Preview

How Did The Indians Acquire Corn

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
366 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did The Indians Acquire Corn
When Columbus "discovered" America, there was no corn on board the Nina, Pinta or Santa Maria. Before 1492, no one living in Europe ate corn cakes, corn bread or corn pudding. They didn't know corn existed.
Up to this time, corn grew only in the Americas. Scientists believe corn was originally cultivated by Indians in the highlands of Mexico thousands of years ago. The Indians discovered that corn was good to eat and very nutritious. As Indian groups migrated north they brought corn with them. American Indians were growing corn in many parts of North America long before the first arrival of European explorers and traders.
Christopher Columbus and the explorers that followed him took corn back to Europe and introduced it to the world.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Essay On Mexican Cuisine

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Many of the items taken to Europe are still in use today and have had become part of the Europeans. Many things have change since the conquistadors came but one of the things that haven’t change much is the use of the corn which still plays a very important part on their diet. Mexico has done very well preserving their indigenous roots by keeping the ancient ways of cooking. This amazing food is now famous around the world for being so flavorful, colorful and…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the 14th century, Colombus took some sailing mans in the name of Queen Elizabeth of Spain in order to find new territory to colonize. As Europe was already an Industrialize continents, there was the necessity to find new places in order to find the opportunity to grow more agriculture spaces. When Colombus arrived in the Americas he among his troopers realized that this land was not civilized and "free land" that it could be colonized by the Europeans and growth the economy back there. According to the documentary "America before Colombus," Europe gain more from this new land as they found new vegetables that they have never encounter as, potatoes which now is a major vegetable in the European countries, especially in Ireland. One of the…

    • 341 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    About 5000 B.C. hunter-gatherers in highland Mexico developed a wild grass into the staple crop of corn, which became the foundations of the Aztec and Inca nation-states that eventually emerged…

    • 1136 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The use of historical context in The Omnivores Dilemma insufficiently details the actual origin of corn. Per Pollan’s writing he explains that “Squanto taught the Pilgrims to plant maize in 1621…..” (Pollan 25), but the existence of corn dates way back much further than 1621. In a 1948 excavation of Bat Cave, New Mexico by then student of anthropology at Harvard University, Herbert W. Dick found small cobs of corn at the bottom of Bat Caves floor which were estimated to contain maize that had their beginning no later…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    History 170 Study Guide

    • 9491 Words
    • 38 Pages

    - Within several thousand years farmers in Central America had developed maize that resembled modern corn.…

    • 9491 Words
    • 38 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the film/documentary King Corn two young men, Curtis and Ian, begin a journey started by a concerned. Human’s daily diet is affecting their health and as a result dying younger. In search of answers, they start tracking all what they eat. Eventually, they figured out they need experts to help them. By visiting a Chemist, they found out the main ingredient in their diet is corn. They don’t literally just eat corn; however almost everything they consume contains corn. After that discovery, they decided to learn more about corn, how to grow it, what happens after is harvested and how it gets into our diet. They learned that growing corn is essentially easy, has low risks factors and is the cheapest way to make food for animals, and sweetener.…

    • 236 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Columbian Exchange changed the world in many different shapes and forms. The plants involved in the Columbian Exchange changed the culture and the economy of the New and Old Worlds. Many plants were discovered in the Americas, but the important crops were potatoes and corn. Potatoes became a staple in European diet. Potatoes are able to grow in thin soil, which was all of the European soil. Corn was very important to the diet of the Native Americans. It was better than wheat because of its ability to adapt to different climates and it also grew faster. Sugarcane came from the New World. Sugarcane was very successful under the plantation system. It shortly became the largest cash crop in history. Many animals transformed the grasslands and…

    • 221 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Teosinte Research Paper

