The Columbian
Exchange
A TIME OF EXPLORATION OR INVASION?
YOU DECIDE!!!
Directions
Today you will be completing a documents based
question over the Columbian Exchange.
What is a documents based question you ask?
It is when you are asked a question and must
examine multiple documents/sources in order to be
able to answer the question. The documents can
include articles, quotes, pictures, graphs, etc…
The Big Question
Did the Columbian Exchange
have a positive or negative
impact on the New World?
Document A
1. During the
exchange, things
went both ways.
Name 1 item that the
New World gained
from the Columbian
exchange that had a
negative impact on
the people.
2. Name 1 item that
the New World gained
from the Columbian
exchange that had a
positive impact on the
people.
Document B
Native American Population of Central Mexico
30
3. What was the estimated population of
Central Mexico in 1519? 1600?
25
20
15
10
5
15
00
15
20
15
40
15
60
15
80
16
00
16
20
0
4. What is the difference between the two
numbers and why did that occur?
Millions of
Native People
Document C
5. Describe what the artist is showing in
the drawing?
6. Whose point of view is being
represented in the drawing, the native
Americans or the Spanish
conquistadors?
Caption: Even as the Aztecs fought to defend their
capital from Hernán Cortés and his men, they fell victim
to diseases introduced by the Spaniards. This drawing
depicts Indians suffering from smallpox, one of the
deadliest diseases introduced by the Europeans. The
symbols near the subjects’ mouths represent
speech.
Document D
“The Impact of Disease”
The charge of genocide is largely sustained by figures showing the precipitous decline of the
Indian population. Although scholars debate the exact numbers, in Alvin Josephy's estimate,
the Indian population fell from between fifteen and twenty million when the
white man first arrived to a fraction of that 150 years later. Undoubtedly the Indians
perished in great numbers. Yet although European enslavement of Indians and the Spanish
forced labor system extracted a heavy toll in lives, the vast majority of Indian casualties
occurred not as a result of hard labor or deliberate destruction but because of
contagious diseases that the Europeans transmitted to the Indians. The Europeans, for their
part, gave the Indians measles and smallpox. Since the Indians had not developed any
resistance or immunity to these unfamiliar ailments, they perished in catastrophic numbers.
Source: “The Crimes of Christopher Columbus” Dinesh D'Souza
7. Natives were the first slaves in America, And this took its toll on the native population. But
what was the number one killer of the natives? Why did the natives die from such things?
8. The Source is from a book “The crimes of Christopher Columbus” Why do you believe the
author chose that title for the book?
Document E
9. What were some of the
things Europeans brought in
the picture? Why are they
significant?
10. Do you believe these
new things were positive or
negative for North and South
America?