Mais im 16. Jahrhundert. Ein europäischer Blick auf den Start einer globalen Karriere

Being cultivated as a food for the slaves on the passage to America since the early 1530s, by 1600 maize had turned into a staple on the African Gold Coast. In Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Germany, maize was known as a garden crop since the early 1520s. As a field crop, however, it appeared not earlier than around 1600 – with regional forerunners in North-Eastern Italy. For successful field cultivation under European daylight conditions the importation of Northern and Southern American corn varieties was crucial. They began to reach Europe since the late 1520s. The articles suggests to regard the successive transfer of different corn varieties to Europe as an integral part of a global distribution process driven by the expansion of the Portuguese and the Ottoman Empires.