the Potawatomi, allies of the French, who were rivals in the colonization of North America.

Historical context

The Columbian exchange is related to the European colonization and triangular trade that took place after the discovery of America led by Christopher Columbus (from whom it takes its name) in 1492.

Terminology

The term was coined in 1972 by the American historian Alfred Crosby in his book on environmental history The Columbian Exchange. It was quickly adopted by other historians and journalists, and has become known worldwide.

Exchanges

Crops

Terraces from the Inca period on Taquile, used to grow traditional Andean foods such as quinoa and the potato, along with wheat, a European introduction.

Several plants native to the American continent have spread throughout the world, including the potato, maize, the tomato and tobacco.

Maize and cassava, introduced by the Portuguese from South America in the 16th century, have replaced sorghum and millet as Africa's most important food crops. Spanish colonizers of the 16th century introduced new staple crops to Asia from the Americas, including maize and the sweet potato, and thus contributed to population growth in Asia. On a larger scale, the arrival of potatoes and maize in the Old World "resulted in caloric and nutritional improvements over previously existing staple foods" throughout the Eurasian landmass, since they created a more varied and abundant diet.

Rice

Cultivation of Oryza glaberrima, or African rice, along the Niger River, where it was first domesticated.

Rice was another crop that was widely transferred during the Columbian exchange. As demand grew in the New World, so did knowledge of how to grow it. The two main species used were Oryza glaberrima and Oryza sativa, native to West Africa and Southeast Asia, respectively.

Slaveholders in the New World relied on the skills of enslaved Africans to continue growing both species. Georgia and South Carolina were key places where rice was grown during the slave trade. Brazil and Cuba were likewise major production centers. Africans brought their knowledge of water control, milling, winnowing and other general agrarian practices to the fields. This widespread knowledge among Africans eventually led to rice becoming a staple food in the New World.

Rice remains a staple food in many of these areas today among farmers of mixed African descent. Rice is also a crucial part of much of the culinary culture associated with the African diaspora: the Hoppin' John of Carolina cuisine, the "gumbo" of Louisiana, the moros y cristianos (rice and beans) of Cuba and the gallo pinto of Nicaragua.

Wheat

After the conquest of the Mexican territory it became necessary to plant wheat, mainly because of the dietary customs of the Spaniards. However, they ran into a series of logistical problems that had to be solved, among them the natives' lack of skill in this type of planting, the lack of tools and farming implements, as well as of the draft and hauling animals needed for this type of planting, such as horses, oxen and other quadrupeds. Nor were there related industries such as smithies where carts could be made, or something as essential as wheels, whose practical use as part of a cargo or transport cart was completely unknown on the American continent.

It was agreed that the task of teaching wheat cultivation would fall to the Dominican friars, who in a short time succeeded in making wheat production more important than that of maize. Two years after the founding of Guadalajara (1542), the future capital of the state of New Galicia, the city already had a wheat mill, so much so that the city even came to be known more as 'El Molino' (The Mill) than by its real name. Although at first wheat was consumed almost exclusively by the Spaniards, all social strata gradually adopted it. Today it coexists with the consumption of maize in perfect symbiosis.

Potatoes

Although before 1500 potatoes were grown only in South America, by the 19th century they were already widely eaten throughout Europe and had become important crops in India and North America.

Potatoes became so popular that they eventually became an important staple of the diet in much of Europe, contributing an estimated 25% of the population growth in Afro-Eurasia between 1700 and 1900. Many European rulers, including Frederick II the Great, King of Prussia, and Catherine II the Great, Empress of Russia, encouraged the cultivation of the potato.

So great did dependence on this crop become in some European countries such as Ireland (where approximately two fifths of the population depended exclusively on it) that when the Great Famine occurred between 1845 and 1849 because of a blight that devastated potato crops throughout Europe, around one million Irish people died and a million more had to emigrate from the island.

Fruits

Citrus fruits and grapes reached the Americas from the Mediterranean. At first these crops struggled to adapt to the climate in the New World, but by the end of the 19th century they were growing more consistently.

Bananas were introduced to the Americas in the 16th century by Portuguese sailors who came across the fruits while engaged in commercial ventures, mainly slavery, in West Africa. Bananas were eaten only in minimal quantities until the 1880s. The United States did not see large increases in banana consumption until the establishment of banana plantations in the Caribbean. The History of modern banana plantations in the Americas details the spread of this crop in the Americas.

