After reading the following in scripture, I wondered what the big deal was. Why did the compliers of the Book of Mormon make a special note of Columbus and his travels to the new world?
1 Nephi 13:12-19 Says the following:
"And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.
And it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters.
And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of the Gentiles upon the land of promise; and I beheld the wrath of God, that it was upon the seed of my brethren; and they were scattered before the Gentiles and were smitten.
And I beheld the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles, and they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance; and I beheld that they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people before they were slain.
And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the Lord; and the power of the Lord was with them.
And I beheld that their mother Gentiles were gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them.
And I beheld that the power of God was with them, and also that the wrath of God was upon all those that were gathered together against them to battle.
And I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles that had gone out of captivity were delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations."
After doing some thinking, I did some reading. Here is something I found and loved:
Bill Bryson’s writing on the subject enlightens the reader to why Columbus’s inspired travel was so important:
“Although Columbus had little idea of what he was doing, it was his voyages that ultimately proved the most important, and we can date the moment that that became so with precision. On November 5, 1492, on Cuba, two of his crewmen returned to the ship carrying something no one from their world had ever seen before: “a sort of grain called maize which was well tasted, baked, dried and made into flour." In the same week, they saw some Indians sticking cylinders of smoldering weed in their mouths, drawing smoke into their chests, and pronouncing the exercise satisfying. Columbus took some of this odd product home with him too.
And so began the process known to anthropologists as the Columbian Exchange, the transfer of foods and other materials from the New World to the Old World and vice versa. By the time the first Europeans arrived in the New World, farmers there were harvesting more than 100 kinds of edible plants: potatoes, tomatoes, sunflowers, eggplants, avocados, sweet potatoes, peanuts, cashews, pineapples, papaya, guava, yams, manioc, pumpkins, vanilla, all whole slew of beans and squash is, four types of chili peppers, and chocolate, among rather a lot else-- not a bad haul.
It has been estimated that 60% of all the crops grown in the world today originated in the Americas. These foods were not just incorporated into foreign cuisines. They effectively became the foreign cuisines. Imagine Italian food without tomatoes, Greek food without eggplants, Thai and Indonesian foods without peanut sauce, curries without chilies, hamburgers without French fries or ketchup, African food without cassava. There was scarcely a dinner table in the world in any land east or west that wasn't drastically improved by the foods of the Americas.
No one foresaw this at the time, however. For the Europeans the irony is that the foods they found they mostly didn't want, while the ones they wanted they didn't find. Spices were what they were after, and the New World was dismayingly deficient in those, a part from chilies, which were too fiery and startling to be appreciated at first. Many promising New World foods failed to attract any interest at all. The indigenous people of Peru had 150 varieties of potato, and valued them all. An Incan of 500 years ago would have been able to identify varieties of potato in much the way that a modern wine snob identifies grapes. A native language of Peru still has 1000 words for different types or conditions of potatoes. The conquistadors, however, brought home only a few varieties, and there are those who say they were by no means the most delicious. Farther north, the Aztecs had a great fondness for amaranth, a cereal that produces a nutritious and tasty grain. It was as popular a foodstuff in Mexico as maize, but the Spanish – offended by the way the Aztecs used it, mixed with blood, in rights involving human sacrifice – refused to touch it.
The Americans, it may be said, gained much from Europe in return. Before the Europeans stormed into their lives, people in Central America had only five domesticated creatures – the turkey, duck, dog, bee, and cochineal insect – and no dairy products. Without European meat and cheese, Mexican food as we know it could not exist. Wheat in Kansas, coffee in Brazil, beef in Argentina, and a great deal more would not be possible.
Less happily, the Columbian exchange also involved disease. With no immunity to many European diseases, the natives sicken easily and died in heaps. One epidemic, probably viral hepatitis, killed an estimated 90% of the natives in coastal Massachusetts. A once mighty tribal group in the region of modern Texas and Arkansas, the Caddo, saw its population fall from an estimated 200,000 to just 1400 – a drop of nearly 96%. An equivalent outbreak in modern New York would reduce the population to 56,000 – not enough to fill Yankee Stadium, in the chilling phrase of Charles C. Mann. Altogether, disease and slaughter reduce the native population of Mesoamerica by an estimated 90% in the first century of European contact. In return the natives gave Columbus's men syphilis.
Over time the Columbian Exchange also of course involved the wholesale movement of peoples, the setting up of colonies, and the transfer of religion, language, and culture. Almost no single act in history has had more profoundly changed the world than Columbus’s search for Eastern spices.”
Historians often chide Columbus for his travels. I think hindsight teaches us the opposite and I celebrate the man for following an inspired feeling and allowing it to change the world as we know it. He felt moved upon by the Spirit of the Lord and acted accordingly. I'm grateful that he and many others have allowed Heaven to stir their souls, shape their destiny and change the world.
According to Steven R. King, Ph.D., here is a list of some of the foods that peoples encountered by Columbus and future travelers brought from the New World back to Europe and Asia:
agave
amaranth
arrowroot
avocado
common beans (pinto, lima, kidney, etc.)
black raspberry
bell pepper
blueberry
canistel
cashew
chia
chicle
chirimoya
chili peppers
cranberries
coca
cocoa
cotton
custard apple
guava
huckleberry
Jerusalem artichoke
jicama
maize (corn)
manioc (cassava, tapioca, yuca)
papaya
passionfruit
peanut
pecan
pineapple
potato
pumpkin
quinoa
rubber
sapodilla
squash
strawberry
sugar-apple
sunflower
sweet potato
tobacco
tomato
vanilla
wild rice (Indian rice, not directly related to Asian rice)
yerba maté
yucca
zucchini
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