Brazil in the Columbian Exchange

Brazil is the source of several foods seen as native to the United States because the Columbian Exchange began more than five hundred years ago. Thus, maize and peanuts native to Brazil were taken to Africa and became important staple crops, returning to the North American colonies with African slaves who already were familiar with their culture. Maize was also introduced to continental Europe via Portugal, and those varieties returned to various North American colonies to supplement local native stock. (There were other vectors, but the Portuguese control of the early African slave trade and the Atlantic Islands made these routes the primary ones.)