Maize Cultivation and Spread

Timeline

1. c. 1400–1540Valley of Mexico and Mesoamerica · MexicoCivilizations such as the Aztecs and Maya relied on maize as a staple food, practicing milpa intercropping and terraced irrigation, and developed dozens of local varieties; after the Spanish conquest, colonial authorities incorporated maize into tax and corvée ration systems, maintaining high yields to meet the demands of mines and cities.
2. c. 1541–1550Iberia and the Italian Peninsula · MediterraneanIn the 1540s maize seeds entered southern Europe via the trade routes of Seville, Lisbon, and Genoa, and were trial-planted in Andalusia, Portugal, and the northern Italian lowlands; at the time they were mostly used as fodder or a novelty crop, but had already been recorded in herbals and agricultural treatises, laying the groundwork for staple-food adoption in the late 16th century and spread to the Ottoman Empire and North Africa.
3. c. 1550–1700Broad Eurasian-African scope · WorldwideDuring the 16th–17th centuries maize gradually became an important supplementary staple along the West African coast, in southwestern China, and along China's southeastern coast, easing Old World population pressure alongside potatoes and cassava; its spread paths were closely intertwined with colonial trade, missionary networks, and local agricultural policy experiments.