Worksheets8.2 The Columbian Exchange
Total questions: 11
Worksheet time: 6mins
What portion of indigenous Americans died as a result of European arrival in the Americas?
55-95%
20-25%
30-54%
96-99%
What was the main, immediate reason many indigenous Americans died as a result of European arrival in the Americas?
Disease
Violence
Food shortage
New animal predators
New diseases brought to the Americas by Europeans wiped out a large portion of indigenous Americas. What two side effects of disease further harmed indigenous American populations?
Starvation and smallpox
War and starvation
Habitat destruction and war
War and invasive species
How was the introduction of new animals, like the pig and horse, revolutionary for the Americas?
They led to the adoption of agricultural lifestyles for many indigenous communities.
They brought new diseases that easily spread to humans living in the Americas.
They provided new food sources and modes of transportation.
They killed off many problematic plant and animal species.
What impact did the introduction of New World plants have on Eurasia?
They fed more people and the overall population rose rapidly.
They killed off indigenous crops, threatening Eurasia’s food supply.
They were poisonous to cattle, lowering meat production.
They provided new medicines which led to longer lifespans.
How has the Columbian Exchange affected the genetic diversity of people, plants, and animals across the world?
Genetic diversity has diminished as people move across continents and invasive plant and animal species cause local extinctions.
Genetic diversity has increased greatly as new species have arisen in their adaptation to new environments.
Genetic diversity has increased as old species give birth to new ones.
Genetic diversity has leveled off as increased connection has decreased the number of new species evolving.
What was the Columbian Exchange? Choose the best answer.
The arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas
The transfer of land between European countries
The movement of goods and people between hemispheres
The discovery of new lands by Europeans
What role did disease play in the transatlantic slave trade and the lives of enslaved Africans?
It caused the death of many enslaved Africans due to exposure to new diseases like chickenpox and measles.
It led to the death of millions as Africans, like indigenous Americans, were not immune to European diseases like smallpox.
It played no role as Africans were resistant to European diseases.
It killed many as Africans encountered new tropical diseases in the Caribbean and lacked medical care.
When did European countries abolish, or legally end, the slave trade?
Most countries abolished it by the early nineteenth century, but the Spanish and Portuguese abolished it in the mid-nineteenth century.
All European countries abolished it before the nineteenth century
Most abolished it in the early nineteenth century, but the British were the last to abolish it in the mid-nineteenth century.
All European countries abolished it in the early twentieth century.
Spain and Portugal made up about 40 percent of the total slave trade, mostly sending enslaved people to Brazil and the Caribbean. What crop’s cultivation drove this mass enslavement of Africans?
Potatoes
Tabacco
Sugar
Indigo
Which of the following best describes how “exchange” occurred during the Columbian Exchange?
It was both intentionally and unintentionally done through deliberate human action and human mistakes.
It was unintentional as seeds and plants moved on ships without human knowledge.
It was a result of the movement of people in the one-way direction from the Americas to Europe.
It was always intentional as Europeans brought and took what they wanted.
