The Columbian Exchange and Potatoes Free Essay Example

The Columbian Exchange, which started mostly after 1492 when Columbus traveled from the Old World to the New World, can be defined as the time when various items such as plants, technologies and food were carried from the New World to the Old, and vice-versa. The potato is a great example of the Columbian Exchange, seeing as how it was carried from the New World to the Old World, and had a significant impact on Europe, as well as other countries from various continents.

Potatoes were first known to be grown in the South America, in the Andes Mountains, and are a crop that is essentially able to grow anywhere in various types of soil. According to a film, Botany of Desire, there are more than 5,000 varieties of potatoes, and 8,000 years ago, potatoes were domesticated, seeing as how some potatoes were at first poisonous, contaminated with aceloide (which made the potatoes green). These ancient potatoes were grown on high altitudes, and in virtually any soil, providing the Peruvians (Incas) with a culture of food that seemed to be endless.

When the Spanish came and “destroyed” the Peruvian culture (where within the potatoes were cultivated) the potato remained untouched because Spanish explorers thought highly of the “new-found” crop and it made its way to Europe. In European countries, grain was a popular crop that was grown and the work demanded for quite a lot of laborers, which was a down fall because then there weren’t as many people to work in other fields of work, such as the newly invented factories.

There were also famines, frequently, in their grain harvests, especially in Northern Europe, but, the newly exchanged potato allowed for an increased food production in Europe, in places that didn’t have the most grand soil or terrain, and also supported the Industrial Revolution in Europe because the potato allowed for fewer laborers in the fields (compared to the number of laborers grain and other crops called for) and more laborers in the factories.

Watching Botany of Desire I learned that one of the countries that was most intrigued and pleased by the new potato was Ireland. Ireland was a very poor and famine infested country, but with the cultivation of the potato, all an Irishmen needed for a meal was a cow (for milk then in turn butter and so on and so forth) and a little garden of potatoes, or “lumpers” as the Irish called them. However, with the new excitement for the “lumper”, the Irish developed monocultures of potatoes. Fields and fields of potatoes were planted and an increase in population like Ireland had never before seen made the country feel more prosperous than ever…little did they know, or want to know, that a fungus would affect the harvest in the year of 1845.

Late Blight, a fungus that had clung to the potatoes from the Spanish ships, had infested the entire crop; famine was prevalent yet again in Europe. The Irish had been depending on the potato for so long and with such confidence, that once this fungus hit the crop and the entire crop everywhere in Ireland died, there was no food for them to eat. The Great Potato Famine lasted 3 years and caused 1 million Irish citizens to perish; it’s sad to think that they starved to death after such a prosperous yield of food. Although the potato is easily affected by Late Blight, as can also be seen in A History of Propitious Esculent, chapter 15 when the Maori people in New Zealand had the same trouble with the crop, bringing the potato from the New World to the Old World has not just caused trouble, potatoes brought a lot of good to the people.

McDonald’s, for instance, was started in 1937 in California, a New World location, and used (still uses) so many potatoes each year for its elongated salty fries. This restaurant is now in almost every country in the world (excluding most of Africa), and every country can experience the famous version of Russet Burbank potatoes that McDonald’s calls their French fry. The expanding of the fast food restaurant is a modern example of the Columbian Exchange in action, in which the potato (and other various “New World” foods) is brought from the west to the east.

The potato could be considered one of the most important crops of trade along the Columbian Exchange, according to some opinions, and very well has reason to be considered so. After the Potato was discovered by the Spanish, the Columbian Exchange (which, again, refers to Christopher Columbus’ voyage from the Old to New World and back) started its working, and the potato was brought back to Europe as a highly valued crop. Some nations, such as Ireland, highly favored and valued the potato so much, that mono-cultures of the potato were created, and the only food the Irish depended on to sustain them was the starchy lumper. After long trials with Late Blight and famine, the potato seemed to cause more trouble than relief.

But once the Europeans, and also the Maori people, realized how to cultivate the crop without constant fear of harm to the crop, the potato “rose to its fullest potential”. And, as can be seen in today’s society, the potato has taken on different forms, such as French fries, and is still involved in a modern rendition of the Columbian Exchange, especially referring to McDonald’s. The Columbian Exchange changed the entire world by time and time again, introducing new items to various countries, including the potato from the New World to the Old World countries; without the Columbian Exchange, each country would only have a few crops, plants, technologies, and etc. that it was exposed to, with the Columbian Exchange, the world is a diverse place full of each other’s ideas… and potatoes.