Name __________________________
Mod ____
Global Studies
Ms. Pojer
HGHS
The Columbian “Exchange”??
Document 1
“There was then no sickness; they had no aching bones; they had then no high fever, they
had then no smallpox; they had then no abdominal pain; they had then no consumption; they
had then no headache. At that time the course of humanity was orderly. The foreigners
made it otherwise when they arrived here.”
Source:
Chronicle of Chilam Bayam, early 16c..
Document 2
Population Levels (in millions)
Continents
1700
% Change
36
120
233%
185
415
124%
Africa
33
41
85%
America
39
13
-67%
Europe
Asia (includes
Middle East)
Oceana (includes
Australia)
TOTALS:
1000
1.5
2.25
50%
294.5
611.25
108%
Document 3
“The great germ migration was largely a one-way affair: syphilis is the only disease
suspected of traveling from the Americas to the Old World aboard Spanish ships….The
disease, unknown east of the Atlantic until 1493, suddenly raced through Europe and Asia in
the decades following Columbus’s crossing, reaching the Shetland Islands in the far north of
Scotland by 1510, and Canton by 1505.”
Source:
Plagues and Peoples: The Columbian Exchange by Dr. Ian Carr, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of
Medicine, University of Manitoba.
Document 4
During the 16th century, Spanish missionaries forced millions of Aztec Indians to kiss a
crucifix in their effort to convert them to Christianity. Two million Aztecs died of smallpox shortly
thereafter.
Source:
Aztec Codex, 16c.