Identify Containing Books 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
| Title | : | 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created |
| Author | : | Charles C. Mann |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 557 pages |
| Published | : | August 9th 2011 by Alfred A. Knopf (NY) |
| Categories | : | History. Nonfiction. Science. North American Hi.... American History. World History. Anthropology. Economics |
Charles C. Mann
Hardcover | Pages: 557 pages Rating: 4.09 | 15382 Users | 1350 Reviews
Ilustration Toward Books 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
From the author of 1491—the best-selling study of the pre-Columbian Americas—a deeply engaging new history of the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs. More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed radically different suites of plants and animals. When Christopher Columbus set foot in the Americas, he ended that separation at a stroke. Driven by the economic goal of establishing trade with China, he accidentally set off an ecological convulsion as European vessels carried thousands of species to new homes across the oceans. The Columbian Exchange, as researchers call it, is the reason there are tomatoes in Italy, oranges in Florida, chocolates in Switzerland, and chili peppers in Thailand. More important, creatures the colonists knew nothing about hitched along for the ride. Earthworms, mosquitoes, and cockroaches; honeybees, dandelions, and African grasses; bacteria, fungi, and viruses; rats of every description—all of them rushed like eager tourists into lands that had never seen their like before, changing lives and landscapes across the planet. Eight decades after Columbus, a Spaniard named Legazpi succeeded where Columbus had failed. He sailed west to establish continual trade with China, then the richest, most powerful country in the world. In Manila, a city Legazpi founded, silver from the Americas, mined by African and Indian slaves, was sold to Asians in return for silk for Europeans. It was the first time that goods and people from every corner of the globe were connected in a single worldwide exchange. Much as Columbus created a new world biologically, Legazpi and the Spanish empire he served created a new world economically. As Charles C. Mann shows, the Columbian Exchange underlies much of subsequent human history. Presenting the latest research by ecologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians, Mann shows how the creation of this worldwide network of ecological and economic exchange fostered the rise of Europe, devastated imperial China, convulsed Africa, and for two centuries made Mexico City—where Asia, Europe, and the new frontier of the Americas dynamically interacted—the center of the world. In such encounters, he uncovers the germ of today’s fiercest political disputes, from immigration to trade policy to culture wars. In 1493, Charles Mann gives us an eye-opening scientific interpretation of our past, unequaled in its authority and fascinationDefine Books During 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
| Original Title: | 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created |
| ISBN: | 0307265722 (ISBN13: 9780307265722) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for History & Biography (2011) |
Rating Containing Books 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
Ratings: 4.09 From 15382 Users | 1350 ReviewsEvaluate Containing Books 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
This is the follow-up to Mann's excellent 1491, and it's every bit as excellent. In this book, Mann creates a rich and detailed picture of the world after Columbus, from the first few years of Spanish-Indian interaction through the complex effects of globalization in the contemporary world.He starts, for reasons that soon become clear, with his own garden, and his introduction to heritage tomatoes. Tomato varieties, differing widely in size, appearance, and color, now come from all over theI'm sure this is less than a perfect picture of all the nuanced history involved -- it wouldn't be pop history if it weren't. But in that Jared Diamond kind of mold, this is quite a book. The argument runs: Columbus may not have had any idea what he was doing, but he's still the genesis of an entirely changed world -- a world connected all the way round, economically and (and here's the kicker) therefore biologically. You make a world market, you remake Pangaea, extremely messily.Each chapter
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. So why did I give it only one star??!! Well, I'll tell you.First the good: this is a wide-sweeping review of what Mr. Mann calls the homogenocene - the result of Colombus discovering America and the worldwide mixing of plants, animals, microbes, and humans that has resulted. I learned a lot of historical facts that Mr. Mann spices up with stories that give you a real feel for the boomtowns that sprang up around silver mines and rubber plantations in South America,
Well written and mind expanding tour of the economic and ecological changes that were set in motion in the centuries after Columbus' landing in the New World. The interconnectedness of the world is elucidated in Mann's dizzying excursions to the European colonies in the Americas and Caribbean, Africa, and China. The roots of globalization are to be found in the so-called "Columbian Exchange", the transfer of peoples, plants, domesticated animals, agricultural practices, and diseases between
Mann documents the Columbian Exchange, the beginning of globalization. Fifteenth century Europe, desirous of Chinese silk and porcelain, was blocked to the east by hostile Muslim countries. Columbus embarked to find a western route. Within 100 years global trade with China and the Americas was underway and the Columbian Exchange was firmly established. Silver mined in Bolivia by slaves brought in from Africa was shipped to China for silk and porcelain shipped to Spain via Mexico and Panama.
Chances are, youre aware that the potato originated in Peru and smallpox in Africa, and that both species crossed the Atlantic shortly after Columbus. You probably know, too, that the potato later became a staple in many European countries and that smallpox decimated the native population of the Americas. However, what you may not know is how profound was the impact on the course of history of the exchange of animals, plants, minerals, and microorganisms from the Old World to and from the New.
Chances are, youre aware that the potato originated in Peru and smallpox in Africa, and that both species crossed the Atlantic shortly after Columbus. You probably know, too, that the potato later became a staple in many European countries and that smallpox decimated the native population of the Americas. However, what you may not know is how profound was the impact on the course of history of the exchange of animals, plants, minerals, and microorganisms from the Old World to and from the New.
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