Tomatoes

Wild tomatoes

Three centuries passed after their introduction into Europe before tomatoes became a widely accepted food. Tobacco, potatoes, chili peppers, tomatillos and tomatoes are all members of the nightshade family. All these plants resemble the European nightshade so closely that even an amateur could deduce that they were a kind of nightshade just by looking at the flowers and berries. Like some European varieties of nightshade, tomatoes and potatoes can be harmful or even lethal if the wrong part of the plant is eaten in the wrong amount. Physicians in the 16th century therefore had good reason to suspect that this native Mexican fruit was poisonous and generated "melancholic humors". In 1544, Pietro Andrea Mattioli, a Tuscan physician and botanist, suggested that tomatoes might be edible, but there is no record of anyone eating them at that time. However, in 1592 the head gardener of the botanical garden of Aranjuez near Madrid, under the patronage of Philip II of Spain, wrote: "It is said that [tomatoes] are good for sauces." Despite these comments, tomatoes remained exotic plants grown for ornamental purposes but rarely for culinary use. On October 31, 1548, the tomato received its first name anywhere in Europe when a steward of Cosimo I de' Medici, Duke of Florence, wrote to De' Medici's private secretary that the basket of pomi d'oro "had arrived safely". At that time, the label pomi d'oro was also used to refer to figs, melons and citrus fruits in scientists' treatises. In the early years, tomatoes were grown mainly as ornamental plants in Italy. For example, the Florentine aristocrat Giovan Vettorio Soderini wrote that they "were to be sought only for their beauty", and they were grown only in gardens or flower beds. Tomatoes were grown in the gardens of the urban and rural elite in the fifty years after their arrival in Europe and were only occasionally depicted in works of art. The combination of pasta with tomato sauce developed only at the end of the 19th century. Of all the New World plants introduced into Italy, only the potato took as long as the tomato to gain acceptance as a food. Today, about 32,000 acres (13,000 ha) of tomatoes are grown in Italy, although there are still areas where relatively few tomatoes are grown and eaten.

Tomatoes, which reached Europe from the New World by way of Spain, were initially appreciated in Italy mainly for their ornamental value. But from the 19th century onward, tomato sauces became typical of Neapolitan cuisine and, ultimately, of Italian cuisine in general. Coffee, introduced into the Americas around 1720 from Africa and the Middle East, and sugarcane, introduced into the Americas from the Indian subcontinent, became the main export crops of the extensive American plantations. Introduced into India by the Portuguese, the chili pepper and potatoes became an integral part of Indian cuisine.

Peppers

Green peppers

The Capsicum plant (from which the different species of peppers come) is native to the areas that today comprise Bolivia and southern Brazil. After the arrival of the Europeans, the plant was also taken to Mesoamerica and the Caribbean. A second variety, Capsicum frutescens, first cultivated in the Amazon basin, gives us the tabasco pepper.

It was Christopher Columbus who took the pepper and its seeds to Spain on his second voyage in 1493. From there its cultivation spread throughout the world, beginning with Spain, Europe and Africa, and then—at the time when Spain controlled trade with Asia—to the Philippines and from there to India, China, Korea and Japan, where they were incorporated into the local cuisines.

The pepper has had a significant impact on the cuisine of many countries. In South and Southeast Asia, different forms of pepper are used as the base of many dishes (for example, curry). In China, the cuisine of the southwestern regions (Sichuan, Guizhou and Hunan) is defined by the use of certain chilies. In Korea, a side dish of kimchi made with hot peppers is eaten with practically every meal. In Hungary, paprika has been widely adopted in a variety of dishes, including goulash, and today it is the country's national spice.

Chocolate

Columbus first brought specimens of cacao pods to Spain after his second voyage to the New World. Outside the Americas, cacao was first grown in 1590 off the coast of Africa on the island of Fernando Poo, in Equatorial Guinea, a country that would eventually become the first cacao producer in Africa.

The introduction of chocolate into Spanish culinary customs was very rapid compared with other ingredients brought from the Americas, and its popularity and acceptance in all estates of Spanish society reached very high levels as early as the end of the 16th century. From its beginnings until the 20th century, chocolate was considered by the Spaniards to be a drink.

