Race Reed February 12, 2026 The Columbian Exchange and Rethinking 1492 (Assigned)

 Professor Redick briefly spoke about Charles Mann's book 1493 and I found it interesting enough to write about here. The argument is that Columbus didn't just change human history, but he changed and reshuffled the ecology of the entire planet. For 250 million years the world's ecosystems had been developing separately after Pangaea broke apart. Columbus essentially reconnected them by moving thousands of species across oceans that had never interacted before.

That's why there are tomatoes in Italy and chili peppers in Thailand. Neither of which existed there before 1492. I keep thinking about how this connects to what we're learning about invasive species and ecosystem disruption. The Columbian Exchange was essentially the largest unplanned ecological experiment in human history and its consequences are still playing out today.


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