1493

Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

De: Charles C. Mann

Narrado por: Robertson Dean

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 fascination.

Absolutely Fascinating and Educationing!

This is a very well read book. It is also informative and thought provoking. I loved listening to it and I learned a lot.

I did not Know that!

Would you consider the audio edition of 1493 to be better than the print version?

Learned more about the impact of trade on the American and Other continents than i ever imagined. The impact of the mosquito is amazing.

What did you like best about this story?

Information

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The Killing Mosquito and The Potato

History has never been so interesting

I thought this was fascinating listen! The author draws connections between different events through history and shows their global impact. I really enjoyed this book.

Enlightening Overview of the New World's Discovery

This is an enlightening overview of the new worlds discovery and the impact that discovery had on the inhabitents of both the new and old world. Very easy to listen to and comprehend in this well told historical narrative.

well researched and written

like his other books, this one delivers a story of history that encompasses cultures, crops, and the movement of civilization over centuries to arrive at the world we know today. of course the author has a point of view and even, an agenda. but the research is a great jumping off point for hundreds of rabbit holes, if you are so inclined to pursue further.
I especially loved how 'racism' emerges as a relatively new concept, stemming from abject ignorance of history. the story of tobacco and silver alone is enough to warrant five stars, and this book has dozens of interwoven threads that form our world today.

also, malaria... corona... just sayin'...