Figure 1.--

South America broke all the rules of civilization. There are great river valleys. Civilization began, however, along the arid northerner coast of Peru away from the great river valleys--Norte Chico (Caral). It is not clear how people first arrived in the area. It was probably by some kind of water craft moving down the coast. This is virtually impossible to know because any available evidence has disappeared into the ocean over time. There are are also detectable Amazonian influences. The coast of northern Peru was and still is a a near desert area, although small rivers flow down from the Sierra. Agriculture developed occurred not from grains, but apparently to grow cotton. This was a fiber needed to weave nets used to harvest the bountiful marine resources created by coastal up welling. (The Peruvian anchovy continues to be the world' most abundant fishery.) There was food agricultural, but the main crop was not a grain. Farmers irrigated fields to grown squash, beans, and a range of other crops including tomatoes and avocados. Maize would eventually reach South America, but not was not nearly as important as in Mose-America, although chicha (corn beer) became important throughout the Andes. Civilization spread from Norte Chico into the Sierra (Andes) and it was here that the potato was developed, a process that began before the arrival of civilization. It all began with a wild plant that was bitter to eat. (The potato is part of the nightshade family.) From this wild plant an amazing variety of potatoes were developed--there are over 4,000 varieties of cultivated potatoes. Potatoes could be grown along the coast with irrigation. But it is in the sierra highlands that potato farming began and thrived. This essentially means that Amer-Indian farmers were the most successful bio-engineers of any people. The occurrences of wild potato species was concentrated on the Titicaca Plateau. The earliest people in southern South America appear to have been eating wild potatoes at places such as Monte Verde in Chile. The potato was domesticated between 8000-5000 BC. The earliest definitive archaeological evidence of potato remains dates to 2500 BC, found at the coastal site of Ancón in central Peru. The Tiwanakun people are the first civilization known to have cultivated the potato, but there must have been earlier civilizations that mastered its propagation. The Inca were late comers, but no other civilization mastered the potato like the Inca. By this time maize was also farmed, but it was the potato that was the base of the Inca and other Andean civilization diets. Potatoes could be grown at altitudes which other crops did not thrive. The potato can also be stored for relatively long periods-- a great advantage to ancient peoples. The potato was unknown in Europe and Asia until introduced by the Spanish after the conquest of the Inca Empire (16th century). But would take some time before being widely accepted by Europeans.

Civilization

South America broke all the rules of civilization. There are great river valleys. Civilization began, however, along the arid northern coast of Peru away from the great river valleys--Norte Chico (Caral). It is not clear how people first arrived in the area. It was probably by some kind of water craft moving down the coast. This is virtually impossible to know because any available evidence has disappeared into the ocean over time. There are are also detectable Amazonian influences. The coast of northern Peru was and still is a a near desert area, although small rivers flow down from the Sierra. Agriculture developed occurred not from grains, but apparently to grow cotton. This was a fiber needed to weave nets used to harvest the bountiful marine resources created by coastal up welling. (The Peruvian anchovy continues to be the world' most abundant fishery.) There was food agricultural, but the main crop was not a grain. Farmers irrigated fields to grown squash, beans, and a range of other crops including tomatoes and avocados. Maize would eventually reach South America, but not was not nearly as important as in Meso-America, although chicha (corn beer) became important throughout the Andes. All of this had nothing to do with the potato.

The Andes

The Andes is one of the world's highest and greatest mountain chains. For the most part it hugs the western coast of South America, rising abruptly from the sea. This means moving north from the southern tip of Chile that the coastal plain is very narrow until you reach Ecuador where it broadens somewhat. Within the Andes there are high mountains perforated by rivers and valleys, but only limited flt areas suitable for agriculture. The major exception is the Peruvian-Bolivian Altiplano (high plain). It was located at the latitude of the widest part of the north–south-trending Andes. It is the most extensive high plateau on Earth except for Tibet. It is often called the Peruvian Altiplano because Peru was the original Spanish Andean colony. What is now Bolivia was originally called Upper-Peru. Most of the Altiplano lies in modern Bolivia. The northern parts lie in Peru, and the southern part reaches northern Argentina. This is a flat area at about 4,000 meters above sea level and one of the harshest environments an agricultural people have ever inhabited. Flatness of course does not make it a rich agricultural area. Altitude meant a cold climate. For most o the year, temperatures might dip below the freezing point at night. This of course impacted vegetation. The plants grown along the warm coast could not be grown on the Altiplano. But finding edible substitutes was a challenge for the Amerindian people arriving from the narrow coastal plain. The legacy grain crops fail at about 3,500 meters. There is also he problem of rocky soil and intense UV radiation. The potato is the one crop that they could grow to create a surplus need to support civilization.

