Maize is one of the most important crops that have came out of the Colombian Exchange in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The New World was abundant with this crop and the Old world had never seen it before and yet had no idea how important it was in terms of nutrition and creating a better livelihood for the entire world. It was fruitful in the New World and stretched from the northeastern United States all the way south into Argentina and Chile (Staller, 66). Maize also proved to be useful not only as a nutritional supplement but also was valued for its use in many other areas of life creating a better life for the people in the Old world. The Colombian exchange brought back many other plants and spices valued to the Europeans in
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Coming from a hunter-gathering society, Scientist and other genetic researchers believe that it was made over 7000 years ago somewhere in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico, developed from a wild grass called teosinte. (Nunn and Qian, 169) This wild grass didn’t look like the corn we see today in North America as the kernels were spread out and not bundled together like the modern corn that’s seen today. From its origins in Mexico, for the next couple of hundred years, it was spread all over the continent of the Americas ranging in different types and sizes. It was believed by some natives that it was a gift from the gods, sometimes using it in religious rituals. The Husk of the corn was even used for weaving items together to create shoes, baskets, and other various household items to make life easier with these commodities. Maize became important to the rest of the world because of its amazing ability to grow in diverse climates, which in turn helped the old world expand economically, in population, and length of …show more content…
It also helped out by providing a plant to the Europeans that could grow in diverse conditions no matter if it was too wet or too dry. Some Europeans even rotated other crops such as wheat with corn so they could yield two crops in one year. Not only did it benefit the old world with a new food supplement but it also helped the old world economically by giving people more opportunities to get into the farming business. Corn would be sold to merchants to who’d then sell to the people to invigorate the economy. It was also used to feed the livestock for the farmers so a food supply was readily available to keep the animals alive and healthy. Maize was also seen to help the Chinese and African peasants when they were in dire need of nutrition because of their situation within their government at the
Coming from a hunter-gathering society, Scientist and other genetic researchers believe that it was made over 7000 years ago somewhere in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico, developed from a wild grass called teosinte. (Nunn and Qian, 169) This wild grass didn’t look like the corn we see today in North America as the kernels were spread out and not bundled together like the modern corn that’s seen today. From its origins in Mexico, for the next couple of hundred years, it was spread all over the continent of the Americas ranging in different types and sizes. It was believed by some natives that it was a gift from the gods, sometimes using it in religious rituals. The Husk of the corn was even used for weaving items together to create shoes, baskets, and other various household items to make life easier with these commodities. Maize became important to the rest of the world because of its amazing ability to grow in diverse climates, which in turn helped the old world expand economically, in population, and length of …show more content…
It also helped out by providing a plant to the Europeans that could grow in diverse conditions no matter if it was too wet or too dry. Some Europeans even rotated other crops such as wheat with corn so they could yield two crops in one year. Not only did it benefit the old world with a new food supplement but it also helped the old world economically by giving people more opportunities to get into the farming business. Corn would be sold to merchants to who’d then sell to the people to invigorate the economy. It was also used to feed the livestock for the farmers so a food supply was readily available to keep the animals alive and healthy. Maize was also seen to help the Chinese and African peasants when they were in dire need of nutrition because of their situation within their government at the