but he was nonetheless the fi rst European to taste corn, tomatoes,
chilies and sweet potatoes and to smoke tobacco. In 1494, Spain and Portugal decide that rather than squabble over
who would take what, they get the Spanish Pope Alex VI to preside
over a treaty at Tordesillas, which essentially divides the entire
globe between the two powers. Within a few years, the Spanish start
settling in the New World—a pattern of colonization quite different
from the Portuguese outposts. In the Caribbean (where Columbus fi rst landed) and Brazil, without
native populations to support the economy—eventually, there were
laws passed prohibiting enslaving Native Americans—the colonists
got the idea of importing African slaves to work the plantations in
the New World. As a result, Africa and the Americas were linked,
and they were primarily growing sugar. By the early 16th century, the Spanish had discovered the mainland.
Credit for this goes to Amerigo Vespucci of Florence basically
because he lied about an early voyage in 1504. Columbus was
actually the fi rst to land on the mainland. Under Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conquered the great Aztec empire
of Mexico, and by mid-century, Francisco Pizarro conquered the
Inca empire in Peru. The Spanish eventually went across the Pacifi c
and took the Philippines, which leads to the entire world being
linked economically. Only North America and Australia weren’t
fi rmly linked yet.The Globalization of Food
The Spanish introduced European plants and animals to the
Americas, including cattle, horses, pigs, chickens, wheat, and all of
the European fruits and vegetables—many of which went rampant
and completely displaced the native fauna. The people conquered,
and so did the germs, but the plants and animals also completely
upset the local ecosystems, making many species go extinct.