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Bell Peppers

Bell peppers and everyday life: Creative

ways to teach economic geography

Sriram KhéWestern Oregon

University

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A few facts …

• The botanical name is capsicum

• Native to Central and South America– May have originated in Bolivia– Currently grown in many

tropical countries as well as in the more temperate climates of the Southwest United States and in the Mediterranean area.

• The original name is chili – Said to be derived from a

Nahuatl word, tchili, meaning red

• Note that the name Chile, the country, is derived from a word meaning snow

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Some like it hot!

Sweet Peppers:A. Bell Pepper

B. Sweet BananaC. Pimento

Hot Peppers:A. Anaheim

B. Hungarian WaxC. Jalapeño

D. Carribean

E. HabaneroF. Cayenne

G. Super ChileH. Serrano

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Chile or Pepper?• Notice that the name

for the plant in the original areas was NOT PEPPER!– But … chili …

• So, why did this crop, which had a unique geography (South America) get a name change to pepper?– Bell pepper …– Jalapeño pepper …

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Pepper …

• The original pepper– Now referred to as black

pepper

• Botanically piper nigrum– Pepper comes from the

sanskrit word pippali, which refers to the berry• Became péperi in Greek• And piper in Latin

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sriram khé 7http://www.calicutnet.com/articles/sources/malabar%20history/KERALA%201498AD.htm

Pepper …• Indigenous to the

west coast of India– Through traders it then

spread to• Burma• Indonesia• Malaysia

• Now, even in Brazil and China!

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Pepper …

• Was a highly prized commodity– So highly that it was

on par with gold, and was referred to as “black gold”

– The Visigoths demanded 3,000 pounds of pepper as ransom when they sacked Rome

http://archserve.id.ucsb.edu/arthistory/152k/roads.html

Via Piperatica

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Pepper …

• In 1400 pepper made up 60% of the Venetian spice trade, and spices were handled at a profit margin of about 40%.

• In 1426 the new Mamluk Sultan Barsbay decided to make pepper a royal monopoly. – All pepper from the Orient

was unloaded at Jiddah, which the Mamluks now controlled.

– From here it was shipped to Egypt, and offered for sale to the Venetians, who dominated the spice trade from Egypt by this time.

– The final blow came in 1453 when the Ottoman Turks took Constantinople, shutting down the small overland trade

The greatest extent of the Mamluk sultanate (1250–1517).

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The Renaissance• So, instead of the land route,

Europeans—patricularly the Portugese, Spaniards, and Italians—wanted to sail ships to India to get the pepper– Remember, pepper was literally

worth its weight in gold

• With maritime explorations, the race started to figure out the shortest sea route from Europe to the land of black gold (India)– In 1498 Vasco da Gama was the

first to reach India• Reached Kozhikode (Calicut) on

the west coast

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Da Gama’s Route

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Kerala

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So, bell pepper?• Christopher Columbus set out to India in 1492

– Ended up in the West Indies, which he thought was India

– He thought that the chili with the seeds inside was a variation of pepper

– “ plenty of ají, which is their pepper, which is more valuable than [black] pepper, and all the people eat nothing else, it being very wholesome” (Turner, 2004)

– Took these chilies back to Iberia and told the king he brought pepper with him

– Europeans liked this new pepper

• Thanks to Columbus for lots of confusions!

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Portuguese trade in chili

• Despite Spain's early claim to the chili pepper, the Portuguese appear to be the first traders to have spread the chili pepper globally. – Portugal's maritime power -

rounding the Cape of Good Hope and reaching India in 1498 - set a course for the chili pepper to leave South America.

– The Spanish-born Pope Alexander VI brokered the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494

• Effectively split the world in half between Spain and Portugal

– By the 1500s they were regularly exporting chili peppers from Brazil

• The only part of South America which Portugal could claim under the Treaty.

http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/about/chili.jsp

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The end of (black) pepper?

• India is the largest consumer and exporter of red hot chili peppers – Exporting over 51,900 tons of chili

peppers annually– In all, India produces close to 8 million

tons of dry chili pepper a year. • The top growing states for chili peppers in

India are Andra Pradesh, Orissa, Mahrashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Rajasthan.

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Economic Geographyof pepper

• Notice the interplay between economics and geography– Commodity is geography-

specific• Pepper in India• Chili in South America

• Value of the commodity– Trade involved

• Money to be made

– Find better access to the geography

• Navigate a new path to India

• Better yet, build the Suez Canal for easier access to the new “black gold”!

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So …

• Story of bell pepper is more than a mere story– An exploration of

historical economic geography

• More such stories– Story of coffee

• Wonderful threads linking history, geography, economics, and politics

• Time for coffee?