Fifty Years Later—The Legacy of Alfred Crosby’s “The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492”

Abstract

Fifty Years Later—The Legacy of Alfred Crosby’s “The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492.” It has been 50 years since the publication of Alfred Crosby’s revolutionary book on what he coined the “Columbian Exchange.” Crosby’s observations have stood the test of time and remain rock solid. There has been little argument about his central premise that the arrival of the Iberians in the New World was a collision that dramatically changed the whole world. All the work following his classic text has been of addition and expansion, not correction. Much greater detail has been provided on the “Great Dying” associated with the arrival of European diseases and the homogenization of New and Old World crops and livestock in the Americas. Information has also been generated on related topics little explored by Crosby including the following: 1) intra-hemispheric crop movements before the voyages of Columbus, 2) the crop homogenization that occurred during the European colonization of North America, 3) the role of the Portuguese and their African slave trade on the dissemination of crops across the world, 4) the inter-hemispheric exchange of wild plant species associated with migration, and 5) the cultural aspects associated with the Columbian Exchange. Herein is a review of the literature that has been published on the Columbian Exchange since Crosby’s ground-breaking masterpiece first appeared.