Plausibility Check: Greater Spread of the Andean Crop Package

[Kushim]

The crops that fueled the massive population growths and socio-cultural complexities of Eurasia was the result of great crop dispersal through trade with most famously the Middle Eastern crop package like wheat and barley making its way as far north as Scandinavia to as far east as north China. These greater dispersals has no doubt shaped the histories of these respective regions into one that is more influential than many of their counterparts, so how plausible is it that something similar occurs in the Americas with the Andean Crop package eventually making its way to North America or even the surrounding lowlands of the Pampas or Rio de plata region.

 

[altwere]

The problem is that most of the crops were highland adapted.

 

[Arkenfolm]

The problem is that most of the crops were highland adapted.

There is that part, and the part about the tropical day length. But this may not have been a severe obstacle since by the 1st millennium AD, quinoa was farmed as far south as central Chile and the Argentine Northwest. And of course the wild ancestors of the potato grow on and around the temperate Chiloe archipelago.

I don't really think it's too implausible to have potatoes at least spread eastwards to Argentina, where river valleys and dryland farming would let some agriculture occur (as it did on the Plains in North America). This might mean quinoa at least also spreads south, since it too can readily be adapted for cool, dry conditions, although they might farm maize instead/in addition. And from those river valleys, I don't really see a limit to potatoes in mainland temperate South America, or any offshore island to at least as far south as South Georgia. Quinoa is grown in the Yukon, high elevations in Colorado, and parts of Siberia, so presumably would grow in most, if not all, that range if you adapted it to short day lengths. This could be huge since quinoa stores well so gives the incentive for state formation in these areas.

Potatoes in North America would take more trade between western Mesoamerica and lowland South America, and more trade at an early date. Probably it would be an exotic food some local elite decides is interesting and gets some Andeans to help him garden it and it could spread from there. The Mexican and Andean highlands are pretty similar, after all. But after that you'd need new adaptions to get it to grow elsewhere, so spread north might take quite some time. I could see it being very useful to the Puebloans--they hit a limit because they could not farm the higher, wetter slopes of mountains because there was too much risk of frost (and said frosts were one factor--not the dominant as some presume--in their decline as the climate cooled in the 13th century), but potatoes are hardier so would better tolerate these conditions.

Quinoa seems even more difficult since it has a very particular sort of processing that needs to be done (and one which usually was done by women), but it too might spread by the same process, if slower. The analogue would be cassava, well known to Mesoamericans.

 

[twovultures]

To be honest, that Andean agriculture did not spread much further into the temperate lowlands of South America/that it did not do so thousands of years earlier than OTL is a major puzzle to me. I suppose that the limitations of both crops might have made them less attractive to adopt in some ways-quinoa likes it cold and dry, and the best agricultural lands of the pampas are pretty warm and humid. This also limits the ability to store potatoes-the climate of the upper Andes is pretty reliably cold and dry, which allows people to create chuño, freeze-dried potatoes that can be stored for years. But in a warmer, more humid climate, you can't make chuño and as far as I've been able to tell with my research, you can't make storable potato flour without modern industrial ovens. That just leaves the tubers, which even when properly cured don't seem to be able to last longer than 9 months at most-not enough to get an agricultural society between harvests. IIRC, there are parts of the Pampas which are fertile enough to produce a double-crop each year, which potentially does overcome the storage problem, but for purposes of food security it's pretty delicate since you're relying on only one crop. Maize could help overcome that, but it seems that maize adapted to temperate latitudes developed late in South America's history and never really got a chance to be established in the Pampas (outside of the Rio de la Plata estuary, depending on which archaeological papers you find credible).

So agricultural societies with much denser populations in the Pampas are possible if Andean crop packages spread eastward, but likely due to the inability store potatoes long term (and therefore use them as storable wealth) there is no state development equivalent to OTL's Inca Empire for most of pre-contact history.

Going into North America, in the Mesoamerican highlands potatoes would probably not be a major crop, but would be useful as a supplement to maize in high mountain areas or more marginal soil. From there they could presumably spread to the Pueblo region where Arkenfolm has already pointed out how useful they could be. Given the importance of root crops in the hunter-gatherer lifeways of many people west of the Rockies (several different tribes were refered to as "Digger Indians" by White colonists because of this) the presence of the potato could encourage peoples who IOTL had remained hunter-gatherers to embrace agriculture. Though, due to the storage problem I've discussed, these peoples could not do with just potatoes as staples and would either have to grow enough maize to tide them between potato harvests or domesticate native wild plants.

