Imports and Pre-Colonial America

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how, until Christopher Columbus found his way across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492, the various biological systems in the Old World and the New World were very different and how, since that time, the mix of European and American plants, animals, and diseases has brought about the explosive propagation of species from other lands. It debates whether such mixing and jumbling made it possible for the Americas to be colonized in the years following Columbus.

From the Paper:

"These "invaders," first from Spain and then from other European countries, quickly learned that European crops did not thrive in the Americas, especially in the Caribbean Basin. But their livestock did extremely well, due in part to the lack of large carnivores and the vast quantity of fodder in the fields and meadows. Most of the imported animals prospered, especially the horses, cattle and pigs. In fact, these animals increased at such a rapid rate that many areas of the back country swarmed with feral livestock, meaning horses, cattle and pigs that lived as totally undomesticated in the wild."

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