1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Blight refers to Phytophthora infestans, an oomycete or water mold that can spread rapidly and destroy crops. Blight is most often known for its contribution to the Irish potato famine in the mid-1800's.

Americans participated in chattel slavery, a form of slavery allowed people to be bought and sold for the entire span of their lives with no limitations. Mann suggests that American chattel slavery differed greatly from West African slavery which often led to the freedom of enslaved peoples and valued enslaved peoples for their skills and personalities.

The central focus of this book, the Columbian Exchange is the network of trade established by the arrival of Christopher Columbus in Hispaniola. The Columbian Exchange refers to more than just goods; it describes the food, plants, microorganisms, disease, and human exchange that resulted from its network.

The term “conquistador” refers to a Spanish conqueror. These Spanish leaders were particularly known for their invasion and settlement of Mexico and South America.

Diaspora refers to the dispersion of people. The diaspora is used in this book to describe the spread of Africans across the globe and their influence on culture and history in these many places.

Fiat money is currency that only has value because the government says it does. The U.S. dollar is a prime example of fiat money. As paper, it is worthless, but because the government says a piece of paper is worth one dollar, it has value.

The Homogenocene refers to a new biological era brought on by the globalization of the Columbian Exchange. The Homogenocene is characterized by the similar characteristics across the globe in terms of people, plants, microorganisms, and goods.

Indentured servants are contract laborers recruited by wealthy individuals. Indentured servants received a free trip to the American continent and paid back their debt by working for several years. After their debt was paid, these servants were then free to purchase their own land. Indentured servants differ from enslaved people because they were given a choice and operated as members of society.

Joint-stock companies consisted of wealthy individuals who pooled their money together to pursue a ventured interest. The Virginia Company is an example of a joint-stock company that invested money in American trade, despite many failures.

Like wacho, lazy-beds were a customary practice by Irish farmers of creating raised ridges surrounded by shallow furrows. English influence sought to modernize farms by removing this traditional practice and implementing thorough plowing of fields. Some studies suggest that lazy-beds would have been more effective in fighting potato blight.

A “maroon” is the English word for quilombo, referring to the communities formed by escaped slaves, Indigenous peoples, and others who found themselves outcast from European society. Maroons often established themselves in the forests and less habitable areas where they could easily hide and protect themselves.

Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus invented what is known today as the Malthusian Trap. Malthus claimed that by raising food supply, population will always increase. Malthus suggested that humanity will always be on the brink of starvation because the population will always increase to match the increase in food supply. This theory is better expressed, however, by Hong Liangji in 1793 who offered the same theory with one difference: that the continual need to increase food supply would eventually always lead to ecological disaster.

Monoculture refers to the European practice of planting entire fields with a singular crop. Prior to colonization in Americas, Indigenous tribes planted many species of crops in single fields. The introduction of monoculture to modern farming led to soil degradation and nutrient loss and made plants more susceptible to disease such as blight.

Mann describes presentism as “the projection of contemporary beliefs onto the past” (p. 427). In his book, he suggests that one cannot look at slavery through the lens of a modern understanding of slavery or even racism. Rather, one must look at the accounts described through the lens of their time, understanding the social and moral implications of slavery within the time.

Quilombos is a term which refers to communities in Brazilian forests. These communities are made up of fugitives, mainly African slaves who escaped Brazil’s sugar plantations.

The Powhatan people referred to English colonists as Tassantassas, which translates, roughly, as invaders or strangers.

The Triple Alliance is more commonly known as the Aztec empire. The Triple Alliance consisted of three city-states: Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan. The term “Aztec” is a modern word invented in the nineteenth century and would not have been used by the people of the Triple Alliance. Cortés, along with Garrido, conquered the Triple Alliance in 1519.

Vulcanization is a process by which rubber is made more resilient by heating it with sulfur. This process, discovered by Charles Goodyear, made rubber an important international commodity.