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages

    "By about 6,000 years ago, people in Mexico had domesticated a tropical grass called teosinte, beginning a process that would radically alter the plant, turning into maize, responsible for feeding people across the world today" (Zorich, 2015). As we know food today is much different than thousands of years ago in the lives of our ancestors. There have been many changes to our food that we consume today, especially in regards to corn. Everyone loves a sweet, tender "corn on the cob" in the summer time. Although this piece of food is delicious, it has been through numerous mutations to get to what is in modern society. By the 1400s, corn was a staple in the diet of those in Mexico and the Americas according to Jo Robinson' article (Robinson). The corn in the early days was to be known as Teosinte. It contained, little, sugar, a lot of starch and protein compared to the corn we see today, which is of a white, yellow color. The corn today lacks the nutrients, much of what teosinte contained.…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Christopher Columbus initiated the Columbian Exchange, a rapid and fast paced trade of plants, animals, new technologies, and knowledge from the Old World to the New World and vice versa. The agricultural importance of the Columbian Exchange is significant because it brought important goods such as food and animals to each place of the country. Historian Alfred Crosby describes the significance of the transfer of food crops between the continents by writing: “The coming together of the continents was a prerequisite for the population explosion of the past two centuries, and certainly played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. The transfer across the ocean of the staple food crops of the Old and New Worlds made possible the former.” With the transfer of food crops across continents, from the Old World and the New World and vice versa, the Modern Age was ushered in and agriculturally, Europe and presently known America was on the course of changing its history by adding a larger variety of cattle and vegetables/fruits to its…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Seneca tribe had a well thought out economic system that led them to live as easily as possible. Both men and women worked equally as hard to make sure everybody had food. According to Wallace, women took care of the cornfields and the men did all the hunting (24). Corn was the main food for the Seneca. There were many different ways it could be cooked, so all parts of the corn would be utilized. Corn was kept underground during winter and when corn was not in season, hunters were depended on. Wallace says “meats, fresh fruits, herb teas, fried grasshoppers, and other delicacies added spice and flavor to the diet” (24). Men hunted for deer, elk, beaver, mink, and otter (24). These were the key animals because their fur could be…

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although the first Puritan English settlers in North America might have been shocked by the Native American semi nudity and seemingly primitive customs they soon found themselves adopting some of their ways of farming and eating the colonist were at first unfamiliar with the Native Americans methods of farming and with the main crop they produced corn the Native Americans were skillful cultivators of the land planting corn in rose and growing together with beans and squash the settler soon learned to cultivate these crops which they have never come across before and adapt them to their diet Europeans as it was to the native people and undoubtedly helped send off starvation for the poor farmers during the harsh winters the turkey was a wild…

    • 154 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Potatoes were first known to be grown in the South America, in the Andes Mountains, and are a crop that is essentially able to grow anywhere in various types of soil. According to a film, Botany of Desire, there are more than 5,000 varieties of potatoes, and 8,000 years ago, potatoes were domesticated, seeing as how some potatoes were at first poisonous, contaminated with aceloide (which made the potatoes green). These ancient potatoes were grown on high altitudes, and in virtually any soil, providing the Peruvians (Incas) with a culture of food that seemed to be endless. When the Spanish came and “destroyed” the Peruvian culture (where within the potatoes were cultivated) the potato remained untouched because Spanish explorers thought highly of the “new-found” crop and it made its way to Europe. In European countries, grain was a popular crop that was grown and the work demanded for quite a lot of laborers, which was a down fall because then there weren’t as many people to work in other fields of work, such as the newly invented factories. There were also famines, frequently, in their grain harvests, especially in Northern Europe, but, the newly exchanged potato allowed for an increased food production in Europe, in places that didn’t have the most grand soil or terrain, and also supported the Industrial Revolution in Europe because the potato allowed for fewer laborers in the fields (compared to the number of laborers grain and…

    • 993 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Columbian Exchange

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages

    When Europeans stumbled upon the New World, a variety of new flora had been discovered and exported back to Europe for use. One of these was maize or Indian corn. Maize was vitally important in Europe mainly because it offered a rich diet to not only people but animals as well. It was also an alternative to wheat (Old World food) because maize grows quickly and in places wheat can’t. Potatoes were also another major caloric-rich food discovered by Spanish conquistadores in 1536 in Peru. This plain vegetable revolutionized agriculture in Europe and was essential to European diet which became an important food for the lower class. Potatoes were so important that in later years during the 1800s when a potato famine hit Ireland, thousands of people…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The food of the Mayas, Aztecs and Incas were greatly influenced by environment in which they were located. Various climates and soils of the areas occupied by these populations conditioned how they cultivated and ate. The foods they cultivated and ate included a number of grains and meat that originated in those areas. Notably, corn was used as their staple food, and it was used for a number of purposes other than just food. Early Mayans established a farming society that was adapted to their rain forest environment of Guatemala.…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Plains Indians lived in the area from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to Mexico. The most important tribes were the Sioux, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Crow, Kiowa, and Comanche. The plains area was hotter than 100 degrees in the summer, and could drop to 40 degrees below zero with heavy snows in the winter. The region was so dry that when it rained it often flooded. The Great Plains was made up of grasslands, valleys, streams, and hills.…

    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays