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1493

Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

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1493

By: Charles C. Mann
Narrated by: Robertson Dean
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About this listen

 From the author of 1491—the best-selling study of the pre-Columbian Americas—a deeply engaging new history of the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs.

More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed radically different suites of plants and animals. When Christopher Columbus set foot in the Americas, he ended that separation at a stroke. Driven by the economic goal of establishing trade with China, he accidentally set off an ecological convulsion as European vessels carried thousands of species to new homes across the oceans.

The Columbian Exchange, as researchers call it, is the reason there are tomatoes in Italy, oranges in Florida, chocolates in Switzerland, and chili peppers in Thailand. More important, creatures the colonists knew nothing about hitched along for the ride. Earthworms, mosquitoes, and cockroaches; honeybees, dandelions, and African grasses; bacteria, fungi, and viruses; rats of every description—all of them rushed like eager tourists into lands that had never seen their like before, changing lives and landscapes across the planet.

Eight decades after Columbus, a Spaniard named Legazpi succeeded where Columbus had failed. He sailed west to establish continual trade with China, then the richest, most powerful country in the world. In Manila, a city Legazpi founded, silver from the Americas, mined by African and Indian slaves, was sold to Asians in return for silk for Europeans. It was the first time that goods and people from every corner of the globe were connected in a single worldwide exchange. Much as Columbus created a new world biologically, Legazpi and the Spanish empire he served created a new world economically.

As Charles C. Mann shows, the Columbian Exchange underlies much of subsequent human history. Presenting the latest research by ecologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians, Mann shows how the creation of this worldwide network of ecological and economic exchange fostered the rise of Europe, devastated imperial China, convulsed Africa, and for two centuries made Mexico City—where Asia, Europe, and the new frontier of the Americas dynamically interacted—the center of the world. In such encounters, he uncovers the germ of today’s fiercest political disputes, from immigration to trade policy to culture wars.

In 1493, Charles Mann gives us an eye-opening scientific interpretation of our past, unequaled in its authority and fascination. Americas Colonial Period Expeditions & Discoveries Modern United States World Latin American Africa Imperialism Social justice United Kingdom China Capitalism Middle Ages Mexico

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All stars
Most relevant
This book focuses on the ecological consequences of European colonial expansion. That is fascinating in itself, but the narrative of the historical events accompanying the ecological commentary is nothing short of riveting. The result is extraordinarily nuanced and balanced - one of the best books I’ve come across in a long time. One criticism though is the astonishing neglect of the Indian subcontinent in this narrative. The author focuses on China, but completely fails to address the allure of India for the West and the impact of ecological exchange with India. A related and separate point is that the author refers to indigenous American peoples simply as “Indians”. Given the enormity of India in European imaginations (such that the people across two continents were mistakenly called Indians), as well as the titanic role that India has played in the story of colonialism, this seemed like a fundamental oversight. Apart from this caveat I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

One of the most interesting reads

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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I have a PhD in history yet the ideas expressed in this work are entirely new to me and challenge much of my previous understanding of the history of globalization. Not only are these ideas plausible but they also force us to rethink much of what we thought we knew. The author Charles Mann builds upon the works of others to synthesize a very accessible and insightful book. I found that narration was also of a very high standard and complimented the work well.

What other book might you compare 1493 to, and why?

Guns, Germs and Steel. Jared Diamond.

A startling new view of world history

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Mann writes a beautiful history of how the arrival of Columbus in the Americas marks the opening salvo of globalization. He describes how Europeans changes the land in the americas, how the americas changed the lands in Europe and Asia and how the Columbian exchange brought governments to their knees and give rise to new movements even today

Amazing history of the world after the arrival of Columbus

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Very good book, lots of depth & detail.
Not usually my thing, but I enjoyed it

Very interesting

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The world was changed forever the day Christopher Colombus set foot on the Easternmost tip of the Americas in 1492. From then on, a continent that had been naturally separated by land from the rest of the world for millennia were re-joined by mankind. I cannot speak highly enough about this book's utter brilliance, not only as a phenomenal book from a purely objective standpoint, but the icing on the cake was the subjectively enjoyable aspects, which I concede are not universally seen as positives: they include its incredible sweep, its vast scope, its voracious appetite for devouring subjects, throwing something new at you all the time and exploring them from start to finish. Each of the fascinating explorations of the "Colombian Exchange"'s highly variable localising effects reveals a stream of scientific, geographical, sociological, political, economic and essentially human curiosities and insights, all given a knowing historical context to their delivery. I listened, intently enraptured, to the stories of the late Ming Chinese and how silver and sweet potato changed everything; how an English bio-pirate stole thousands of seeds from Brazil resulting in a global industry vital to the modern world today; how a poisonous mountain root that could only be digested safely if eaten with frozen soil eventually fed most of Europe, how all of these exchanges were transformative, devastating, brilliant and inseparable from the world as we know it. A wonderfully exhilarating listen.

One of the best

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