From the very first it was sweetened with cane sugar, and the Spaniards were the first to spread it in Europe. In pre-Columbian America chocolate was seasoned with chilies and was a bitter and spicy mixture whose flavor did not initially please the Spanish conquistadors, who were soon motivated to sweeten it with sugar brought from the Iberian Peninsula, as well as to prepare it hot.

For about a hundred years after its appearance in the ports of Andalusia, chocolate grew popular as a drink in Spain. During this period the craze for chocolate meant that it was served as a drink at the Spanish Court, while the recipe was unknown in the rest of the continent. Later, chocolate spread from Spain to the rest of Europe, and the first countries to adopt it were Italy, and then France.

The great popularity of the drink in Spanish society until the 19th century can be seen reflected in various notes by travelers who visited the Iberian Peninsula. It came to be said that "chocolate is to the Spaniard what tea is to the Englishman." In this way, chocolate managed to become a national symbol. Such an unbounded fondness for this drink meant that coffee was incorporated late into Spanish culinary customs, compared with its incorporation in other European countries. In Spain chocolate was considered exclusively a comforting drink and was hardly used in other culinary respects, with rare exceptions of classic Spanish dishes in which cacao is an ingredient. After the Spanish Civil War the custom gradually declined in favor of coffee consumption.

Tobacco

The origin of the tobacco plant is believed to lie in the Andean region between Peru and Ecuador. Tobacco became known to Europeans in 1492 on the occasion of the arrival of Christopher Columbus and his expedition members in the Caribbean on his first voyage, according to the account of the chronicler Bartolomé de las Casas (1561):

...always the men with a firebrand in their hands, and certain herbs to take their fumes, which are some dry herbs put inside a certain leaf, also dry, in the manner of a paper musket like those the boys make at the Feast of the Holy Spirit, and, lit at one end, at the other they suck, or sip, or take in with their breath that smoke, with which the flesh grows numb and it almost intoxicates, and thus, they say, they do not feel weariness. These muskets, or whatever we shall call them, they call tabacos.

The first tobacco crops grown by the Spaniards date back to 1530 in the territory of the Island of Santo Domingo. In his Historia de Indias, Las Casas makes the first mention of Europeans' addiction to tobacco:

I knew Spaniards on this island of Hispaniola who had grown accustomed to taking them, who, being reproached for it and told that it was a vice, answered that it was not in their power to stop taking them; I do not know what taste or benefit they found in them.

Advertisement of the Compañía General de Tabacos de Filipinas

By order of Philip II, the physician and botanist Francisco Hernández de Boncalo was the one who brought the first tobacco seeds to Spain in 1577. These seeds were planted on the outskirts of Toledo, in an area called los Cigarrales because it was often invaded by plagues of cicadas (cigarras). Tobacco cultivation in Europe began there and, for this reason, some historians associate the name cigar (cigarro) with these estates.

Thanks to the French ambassador in Portugal, Jean Nicot (1530–1600) (in whose honor Linnaeus introduced the name Nicotiana in his botanical classification Species Plantarum of 1753), it spread across the European continent. He introduced it in its inhaled form (snuff) and popularized it by supposedly "curing" Catherine de' Medici (wife of Henry II) of migraines, for which reason it was called the queen's herb, Catalinaria Nuduca and the ambassador's herb. In 1574, the Flemish botanist Carolus Clusius asserted that "tobacco is a universal remedy, for diseases of all kinds."

However, tobacco would eventually become a genuine public health problem during the Industrial Revolution, when mass production began, combined with misleading advertising aimed mainly at children and young people, while the true numbers of deaths caused by smoking were concealed, as was later confirmed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Coca

The use of coca has a long history. During the Inca Empire, its leaves were chewed during religious rituals. The first Spanish settlers began to consume it and brought it back to Europe, where many notable figures became regular users who praised its ability to increase creativity and endurance and to reduce the sensation of hunger.

In 1626, the colonial author licentiate Juan de Mañozca made a report on the territory of the Real Audiencia of Quito. In chapter 5, referring to the coca leaf, he states that it was consumed by "Christians and religious" and that it drove them out of their minds, making them do unworthy things, and as a result he called on the Inquisition to take action to remedy this situation. After this new observation, a marked decline in coca consumption began, such that 122 years later, when the French Geodesic Mission arrived with the Spanish oidores Jorge Juan y Santacilia and Antonio de Ulloa (1748), they stated that the coca leaf was neither produced nor consumed in the Real Audiencia of Quito ("ni fe cría, ni efta puefta en uso").

