Quote (Thor123422 @ 10 Apr 2020 18:48)
I listened to a video yesterday explaining how like 65% of our cultivated crops are from North America, and how the potato's stability, greater calorie count, and ability to grow in places other plants couldn't was the reason why famines went from once every 2-3 years to once every decade or more in Europe, and effectively lead to the dominance of Northern Europe over the Mediterranean. Basically the reason Rome and Greece were so powerful is because they were situated in areas where crop failures were more rare and so they could support larger populations, whereas Northern Europe had a crop failure every 2-3 years which resulted in significant mortality.
This was mostly a result of the different climate at the time.
In ancient times, Egypt, Northern Africa, Italy, Greece and the Levant were super green and fertile and had more reliable rainfall, while the areas north of the Alps were colder and thus less fertile than they are today.
Over the centuries, Egypt, Northern Africa and the Middle East suffered from desertification which was the main long-term cause of the decline of those empires, while the climate became more favorable in Middle and Northern Europe and fueled the rise of these civilizations.
By the time potatoes were introduced in Europe, the center of European civilization had already shifted north, from being centered around the Mediterranean to being centered around the Alps.