Download Columbian Exchange - Modern World History @ SDA

Name: _______________________________
CrashCourse: The Columbian Exchange
Briefly explain how Christopher Columbus turned “world history” into actual world history:
Green argues that Columbus, “irrevocably homogenized the world’s biological
landscape.” Give 4 examples that support Green’s assertion:
4 categories of tangibles & intangibles on the Columbian Exchange & relevant info…
#1
As a result of this exchange, estimates of death tolls in the Western
Hemisphere reached as low as _______% and as high as _______% . Yikes.
Now, identify biological elements exchanged across hemispheres:
Bio Exchange – “New World” to “Old World”
Bio Exchange – “Old World” to “New World”
___________
#2
Imports to the new world, especially animals, included the following:
____________ (Category)
Significance in ∆ Environment
____________
#3
This new world tangible good was significantly more _________________than
Old World food, meaning: _______________________________________________.
____________ This allowed the world population to _____________ between 1650 and 1850.
#4
____________
Explain how the previously identified 3 “things” in the Columbian Exchange
correlated with this final (category name #4). Include in your response a
reference to ‘homogeneity’
Name: _______________________________
Positives of Columbian Exchange over time
Negatives of Columbian Ex. over time
John Green ends with a keen synthesis of the Columbian Exchange and “modern
globalism and monoculture.” Explain how these two developments in different historical
periods (the former in the Early Modern Era and the latter in our own modern day) are
inexorably linked:
Some historians argue that “the Columbian Exchange has included man, and he has
changed the old and new worlds sometimes inadvertently, sometime intentionally, often
brutally. It is possible that he and the plants and animals that he brings with him have
caused the extinction of more life forms in the last 400 years than the usual processes of
evolution might kill off in a million… the Columbian Exchange has not left us with a richer
but a more impoverished genetic pool. We, all of life on the planet, are the less for
Columbus, and impovershment will increase.” Identify and explain ONE historical
development that CHALLENGES this interpretation, and ONE historical development that
SUPPORTS this interpretation.