The Columbian Exchange Christopher Purdy At the end of today you will be able to do this stuff! (aka “The Objectives”) Determine the three most important affects of the Columbian Exchange on European and South American Societies Evaluate and defend the merits of the Exchange by creating a project using evidence collected from primary sources What are we learning about? (aka “The Essential Questions”) How did the Columbian Exchange affect the societies of Europe and South America? Introduction Did you know that prior to Columbus’ arrival in 1492, many things that we take for granted, had been very rare and isolated to a few parts of the globe? Things like tomatoes, and corn and soccer! Granted, the soccer the Aztecs played was very different from the kind we just watched in the World Cup, but still, you get the point. Foods that we eat and rituals we do on a daily basis would never have happened without the exchange of people, food and animals that started with Columbus. That leftover slice of Papa Johns Pizza you had for lunch today, couldn’t have happened. Neither could those mashed potatoes that your mom made last night. The Columbian Exchange did more than help those crazy Italians to invent pizza, however. It also brought together cultures and societies from three vastly different continents, and set in motion a controversial set of events that has implications even in the modern day over 500 years later. So lets dive in and see how important that encounter was that Columbus had back in the day. 1
The Columbian Exchange Christopher Purdy The learning! Go to page 3 to start the lesson. Each page will ask you to click on a hyperlink and interact with the fun stuff we thought was the most important for you to watch or read. Once you’re done reading and watching, answer some questions and let the learning sink in. Use this chart to check off your progress. Not everything in life needs to be done in order, however this is one of the times it should be. Start off with step one and work your way through. You’ll be creating a project at the end of the lesson, and you’re going to need to have done all of the readings and videos ahead of time. Step Page Procedures Crash Course World History with John Green: This is a funny way to dive right into what could otherwise be a confusing I 3 topic. You might want to watch this clip once to get all the jokes and then a second time to let them all sink in. Essay: The Great Disease Migration by Geoffrey Cowley, in Newsweek Fall 1991 II 4 This article will do a great job explaining how the Columbian Exchange affected diseases, which kind of is a downer, but hey, no one is perfect. Essay: The Columbian Exchange by Alfred Crosby The man, the myth, the legend has arrived. Read this essay, which condenses III 5 his book into a page and a half, and soak in the knowledge. You can feel your brain growing. Creativity Time Now’s the time to break out those crayons and sharpen your pencils. You’re a creative person. I know that! So why would we box each other in and do some IV 7 boring assignment? On page 7 you’ll find some options to show what you’ve learned and also have fun doing it. You can even print out your finished project and put it on your refrigerator, if that’s your thing. Helpful Hints Every time you learn something it’s really helpful to write down some notes so you don’t forget. Even Beyoncé has to write down cues for her music videos, so you’ll be ok. Use this sheet to answer some questions to keep the main points in your head. 2
The Columbian Exchange Christopher Purdy The Learning! Task Use the hyperlinks on each section to learn more about the causes and affects of the Columbian Exchange. Then work your way through the questions to help maintain all the knowledge you’re catching. I) Crash Course in World History: The Columbian Exchange Go ahead click on this link! I dare you… Once you do, watch the video, take some notes and fill in the blanks to help let it all sink in. -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐ http://youtu.be/HQPA5oNpfM4 -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐ 1) The guy who wrote a book and coined the term “Columbian Exchange” was: __________________________________________________________________________ 2) The three main elements of the Columbian Exchange are: 1) _______________________________________________________________________ 2) _______________________________________________________________________ 3) _______________________________________________________________________ 3) You should not try the “Cinnamon Challenge” because: ______________________________________________________________________________ 4) A combination of diseases (mostly attributed to Small Pox) killed between ___________ and __________ percent of the native population. 5) Don’t worry though, the American Indians helped kill Europeans by giving them ________________ (disease) and __________________ (plant) in the long run. 6) What did Alfred Crobsy think about the “Columbian Exchange” and why? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3
