How Potatoes Saved The World

What is your favourite international food? Italian spaghetti bolognese, Indian curry, Irish coddle, Chinese Kung Pao chicken, or Belgian chocolate? These all have one thing in common, other than the fact that they’re delicious. They all rely on Native American plants.

Before Columbus stumbled upon the wrong continent, famines regularly ripped through Europe, Africa and Asia.

After 1492, tables everywhere were introduced to corn, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, chocolate, vanilla and many other foods.

Now, over 60% of the food consumed worldwide originated in the Americas. But how did the Native Americans create and manage these incredible crops. What amazing effects did they have, and how did potatoes and bird poop create the modern world. Well, Let’s Find Out.

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#nativeamerican #nativehistory #americanhistory #Indiginous #nativeamericanhistory

[CogitoEdu]

Making this video really detailed my diet. I ate cassava crisps along with about 10000 calories worth of other junk.... For research purposes obviously.

[mithrillis]

Stranded alone on Mars? There is a potato for that!

[duckente]

Thank you Native Americans for Potato, Chili and Cocoa

[ArturoStojanoff]

The Indigenous peoples of the Americas fed the world and in exchange they were enslaved and massacred in huge numbers, they were exposed to deadly diseases and received no aid whatsoever, they were forced to assimilate to European cultures, languages and religions, losing their own and mixing with other people groups, and those who survived were marginalized and pushed to the margins. What a way to say thanks.

[Jodonho]

6:30 "before Fourteen Ninety Two"

displays 1942.

[zzzarkka]

The 🥔 is such a versatile food. Bake it, smash it, fry it, steam it, cut it into chunks, slices waffle fried, steak fries, gator tots and more. 🍟

[nickverbree]

Really this video could be titled "How Native American Farmers Saved the World." I'd never thought about the implications of how native farmers efforts made the crops so suitable for different environments. Awesome video 👌

[MLaserHistory]

"There's a potato for that" should become a meme :D

(Grey screen)
Struggling with insert problem X here.
(suddenly turns to color)
NOW THERE'S A POTATO FOR THAT!

[EyFmS]

This is why it boils my blood when some Europeans of today discriminate Native Americans and even more when our own Mestizos people discriminate natives knowing that we have the same blood flowing trough our veins.

[sapointi]

Proud to be of native American descent 😎 thank you ancestors

[mikehurst]

The Americas fed the world, but at the cost of their very existence

[itacom]

By us Italians, a HUGE thanks to the Native Americans for tomato and chili! Seriously, you guys are the best!

[ThrowawayAccount]

You’ll be happy to know my American history courses went in great detail on Natives’ contribution to agriculture

[izuela]

Growing up in Sweden during the 80-ies I was raised in a potato obsessed society. Everything was fine as long as you had a potato on your plate!

[ananasupreme]

Essentially, Afroeurasia had domesticated animals and didn't focus on engineering crops unlike people in the Americas that had no domesticable animals and had to rely on engineering crops.

[yesid]

Such a great video thank you we indigenous people get so little representation thank you so much

[thestormypoet]

That 3 sisters crop combination was pure That's efficient as hell man. I love it.

Thank you for this extremely informative program, truly.

[SteezyRedStars]

Holy moly, it's like the whole world now eats some sort of Native American inspired food. The Post-Columbian era really changed the world forever.

[ShaddeyNNM]

I was gonna say, how ironic, 'Belgian chocolate', considering the fact that cocoa doesn't grow there, but then you said "they all relied on native American plants" and my point was made.

"Europe is potato" is a very accurate statement, when I moved to Europe from Costa Rica, it was a drastic change for me, because we normally eat rice.

[DendyJungle]

This made me very happy. My ancestors were messing around with crops and it helped the world. It’s just nice to think about