The Andean People

The narrow coastal plain meant that the coastal people were confined to a very small area. They had only one place to go as populations increased--east into the high Andes. And it meant that they had to adapt the very different Andean conditions. The initial Paleo-Indian settlement wave into South America split after crossing Mesoamerica. One group moved into the Amazonian basin. The other major group moved rapidly south along the Pacific coast, populating the narrow coastal plains and then began to move upward into the high-altitude Andean valleys and highlands, including the Peruvian-Bolivian Altiplano (about 14,000–15,000 BP). The Peruvian Altiplano appears to have been a kind of for early Paleo-indian expansions only marginally affected by gene flow from the Amazonian lowlands. 【Gómez-Carballa, et.al. 】 Ancient DNA evidence suggests by around 9,000 BP that Amerindian people who has reached the Andes began to show distinct genetic lineages separate from coastal and Amazonian lowland groups. This developed into genetic continuity in the Andes over millennia. 【Nakatsuka et.al. 】 While the initial and peopling of the Andes came from the coast, thee were cultural, trade, and agricultural exchanges with Amazonian groups (trade in feathers, crops, and medicinal plants crossing the eastern Andean cloud forests.

Wild Potatoes

It is at the edge of the Altiplano (the areas around Lake Titicaca) that the Andean people encountered the wild potato. This was all many millennia before civilization developed at Norte Chico. Early Andean people had a problem. The edible plants that thrived in the small river valleys along the coast could not be grown productively at high altitudes. If people were going to live in the Andes, they needed to find other edible species. This began with the wild potato It was bitter to eat, actually poisonous if consumed in quantity. (The potato is part of the nightshade family.) The bitter taste came from chemicals--natural pesticides (solanne and chaconine) that the plant produces to protect itself from insects or animals that might feed on the tubers as well as a fungi and other organisms. The best example is the fungi that destroyed the Irish potato plants (1840s). At best the original tuber was the size of a walnut, more like marbles. But hungry people can be amazingly innovative. And in he Andes on the Titicaca Plateau they did not have much else to work with. From this wild plant an amazing variety of potatoes were developed The International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima. Peru has a gene bank of over 4,000 varieties of cultivated potatoes. This diversity exists in large measure because Peruvian and Bolivian farmers were constantly experimenting with new varieties. The CIP also has and thousands of wild species. They come in many different colors (red, purple, white, yellow, and other colors. There are many different shapes and sizes. The different varieties developed from cultivation at different altitudes, soil characteristics, the Andean microclimates, and other variables. And while they are many different species, most of the cultivated varieties are of a single single overarching species -— Solanum tuberosum. They do not all, however, share the same species. 【Ovchinnikova et. al.】 Modern botanical consensus generally classifies cultivated Peruvian potatoes into four distinct species, though older taxonomic systems recognized as many as eight. There are also many complicating subspecies. Potatoes could be grown along the Peruvian coast with irrigation. But it is in the sierra highlands that potato farming began and thrived. This essentially means that Amer-Indian farmers were the most successful bio-engineers of any people. The occurrences of wild potato species was concentrated on the Titicaca Plateau. Various potato species occur in both North and South America. But it was on the Altiplano in the areas around Lake Titicaca that the potato was domesticated (beginning around 8,000-10,000 years BP). 【Spooner】 This makes it on of the founding crops of the Neolithic Revolution. Cultivation spread from the Altiplano not from the many other areas where wild potatoes existed. This means one domestication event and one ancestral species. The earliest people found eating potatoes are in southern South America -- an archeological site (Monte Verde in southern Chile). These would have been hunter-gathering people digging up wild tubers. The potato was domesticated between 8000-5000 BC. The earliest definitive archaeological evidence of potato remains dates to 2500 BC, found at the coastal site of Ancón in central Peru.

