The first people to grow corn were Native Americans living in Mexico’s valley of Tehuacan about6,000 years ago.
Corn becomes symbol of religion and prosperity in The Mayan civilization. From this center corn spread northward to Canada and southward to Argentina.
Christopher Columbus, the European explorer who discovered America, found corn on his trip to the new world in 1492. The corn known to the native as “mahyz.”
Corn is still universally known as maize from the early Spanish translation. Maize was not popular known as corn until the American colonists applied this British term for grain.
Columbus brought corn back to Europe. Portuguese sailors then carried corn to China in 1516. Soon the plant spread by trade to Africa.
Corn played an important role in the colonization and settling of United States. The native Americans taught the colonists how to convert the grain into food and livestock feed.
Bread made from corn quickly became staple foods in the American colonies and other foods, such as mush, porridge and breakfast grits, were important to pioneers migrating west.
The early history of corn