In the 19th century the coca leaf began to be transformed into alkaloids such as cocaine, and in 1868 the Peruvian physician Tomás Moreno y Maiz published a doctoral thesis at the University of Paris titled "Recherches Chimiques et Physiologiques sur l'Érythroxylon coca du Pérou et la cocaine" on coca, cocaine and their effects, in what is considered the first study ever made of cocaine. In them he concluded that the drug increases resistance to fatigue; stimulates physically and mentally, provides general well-being, and controls the effects of alcohol. The effect of cocaine as a local anesthetic was also demonstrated experimentally.

In 1898 its constitution was explained, and in 1902 it was synthesized by Richard Willstätter. From 1879 cocaine was used to treat morphine dependence.

Around 1884 cocaine began to be used as an anesthetic in clinics in Germany, and at approximately the same time Sigmund Freud wrote about its effects in his work Über Coca ("On Coca").

The most famous legal use of coca is undoubtedly in the soft drink Coca-Cola, which initially contained marinated coca leaves. The soft drink often Coca-Cola, which initially contained marinated coca leaves, and which served as a substitute for alcohol at a time when the sale of alcohol was illegal.

The addictive characteristics of cocaine and the addict's inability to do without it, in addition to legal loopholes worldwide, have produced a growing market for this drug. Today, cocaine is one of the most widely traded illegal substances in the world. Although cocaine use has spread to every corner of the planet, only three countries of the New World (Colombia, Peru and Bolivia) produce most of the supply of coca leaves. Mexico is the largest trafficker and the U.S. the largest consumer.

Livestock

Initially, the Columbian exchange of animals ran largely from Europe to the New World, since the Eurasian regions had domesticated many more animals. Horses, donkeys, mules, pigs, cows, sheep, goats, chickens, dogs, cats and bees were quickly adopted by Native American peoples for transportation, food and other uses.

In 1493, on his second voyage to the Americas, Columbus carried from the Canary Islands to the Island of Hispaniola four heifers and two bull calves, 200 hens and roosters, 25 horses, six mares, four jackasses and two jennies, 20 boars and 800 sows. The animals reproduced rapidly and numerous batches were carried to the mainland, where they would end up distributed throughout all its regions.

The effects of the introduction of European livestock on the environment and the peoples of the New World were not always positive. In the Caribbean, the proliferation of European animals had major effects on native fauna and undergrowth and damaged the conucos, plots managed by indigenous peoples for subsistence.

Horses

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Native American mounted on a horse (photo from 1910)

One of the first European exports to the Americas, the horse, completely transformed the way of life of many American tribes. Mountain tribes switched to a nomadic lifestyle, as opposed to agriculture, based on hunting bison on horseback, and moved to the Great Plains. Existing Plains tribes expanded their territories with horses, and the animals were considered so valuable that herds of horses became a measure of wealth.

Although horses originally evolved in North America approximately 55 million years ago, they disappeared from the continent about 10,000 years ago for causes still unknown. However, they survived and were domesticated in Europe, and on May 23, 1493, the history of the horse in the Americas began anew with a writ of the Catholic Monarchs, who ordered that 20 horses and five mares chosen in the Kingdom of Granada be sent to the New World. These horses reached the Americas during the second voyage of Christopher Columbus. The Monarchs wrote to their secretary Fernando de Zafra to choose 20 light-cavalry lances (lanzas jinetas) along with five female "dobladuras" from among the population of the Santa Hermandad, and those were the horses that reached the Americas.

Once the horse had become acclimatized to the island of Santo Domingo, its breeding spread to the other Antilles and to Central America, from where almost all the expeditions of discovery and conquest were supplied with horses. Pizarro was authorized to take mounts from Jamaica to Peru, and from there Pedro de Valdivia supplied himself to go to Chile, from where they would pass to Argentina.

The horse has played a crucial role in various regions of the Americas. In the southwestern United States, the Apache and Navajo used it for trade and war. On the pampas of Argentina, the gauchos, with their equestrian skills, became emblematic figures of the cattle economy and regional culture. The Mapuche of Araucanía were quick to adopt the horse to improve their warfare capabilities. In northern Mexico, the vaqueros developed an equestrian culture that influenced that of the American cowboy. Today the horse remains important in both rural and urban areas, keeping traditions alive and celebrating the Hispanic equestrian heritage in events and festivities.

