The Columbian Exchange and its effects

Question 1

Historian when speaking about Columbian Exchange

Answer 1

Nathan Nunn

Question 2

What is the Columbian Exchange referring to?

Answer 2

the exchange of diseases, ideas, food, crops and population between the New world and the Old following the voyage to the Americas by Christopher Columbus 1492.

Question 3

Name 4 things Europe gained from the exchange:

Answer 3

1. new supplies of metals
2. New staple crops (tomatoes, chilli, peanuts)
3. Tobacco - was used as substitute for currency in many parts of the world
4. Increased availability of many old-world crops such as sugar and coffee (well suited for soil in New World)

Question 4

Name 2 draw backs in Europe from the exchange:

Answer 4

1. Enabled transmission of diseases to previously isolated communities causing devastations exceeding even the Black Death in 14th Century Europe (smallpox, measles, typhus, and cholera)
2. European sailors brought syphilis home

Question 5

What were the 3 major effects on Africa and Asia from the Columbian exchange?

Answer 5

1. New World discovery of quinine (first effective treatment of malaria)
2. Cultivation of financially lucrative crops & death of Indigenous created demand for labour

Result: forced movement of 12 million Africans during the sixteenth and seventeenth century

Question 6

Name three effects of new crops in Europe

Answer 6

1. Potatoes in Ireland
2. Increased sugar increased welfare by 8% by 1850
3. Coffee increased welfare by 1.5%

Question 7

What were the major diseases taken over to the New World?

Answer 7

Smallpox, measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, bubonic plague, typhus and malaria

Question 8

What have historians found of the indigenous’ immunology?

Answer 8

they were defenceless - found that before the invasion, native Americans lived in a relatively disease-free environment

Question 9

how many decimated

Answer 9

estimated upwards of 80-95% within 100 years following 1492 (Nathan Nunn)

Question 10

effect on population in Central Mexico

Answer 10

fell from 15 million to 1.5 million a century later

Question 11

Historians data for low - high impact infectious rates in Americas

Answer 11

least effected lost 80%
most lost 100%
typical society lost 90%

Question 12

What commentary does Crosby make on the new staples from the New World?

Answer 12

that they played an important role in the Industrial Revolution, and made possible the reformer/

Question 13

What two channels expanded the global supply of agricultural goods?

Answer 13

1. Calorific and Nutritional Improvements - potatoes, sweet potatoes, maize, and cassava
2. Vitamin and Taste Improvements - tomatoes, cacao, chilli peppers

important role in evolution of local cuisine

Question 14

What was good about the land in New World?

Answer 14

• vast quantities of relatively unpopulated land
• well-suited for the cultivation of certain crops that were high in demand in the Old World (Sugar, coffee, soybeans, oranges, bananas)

Question 15

What were the most important new staples from the Old World

Answer 15

Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Maize, Cassava

Question 16

Staple Crops Benefits to Old World

Answer 16

• could be grown in Old World climate
• did not compete with staples from Old World, complimented
• potato sustain life better than any food when consumed as sole article supplemented with only milk or butter, Vitamins A & D