the discovery of the american continent

The discovery of the American continent

What comes from the american continent?

• What’s your favourite food?

• American words?

• Products : potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate, avocados, chillies, corn, beans, (commercial strawberry = hybrid), cotton, coffee, pumpkin, walnut, pecans, maple syrup, turkey, plums, black cherries, blueberries, cranberries, peanuts, tobacco, cacao, alpaca …

• Words : axolotl (Mexican walking fish), Hurricane – Huracán, Chocolate – choclatl…

• Computer game: http://www.open2.net/everwonderedfood/origins.html

Late 1400’s (15th c.) in Europe

Feudality + religion dictates life.

Usual meals: rich = meat + spices

poor = bread, soup, porridge, cheese

Drinks often fermented.

– Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile:

• Spanish inquisition (1478)• Reconquista (800 yrs)

Geography during the Middle Age

• The earth is flat.

• Known world = (parts of) Europe + N Africa + Middle East = same as the Romans.

Christopher Colombus 1451-1509

A clash of cultures : the first encounter.

Video 1

http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=jOfEAbNiKFM&feature=related

Summary:• Late 15th c. (1490’s): feudality and church

dictate life. Society is unequal: serfs are “workable and taxable at will”.

• Knowledge is very limited: the earth is flat, geography is limited to around the Mediterranean, Western Europe and the Middle East.

• Food is preserved through spices, salt and sugar that come by sea (around Africa) or land (across Asia) since Marco Polo (early 1300’s).

• Christopher Columbus wants to use the trade winds and cut through the West to reach India, instead he discovers the American continent.