Figure 1.--I can recall as a boy my dad taking us back home to his father's farm in Indiana. The corn streached forever across the flat landscape and towered over me. I had no idea at the time just how important that coen was. Here we see a boy in 1963 in the same Indiana corn fields that I remember.

The Native Americans were still in the stone age when the Europeans arrived, but they had developed two crops that would profoundly reshape European society. One was the potato. The other was corn. It was a crop developed in the Central Valley of Mexico sometime around 5,000 BC and spread thrrougout North and South America to be grown by most native American people. The Maya even called themselves the "Corn People". While the Spanish were after gold, these two crops have had an infintely greater economic impact. Corn became a staple in Western Europe and even more so in the United States. Americans have thought little about corn until the ethenol craze of the early 2000s, but in fact corn was the central crop of American agriculture. Not only were many foods made from corn, but corn was used as not only a feed stock for animal rearing, but a wide range of industrial products. One estimate suggest that American super markets stock about 45,000 different items and about 25 percent of those items contain corn in one form or another.

Origins

The Native Americans were still in the stone age when the Europeans arrived, but they had developed two crops that would profoundly reshape European society. One was the potato. The other was corn. It was a crop developed in the Central Valley of Mexico sometime around 5,000 BC. Native Americans domesticated corn from grasses. Researchers have identified te corn genes that were Native Americans selected in the process of domesticating corn. The Native American cultivators bred the grassy plant teosinte for hardiness and better food quality. [National Scirence Foundation] This occurred thousands of years after grains were domesticated in the Fertil Cressesnt (Mesopotamia) giving rise to civilization. One researcher argues that the availavility of wild edible plant species suitable for domestication (wild wheat and pulse species) was one reason civilization first rose there. The difficulty of domesticating corn from teosinte was part of the reason that civilization in the Americas lagged the other important centers of civilization. [Diamond] Corn did, however, have the same impsact in America, It was in the Central Valley of Mexico that civilization first developed in the Americas. Corn gradually spread thrrougout North and South America to be grown by most native American people. The Maya even called themselves the "Corn People". While the Spanish were after gold, these two crops have had an infintely greater economic impact.

The Conquistadores

Most histories of the Spanish and Portuguese conquest of the New World, after reporting on Columbus establishing contact, focus on Cortez and Pizarro and their conquest of the Aztecs and Incas. Chief among the accounts are those involving the Conquistadoes and gold. The new colonies brought emense quantities of gold and silver and helped make Spain the most powerful country in the world. In the long run, however, it may have been the humble potato that wss the most significant item brought back to Europe. While the Spanish were after gold, but it was the potato that was to change Europe even more than the treasure ships laden with gold and silver. The population of Europe was still quite small at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Inca in Peru during the mid-16th century. The Spanish Conquistador Pedro Cieza de Leon in his “Chronicle of Peru” is the first European known to describe the potato.

European/American Culture

No one knows when corn was first brough to Europe and planted. Of course corn was waiting for the English settlers when they arrived in America (17th century).

Economic Importance

Corn became a staple in Western Europe and even more so in the United States. Americans have thought little about corn until the ethenol craze of the early 2000s, but in fact corn was the central crop of American agriculture. Even more so it is the principal way which may converts sun energy into food on earth. This is because few plants so efficently convet sun light and water into organic material. Not only were many foods made from corn, but corn was used as not only a feed stock for animal rearing, but a wide range of industrial products. The industrial use of corn are much more recent and in fact date from the post-World War II period. American industry significantly expanded the output of munitions during the War. After the War the Goverment sought to deal with the huge stocks of amonium nitrate and plants producing amonium nitrate. One of the largest munition plants in America was located at Mussle Shoals, Alabama. That plant shifted production to fertilizer (1947). One estimate suggest that American super markets stock about 45,000 different items and about 25 percent of those items contain corn in one form or another. Corn is used in a multitude of products that the consumer does not associate with the grain: wallboard, joint compounds, linooleum, fiberglass, adhesives, and countless other products.

Industrial Revolution

This was one of the many contributors to the European Industrial Revolution. As European agriculture became more productive, farmers could support the increasingly large numbers of industrial workers in Europe's rapidly expanding cities. Here the potato was probably more important, but in the 20th century corn was to come to play an increasing role in both agriculture and industry.

Sources

Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (1997).

National Scirence Foundation. "Scientists Trace Corn Ancestry from Ancient Grass to Modern Crop," Press Release 05-088, May 27, 2005.

Created: 5:05 AM 5/6/2007
Last updated: 11:34 PM 5/28/2008