Dispersal of New World Crops into the Old World

Abstract

The crops of the New World began to arrive in Europe soon after the conquest of the Americas. From Mesoamerica and Peru came a temperate-adapted set of crops including maize, potato, beans, squash, and avocado. From the Caribbean Islands and Brazilian coast came a tropical set including cassava, peanut, cashews, papaya, and guava. From both the temperate and tropical climes came cotton and chili peppers. Most of the early introductions were to Spain and Portugal, but it did not take long for the Iberian traders to spread them all over the Old World. By the mid-1500s, the Portuguese were trading far and wide across the eastern Americas, India, Indonesia, and China, while the Spanish were focused on the west coast of the Americas, the Caribbean, and the Philippines. The Portuguese were also actively moving Brazilian crops to Africa via the slave trade. Most of the crops of the New World were successfully introduced into the Old World, although their arrival dates and rates of acceptance varied greatly. Some arrived very early in the 1500s like maize, beans, and chili peppers, and met with rapid acceptance, while others like tomato and sunflower arrived much later and waited as curiosities in botanical gardens for decades before achieving prominence.