After Columbus traveled to the Americas, Europeans began to import many kinds
of products from the New World, Some of the products are well known, such as coffee,
cocoa, tobacco, tomatoes, corn, potatoes, pumpkins, beans, and strawberries, but other
products are little known today. For two centuries, one of the most important New
World exports was the cochineal. This small red insect was used for making red cloth.
It is still used for this purpose today, and some insects are still exported from the
Americas. However, with the invention of chemical colorants, the cochineal has