2022 © Maxim Tabachnik
The Americas contributed crops that transformed global diets: maize, potatoes, tomatoes, cacao, avocados, peppers, papaya, pineapple, peanuts, beans, cassava, vanilla, and many tropical fruits. Europe introduced livestock (cattle, pigs, chickens), grains (wheat, barley, oats), fruit trees (grape, pear, fig), and numerous herbs and vegetables such as lettuce, celery, garlic, radish, artichoke, asparagus, and peas. Asia brought sugarcane, rice, citrus, tea, mango, onion, spices (clove, cinnamon, ginger), legumes (lentils, soy), and key fruit and nut trees. Africa contributed coffee, melon, watermelon, and tamarind through historic Mediterranean and Atlantic routes.
After Europeans reached the Americas in the late 15th c., the world experienced an unprecedented movement of plants, animals, and culinary traditions, often called the Columbian Exchange. This global circulation reshaped diets, economies, and environments on every continent. From the Americas came crops that later became staples of world food security, such as maize, potatoes, tomatoes, cacao, peanuts, beans, cassava, pineapple, sweet potato, peppers, papaya, and avocado, as well as tobacco, rubber, and many tropical fruits.In return, Europe contributed lettuce, grapes, pears, oats, pigs, cattle, horses, chickens, and culinary herbs like rosemary, thyme, and parsley, along with other vegetables and fruits. Asia supplied sugarcane, rice, wheat, tea, citrus fruits, mangoes, spices such as cloves and cinnamon, and plants like cotton and soy, while Africa provided products such as coffee, melon, watermelon, and tamarind through complex routes. Together, these exchanges created new cuisines, transformed landscapes, and bound distant regions into a single, interdependent world.
Mono de la PilaMonkey of the Basin
Carved in stone in 1583, this fountain, nicknamed the Monkey of the Basin, was Bogota’s first public water source and originally stood in the Plaza Mayor. With coats of arms and a figure of Neptune on top—mistaken by locals for a monkey—it asserted Spanish royal authority. In time it became a gathering point for civic protest. Removed in 1846, it is now preserved in the Colonial Museum.
Explore by type and place