How the lowly earthworm changed the face of America forever after being brought over by early European colonists along with chickens, malaria and the common cold



Continental Changer: Earthworms were re-introduced to the Americas after a gap of 10,000 years by colonists from Europe

We all know that Christopher Columbus and European pioneers brought back potatoes, tobacco and rubber from the New World in the wake of his voyage of 1492, but a new book examines the overlooked impact of the Old World on the newly discovered Americas.



In fact so great was one import from Europe that its impact is still being felt today after having undermined the entire ecosystem of North America. And that illegal alien is the lowly earthworm.



Wiped out in North America since the Ice Age, the re-introduction of the earthworm by the British colonists of Jamestown caused the landscape that had formed for 10,000 years to radically alter and not for the better.

Earthworms eat fallen foliage, the problem is that northern trees and shrubs beneath the forest canopy depend on that litter for food too.



In its absence, water washes away the nutrients stored in the fallen foliage and without this food plants die and the forest becomes more open and dry - losing much of its firmness and fertility.



In short, a forest with worms is vastly different to a forest without them and that means, that as forests across North America's East Coast become re-infested with earthworms the continent began to change.

Original: Jamestown was the source of the earthworm infestation of North America which deeply affected the forestation of the continent

Infectious: Malaria was brought over to North America by slaves who carried the parasite that causes the virus in their blood and it decimated the South

This fascinating piece of natural history is one of many compiled by Charles Mann in his new book, '1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

In his book, Mann argues that no man was more responsible for altering the geographic, political and economic history of the world more than Christopher Columbus.

From Old To New - Some of What Europeans Brough to the Americas after Columbus Opened the Door Chicken

Cow

Donkey

Pig

Apple

Coffee

Garlic

Cholera

Common Cold

Influenza

Black Death

Smallpox

Pointing out that the New World and the Old World had been separated for the best part of 150 million years since the supercontinent Pangea split up, Mann says that the second Columbus hit upon the Caribbean this process was reversed in the blink of an eye.



Beginning his story of medieval globalization, Mann starts at Jamestown, the British colony that exists in what is now Virginia according to ABC News.

He tells of how Dutch pirate ship arrived at the settlement with two dozen black slaves, captured when the pirates attacked a Portuguese slave ship.

Because it was harvest time, the British colonists decided to buy the slaves off the Dutch.



While that was the first time a transaction for people was conducted by Europeans in the New World, it also heralded the introduction of something just as sinister - malaria.

Pioneer and Explorer: A putative portrait of Christopher Columbus (none was made in the Admiral's lifetime), famous as the discoverer of the "New World" in 1492

Fruits and Vegetables: Apples and Carrots were introduced into the American ecosystem by European settlers



The Virginian tobacco farmers did not realize that their new slaves brought the parasite that causes malaria, plasmodium falciparum with them and helped change the political make-up of the continent forever.

The malaria-carrying mosquitoes could not breed well in the colder north of what is now the United States and so therefore all hard and menial work was carried out by new European immigrants such as the Irish and Italians.

Unwelcome Addition: European settlers brought the common cold with them to the New World and misery to its sufferers

However, in the South, where white people were very susceptible to contracting malaria, slaves, with their natural degree of resistance could continue to work.



In this way, Mann says that malaria cemented the slavery system in the United States as the plantation owners withdrew to their mansions in windy or breezy locations that helped to ward off the dangerous and hungry mosquitoes.



Indeed, when Mann first saw a map of the furthest extent of malaria, he realized that it extended precisely along the Mason-Dixon line along with the Civil War erupted in 1861 between the slave-holding southern states and the Union forces of the north.

Successful Export and Indigenous Species: The grey squirrel is now all over Northern Europe while the Turkey is now the ubiquitous Christmas meal



The Columbian Exchange brought Old World crops such as wheat, barley, rice and turnips across the Atlantic and also eventually introduced domesticated horses, cattle, sheep and goat.

The common cold and flu did not exist in North America before the colonists arrived and of course they also brought with them terrible diseases such as smallpox and the black death.