Ecological Impacts of European Colonizations in the Americas

The arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in 1492 initiated an extensive exchange in material goods, traditions, and ideas that was to have ecological impacts not only in the Americas and Europe, but also in the wider world. These transfers are often referred to collectively as the Columbian Exchange, though the term is generally used more narrowly to describe the exchange of crops, domesticated animals, and agricultural techniques that occurred in the immediate aftermath of Columbus's arrival. Sometimes the term also includes the transfer of diseases, and may even be used more broadly to describe any form of cultural and biological exchange.

OLD WORLD CROPS AND LIVESTOCK IN THE NEW WORLD

Like most immigrants, those who went to the Americas were interested not only in improving their economic and social standing but also in replicating their culture. However, different European powers had different colonial objectives and the peoples and environments they encountered in the Americas also differed. The level of cultural exchange and its ecological impact therefore varied. The Iberians encountered dense populations particularly in the highlands and they generally sought to transform the culture of indigenous peoples. In North America, however, Northern Europeans encountered a sparsely populated land and their contacts with Native Americans were often hostile. Cultural exchange was therefore more limited and transformations often occurred indirectly through the exploitation of natural resources and the displacement of native peoples from the land. The same processes also characterized sparsely populated regions of Latin America such as Argentina and Chile.

The Spanish Crown required all ships involved in early exploratory expeditions to carry seeds, plants, and livestock for the establishment of European forms of agricultural production. Those taken by Columbus on his second voyage included wheat, chickpeas, vines, melons, onions, radishes, as well as a variety of other garden vegetables, herbs, and fruits, notably oranges and lemons.

The staple diet in the Iberian Peninsula consisted of bread, wine, and oil. The Spanish tried to encourage the production of cereals by insisting that Native Americans pay them as tribute. However, this was largely unsuccessful because wheat and barley could not be grown in tropical climates and Native Americans often lacked the ploughs and oxen necessary to cultivate them. Hence, although wheat and barley could be grown in the temperate highlands of Mexico and the Andes, there they were cultivated mainly on Spanish-owned haciendas.

For the most part, Spaniards became resigned to eating maize rather than wheat bread. Wine was not only an important beverage in the Iberian Peninsula, but was also essential for the Catholic mass. Although vines were established in the Americas in the early colonial period, and did particularly well in Chile and Peru, fear that a flourishing wine industry might compete with that in Spain led to attempts to ban further plantings. Similarly, olive trees flourished at an early date in the Peruvian coastal valleys, but they were subject to similar ineffective bans.

The Spanish and Portuguese were also interested in establishing the production of sugar, but for export to Europe rather than for local consumption. Columbus introduced sugar to Hispaniola on his second voyage. Later, the Portuguese, who had developed sugar production in Madeira, introduced it to Brazil from whence it was exported as early as the 1520s. Sugar became the mainstay of the economies of Brazil and many Caribbean islands where, because of the shortage of Native American labor, its cultivation led to the large-scale exploitation of imported African slaves.

The Iberians were not the only people to introduce new crops. Once the slave trade had begun, yams, millet, sorghum, rice, okra, aubergine, the congo bean, and ackee also arrived in the Americas. Many of these were grown on slave plantations or on small plots in the hills cultivated by free Africans. Last to arrive were plants from Arabia, Asia, and the Pacific. Some of them, such as the mango, were probably introduced from West Africa, which had received them from Arab traders. Others, such as coffee and breadfruit, did not appear until the eighteenth century when they were introduced from English, French, and Dutch colonies in the Caribbean and the Guianas.

The Iberians were more successful in establishing the raising of livestock because they faced little competition from native domesticated animals. The only animals raised in the Americas in pre-Columbian times were llama, alpaca, guinea pig, muscovy duck, and turkey. Cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats accompanied all early expeditions to the New World. Although better suited to savanna conditions, cattle raising soon became important in the Caribbean, and encouraged a good market for hides in the Iberian peninsula and by the haulage demands of sugar industry. On the mainland and in Brazil the expansion of cattle raising was linked to the development of the mining industry for which it provided hides for saddle bags and tallow for candles.

Sheep spread less widely because they were better adapted to the cooler, drier conditions. The rapid expansion of livestock was encouraged by the existence of large stretches of grassland that had not been used intensively in pre-Columbian times or else had been abandoned by declining native populations. In sparsely settled areas, such as the Pampas of Argentina and the Llanos of Venezuela, Texas, or California, feral cattle often gave rise to extensive herds.

Europeans also introduced the horse, which had been extinct in the Americas since the end of the Pleistocene. Columbus introduced horses to the Caribbean on his second voyage and a royal stud farm was established in Hispaniola in 1502 for the furtherance of Spanish military conquest. Later, horses, and more often mules, were used as a more manageable and faster means of transport than llamas. This facilitated communications between hitherto isolated societies and encouraged cultural exchange.

