Columbian Exchange

What is curry without chili ?

What would it be if there’s no roasted peanut, papaya, pineapple in a rojak buah?

What would left in a bubur cacar, if there are not sweet potatoes and tapioca ?

What if on a hot tropical day, no iced-Milo® to quench the thirst ?

What is a pasta without tomato ?

What if there’s no potato chips or popcorn over a movie ?!!

Oh NO !

1492 was the turnkey of all the question above.   Even though if Christopher Columbus didn’t lost his way, and landed on the land then he thought was India, and the Indians were red instead of black, the world may be not much different now.  Someone else would eventually cross the Atlantic Ocean, and made himself a top-10 important person in human history.

The Columbian Exchange was then, coined by Alfred W. Crosby, a historian, in his 1972 book The Columbian Exchange, to describe the widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human population, communicable disease, and ideas between the Old World and the newly found New World.

The result of the Columbian Exchange, both world transformed into what it is today.

From the Old World to the New World :

Horses ( Equus ferus caballus ) changed the live of many Native American tribes on the Great Plains, allowing them to shift to a nomadic lifestyle based on hunting bison on horseback.

Texas, of US, Brazil and Argentina top the list of total world cattle ( Bos primigenius ) population.

Coffee ( Coffea arabica, C. canephora, C. liberica ) from African and sugar cane ( Saccharum officinarum ) from Asia become the main crops of Latin American plantations.

Apple ( Malus sp ) and banana ( Musa sp ) becomes important fruit crop in both North and South Americas.

Sunkist® oranges ( Citrus sp ) become an important crop in Florida.

From the New World to the Old World :

Potato ( Solanum tuberosum ) become a staple food for Europe.

Maize ( Zea mays ) and tapioca ( Manihot esculenta ) replaced traditional African crops as the continent’s most important staple food crops.

Tomato sauce from tomatoes ( Solanum lycopersicum ) become an Italian trademark.

Chili ( Capsicum sp ) become an integral part of Indian, Thai and Malay cuisine.

Pineapple ( Ananas comosus ) become an important crop in S.E.Asian, with Thailand and the Philippines top the world production.

Rubber tree ( Hevea brasiliensis ) planted in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia accounted >70% of total world production of natural rubber.

Once smoked only by Red Indians, now the whole world burns million tones of tobacco ( Nicotina tabacum ) yearly.

Switzerland won’t have the world’s famous Toblerone® chocolate ( made of Theobroma cacao beans ); and many Malaysian can’t have their favourite iced-Milo® ( chocolate drink ) drink after workout.

Satay, a S.E.Asian Malay skewed meat dish best to have it only with peanut-based ( Arachis hypogaea ) sauce.

Papaya ( Carica papaya ), Guava ( Psidium guajava ),  Ciku ( Manikara sapote ), Nona ( Annona squamosa ), and Gajus ( Anarcadium occidentale ) which were so proudly proclaimed as Malaysian’s local fruit, are in fact originated from the New World.