The Columbian Exchange

COTTonLINE can't always maintain a laser-like focus on politics and foreign policy, or even strange science. Sometimes we need to wax philosophical, as we do here.

I just read a Wall Street Journal article about something called the Columbian Exchange, so named by historian Alfred W. Crosby, according to the article's author Charles C. Mann. He looks at all of the unintended biological, sociological and economic consequences of Christopher Columbus linking up Europe with the Americas.

Tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco, corn (aka maize) are all from the Americas, as are peppers. Can you imagine Italian cuisine before the tomato? Or imagine the hordes of Asia without their ever-present cigarettes? On the other hand, the citrus produced in Florida and California is an import from the old world. Mann has many more fun examples, I recommend the article to you.