Experimental Blog #117

Comments on "1493 - Uncovering the New World Columbus Created" by Charles C. Mann

"1493" is a sequel to the author's previous book "1491 - New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus", and it also could be called an academic revolution in the study of American history.

Throughout "1493" Charles Mann continuously refers to the term "the Columbian Exchange", which is a phrase apparently coined by another writer, Alfred W. Crosby. It refers to the specific "ecosystems that had been separate for eons {that} suddenly met and mixed ..."

Charles Mann apparently coins his own new term, the "homogenocene", which means  a new biological era, "homogenizing ... mixing unlike substances to creat a uniform blend", and he also writes that "places that were once ecologically distinct have become more alike."

Charles Mann tells a largely overlooked and endlessly complicated history of people; American Indians, Africans, Europeans, and Asians{primarily from the Philipines and China}; diseases, such as malaria and yellow fever; and many plants and animals; and, of course, silver, silk, tobacco and other commodities.
Especially interesting, and new to many people, are the histories of the Africans, including thousands and thousands of escaped slaves, called maroons, in Brazil, Honduras, Ecuador, Panama, and other places.