The Columbian exchange

El intercambio colombino

1492–1800. The historian Alfred Crosby coined the term in 1972 for the movement of plants, animals, people and diseases between the Old World and the New after 1492.

What happened

The historian Alfred Crosby coined the term in 1972 for the movement of plants, animals, people and diseases between the Old World and the New after 1492. Maize, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peppers, cacao and tobacco went east and changed diets from Spain to China; wheat, sugar, rice, olives, vines, horses, cattle, pigs and sheep went west and remade American landscapes and economies. Diseases travelled too, with devastating effect on Indigenous peoples. The exchange gave Spanish its words for the new things, many of them borrowed from Taíno and Nahuatl, and gave the world dishes that now seem traditional on both sides of the ocean.

Events along the way

• 12 October 1492: Columbus reaches America
• 1545: Silver is found at Potosí
• 1565–1815: The Manila galleon

Sources

1. Columbian Exchange — World History Encyclopedia