Figure 1.--

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 was the most significant item brought back to Europe. Farmers could harvest much larger uantities of potatos per acre than any other crop. This meant that European countries could support much larger populations than ever before. The cultivation of the potato resulted in a population explosion, a key factor in the industrial revolution.

Origins

The potato originated in South America's Andean Mountains. The Aymara Indians developed over 200 different varieties of potatos on the Titicaca Plateau where they grew at elevations above 10,000 feet. The potato was unknown in Europe and Asia until introduced by the Spanish after the conquest of thre Inca Empire in the 16th century.

The Inca

The Inca until the early 15th century AD were but one of a large number of tribes situated in the Andes and narrow coastal plain from Chile north to Colombia. The tribes shared many common cultural cahracteristoics. The Inca were possessed with a messianic creed which taught that they were destined to dominate the world. They proceeded to conquer and assimilate neighboring tribes in southern Peru around Lake Titicaca. The Inca had a genius for public administration, enineering, as well as military strategy. One of their mostal notable inovations was the construction of a road network allowing the rapid movement of armies. Eventually this network streached the length of South America from cebtral Chile to southern Colombia--over 2,500 miles. The most important Inca ruler was Pachacuti (He Who Shakes the Earth) who regined from 1438-1471 and helped create the administrative structure needed for a great empire. The Incan Empire was operate on a system of state socialism. The Empire's output was the property of the Emperor or Inca and he distributed the food and clothing that was produced among his subjects as he saw fit. To the Inca, the gods resided in their native Andean mountains. The Inca placated the gods with offerings of corn, chica, meat, and occasioinally human sacrifices.

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 Culture

No one knows when potatos were first brough to Europe and planted. Potatos despite their importance as a shipboard food that could prevent scurvy was not immediately adopted by European farmers. Spanish farmers appear to have begun planting them by the 1570s. Potato cultivation next spread to the Low Countries, then a possession of the Spanish Crown, and Switzerland. They were introduced to Germany in the 1620s. The nutritional value of the potato became widely accepted. Frederick the Great of Prussian ruler ordered his people to plant and eat them as a valuable food source. The potato by time of the Seven Years War (1756-1763) was a basic staple of the Prussian diet. By the time of the French Revolution (1789), the potato was becoming popular in France.

Economic Importance

The potato was not only central to the life of the Andean Native American cultures, but it also findamentally transformed European civilixzation. The potato within in a century had become an essential part of the European diet. Not only was it nutritious, but it was more reliable than wheat which did not grow well in damp climates. European farmers found that they could harvest a larger yield of potatoes than any other crop per acre. The result was that farmers could feed a much greater population than ever before. The cultivation of the potato resulted in a population explosion. The population increase in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries was in large measure duie to the potato. The potato helped generate significant population increases througout Europe.

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.

Irish Potato Famine

Considering the role that the hearty potato played in expanding the European population, it is ironic that its impact in Ireland would be very different. This is especially true because there were few places in the world where potato harvests were more bountiful than in Ireland. But it was in Ireland that the potato would be responsible for one of the most devestating famines in European history and result in the signifiant depopulation of the Island.

Created: June 28, 2003
Last updated: July 7, 2003