The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492

Crosby’s book is a foundational and formative text in the field of environmental history. When he authored The Columbian Exchange in the early 1970s, his work was controversial, and he had difficulty finding a press willing to publish it. Political and social history were the dominant areas of study. Fields like women’s history or environmental history, which are standard in university history departments today, were in their infancy. In his 2003 preface to the 30th anniversary edition of the book, Crosby is quick to point out his work’s flaws, particularly outdated and Eurocentric terminology, but he also writes that the work still carries merit because “It is about something so huge we often overlook it […]” (xx.) His work tells the story of continents, peoples, and their respective ecosystems that existed separately for centuries and the significant, disastrous consequences of their contact. The Columbian Exchange posited the groundbreaking thesis that “the most important changes brought on by the Columbian voyages were biological in nature” (xxvi).

Major published studies in English didn’t investigate the biological and ecological consequences of Europe’s encounters with the Americas before Crosby’s seminal work. Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano addressed the ecological and human impact of the conquest in his 1971 book Venas abiertas de América Latina, but the English translation, Open Veins of Latin America, was not published in 1973.