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[Uncovering the New World Columbus Created]
L1br0V0re
May 09, 2012L1br0V0re rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Masterful presentation of some of the global consequences of the "Columbian exchange". The author explores intriguing questions such as how malaria might have been brought to the New World, how guano from the Americas may have caused the Irish potato famine, how Native American staples such as maize, sweet potatoes and potatoes improved the European and Chinese diet, how imported rubber trees of Brazil transformed Asian economies, and why the early colonization of the Americas after Columbus should rightly be characterized as African, rather than European. When I read of trade imbalances with China going all the way back to the sixteenth century, I realize that many of our 21st century were foreshadowed 500 years ago.