What is the central idea of a text?

The central idea in a piece of writing is the point that the author wants you to remember most.

Explanation:

Explorers and conquistadors brought many new plants to the Americas. They brought European crops such as barley and rye. They brought wheat, which was originally from the Middle East. They brought plants that had originally come from Asia, including sugar, bananas, yams, citrus fruit, coffee, rice, and sugarcane.

New plants created new economies in the Americas. They also contributed to the creation of huge slave societies. By the 1600s, the Portuguese were growing sugar, bananas, and citrus fruit on large plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean. They began importing African slaves to work on these plantations. This was the beginning of a slave trade that uprooted millions of Africans over the next few centuries. Later, African slaves were brought to the American South to grow cotton, tobacco, rice, and other crops.

In addition to plants, Europeans brought domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and horses. Eventually, people began to breed horses, cattle, and sheep in North America, Mexico, and South America. With the introduction of cattle, many people took up ranching as a way of life. Cattle took over native grasslands as well as areas that Native Americans had used for growing food.