AP World History AMSCO Guided Notes
4.3: Columbian Exchange
AMSCO Guided Notes
AP World History Guided Notes
AMSCO 4.3 - Columbian Exchange
Essential Questions
- What were the causes of the Columbian Exchange and its effects on the Eastern and Western Hemispheres?
I. Columbian Exchange
1. What was the Columbian Exchange and what three broad cultural traditions interacted to create new ways of life in the Americas?
2. How did the Columbian Exchange contribute to changes in the global economy, and what unintended consequences resulted?
II. Diseases and Population Catastrophe
A. Disease Transmission
1. Why were indigenous Americans so vulnerable to European diseases like smallpox?
2. What role did conquistadores and disease-carrying animals play in spreading illness throughout the Americas?
3. What was the scale of population loss in the Americas due to disease, and why was this significant?
III. Animals and Foods
A. European Animals and Crops to the Americas
1. What domesticated animals and Mediterranean crops did Europeans introduce to the Americas, and how did these change indigenous diets?
2. How did the introduction of horses transform the culture and economy of Plains Indians?
B. American Crops to Europe and Africa
1. What Mesoamerican crops were brought back to Europe, and what demographic changes did they cause?
2. How did American crops introduced to Africa affect African populations during the 16th and 17th centuries?
IV. Cash Crops and Forced Labor
A. The Lure of Sugar
1. Why did the Portuguese focus on sugar cultivation in Brazil, and what labor problem did they face?
2. How did the Portuguese respond to the shortage of indigenous laborers in Brazil?
B. Slavery
1. How did sugar's profitability in European markets affect the transatlantic slave trade?
2. What were the working conditions like on sugar plantations, and what was the impact on enslaved laborers?
3. Where did the majority of enslaved Africans go in the Americas, and how did this differ from British North America?
C. Growing Cash Crops
1. How did Spanish colonists respond to Portugal's success with plantation agriculture in the Caribbean?
V. African Presence in the Americas
1. How did the African Diaspora result in both cultural loss and cultural adaptation for enslaved Africans in the Americas?
A. Languages
1. Why were most Africans unable to maintain their native languages in the Americas?
2. What were creole languages and where did they develop most prominently in the Americas?
B. Music
1. What African musical elements influenced later American music styles, and how did enslaved Africans use music for survival?
2. How did the blending of African and European musical traditions create new forms of American music?
C. Food
1. What African foods and cooking knowledge were brought to the Americas, and what lasting impact did they have?
VI. Environmental and Demographic Impact
1. How did European agricultural practices differ from those of American Indians, and what environmental problems resulted?
2. How did European settlement patterns affect water resources and pollution in the Americas?
Key Terms
smallpox
horse
conquistadores
maize
cacao
okra
rice
sugarcane
creole
gumbo
Columbian Exchange
transatlantic slave trade
engenhos
cash crop
African Diaspora