 

[Arkenfolm]

To be honest, that Andean agriculture did not spread much further into the temperate lowlands of South America/that it did not do so thousands of years earlier than OTL is a major puzzle to me. I suppose that the limitations of both crops might have made them less attractive to adopt in some ways-quinoa likes it cold and dry, and the best agricultural lands of the pampas are pretty warm and humid. This also limits the ability to store potatoes-the climate of the upper Andes is pretty reliably cold and dry, which allows people to create chuño, freeze-dried potatoes that can be stored for years. But in a warmer, more humid climate, you can't make chuño and as far as I've been able to tell with my research, you can't make storable potato flour without modern industrial ovens. That just leaves the tubers, which even when properly cured don't seem to be able to last longer than 9 months at most-not enough to get an agricultural society between harvests. IIRC, there are parts of the Pampas which are fertile enough to produce a double-crop each year, which potentially does overcome the storage problem, but for purposes of food security it's pretty delicate since you're relying on only one crop. Maize could help overcome that, but it seems that maize adapted to temperate latitudes developed late in South America's history and never really got a chance to be established in the Pampas (outside of the Rio de la Plata estuary, depending on which archaeological papers you find credible).

So agricultural societies with much denser populations in the Pampas are possible if Andean crop packages spread eastward, but likely due to the inability store potatoes long term (and therefore use them as storable wealth) there is no state development equivalent to OTL's Inca Empire for most of pre-contact history.

I'm not sure quinoa would be that much of a problem, since most of Argentina is fairly dry in the summer. As for the storability issue of potatoes, a village could subsist on potatoes most of the year while preserving other foods (which OTL they would have eaten instead). In truth, I'm not sure how necessary this would be--the worst time of starvation for hunter gatherers was usually late winter/early spring, before many animals or fish were active or plants were growing and after they consumed their stores. But if potatoes are harvested in early autumn, that means they'd comfortably last until late spring, after plenty of other resources are available and the next crop is planted. A lot of Argentina has regular frosts too which should help preservation. Already that mitigates a major bottleneck.

But if quinoa are marginal and potatoes not long-lasting as you point out, that does constrain potential development. A wealth surplus is harder to maintain, so society ends up being a lot more small-scale on the level of villages, maybe centered around larger towns who have greater access to prestige goods or sacred sites. But in some areas like the drier Argentine west, it seems very reasonable to have cooperative irrigation be a major focus of social organisation. Although that could be like the Hohokam where it was more cooperative and ritualised to tie together allied villages/towns rather than a way to cement a ruling class over society like in ancient China or Mesopotamia.

Going into North America, in the Mesoamerican highlands potatoes would probably not be a major crop, but would be useful as a supplement to maize in high mountain areas or more marginal soil. From there they could presumably spread to the Pueblo region where Arkenfolm has already pointed out how useful they could be. Given the importance of root crops in the hunter-gatherer lifeways of many people west of the Rockies (several different tribes were refered to as "Digger Indians" by White colonists because of this) the presence of the potato could encourage peoples who IOTL had remained hunter-gatherers to embrace agriculture. Though, due to the storage problem I've discussed, these peoples could not do with just potatoes as staples and would either have to grow enough maize to tide them between potato harvests or domesticate native wild plants.

Said "Digger Indians" were also notable for their reliance on pine nuts and acorns. The peoples of the Great Basin and California are most famous for this (one pine was even formerly called the "Digger pine"), but it was common all the way north into Canada. In some places they were spread by human activities. Since they can store well for years, they would be a reliable source of food when stored potatoes aren't available. And since high, dry mountains are widespread, as the Great Basin is largely a mix of valleys and small mountain ranges, this suggests that both a chuño analogue could be made and that it isn't necessarily needed since acorns/pine nuts could fill the role of long-term storage and control over groves of nuts/oaks--and the alpine meadows where chuño is made--would serve as the rationale for state-building.

There are edible native nuts in the Southern Cone but outside of araucaria nuts (which only grow in wet, mountainous areas), I'm not sure how productive or widespread they are.