The nature of European contact in North America was initially significantly different. North America was relatively sparsely settled and the earliest interests of the English, Dutch, and French were in the exploitation of its natural resources rather than the establishment of agriculture. Initially they focused on Canada and the northern United States, where they exploited codfish and later beaver skins, which were in high demand for beaver fur hats. The latter led to the decimation of beaver stocks only saved from extinction by changing fashion and the advance of settlement with which beaver hunting was incompatible. Even in the south where the English established tobacco plantations in Virginia, the initial aim was trade rather than settlement. Only with the establishment of settler colonies in New England were Old World crops and animals introduced on a large scale. Like Iberian settlers, North American colonists introduced crops and animals with which they were familiar, but because they often settled in environments that were similar to Europe, such as the northern and middle colonies of British America or the Canadian regions colonized by the French, much northern farming focused on subsistence and local markets rather than on producing crops for export.

However, as in Latin America, the introduction of livestock had a significant impact. Sixteenth-century expeditions introduced horses to the southern United States, while northern European breeds were introduced later in the seventeenth century. Horses did not do so well in the tropics, but large herds of feral horses flourished in the more temperate grasslands of the Great Plains, as they did in the Pampas of Argentina and in Chile.

THE ADOPTION OF OLD WORLD CROPS AND LIVESTOCK

Despite pressure from Iberians, Native Americans were selective in their adoption of crops introduced from Europe. Some, such as cereals and sugar cane, necessitated fundamental changes to existing agricultural systems by requiring specially cleared fields, ploughs, and oxen, as well as specialized equipment for their cultivation or processing. Given that agriculture in most parts of Latin America was highly developed, with the crops raised providing not only a balanced and nutritious diet, but also possessing some cultural meaning, there was little incentive for Native Americans to adopt new foods introduced from Europe. Maize, beans, and squashes therefore remained the most important crops cultivated in Mexico and Central America, while in the Andes the potato and quinoa continued to dominate higher elevations, while manioc and sweet potatoes prevailed in the tropical lowlands.

Nevertheless, Native Americans did adopt those plants, such as onions and garlic, which had no equivalent in their own crop complexes or, like bananas or fruit trees, could be grown alongside indigenous plants in household gardens. They also cultivated small patches of sugar cane, which they used as a cheap and effective substitute for honey or syrup from the maguey plant. In contrast to crops, domesticated animals were widely adopted. Initially chickens and pigs were the most ubiquitous, but later native communities also raised large herds of cattle and sheep. In part of Latin America the indigenous population began to consume meat on a large scale.

Contacts between Native Americans and Northern Europeans were often hostile, reducing the opportunities for cultural exchange. However, nomadic hunter-gatherers rapidly adopted horses because it enabled them to extend their hunting and gathering grounds and to increase their mobility so that they could better defend their territories against intruders. This was also true of similar groups in southern Argentina and Chile.

CHANGES IN AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS AND TECHNIQUES

Some new agricultural techniques accompanied the arrival of new plants and animals. In the Old World cereals were sown by broadcasting in specially cleared fields, whereas in the New World seeds were generally planted individually in swiddens or simple gardens. The Spanish also introduced Arabic techniques of irrigation, notably canal and reservoir irrigation, though these forms of irrigation did not differ significantly from those that existed in pre-Columbian times. Nevertheless, the extent of irrigated land, and also other intensive forms of cultivation such as terracing and raised fields, declined. This was primarily because the decline in the Native population meant that it no longer had the labor power to maintain them. In terms of agricultural implements, by far the most important introductions were iron tools, including axes and hoes, which were not only more durable, but also made forest clearance and the cultivation of heavy soils much easier. The introduction of the plough drawn by draught animals had a more localized impact, because it required dedicated fields and an investment of capital in oxen and labor. It was therefore found primarily on European-owned haciendas.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF HACIENDAS

Given the high demand for some crops in Europe, notably sugar cane, and the growing demand for food in the cities and mining areas, that could not be supplied by declining native populations, the Iberians began to assume control of agricultural production through the acquisition of land and the development of haciendas. In pre-Columbian times a variety of types of land tenure existed: Some lands were owned by the state, communities, or private individuals, while tribal peoples and hunter-gatherers had no concept of private property. With the exception of state lands, the Iberians recognized private ownership of land, but not usufruct rights, which meant that lands that were used but not owned by indigenous communities were vulnerable to seizure by incoming settlers and their descendants. Although the Iberians attempted to replicate the large estates or latifundia that existed in Europe, because native rights to land were recognized in law, at the outset few large land grants were allocated. However, such land grants could be consolidated piecemeal over time and combined with lands acquired in other ways to underpin the growth of great estates held by single owners.

The Iberians disparaged manual work and looked to Native Americans, or in their absence African slaves, to provide the necessary labor. Initially this was supplied through the encomienda, an institution that had been used during the Reconquest of southern Spain from the Moors. An encomienda was an allocation of Indians to an individual who was given the right to exact tribute and labor from them. However, because of ill treatment, in 1549 the right of encomenderos to exact labor was withdrawn and in many regions replaced by other forced labor systems modeled on pre-Columbian forms of draft labor, such as the repartimiento or mita. Where labor was short, landowners attempted to recruit free workers by offering them incentives in the form of better wages, credit, or plots of land on their estates. Where labor demands could not be met locally, the only recourse was to import African slave labor. However, this was only an economic proposition where agricultural commodities, such as sugar, could generate sufficiently high profits to cover the high cost of importing African slaves.

These colonial labor systems, which were also used in mining, often undermined the economic and social viability of native communities. They drew labor from subsistence production, weakened kinship ties, and promoted their integration into market economies. These processes were also encouraged by population decline, migration to evade tribute and labor demands, and the alienation of native lands. At the same time Native Americans often responded positively to the new market opportunities becoming commodity producers of food, coca, alcoholic beverages, and textiles.

GOLD AND SILVER MINING

One of the prime aims of the Spanish and Portuguese in the Americas was the creation of wealth through the mining of gold and silver; initially agriculture generated lower profits and required a greater investment of time and money. Gold, silver, copper, and tin had been mined and worked by pre-Columbian peoples, notably the Incas, Aztecs, and a number of chiefdoms in Colombia and the Greater Antilles. However, Native Americans possessed no knowledge of working iron. Most of their tools and weapons were made of wood, with only some made of bronze, an alloy of copper and tin.

Mining techniques were not highly developed in the Iberian Peninsula. Initially the Spanish drew on local expertise or that of German immigrant miners, but even into the nineteenth century mining techniques were very primitive. Until the mid-sixteenth century mineral ores could only be refined by smelting, which meant that only high-grade ores could be exploited. This process depended on the production of charcoal so that vast areas around the mines were soon depleted of forest.

In about 1556 a new process of refining, called the amalgamation or patio process that used mercury and salt, was developed in Mexico by Bartolomé de Medina. This made possible the working of low-grade ores, which being associated with mountain-building processes were found mainly in highland areas. From then on mining became very much dependent on the supply of mercury from Huancavelica in Peru or Almadén in Spain.

The first gold deposits that were exploited were found in lowland riverbeds and terraces, which were excavated using simple tools, such as picks and crowbars, and panned using wooden bowls. The only difference from pre-Columbian times was the use of iron tools. This type of mining was typical of that found in the lowland gold fields of Colombia and the Greater Antilles (Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Cuba). Silver ores were more extensive and were found in the Andes and the highlands of Mexico. The most famous silver mine was at Potosí in Upper Peru (present-day Bolivia), but there were others at Oruro, Castrovirreina, and Cerro de Pasco in Peru, while in Mexico, the main silver belt followed the eastern flank of the Sierra Madre Occidental encompassing towns such as Guanajuato, Zacatecas, and Parral.

The impacts of these two types of mining differed. Gold panning was associated with ephemeral deposits. Here groups of itinerant workers would exploit a deposit for a short time before moving on. They often built temporary camps and brought food with them, so that their activities did not stimulate the establishment of permanent settlements or agricultural enterprises to support them. The silver mines, on the other hand, required a higher investment of capital into sinking and timbering shafts and in equipment used for keeping the mines free of water or processing the ores. Because the silver ores were extensive and could be worked for years or even decades, they also required a permanent and much larger labor force.

At the end of the sixteenth century the Andean forced labor system, the mita, was supplying more than 13,500 workers a year for the mines of Potosí. In Mexico the mines were situated in an area of sparse population, so labor had to be drawn from more distant regions in the form of free labor or African slaves. The presence of a large workforce led to the emergence of towns, whose elaborate architecture and flourishing cultural activities testified to the presence of many wealthy miner owners and merchants. Mining also acted as a major stimulus to agricultural production, first to supply food for the workers, and second to provide hides, tallow, and mules to support the mining industry. In northern Mexico large estates raising wheat, maize, and cattle were established in the hinterland of the mines. In the Andes, however, the cold climate did not favor crop production, so supplies had to be drawn from further afield, notably from northwest Argentina or central Chile.

MANUFACTURING

Native Americans produced many types of textiles. In the Andes they were often made of llama or alpaca wool, but these were not available in Mexico where indigenous textiles were made of cotton or fiber from the maguey cactus. In pre-Columbian times households undertook the production of textiles, although specialized weavers produced cloth for elites and rituals. Most of the textiles were produced on a narrow back-strap loom. In colonial times the Spanish introduced treadle looms and established larger textile mills known as obrajes. Although they produced some cotton cloth, most processed wool from sheep that had also been introduced in colonial times. Sheep do not fare well in hot humid climates, so that sheep raising and textile production only developed on a large scale in the cool highlands of Mexico and the Andes.

Other crafts did not see such a fusion of techniques. In pre-Columbian times Native peoples did not possess the wheel, but nevertheless produced a wide variety of pottery using the coil method. Despite the introduction of the wheel and also a simple kiln from Spain that made glazing possible, ceramic techniques remained much as they had been in pre-Columbian times. The same also appears to have been the case with basketry. Leatherworking, however, acquired new dimensions. In pre-Columbian times leather working had been confined to the use of skins obtained through hunting, but the arrival of cattle brought hides from which clothing could be manufactured. Ranching itself brought an assemblage of techniques from southern Spain, which included the rodeo, the desgarretadero for hocking cattle, and the lasso.

THE IMPACT OF NATIVE CROPS ON EUROPE AND THE WIDER WORLD

The impact of indigenous American crops had an equally profound effect on production and consumption patterns in Europe and the rest of the world. Attention focused initially on exotic crops, such cacao and dyes, which were produced in the Americas and exported. However, the transfer of staple food crops to the Old World brought more far-reaching effects, totally transforming basic diets in many parts of the world.

In the early colonial period the slow speed of transport and small size of ships meant that only those products that had a high value to weight ratio could be exported. One such commodity was cacao, from which the Aztec elite had made drinking chocolate, taking its name from the Nahuatl term chocolatl. Hernán Cortés took it to Spain in 1528, and it soon became a much-desired beverage in Europe. Meanwhile, dyestuffs, such as cochineal and indigo, produced in southern Mexico and Central America, were much sought after by textile workshops in Europe. Of more dubious value was tobacco. Columbus observed tobacco smoking in Hispaniola in 1492, and its commercial production began there on a small scale in the 1530s and in Brazil in the 1540s. Initially it was used for medicinal purposes as much as for pleasure. It did not develop into a major export crop in Latin America until the eighteenth century, though by then the British had successfully established tobacco cultivation in Virginia.

American food crops, such as potatoes, maize, and manioc, had a more extensive and persistent impact. More than two hundred varieties of potatoes were grown in the Andes in pre-Columbian times. Because the potato prefers cool, wet climates its impact in the Mediterranean was limited, but it spread to Ireland, parts of northern Europe, and Russia, where in the eighteenth century it became a major food crop that provided the basis for population growth and industrialization. Maize and manioc spread more rapidly at an earlier date. Columbus himself introduced maize to Spain and by the mid-sixteenth century it was also being cultivated in China, though there it faced competition from rice. Maize along with manioc also spread widely in West and Central Africa, encouraged by the need for provisions to support the African slave trade. Maize was more productive than African cereals, while manioc was well adapted to poor soils and drought conditions, so that they soon replaced indigenous sorghum, millet, and yams.

Diets were not only transformed by new staple foods, but also came to include a number of vegetables and fruits. Most important was the tomato. This was originally domesticated in the Andes, but its English name derives from the Aztec term tomatl. The early history of the tomato in Europe is obscure but it appeared in Italy in the sixteenth century where it was given the name "golden apple" or pomi d'oro. Other arrivals from the Americas included beans, peppers, pumpkins, pineapples, guava, papaya, avocados, and peanuts.

THE TRANSFER OF DISEASES

The transfer of diseases between the Old World and the Americas had a disproportionate impact on Native Americans. In pre-Columbian times Native Americans suffered from a range of gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases, tuberculosis, and possibly louse-borne typhus. However, the only serious infection to be carried back to Europe from the Americas was probably syphilis, though its origin continues to be debated. More devastating was the impact of crowd infections, such as smallpox, measles, plague, and influenza, which were introduced from Europe. Since Native Americans possessed no immunity to these infections because of the isolation of the continent, each epidemic caused high mortality. In addition, malaria took a heavy toll of populations in the tropical lowlands. Old World diseases were thus a major factor in the decline of the Native American population, which some researchers estimate had fallen by 90 percent by the mid-seventeenth century.

see also Biological Impacts of European Expansion in the Americas; Encomienda; Fur and Skin Trades in the Americas; Haciendas in Spanish America; Mining, the Americas.

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