The Columbian Exchange Christopher Purdy II) Essay: The Great Disease Migration by Geoffrey Cowley, in Newsweek Fall 1991 More learning! Yaaaayyyy!!! Use this link to read an article from Newsweek. I know you’re thinking “But that was written in 1991! How is it relevant? They didn’t even have the internet then!” Trust me, it will make sense when you read it. http://www.libertyparkusafd.org/Columbus/papers%5CThe%20Great%20Disease%20Mi
gration.htm 1) _____________________________________ “saved” the Spanish from a last second defeat against the Aztecs and allowed them to enter ____________________________________. 2) What allows bacteria to thrive? (This is a thinking question) _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3) The Europeans brought diseases with them because _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4) After everyone who survived the epidemics recovered, what did American Indian societies do? Besides constantly be really angry at the Europeans and resist their attempts to conquer them… _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 5) What’s the author’s deal with talking about AIDS? How is that relevant to what we’re talking about? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4
The Columbian Exchange Christopher Purdy III) Essay: The Columbian Exchange by Alfred Crosby Here it is folks, the stuff right from the horse’s mouth. Alfred Crosby makes the case about how important the exchange of plants and animals were to our world population. Aren’t you just tingling with excitement? Go ahead and click the link and be enlightened. -­‐-­‐-­‐ http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-­‐by-­‐era/american-­‐indians/essays/columbian-­‐
exchange -­‐-­‐-­‐ 1) _____________________________________ caused genetic variation in plants and animals, which in turn helped separate the rattlesnake and the viper. (Insert Game of Thrones reference here) 2) What were three New World crops/plants that were brought to the Old World? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 3) What were three Old World crops/plants that were brought to the New World? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 4) What were three New World animals that were brought to the Old World? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 5) What were three Old World animals that were brought to the New World? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 5
The Columbian Exchange Christopher Purdy 6) More small pox? This stuff is everywhere! Write down some interesting facts that appear in this article that you haven’t seen yet. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ 7) What do you think about Crosby’s perspective on the Columbian Exchange? (OMG another thinking question!) ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Oh my. Blank space! Lets fill it up with notes and thoughts on what we learned! 6
The Columbian Exchange Christopher Purdy IV) Creativity time! You’ve learned a lot today, and I know you’re tired from all that hard work. Now it’s time to have some fun. Look at the options below and find a way to show how much you’ve accomplished today. You can go ahead and just pick one, no need to be an over achiever. Once you’re done, you can submit it and then drop the mike, call it a wrap, and say “Mission Accomplished.” Option Number One – The Manifesto This is for all those writers out there. Think about how the Columbian Exchange altered history. Was it worth it? Use three pieces of evidence from your research today to write a three-­‐paragraph editorial to support your answer. A reader should be able to identify your position, three pieces of evidence to back it up (along with citations, lets not plagiarize here) along with an explanation of how each piece of evidence supports your opinion. Be creative on this! Write it out like a newspaper editorial, or a campaign speech, or something totally different. Have fun with it. Remember you’re showing people how much you’ve learned today, so don’t stress out. Option Number Two – The Poster Child Are you an artsy person? Then this option is all yours. Use all your creative juices to develop a poster that shows three pros and three cons of the Columbian Exchange. You should also advocate for a particular position, either the Exchange was a good thing, or a negative thing, or kind of in the middle. Make your poster reflect your views as only the artist inside you can. You can use pictures, text, and a combination of both. Try out different ways to do this either on some fancy computer program, or just the old fashioned way (you can take a picture and submit it online.) Option Number Three – The Business Approach When you grow up you’re probably going to have to either create or sit through a PowerPoint at some point or another. So, let’s practice! This might be good if you like to see things listed out in a logical, step-­‐by-­‐step, way. Create a ten-­‐slide presentation explaining the causes, pros and cons, as well as the aftermath of the Columbian Exchange. You should have one or two slides that explain your opinion as well. Use data from your primary sources to make your document all learned and stuff. Then revel in how professional you were. 7