- published: 27 Dec 2014
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Year 1492 (MCDXCII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
The Columbian Exchange or Grand Exchange was the widespread transfer of animals, plants, culture, human populations, technology, and ideas between the American and Afro-Eurasian hemispheres in the 15th and 16th centuries, related to European colonization and trade after Christopher Columbus' 1492 voyage. Although unlikely to be intentional at the time, communicable diseases were a byproduct of the Exchange.
The contact between the two areas circulated a wide variety of new crops and livestock, which supported increases in population in both hemispheres, although diseases initially caused precipitous declines in the numbers of indigenous peoples of the Americas. Traders returned to Europe with maize, potatoes, and tomatoes, which became very important crops in Europe by the 18th century. Similarly, Europeans introduced manioc and peanut to tropical Asia and West Africa, where they flourished in soils that otherwise would not produce large yields.
The term was first used in 1972 by American historian Alfred W. Crosby in his environmental history book The Columbian Exchange. It was rapidly adopted by other historians and journalists and has become widely known.
If you were Chris Columbus
Back in 1492
America might be discovered
But not by you
You'd never sail across the sea
To change the world's geography
You'd stay right there
Close to me in 1492
If you were Paul Revere
Way back in 1776
A love like ours might
Put the country in a fix
That horse of yours would still be tied
You'd never take that midnight ride
I'd be cuddling by your side in 1776
If I was Mrs. Bell
We'd need no telephone at all
'Cause I can't hug you, baby
On a long distance call
If I were Mrs. Franklin
You'd throw away your kite
'Cause my, oh, my
How the sparks would fly
When I kissed you every night
If you should build a rocketship
To fly up through the blue
Someone else can be the pilot
No, not you
No matter what the age or time
I'd be yours and you'd be mine
In nineteen hundred and ninety nine
Or 1492
If you should build a rocketship
To fly up through the blue
Well, someone else can be the pilot
No, not you
No matter what the age or time
I'd be yours and you'd be mine
In nineteen hundred and ninety nine