Donkeys and mules

Mule

Donkeys and mules were brought by the Spaniards to be used as pack and transport animals. Suited to heavy work and capable of working in difficult terrain, these animals became an essential part of the colonial economy.

Mules and donkeys were crucial for the transport of goods, especially in mountainous regions and areas where the roads were difficult to travel. Their introduction facilitated the expansion of trade routes and the development of infrastructure in the Spanish colonies.

Cows

Cows were first introduced into the Caribbean by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493. From there, cattle spread rapidly throughout the lands colonized by the Spaniards. The first cows reached Mexico in 1521 with Hernán Cortés and were later distributed throughout Central America and South America.

Cows became a vital source of meat, milk and leather. The development of cattle ranching was fundamental to the economy of regions such as the Argentine pampas, where the great estancias devoted to the production of meat and leather arose. The culture of the cowboy and the gaucho in North America and South America was built largely around cattle raising.

Chickens and hens

Chickens and hens were introduced along with other farm animals. These animals adapted well to the climate and living conditions in the Americas, spreading rapidly throughout all the colonies.

These birds quickly became an important source of meat and eggs, contributing significantly to the daily diet of both the settlers and the indigenous populations. Poultry farming became established as a common practice on farms and in households throughout the continent.

Turkeys

North American turkey

The turkey, native to North America, was one of the most famous animals taken from the Americas to Europe during the period of colonization. Spanish explorers discovered it in North America and introduced it into Europe in the 16th century. Turkeys became a popular culinary delicacy, especially at festivities such as Christmas. At these events, roast turkey became the main dish, symbolizing abundance and celebration.

The versatility of the turkey inspired the creation of various recipes and preparation techniques in European cuisine. From stuffed turkeys to stews, soups and grilled dishes, the turkey was quickly integrated into traditional gastronomy and adapted to local preferences throughout Europe. Demand for turkey has led to its mass production throughout the world. Today, the United States, Brazil and Spain are among the world's leading producers of turkey meat.

Pigs

During the second voyage of Christopher Columbus, the first eight pigs were also shipped bound for Hispaniola.

Of all the livestock introduced by the Spaniards, the pig was the one that adapted most quickly to the new environments in the colonized lands. Its ability to eat all kinds of food, reproduce in short periods of time, and its great resistance to extreme temperatures allowed it to establish itself in all the American ecosystems, in the tropics, semi-desert lands, pampas, and high-altitude mountains alike.

In the Chiloé Archipelago, the introduction of pigs by the Spaniards proved a great success, since the pigs were able to benefit from the abundant shellfish and seaweed exposed by the great tides.

The introduction of pigs had a significant impact on indigenous populations and the environment. On the one hand, pigs became an important food source for local communities, facilitating adaptation to the new conditions imposed by colonization. However, they also caused ecological problems by competing with native fauna and altering local ecosystems, since feral pigs devastated crops and competed with native species for resources.

Goats

Goat in Sierra Mojada, Coahuila, Mexico.

Goats were also introduced by the Spaniards at the beginning of the colonial period. Adaptable to various climates and terrains, goats became established in areas where other types of livestock did not thrive, such as arid and mountainous regions.

Goats provided meat, milk and leather, and their ability to graze on difficult terrain made them especially valuable in areas such as northern Mexico and the mountainous zones of South America. Goat's milk and its derivatives, such as cheese, were quickly integrated into the local diet.

Sheep

The raising of sheep has contributed to economic development and has enriched the cultural traditions of American societies, but it also caused some competition between the two domestic species. For example, the mid-17th century shows that there were many more sheep than chilihueques, although both species coexisted.

Sheep's wool quickly became a valuable resource. Textile production flourished in many regions, especially in the Andean altiplano and in the Argentine pampas. Wool not only met local needs but was also exported to Europe, contributing to transatlantic trade. In addition, mutton provided a crucial source of protein for colonial and local populations.

Sheep raising led to the establishment of large estancias and haciendas devoted to livestock production. In regions such as Argentina and Uruguay, these properties became the engine of the rural economy, generating employment and fostering the development of rural infrastructure. Products derived from sheep, such as leather and tallow, were also used in various industries, broadening the economic impact of sheep raising.

Diseases

In the 15th century infectious diseases such as smallpox were substantially more widespread in the Old World than in the New, mainly because more extensive long-distance trade networks existed. Many diseases had migrated westward across Eurasia through animals, or were carried by merchants and travelers from different points of Asia, so that populations suffered the diseases of two continents.

Although Europeans and Asians were affected by the diseases of Eurasia, their endemic status on those continents for centuries resulted in many people acquiring immunity. When some of these diseases were introduced through European carriers, they had a devastating effect on the inhabitants of the Americas, since they lacked natural immunity to them. It is estimated that more than 80% of the pre-Columbian American population died during these epidemics in the first 150 years after 1492, with some regions losing practically 100% of their population.

The hygienist measures during the period of King Charles III in the 18th century, among which was the obligation to whitewash dwellings in towns susceptible to epidemics, together with the free distribution of vaccines throughout all the Hispanic dominions (see Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition), finally succeeded in halting the spread of epidemics in Hispanic America, although this was not the case in the territories invaded by other European powers, where in some cases the viruses were introduced intentionally with the aim of decimating the indigenous population.

Smallpox

It is estimated that the smallpox epidemics were the ones that caused the greatest number of deaths among the pre-Columbian population. The beginning of the demographic collapse has been attributed to the spread of a smallpox epidemic from Hispaniola in December 1518, which is documented in the famous Mesoamerican codices.

Elsa Malvido, a specialist in historical demography in New Spain, in her book "La primera gran pandemia de viruelas", maintains that the "patients zero" were a total of eight indigenous people who returned from a voyage to Spain after being invited by Columbus so that they could learn the language and some of the European customs. On the Island of Hispaniola the virus attacked the native population so virulently that, according to Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, only a thousand Indians managed to survive.

From Hispaniola, smallpox traveled to Mexico, arriving with the relief expedition that joined Cortés in 1520. By September 1520, smallpox had spread through the Valley of Mexico, and a month later, in October, it reached the city of Tenochtitlan, which was besieged by Spanish troops led by Hernán Cortés. The military leader Cuitláhuac fell ill and died in November 1520, and among his army, composed of more than 500,000 soldiers, the number infected grew steadily. The disease wreaked such severe havoc throughout Tenochtitlan that there were places where the inhabitants could not bury all their dead.

The smallpox epidemic not only wreaked great havoc in Aztec territory, but also spread to Guatemala, where it first appeared in 1520, and continued southward, penetrating the Inca domains between 1525 and 1526, with consequences in human lives as dramatic as those it had previously had among the Aztec people.

Smallpox also spread across North America, where it affected almost all the tribes of the continent, including those of the northwest coast, and spread as far north as Alaska up to the early 19th century. Although some Western sources blame the spread of the disease in this area on the travels of the Shoshone Indian tribes, there are numerous testimonies that point irrefutably to an intentional spread for colonialist purposes.

Measles

After smallpox, measles reached the Americas in 1531, a year in which Europe had already overcome the disease, and it was considered to affect only the child population. The indigenous people knew it as the "little leprosy", as opposed to smallpox, which they had called the "great leprosy".

The epidemic wreaked great havoc in Mexico, and in 1532 it spread mainly through the territories of present-day Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, affecting above all children, although without causing as much mortality as smallpox. The indigenous people, who had already understood the effects of the contagiousness of smallpox, took more precautions on this occasion, and among other measures no longer bathed together, so that measles did not have such deadly effects.

Malaria

European exploration of tropical areas was aided by the discovery in the New World of quinine, the first effective treatment for malaria. 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. In fact, the resistance of sub-Saharan Africans to malaria in the southern United States and the Caribbean contributed greatly to the specific character of slavery of African origin in those regions.

Yellow fever

Yellow fever is also believed to have reached the Americas from Africa through the Atlantic slave trade. Because it was endemic in Africa, many people had acquired immunity. Europeans suffered higher death rates than people of African descent when exposed to yellow fever in Africa and the Americas, where numerous epidemics swept the colonies from the 17th century on and continued until the end of the 19th century. The disease caused many deaths in the Caribbean during the heyday of slave-based sugar plantations. The replacement of native forests by plantations and sugar mills facilitated its spread in the tropical area by reducing the number of potential natural predators of mosquitoes.

Syphilis

The history of syphilis has been well studied, but the exact origin of the disease is unknown and remains a subject of debate. There are several hypotheses.