Agricultural Base

The vast Inca Empire was built on two important civilizations in the Andes: the Tiwanaku (c. 300–1100 AD), based around Lake Titicaca, and the Wari or Huari (c. 600–1100 AD), which developed around the modern city of Ayacucho at somewhat lover altitudes. There must have been earlier civilizations that mastered cultivation of the potato given that it was domesticated something like three millennia earlier. The Inca were thus late comers, but no other civilization mastered the potato like the Inca. By this time maize was also farmed, but it was the potato that was the base of the Inca and other Andean civilization diets. Potatoes could be grown at altitudes which other crops did not thrive. The potato can also be stored for relatively long periods-- a great advantage to ancient peoples.

Products

The early Andean people developed two edible pro from the basically toxic wild potatoes they found on the Altiplano. How they figured this out of course is lost to history, but solve it they did. The the two edible products they developed are known because the Spanish Conquistadores encountered them. First method was geophahy--eating clay. The Aymara and Quechua peoples of the Altiplano somehow discovered that if you dipped cooked wild potatoes in a slurry (chaco/pasa) made from a pecific clay--the potatoes were digestible. The toxic gylcoalkaloids were neutralized. How a society without any knowledge of chemistry figured that out is anyone's guess. But figure that out they did. They probably observed animal behavior, but no one knows for sure. The second method was freeze drying. This produced a product known as 'chuno'. It is one of history's first processed foods. It is not clear when his processed was developed. It is known to have existed in the Tiwanaku civilization (400 BC) and probably much earlier. The process is possible because of the huge temperature swings on the Altiplano-some of the widest on the planet. Mot the coldest or the hottest, but the widest daily temperature swings. You chose the freeze-resistant potato variety that grows the best at high altitudes. You then spread them out in an open area. The harvested potatoes freeze solid during the night. Then the intense high altitude sun thaws them out. You begin walking on them. This was done barefoot to squeeze out the moisture. Then you let the squashed potatoes freeze again. The next morning you walk over the potatoes again. You repeat this cycle several times until you have a dried product. The resulting chuno is a hard. light-weight, shelf-stable food. Chuno could reportedly last for 10 years. Not only stable, but the bitter gylcoalkaloids are water soluble. Thus removing the water eliminated the toxins. There were many different potato varieties. The preferred, milder, white variety was 'tunta'. It involved washing chuno in cold water streams which removed even more of the toxins. Chuno helped build the Inca Empire. The Inca stored the virtuously indestructible chuno in huge warehouses called gollgas built along imperil highways. Chuno was light-weight and long lasting -- deal military ration. It was a major factor in creating the largest empire of pre-Colombian Latin America. It also was a n emergency food reserve in case of crop failures, droughts, and other natural disasters. Of all the four major legacy agricultural crops, potato was the most challenging because the toxins had to be removed. All the other legacy crops on involved increasing the size of the grains which were not buries underground.

Edible Potato

The Andean people of course did not create the potato. What they created was the edible potato. Andean people not only developed two products converting bitter/toxic wild potatoes into edible products, but they began selecting with potatoes to plant. They not only chose the largest wild potato tubers, but the ones that were less bitter. Over time, generation after genertidn and over millennia, they develop the modern potato, a tuber that was larger than the walnut sized wild tubers they began, but with the bitter protective chemicals bred out of them. There was a further problem. The Lake Titicaca area is at about 15°S latitude. This means that the plants were accustomed to days and nights of comparable lengths. Northern Europe where the potato would have its greatest impact is at 50°N latitude or higher where seasonally there are much longer days during the growing season. This affected a genetic switch which turned off tuberization. Selective breeding which had begun in Chile addressed this problem to make the modern potato a truly global crop. This was fairly modern development. but again accomplished without any knowledge of genetics. All of this of course did not happen in a year or two, but because of the same process that turned wild legacy corn, wheat, and rice into larger kernels with heavier harvest able ears or heads. Farmers insistingly saved their larger seeds or in this case larger tubers for the next season's planting.

