Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange—the transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and ideas that was set in motion by European voyages across the Atlantic—was a turning point in global history. These lessons and materials will help you explain its impact from a diversity of perspectives, and show how it set up today’s interconnected world.
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Featured Materials
A Different View
Whether in poetry, or history, it’s pretty amazing how a change in perspective can give you an entirely different view.
The Columbian Exchange
Christopher Columbus’s arrival in North America led to a system of exchange that fundamentally altered the environment, economic systems, and culture across the world.
Crops That Grew the World
After 1500, a biological exchange between the Old and New Worlds transformed global populations, trade networks, cultures, and environments.
Amonute (Graphic Biography)
Though the facts of her life are disputed, Amonute was an important figure in the relationship between the Powhatan people and English settlers in Virginia.
The Columbian Exchange: Crash Course #23
The Columbian Exchange changed the face of the world as diseases, animals, plants, and people moved across continents and dramatically remade the societies they reached.
Causation – Migration
Why did people make the dangerous journey across the Atlantic Ocean after the Columbian Exchange? Use your causation skills to find out!
Transatlantic Migration Patterns
People moved across the Atlantic for multiple reasons, both voluntarily and involuntarily. Starting in the late fifteenth century, the population of the Americas grew rapidly.
Religious Syncretism in Colonial Mexico City
After Spanish conquistadors sacked the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, they tried to convert Mexico City’s indigenous people to a new religion. Results were mixed.