This exchange of plants and animals changed European, American, African, and Asian ways of life. Foods that had never been seen before by people became a major part of what they ate. For example, before 1492, no potatoes were grown outside of South America. By the 1840s, Ireland was so dependent on the potato that a diseased crop led to the devastating Irish Potato Famine. The first European import to the Americas, the horse, changed the lives of many Native American tribes on the Great Plains, letting them to change to a nomadic lifestyle based on hunting bison on horseback. Italy became famous for its Tomato sauce, made from New World tomatoes, while coffee from Africa and sugarcane from Asia became the main crops of very large Latin American plantations. Also the chili and paprika from South America was introduced in India by the Portuguese and it is today an important part of Indian cuisine.
Before the Columbian Exchange, there were no oranges in Florida, no bananas in Ecuador, no paprika in Hungary, no zucchini in Italy, no pineapples in Hawaii, no rubber trees in Africa, no cattle in Texas, no chili peppers in Thailand and India, no cigarettes in France and no chocolate in Switzerland. Even the dandelion was brought to America by Europeans for use as an herb.
Before there was regular communication between the two hemispheres, the different types of domesticated animals and diseases were more numerous in the Old World than in the New. This partly led to the horrible effects of Old World diseases on Native American tribes. Smallpox probably caused in the highest death toll for Native Americans.
Barely any civilization on earth stayed the same by this global ecological exchange.
Ragusa
Ragusa is the capital of the Province of Ragusa in Italy, with 72,808 inhabitants in the city and more than 310,000 in the province area.
Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter (December 11, 1908 - November 5, 2012) was an American composer. He is one of the most important composers of classical music of his time. He experimented with new ideas of composition. He lived to be 103 years old and continued composing all his life. He recently composed a piece called "Interventions for Piano and Orchestra" which was given its first performance in the Symphony Hall, Boston where it was played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Levine with the pianist Daniel Barenboim as soloist. The same players played it again a week later on 11 December 2008 in the Carnegie Hall, New York to celebrate Carter's 100th birthday.
Elliott Carter was born in New York. The composer Charles Ives noticed his talent and gave him encouragement, taking him to concerts. Carter studied English and music at Harvard University. He then went to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger, returning to the USA in 1935 where he directed the Ballet Caravan.
In 1939 he married. The couple had one son.
He wrote a ballet called "Pocahontas". In 1940 the suite from this ballet got him the Juilliard Publication Award. From then on his got many more important awards and prizes for his music.
Carter has taught music and other related subjects in a number of well-known places including the Peabody Conservatory, Columbia University, Queen’s College, New York, Yale University and the Julliard School. He has received honorary doctorates from many universities and honours from many countries.
He has not written a large number of compositions, but the ones he has written are important works.
He died at his home in New York on November 5, 2012.
When Carter went to study in Paris in the early 1930s Stravinsky was the most famous composer who worked there. Carter was influenced to some extent by Stravinsky’s music as well as by that of his friend Charles Ives, but he worked hard to find a style of his own. Some of his music during the Second World War is quite tonal, but his later music uses more atonality (music not in any key) and has complicated rhythms. His best known works include the "Variations for Orchestra" (1954-5); the "Double Concerto" for harpsichord, piano and two chamber orchestras (1959-61); the "Piano Concerto" (1964-65), written as an 85th birthday present for Igor Stravinsky; the "Concerto for Orchestra" (1969) and "A Symphony of Three Orchestras" (1976).
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a city in Croatia on the Dalmatian coast. More than 500 years ago it was called "Ragusa". The Italian name of the city is still "Ragusa"; this sometimes leads to confusion because there is already a city named Ragusa on Sicily. It is on the Adriatic Sea. About 50,000 people lived there in 2001. Because of its age and unique buildings, the old city of Dubrovnik has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The old city of "Ragusa" was started by Greeks who left Illirya after their home was invaded in the sixth century. They had been part of the Holy Roman Empire. Ragusa in Dalmatia grew to be an important country on the sea, called the "Republic of Ragusa". This republic lasted until Napoleonic times.
Ragusa was once the only city in Dalmatia with Roman influence not to be controlled by the Republic of Venice. After the Middle Ages more and more Croats and Serbs from inland areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina moved to the area. They had started the neighbouring town of Dubrovnik, which eventually joined Ragusa. The original population (the Dalmatian Italians) was reduced to the few people of the ruling class: in the 19th century nearly all the people living in Ragusa were Slavs (Croats and Serbs). Ragusa officially changed its name to "Dubrovnik" (a Croatian name) after 1918, when the city became part of the newly created country of Yugoslavia.
Today Dubrovnik is one of the main tourist sites in Croatia. Dubrovnik is famous for its Old Town - this is an ancient fortress with large stone walls, which helped Dubrovnik keep its freedom for many centuries. There was a major earthquake in 1667 that destroyed many buildings, but the people living there were able to rebuild the town.
Sichuan pepper
Sichuan pepper (or Szechuan pepper) is plant fruit which is used as a spice. The outer pods of some species in the genus "Zanthoxylum" are used to make the spice. Many people in Asia grow them for the spice. Although the plants are called "peppers", they are not related to either black pepper or Chili pepper.
Sichuan pepper is widely used in food from Sichuan, China, from which it takes its name, as well as Tibetan, Bhutani, and Japanese food cultures, among others.
Sichuan pepper has a unique aroma and taste. This taste is quite different from that of black or white pepper or chile pepper. It tastes a little like lemon. It also creates a special feeling in the mouth, a kind of numbness.
Recipes say that sichuan pepper should be slightly toasted, then crushed, before it is added to food. Only the hull (outer shells) are used in cooking; the seeds are ignored or thrown away. In general, Sichuan pepper is added at the last moment. Star anise and ginger are often used with it.
Sichuan pepper figures prominently in spicy Sichuan food. It goes with fish, duck, and chicken dishes, as well as with fried eggplant. It has an alkaline pH and a numbing effect on the lips when eaten in larger doses. "Ma la" (; literally "numb and hot"), a flavour common in Sichuan cooking, is a combination of Sichuan pepper and chili pepper.
It is also available as an oil (marketed as either "Sichuan pepper oil" or "Hwajiaw oil"). In this form it is best used in stir fry noodle dishes without hot spices. The preferred recipe includes ginger oil and brown sugar to be cooked with a base of noodles and vegetables, with rice vinegar and Sichuan pepper oil to be added after cooking.
"Hua jiao yan" is a mixture of salt and Sichuan pepper, roasted and browned in a wok and served as a condiment to accompany chicken, duck and pork dishes. The peppercorns can also be lightly fried in order to make a spicy oil with various uses.