Pre-Columbian hypothesis

The pre-Columbian hypothesis holds that the treponematoses, including syphilis, are a set of variants of a disease that spread in both the Old and the New World. In Europe its manifestations would have been confused with leprosy. According to this hypothesis, pinta appeared in Africa and Asia around 15,000 BC, with an animal natural reservoir. Yaws would have developed as a result of mutations of pinta around the 10th millennium BC, spreading throughout the world except in the Americas, which were isolated. Endemic syphilis emerged from yaws around the 7th millennium BC as a result of climatic changes (the appearance of an arid climate). Around the 30th century BC, sexually transmitted syphilis appeared in southwest Asia owing to the low temperatures of the postglacial period, and from there it spread to Europe and the rest of the world. Since then it has undergone various mutations and clinical manifestations, the "venereal" clinical form being notable, predominant in the 15th century, probably accentuated by the reintroduction of strains from the Americas.

Some scientists think that syphilis may have been introduced into the Americas after contacts with the Vikings.

In October 2010, an excavation of skeletons carried out in Great Britain provided new support for this hypothesis, since the experts' examinations indicated that the disease was known in that country two centuries before Christopher Columbus's voyage.

Unitarian hypothesis

This hypothesis, which some consider a variant of the pre-Columbian hypothesis, holds that all treponematoses correspond to a single original disease, developed in very ancient times, perhaps in the Upper Paleolithic in sub-Saharan Africa, and that from there and from then on it spread globally, its variations being the result of geographical and climatic differences. In other words, pinta, yaws, syphilis and other treponematoses are adaptive responses of T. pallidum to environmental differences. There is evidence of the existence of treponematoses on practically every continent in the pre-Columbian era. In the Americas, the manifestations of treponematosis in the pre-Columbian era were venereal syphilis, in temperate climates (South America), and yaws, in tropical climates (the Caribbean). This hypothesis indicates that yaws may have spread from West Africa to the Iberian Peninsula in connection with the trade in black African slaves, 50 years before Christopher Columbus's voyage. Yaws, endemic in Africa at that time, manifested itself in Europe in various forms, one of them being venereal syphilis, that is, sexually transmitted.

Columbian exchange hypothesis

This hypothesis holds that syphilis was a sexually transmitted disease (STD) of the New World that the crew of Christopher Columbus would have taken to Europe. It was formulated by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo and Ruy Díaz de Isla, two Spanish physicians present at the time of Christopher Columbus's return from the Americas in 1493.

Fernández de Oviedo (1478–1557), in his brief Sumario de la Natural Historia de las Indias (1526), says:

(...) The first time this disease was seen in Spain was after the Admiral Don Christopher Columbus discovered the Indies and returned to these parts, and some Christians of those who came with him, who were present at that discovery, and those who made the second voyage, who were more, brought this plague, and from them it was passed to other persons (...) because in no way is it caught so much as from the union of man with woman (...) and of the Christians who give themselves to conversation and union with the Indian women, few there are who escape this danger.

Another chronicler of the Indies who considered the same thesis was Francisco López de Gómara (1511–1566):

That the buboes came from the Indies. Those of this island of Hispaniola are all pox-ridden, and as the Spaniards slept with the Indian women, they soon became covered in buboes, a most contagious disease that torments with severe pains. Feeling themselves tormented and not improving, many of them returned to Spain to be cured, and others on business, and they passed their hidden ailment to many courtesans, and these to many men who went to Italy to the war of Naples in favor of King Don Ferdinand the Second against the French, and they passed that disease of theirs on there. In short, it was passed to the French; and as it happened at the same time, they thought they had caught it from Italians, and called it the Neapolitan disease. The others called it the French disease, believing the French had given it to them. However, there were also those who called it Spanish scabies.

Present-day defenders of this hypothesis claim it has been demonstrated that there are skeletons of pre-Columbian Native Americans with syphilitic lesions, and they link the crew of Columbus's first voyage (1492) to the syphilis epidemic during the German siege of Naples (1494).

See also

• Domestication
• Great American Interchange
• History of agriculture

External links

• Conquista y comida: consecuencias del encuentro de dos mundos (in Spanish)
• De América a Europa: denominaciones de alimentos americanos en lenguas europeas (in Spanish)
• Historia de los alimentos que llevaron los europeos a América (in Spanish)
• Un aspecto del intercambio colombiano, las enfermedades (in Spanish)
• Conquista y epidemia 1521-1570 (in Spanish)
• Historia de las epidemias en el México antiguo. Algunos aspectos biológicos y sociales (in Spanish)
• Los primeros caballos de América (in Spanish)