69 pages • 2-hour read
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
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Themes
The Widespread Impacts of the Columbian Exchange
One major theme of 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created is that of connection. Mann attempts to show the interweaving threads which tie everything together through global trade. The Columbian Exchange, at first glance, seemed innocent enough; Columbus set out to establish a new trade route with China. However, by landing in Hispaniola, Columbus did something that sent a shockwave across the globe, and the effects continue to be felt.
Each event and focus of the book can trace its origins back to that first voyage. Malaria, brought first by Columbus, created a motivation for the African slave trade in the Americas and, ultimately, changed the course of the Civil War. It killed countless Indigenous peoples, as well as European settlers in North America. Those areas that were most affected by yellow fever and malaria because of the Columbian Exchange continue to be some of the poorest areas in the world. Colonists also brought livestock, plants, bees, and earthworms which altered the American landscape forever, creating inhospitable climates for indigenous plants and introducing invasive species.
The crops that travelled across the ocean—sugarcane, tobacco, cotton—all needed a labor force to keep up with the demand, propelling chattel slavery in the Americas and shaping the political and social outcomes of generations of people. In addition, European farming practices spread to the Americas and then to China, emphasizing monocultures which led to crop disease, flooding, and the destruction of biodiversity. English influence over Ireland meant the disuse of traditional lazy-beds and the implementation of traditional field plowing. This change in farming practices encouraged the destruction of potatoes from blight; both potatoes and blight found their way to Ireland because of the Columbian Exchange.
In China, the introduction of Virginia tobacco via the Columbian Exchange and the use of monocultural farming practices drove farmers further and further into the mountains as each year’s crop depleted the soil. The development of mountainous regions into farmland led to greater erosion and flooding disasters in China. As Spanish established trade with China through the Philippines, they brought American silver with them. China began trading for silver and using raw silver as currency. Mann suggests that the introduction of American silver into China led to “riot and revolution” (191).
The Columbian Exchange had widespread effects, and Mann asserts that all modern history can trace its origins to that first voyage by Colón. While attempting to find a new trade route to China, Colón unwittingly opened a global network.
A New Evolutionary Era: The Homogenocene
Colón brought more with him to the Americas than men. Aboard the ship were microorganisms, insects, livestock, and seeds. His voyage unwittingly established a new evolutionary era—the Homogenocene. The term comes from “homogenize” which refers to mixing unlike substances together to create one uniform substance. Mann argues that modern history exists within the Homogenocene. As time passes, the globe becomes more similar, casting away the distinctive characteristics of each region. For example, plant and animal life in China closely resembles plant and animal life in the Americas. Mann suggests that Colón set the stage for global culture and ecology that is strikingly, if not disturbingly, similar.
The book details the many different pieces of evidence for the Homogenocene, including monocultural farming practices; the introduction of malaria to the Americas; the establishment of bees and livestock in the Americas; and the sharing of crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, maize, rubber trees, sugarcane, and tobacco across the globe. Silk and porcelain from China became widely sought after, and Colonial Mexico began producing its own version of Chinese porcelain. The key descriptor of the Homogenocene is similarity; the Columbian Exchange molded the world into a strikingly similar planet.
Mann closes the book by looking at the Philippines, the original trade hub between China and Spain. Mann explores how what are thought of as traditional Filipino crops and plants are invasive, brought via the Columbian Exchange. In fact, Mann offers that many of the foods we strongly associate with places did not originate there: tomatoes in Italy, chocolate in Switzerland, and oranges in Florida. Mann details further examples of the destructive influence of the Homogenocene in the Philippines. Tilapia and Thai catfish pushed out indigenous species of fish, and South American shrubs pushed out local plants. The Philippines provides just one example of the globally widespread influence of the Homogenocene. No corner of the Earth is unaffected nor perfectly displays an undisturbed ecological existence.
Mann’s discussion of the Homogenocene suggests that humans are as much affected by its influence as plants and animals. Major historical events can follow their origins back to the Homogenocene and to the Columbian Exchange. In many cases, humans were unwitting subjects in the rapid current of the Homogenocene. Mann asserts that homo sapiens were heavily influenced by this new evolutionary age, and that historical events following the establishment of the Columbian Exchange are almost all a direct result of the Homogenocene. The book opens and closes with a garden—first, Mann’s own home garden in Massachusetts and, later, a garden in the Philippines. He marks that the plants and crops in both are the same, homogenized.
The Humanitarian Cost of Expansion
Colón’s voyage was an exercise in perseverance. Spanish colonists arrived in the Americas in waves, quickly killed by disease, violence, and starvation. Yet, they kept coming. To an outsider, their perseverance was a death wish. Each new crop of colonists fell and were quickly replaced by a new group. Towns were established and abandoned; fields were ploughed, planted, and deserted. Spanish colonists were not about to give up. The hope of wealth through the silver trade and sugarcane was too alluring to quit.
Similarly, English colonists came to the Americas with an almost assured expectation of death. Like the Spanish, they faced disease, attacks from Indigenous peoples, and famine. Despite this constant defeat, the Virginia Company continued to send more Europeans to North America; tobacco was too valuable to give up on. Spain and China continued their trade of silver, silk, crops, and porcelain despite many rebellions and a large death toll. The farming of tobacco instead of food crops in China led to civil unrest, famine, and ecological disaster. Maroon communities in Brazil wreaked havoc on sugarcane plantations, halting production of sugar mills and leading to countless attacks.
One of the most striking examples of the humanitarian cost of the expansion of wealth is the slave trade. The production and trade of both rubber and guano resulted in forced labor and enslavement. The establishment of sugarcane and tobacco plantations introduced chattel slavery to the Americas. Between 1500 and 1840, 11.7 million enslaved Africans were brought to the Americas. European colonists enslaved Africans and Indigenous peoples, often justifying their actions by claiming to be pursuing the religious conversion of their enslaved peoples. However, the focus was always on the acquisition of labor. The production of the crops and mining of silver were expensive endeavors that required many workers. Laws intended to protect the reputation of European governments regarding slavery were often full of loopholes to allow oppressive systems to persist.
Colonists, Indigenous peoples, and Europeans were all too dependent upon tobacco and sugarcane to stop, however. Across the globe, cultures became reliant upon systems of trade, and no humanitarian cost was too high to justify the halting of these systems. The Columbian Exchange was a money machine, and new cogs were eager and ready to replace the old ones.
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