 

[Kushim]

To be honest, that Andean agriculture did not spread much further into the temperate lowlands of South America/that it did not do so thousands of years earlier than OTL is a major puzzle to me. I suppose that the limitations of both crops might have made them less attractive to adopt in some ways-quinoa likes it cold and dry, and the best agricultural lands of the pampas are pretty warm and humid. This also limits the ability to store potatoes-the climate of the upper Andes is pretty reliably cold and dry, which allows people to create chuño, freeze-dried potatoes that can be stored for years. But in a warmer, more humid climate, you can't make chuño and as far as I've been able to tell with my research, you can't make storable potato flour without modern industrial ovens. That just leaves the tubers, which even when properly cured don't seem to be able to last longer than 9 months at most-not enough to get an agricultural society between harvests. IIRC, there are

yeah I am legitimately curious too, as far as I know both Quinoa and the Potato were highly genetically diverse which in theory could be tapped on to breed for better climates like how Asian Rice and Maize was able to have the impressive range it has today, heck somehow amaranth was able to spread to the lowland central americans and mexicans.
I guess what stopped these early andean farmers from having the impressive range that those early Middle Eastern neolithic farmers (who was able to farm wheat and barley as far north as scandinavia and the British Isles what the heck) was maybe cos they didn't have the beasts of burden to help carry their farmstuff with them?

 

[HyperMuscularDemon]

The Polynesians could spread Andean crops around the Americas, if they were to stick around long enough to trade along the Pacific coasts of the Americas: they would probably trade their own Polynesian crops though, which would help advance the Americas.

 

[altwere]

What is the cold tolerance for Taro?

 

[twovultures]

What is the cold tolerance for Taro?

I only remembered that frost killed it pretty quickly. Taking a quick look at some gardening websites, it looks like you need to keep it in temperatures no lower than 45-50 farenheit/7-10 celsius to get a good harvest. IIRC, the Rapa Nui people grew taro pretty successfully but had to plant them under a layer of rock mulch to protect it from the cold winds that sometimes sweep Easter Island.

 

[Kushim]

I only remembered that frost killed it pretty quickly. Taking a quick look at some gardening websites, it looks like you need to keep it in temperatures no lower than 45-50 farenheit/7-10 celsius to get a good harvest. IIRC, the Rapa Nui people grew taro pretty successfully but had to plant them under a layer of rock mulch to protect it from the cold winds that sometimes sweep Easter Island.

I've heard somewhere that Taro could be grown as far north as Manchuria, so long as they are protected

 

[Kushim]

The Polynesians could spread Andean crops around the Americas, if they were to stick around long enough to trade along the Pacific coasts of the Americas: they would probably trade their own Polynesian crops though, which would help advance the Americas.

I kinda doubt how much they would advance the Americas though, the Polynesians seem to have barely or lost the idea of rice farming and pig raising somewhere along the pacific islands, leaving only taro and yams to be a helpful crop, as for the andean crops, I've read how in many cases quinoa for example requires cold environments to grow which might end up being more of a detriment to them than a benefit, potatoes though prolly have a better chance

 

[Janprimus]

I kinda doubt how much they would advance the Americas though, the Polynesians seem to have barely or lost the idea of rice farming and pig raising somewhere along the pacific islands, leaving only taro and yams to be a helpful crop, as for the andean crops, I've read how in many cases quinoa for example requires cold environments to grow which might end up being more of a detriment to them than a benefit, potatoes though prolly have a better chance

AFAIK the Polynesians kept their pigs raising, like chickens they were too valuable as a source of proteins. If anything pigs might be good news for the large Cavia's etc. of their day, since they would be replaced or be somewhat like rabbit in Europe.

 

[Kushim]

AFAIK the Polynesians kept their pigs raising, like chickens they were too valuable as a source of proteins. If anything pigs might be good news for the large Cavia's etc. of their day, since they would be replaced or be somewhat like rabbit in Europe.

I stand corrected on that, just that it seems pigs were never passed on to the americas is what I mean

 

[Geekhis Khan]

If Quinoa likes cold and dry then there's also potential for it as a "winter crop" in the NA Southwest. Northwest Mexico, New Mexico, and the Four Corners are all quite chilly in the winter and even Arizona gets flat out cold after dark in the winter (temperate in the day, hence why the snowbirds love it). Hypothetically some sort of Pacific Coastal trade could bring it there as a protein-rich supplement for Maize.