Ecological Revolution

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Ecological Revolution

• of the 16th and 17th Centuries

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The Columbian Exchange

• The transfer of plants, animals, and microbes
  among the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa
• Ended divergent evolution that began with the
  breakup of the Pangaea super continent
• Brought new foods, lifestyles, and diseases to
  both sides of the Atlantic

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Maize (Corn)

• Brought to China and Europe from Americas
• Initially used as an animal food
• Took less labor per production unit to grow
• Could grow in in places wheat, rice, and millet
  could not
• Eventually adopted into human diet

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Sweet Potatoes

• Brought primarily to China from Americas
• First used as animal food
• Could grow in marginal environments
• Adopted by immigrants and the poor
• Did not spread beyond China to any great extent

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Potatoes

• Brought from the high Andes to Europe and Asia by
  the Portuguese
• Never catches on in East Asia, but becomes
  important in India
• Replaces rye as the staple crop of Northern
  Europe
• Spread west to east during Europes wars
• Only major human staple that, in sufficient
  quantities, provides ALL essential nutrients

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Wheat

• Brought from Europe to Americas
• Only small portions of the Americas suitable for
  wheat production
• Attempts to farm the New World as though it were
  the Old led to failures and massive environmental
  re-engineering

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Weeds and Grasses

• Brought from Europe to transform open areas for
  livestock
• Purslane, Englishmans Foot, Dandelions and
  others forced native grasses out of eco-niches

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Englishmans Foot and Purslane
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Livestock

• Horses and cattle brought from Europe to Americas
  by Spanish
• Had invented ranching after the Reconquista
  opened up vast plains in S. Spain in 1492
• Thrived on S. American pampa and N. American
  prairie but still not as adapted as native bison
  to conditions of N. America

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Spanish Plains
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Cane Sugar

• First transplanted product to have a major impact
  on world markets
• Originally SE Asian
• American supply meant more people could try it
• Quickly became most valuable product in oceanic
  trade
• Spawned first New World industries
• Refineries and rum distilleries
• Led to competition among European powers over
  sugar cultivation
• Also led to massive importation of labor to work
  sugar plantations

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The Beverage Revolution!

• Availability of sugar increased the popularity of
  coffee, tea, and chocolate exponentially
• Coffee surpassed spice as the major trading
  commodity in the Arabian sea
• Originated in Middle East, but soon planted all
  over the European imperial world
• Chocolate brought from MesoAmerica and planted
  all over world too
• Tea transplanted from China to British controlled
  India and Sri Lanka

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Coffee Plants
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Tea Plants
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Cocoa Plant
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Exchange in the Americas

• Turkeys from Mexico to N. America
• Alas, not until after the first Thanksgiving
• West Indian Tobacco to Virginia
• Transplanted by John Rolfe
• Pocahontas Husband
• Made Virginia viable as a colony
• Without Spanish tobacco, it would still be a swamp

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Tobacco Plant
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Effects of Exchange

• Significantly higher nutrition world-wide
• Led to greater fertility rates and longer
  life-spans
• Began a population explosion that has continued
  virtually unabated until today

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Microbial Exchange

• Before that population explosion could begin, the
  world had to recover from a new series of plague
• Population of the New World was devastated by
  disease, particularly smallpox
• New World peoples had zero immunity because they
  had not survived the plagues

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Smallpox Victim
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Demographic Collapse

• Estimate 90 death rate in 100 years
• Smallpox, influenza, and measles were major
  culprits
• Despite outside efforts, particularly of the
  Spanish, Europeans could do nothing to stop the
  spread of the diseases

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New Disease in Eurasia

• Isolated parts of Eurasia brought into contact
  during this period and ravaged by diseases
• Siberians
• Australia
• Microbial evolution, perhaps triggered by contact
  w/ New World organisms
• Tuberculosis
• New venereal diseases
• Plagues

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Labor Transplants

• Shortage of labor caused by plagues led to need
  to transport labor from unaffected areas to
  affected ones
• Largest source of unaffected labor in Africa
• Beginnings of the slave trade
• Only way for tropical America to be profitable
  was with slave importation

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The End of Steppeland Imperialism

• Mongols unable to reunify their power
• Uzbeks defeated by the Safavid Iran
• 1640s Manchu conquered China and est. Qing
  Dynasty, which then broke power of rest of
  eastern Steppes
• Causes of decline in steppelanders Military
  revolution, movement of main trade routes away
  from land routes

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Pastoralism gives way to Agriculture

• Russians shift view from dominating resources to
  colonizing land
• Encroaching farmers pushing out native
  pastoralists
• English into Ireland and Scottish highlands
• Japanese finish conquest of Ainu in Hokkaido
• Qing into Central Asia

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Chinas Imperialism

• Manchu rulers of Qing China started aggressive
  agrarian expansion
• Eliminated up to ¾ of existing populace
• Civil wars between Ming holdouts and Manchu
  forces sent refugees into new lands
• Conquered Taiwan in 1660
• Pushed into Mongolia and Manchuria

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Spanish Empire

• Labor animals and plows allowed farming in
  regions never before developed
• Built a largely urban empire
• Spanish architecture replaced native building

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Brazil

• Portuguese initially simply interested in ports
  for trade
• Discovery of gold and diamonds in the interior
  prompted Portuguese to move into the inland of
  Brazil
• Conflict with Spanish over Amazon basin
• 1630-1680

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British N. America

• Only iron pyrite fools gold in areas left to
  the French and British
• Fur, timber, and fish were major resources, but
  could not support large population
• Tobacco became the most important cash crop
• Subsistence farming possible but never a route to
  prosperity
• New England becomes a maritime civilization
  providing shipping
• Slave trade
• Rum export
• East India Trade in silk and porcelain
• Southern America builds wealth through massive
  for-profit farming
• Leads to significant cultural and socio-economic
  differences between the two regions

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New Energy Sources

• Monarchs undertook massive surveys of land to
  look for areas to increase production
• Exploration led to discovery of new energy
  sources
• Timber from cleared areas
• Oil from aggressive whaling
• Cottonseed and linseed oil
• Peat from bogs in Ireland and Holland
• Coal

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Land Reclamation

• Holland lost massive amounts of land to sea
  encroachment
• Reclamation became matter of survival for the
  nation
• Developed windmill driven pumps to keep seawater
  out
• England began draining fenlands
• Japan began working to drain river deltas