Transoceanic Connections: The Columbian Exchange
Driving Question: How did the Columbian Exchange transform communities and the environment?
The Columbian Exchange created a truly global network that would forever alter the world’s people, plants, and animals. The introduction of the potato to Europe enabled population growth. Smallpox came to the Americas, eliminating more than half—possibly as much as 90 percent—of the Indigenous population. Thousands, and eventually millions, of enslaved Africans were brought to the Americas. Horses—such as the mustang—that had never set hooves on the American continents were introduced and flourished so widely many of us mistakenly think they were always part of the environment. Similar misunderstandings surround many of the living things that were moved by people hundreds of years ago. They are now so thoroughly integrated that we need historians to sort out how, why, when, and where they appeared.
- Learn about the Columbian Exchange and evaluate the changes to communities, networks, and the environment that occurred because of this exchange.
- Investigate the transfer of crops before and after the Columbian Exchange.
- Utilize the historical thinking practice of sourcing to evaluate differing perspectives of European and Indigenous American interactions.
- Use a graphic biography as a microhistory to support, extend, or challenge the overarching narratives from this time period.
-
Guiding Questions
-
Note: For more detailed directions on completing the three close reads below, refer to the Three Close Reads – Introduction activity.
Skim
Before you read, you should quickly skim the article, by looking at the headings of each section and the charts. Read the questions below as well, so you know what to look for when you read!
Key Ideas
- What were Indigenous communities like before the Columbian Exchange?
- Why were Indigenous Americans so vulnerable to Afro-Eurasian diseases?
- How did epidemic diseases affect Indigenous Americans and the environment and the economy of the Americas?
- What animals were domesticated by humans in the Americas, before and after the Columbian Exchange?
Evaluate
- The author of this article argues that the “Columbian Exchange completely changed the face of the world.” Based on the evidence in this article, do you agree with this assessment? Why or why not?
-
Guiding Questions
-
Note: For more detailed directions on completing the three close reads below, refer to the Three Close Reads – Introduction activity.
Skim
Before you read, you should quickly skim the article, by looking at the headings of each section and the charts. Read the questions below as well, so you know what to look for when you read!
Key Ideas
- What’s the difference between staple crops and cash crops? What different effects did they have?
- How did European plantation owners maximize profits?
- In what ways did European colonists impact networks and production and distribution?
- How did European use of crops and animals affect the environment in the Americas?
- What effect did the introduction of the potato have on the European population? How did this change over time?
Evaluate
- The historian Afred Crosby argued that the most important change brought about by the European conquests was not political but biological. Do you find this argument convincing based on the evidence in this article? Why or why not?
-
Guiding Questions
-
Note: For more detailed directions on completing the three close reads below, refer to the Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios – Introduction activity.
Observe
Skim the full comic, paying attention to things like prominent colors, shapes, and types of text and fonts. How do you know where to start and which direction to read? What’s in the gutters (the space between panels)? Who is the focus of the comic? What big questions do you have?
Understand
- Who was Amonute?
- How did Amonute become important to the English settlers in Virginia? What are the key elements of the story John Smith told about her?
- How does Karen Ordahl Kupperman evaluate John Smith’s story of Amonute?
- What are the key arguments made by the oral historians of the Mattaponi people?
- What are some doubts raised about the oral tradition version of events, by anthropologists like Helen Roundtree?
- How does the artist use art and design to show that there are different stories about Amonute?
Connect
- Which version of Amonute’s relationship with English settlers do you think is more likely to be accurate? Why?
- How does this biography of Amonute support, extend, or challenge what you have learned about European relations with people of the Americas in this period?
-
Guiding Questions
-
Note: For more detailed directions on completing the three close reads below, refer to the Three Close Reads – Introduction activity.
Skim
Before you read, you should quickly skim the article, by looking at the headings of each section and the charts. Read the questions below as well, so you know what to look for when you read!
Key Ideas
- Why is it difficult for historians to determine the scale of the Great Dying?
- What groups of people migrated to the Americas involuntarily?
- What do the categories mestizo and mulatto mean? Who came up with these categories?
- How did the population of sub-Saharan Africa change as a result of the Columbian Exchange?
- What was the plantation complex? Whom did it benefit?
Evaluate
- The author of this article argues that the “Columbian Exchange completely changed the face of the world.” Based on the evidence in this article, do you agree with this assessment? Why or why not?
The Spanish Empire, Silver, & Runaway Inflation: Crash Course World History #25
Key Ideas
-
Guiding Questions
-
Before you watch
Before you watch the video, it’s a good idea to open and skim the video transcript. And always read the questions below so you know what to look and listen for as you watch!
While you watch
- What are some aspects of Inca society that strengthened the Spanish Empire?
- What was the mit’a system? How did the Spanish change this system?
- What resource did the Spanish find instead of gold, and how did they extract this resource?
- What were the economic results of Spanish silver mining in the Americas?
- What other country had a problem with inflation? How did they try to deal with it, and were they successful?
- What were some effects of China’s new tax structure in the sixteenth century?
- What were the overall global effects of Spanish silver mining?
After you watch
- John Green argues that Spanish silver mining had a huge impact that was both global and long-lasting. He claims that “this process led to the life that you have today, one where I can teach you history through the magic of the Internet.” Is his argument convincing? What other sources or facts support, extend, or challenge his argument?
-
Guiding Questions
-
Note: For more detailed directions on completing the three close reads below, refer to the Three Close Reads – Introduction activity.
Skim
Before you read, you should quickly skim the article, by looking at the headings of each section and the charts. Read the questions below as well, so you know what to look for when you read!
Key Ideas
- What is the difference between Spanish conquistadors and missionaries?
- What were some reasons the Spanish were so eager to get people to convert?
- What were some strategies used by the Spanish to try to convert the Indigenous population?
- What were some things that motivated some Aztecs to convert?
- How is the Lady of Guadalupe an example of religious syncretism?
Evaluate
- This article focuses on how religious syncretism shaped cultures. What are some ways that cultural developments and interactions likely played a role in the conversion of Mesoamerican Indigenous communities?
- This article makes the point that the Columbian Exchange wasn’t just a biological exchange but also a cultural exchange. Can you think of any ways that the biological exchange of plants, animals, and people also created cultural shifts in different parts of the world?
As you read the primary source excerpts in this collection, use the accompanying Quick-Sourcing Tool to guide your analysis.