Spread

The potato was unknown in Europe and Asia until introduced by the Spanish after the conquest of the Inca Empire (1530-33) One of the earliest published description appeared (1533). 【Cieza de Leon 】 He compared the potato to a roasted chestnut. It would take some time before being widely accepted by Europeans, but it is one of the key elements of the Columbian Exchange. It may not have been as glamorous as gold and silver, but in real terms much more impactful. The Quechua word for potato was 'papa'. This is still used in the And by Andean Spanish speakers. But the European Spanish word became 'patata' from which we get get English word 'potato'. Patata came from a confusion with the sweet potato the Spanish encountered in the Caribbean which was called 'batata'. Actual potatoes reached Spain (1570s), but there was substantial resistance growing and eating them for some 200 years. Wild rumors spread bout he potato. And sunny rather arid Spain was not the best place for growing potatoes. Like maize it was initially used for animal feed. In Russia which would eventually embrace the potato initially rejected it when the Orthodox Church called it un-Christian because it was not mentioned in the Bible. . This did not begin to change for years (18th century). It finally began to change when resource poor Prussia embraced the potato. King Frederick the Great of Prussia (r. 1740-86) played a key role. Europeans wanted to grow wheat to produce bread--a key part of the European diet. But wheat was a crop developed for warm, sunny, relatively dry climates. This hardly described Germany or northern Europe in general. As a result there were occasional crop failures with devastating impacts. The potato in contrast was ideal for northern. Frederick issued the Kartpffelbefehle ordering farmers to plant potatoes. French pharmacist and agronomist Antoine-Augustin Parmentier helped adjust French thinking. He was captured by the Prussian during the Seven Years War (1756-63) and survived on potatoes. When he returned home to France, he began campaigning for the potato. France was better situated to grow wheat than Prussia, but northern France benefited from potato cultivation. Potato cultivation gradually took hold. And because it produced more food per acre than any other crop. And the difference was huge--as much as three to four times the calories as well as a wider nutritional profile. The potato became a major crop across northern Europe from Ireland east to Russia. As a result countries could suddenly support greater populations than ever before. The result was rapid population increases. The potato was not the only factor, Industrialization mean that countries could afford to import food to feed growing urban populations. Studies suggest that about a quarter of the growing European population was due to the potato (1700-1900). 【Nunn and Qiam】 This was an era in which concern was rising about over population and the food supply. 【Malthus】 The humble Amerindian potato helped avert the Malthusian crisis. Malthus was right about the inability of British farmers to feed British workers. The same was true in Prussia/Germany. The Corn Laws became a major issue in Britain. But the wealth generated by industry was more than enough to pay for increased food imports. And industry and technology was increasing food production around the world, especially the Americas. The potato story was not all positive. Europe learned a basic problem. Focusing on just one crop variety was a mono-culture and dangerous. Some one-third of Ireland's population subsisted on the the Irish Lumper potato (1840s). When a fungi destroyed crops in the field, began starving. Someone million people in a small country died (1845-52). Another million immigrated, most to America. The Irish population still has not recovered from the Potato Famine. Focusing an agricultural economy on just one species was bad enough, but the Irish focused on just one variety of one species. This meant that most of the potato fields held plants that were genetically identical. A water mold devastated the fields turning them into rotting black slime. Late blight thrived in wet conditions and spread amazingly fast. Because the plants wee identical, there was no natural resistance. In the Andes where people were also dependent on the potato, this never occurred because there were so many different varieties.

Sources

Cieza de Leon, Pedro. Cronica del Peru (1553).

Gómez-Carballa, Alberto, Jacobo Pardo-Seco, Stefania Brandini, Alessandro Achilli, Ugo A Perego, Michael D Coble, Toni M Diegoli, Vanesa Álvarez-Iglesias, Federico Martinón-Torres, Anna Olivieri, Antonio Torroni, and Antonio Salas. "The peopling of South America and the trans-Andean gene flow of the first settlers," Genome Res. (June 2018) Vol. 28, Mo. 6, pp. 767–79.

Malthus, Thomas. An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798).

Nakatsuka, Nathan, et. al. {The full list of authors is exceptionally long.) A paleogenomic reconstruction of the deep population history of the Andes," Cell Vol. 181, Issue 5. (May 28, 2020), pp. 1131-45)

Nunn, Nathan and Manc Qiam. "The potatoes contribution to population and urbanization," The Quarterly Journal of Economics (2011).

Ovchinnikova, Anna, Ekaterina Krylova, Tatjana Gavrilenko, Tamara Smekalova, Mikhail Zhuk. Sandra Knapp, and David M. Spooner. "Taxonomy of cultivated potatoes (Solanum section Petota: Solanaceae),"Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society (2011) Mo. 165, pp. 107–55.

Spooner, David M. et. al. "Wild potatoes (Solanum section Petota) of North and Central America," Systematic Botany Monographs (January 2004) Vol. 68, 209p.

Created: 8:05 AM 9/15/2026
Last updated: 2:10 PM 9/15/2026