The Columbian Exchange Flashcards
Grade 6 · Social Studies · Flashcards
Key vocabulary for the Columbian Exchange — plants, animals, diseases, and global transformation.
Flashcards
- Columbian Exchange
- The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and people between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres triggered by Columbus's 1492 voyage.
- Eastern Hemisphere
- Europe, Asia, and Africa — these regions were connected for centuries before the Americas made contact.
- Western Hemisphere
- North and South America — biologically isolated from the Eastern Hemisphere for tens of thousands of years before 1492.
- Smallpox
- A deadly European disease that killed 30–90% of indigenous American populations due to lack of immunity.
- Immunity
- The body's resistance to a disease; indigenous Americans had no immunity to European diseases like smallpox.
- Epidemic
- A rapid, widespread outbreak of disease; European diseases caused catastrophic epidemics in the Americas after 1492.
- Potato
- Native to South America's Andes; transformed European diets after the Columbian Exchange, becoming a staple crop.
- Maize (corn)
- A high-yield crop from the Americas that became a global food staple after the Columbian Exchange.
- Tomato
- Originally from the Americas; became central to Italian, Spanish, and many other cuisines after the Columbian Exchange.
- Sugar cane
- Brought from Europe to the Americas; became so profitable that it drove the transatlantic slave trade.
- Horse
- Reintroduced to the Americas by Spanish colonists; transformed Plains Native American hunting and warfare.
- Cacao
- The plant used to make chocolate; native to Mesoamerica and introduced to Europe through the Columbian Exchange.
- Transatlantic slave trade
- The forced transportation of millions of Africans to the Americas, driven in large part by demand for labor on sugar plantations.
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