Скачать или смотреть Number 359 - Dave Patterson

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Passage #59:

Globalization 1.0 started quickly. For example, Europe was already growing potatoes in the 1500s. Like the potato, there were many plants going abroad. Plus, it wasn’t just food travelling across the world. You had ideas and thoughts travelling around the world. You had a lot of viruses and bacteria and microbes. You had clothing and art. You had slaves and indentured servants. You also had a lot of fish and animals and insects and worms and even smaller creatures. This transfer of goods and ideas is referred to as the Columbian Exchange.

This was not just beneficial fruits and vegetables being given as gifts and transforming societies. There were also undesirable species going into strange ecological systems. In a similar way to what happens today, an introduced species can seriously disrupt the balance of an ecological system. There were unintended consequences with wild animals and birds and plants. So a lot of cultures were changing dramatically due to things travelling, diseases not least among them in terms of having a huge impact.

Sweet potato and corn were mentioned as being world changers, and the best example is in China. The Chinese had mostly dynasties and were not much different from today when they wanted to make a change. They could change quickly. They would bring in an edict and the whole country would start doing it. The Chinese government instructed all their peasants to start growing sweet potatoes and corn, particularly in the hilly areas, because corn is very forgiving in terms of rainfall, where it grows, temperature, types of soil, even growing on mountains. Additionally, sweet potato and corn both have remarkable yields.

All down through world history, when populations grew, it was because they began to be properly fed. China's population doubled in the 200-year period when corn and sweet potatoes were given to them and they were instructed on how to grow them on terraced hills. Corn and sweet potato and potato are three examples among many world changers given to us by the Western Hemisphere natives, but downplayed by history.

More Agriculture Contributions

Domesticated and cultivated potatoes are known to date to 8000 BC and corn 7000 to 8000 BC, but the Ancient History Encyclopedia Agriculture Timeline doesn’t seem to be aware of it [https://www.ancient.eu / timeline / Agriculture]. They list potatoes at 3000 BC and corn at 2700 BC.