Guide to Responding to the Reading Quiz for Resource Exchange in the
Columbian Exchange
(Subunit 4.1.2)
Please note that the answer guide below includes some thoughts on ways of
responding to the quiz questions.
Directions: Award yourself the number of points beside each suggested answer.
There are more points available than what the question is worth, so you may
have extra credit. If you mention an idea that is not in this list, give yourself
points based on how important you think it is. Write out why you think it is
important. Point values are assessed based on whether the keyword or concept
is central to understanding the author’s main point as stated in the summary
below or is a supporting detail. Supporting details and examples are worth fewer
points each. Also, the overall value of each question is assessed based on its
centrality to the author’s thesis and its overall importance in the specific essay on
Columbian Exchange from this subunit to which the question applies. In selfgrading, if you list a detail not included here, follow the scoring key for the
relevant question: details for 5- or 10-point questions are worth 1 point and are
worth 2 points for weightier questions. Main ideas or complex thoughts are worth
2 and 4 points, respectively.
Scoring: Your score will be out of 100, so it should be expressed as a
percentage: if you get 85 points, your grade is 85 percent. You must score at
least 65 percent to pass. The grading scale is as follows:
A 90 percent+
B 80–89 percent
C 70–79 percent
D 65–69 percent
F <64 percent
Main Point Summary: This subunit contains an introduction to the idea of the
Columbian Exchange written by Alfred Crosby, the historian who coined it.
Named for Christopher Columbus not because the man himself was responsible
but because the exchange that began with Columbus and permanent
colonization of the Americas by Europeans (New World and Old World, terms
that have lost favor in the academic community because they are Eurocentric)
has not ceased. In Dan McDowell’s PowerPoint presentation, some cultural
assumptions underlay the biological conquest of the Americas. Thomas Grennes
examines the impact of the Exchange on economic parity and disparity from preThe Saylor Foundation 1
conquest to post-revolutions between the areas now known as Mexico and the
U.S./Canada. Prior to conquest, Mexico was an advanced agriculturally-based
civilization with much per capita wealth and large cities. Since the establishment
of the independent nations of the U.S. (1776/1787) and Mexico (1821), those
positions have reversed dramatically. Victor Boswell, in an article published in
1949, before genome-mapping, explores the biological voyage of popular
American fruits and vegetables.
Note: To award full credit in answers that include a direct quote, you must
paraphrase or substantially recreate the quote.
Related Readings: All of unit 4 is related to these readings.
1. Your answer should include the following concepts and key words:
•
Separation of continents determined the pattern of geographic
difference for 10s of millions of years. (3 points)
•
The advent of human beings, Homo sapiens, has “reversed the ancient
trend of geographical biodiversification.” (3 points)
•
Humans migrate and both intentionally and accidently take other
species with them. (4 points)
•
The first humans entered the Western Hemisphere “a few” millennia
ago and took species and subspecies with them. (2 points)
•
They took few species in number (1 point)
•
Specific details given in the text regarding number and diversity of
species (0.5 point each)
•
Hunter-gatherers domesticated very few organisms (0.5 point)
•
The domestication of few organisms was because of the Siberian cold.
(0.5 point)
•
Other human contacts with the Americas prior to 1492 (0.5 point each)
•
1492 “tsunami of biological exchange” (3 points)
•
Named because contact has been continuous since Columbus
expedition (2 points)
•
Biological revolution (2 points)
2. Your answer should include the following concepts and key words:
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
Part A
• Inferred knowledge: some of the exchanges were intentional, others
not, but all were precipitated by sustained human action, especially after
consequences became apparent. (5 points)
• Grennes also refers to corn as a Mexican invention (p. 103), because it
was domesticated by humans from a proto-species. (5 points)
• Human intervention in otherwise naturally-regulated processes stems
from culture and technology, specifically human traits. (5 points)
• Whether or not specific results were planned, the intervention was
intentional, so the results are fabricated anew not merely replicated. (5
points)
• According to Crosby, “[The] motives [of post-Columbus colonizers]
were economic, nationalistic, and religious, not biological. Their intentions
were to make money, expand empires, and convert heathen, not to
spread Old World DNA.” (p. 1) (5 points)
• According to Crosby: “if we take the long view we will see that the most
important aspect of their imperialistic advances has been the latter.” (p. 1)
(5 points)
• “They off-handedly and often unintentionally affected enormous
augmentations and deletions in the biota of the continents, so enormous it
is difficult to imagine what these biotas were like prior to Columbus, et al.”
(Crosby, p. 1) (5 points)

Part B 10 points from Crosby; 10 points from Boswell
 Crosby: Since Spanish conquest, the exchange has never ceased and
neither hemisphere can now be imagined without the impact of the other.
(10 points)
 Crosby: Like agriculture, once begun and then sustained, it changed
the course of biological life on the planet. (10 points)
 Boswell: the world exchange of food species began with plant
domestication during early agriculture and subsequent export along trade
lines. (10 points)
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 Boswell: Inferred knowledge: the Columbian exchange continued
centuries’ old practices in both hemispheres and was the final step in
globally shared agriculture. (10 points)
 Boswell: “a world-wide exploitation at an almost explosive speed.” (5
points)
4.
Your answer should include the following concepts and key words:
The period examined is pre-conquest to post-Revolution. (3 points)
Colonial Period: Institutional differences between England and Spain
(5 points)
Land policies (1 point)
Relative religious freedom (1 point)
Education (1 point)
Entrepreneurship vs. feudalism (2 points)
Plunder vs. wealth creation (1 point)
Per capita income (1 point)
Agriculture (Mexico) vs. hunting and gathering (U.S./Canada)
(2 points)
Population density differences (3 points)
Disease (1 point)
Organized states (Mexico) vs. loosely organized tribes
(U.S./Canada) (2 points)
Population decline not replaced through immigration in Mexico (2
points)
Loss of territory to US in Mexican-American war (1850) (3 points)
Post-Mexican Revolution: policies favoring elites continued (2 points)
Income distribution (1 point)
Access to education and voting rights (2 points)
5. Your answer should include the following concepts and key words:
•
No species to domesticate (3 points)
Lack of proximity inhibited immune response (3 points)
No wheels (3 points)
•
Consequences of no wheels (2 points each)
5. Your answer should include the following concepts and key words:
•
•
Replanting seeds from specimens they found more useful or heartier
(5 points)
Prehistoric farmers selected the traits they preferred and perpetuated
them (5 points)
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•
•
•
•
[Note: It is not in the article, which is dated 1949, but this process is
genetic engineering.]
Without trait selection by farmers, wild plants remain wild no matter
how favorable humans made their growing conditions (5 points)
Boswell: “Wild plants perpetuate themselves under conditions of
chance pollination and natural selection only.” (5 points)
Boswell: “Cultivated plants are the result of innumerable generations
of either purposeful or unwitting selections by man.” (5 points)
Humans “take advantage of the endless diversity that Nature
provides.” (5 points)
6. Your answer should include the following concepts and key words:
•
•
•
McDowell:
•
Europeans did not understand the biology of disease
transmission. (2 points)
•
Sin was thought to be the cause of illness. (2 points)
•
Native Americans got sick, because they were not Christians.
(2 points)
•
Population decline among Native populations prompted
Europeans to import slaves. (2 points)
Crosby:
•
Many Nahuatl infected with smallpox died, because others
would no longer take care of them and they were unable to get
up and move around [smallpox illustration, p. 2] (5 points)
Grennes:
•
Population decrease influenced decisions about colonization. (2
points)
•
“The Conquistadores also destroyed Aztec institutions and
replaced them with Spanish institutions.” (p. 93) (2 points)
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