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Unit 4 Overview: Transoceanic Interconnections

Unit 4 Overview: Transoceanic Interconnections

This video will make you hungry! Learn about the history of gumbo and how the Columbian Exchange between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas cooked up this tasty dish.

Key Ideas

As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.

Key Ideas

Think about the following questions as you watch the video


  1. 01:29 What does John Arthur mean when he says that gumbo came “from many places … and from one place”?
  2. 02:09 How were Europeans able to establish overseas empires all over the world from 1450 to 1750?
  3. 04:40 What is the Columbian Exchange and what were some positive and negative aspects of this exchange?
  4. 06:27 Why does John Arthur say that the Columbian Exchange was really more of an extraction than an exchange?
  5. 08:34 How can you analyze the history of gumbo using the themes of governance, cultural developments and interactions, social interactions and organization, and humans and the environment?