• Watch: The Columbian Exchange: Crash Course (12 minutes, 9 seconds), and answer the following questions on Blackboard:
    • Answer questions via Blackboard – Section 002
    • Answer questions via Blackboard – Section 008
    • Answer questions via Blackboard – Section 025
      • (Key Ideas) 1:05 What effects did the Columbian Exchange have on the global biological landscape?
      • (Key Ideas) 2:21 What were the demographic effects of the Columbian Exchange in the Americas?
      • (Key Ideas) 3:13 In what context were Europeans able to take over Aztec and Incan lands?
      • (Key Ideas) 7:26 How did animals from Afro-Eurasia impact the Americas?
      • (Key Ideas) 9:52 Out of the four categories discussed—disease, animals, plants, and people—which had the biggest effect on Afro-Eurasia, according to John Green? What were some of those cultural and demographic effects?
      • (Key Ideas) 10:22 Initially, the Columbian Exchange led to the decimation of the population of the Americas, mostly as a result of disease. How did this pattern of demographic decline change over time?
      • (Key Ideas) 11:23 What were the principal global effects of the Columbian Exchange?
      • (Evaluating and Corroborating) While the Columbian Exchange arguably made the world more similar and connected, its effects were unevenly felt in different parts of the globe. Use evidence from this video to think through these problems: How did changes in the environment, demographic changes, and new forms of coerced labor affect some regions of the world more than others? What were the impacts of the Columbian Exchange for people living in different regions and social classes around the world? Why and how were the impacts similar and different?
      • (Evaluating and Corroborating) At the end of the video, John Green poses the question: “Are longer, healthier lives for more humans worth the sacrifice of an impoverished biosphere? And most importantly, how will your conclusions about those questions shape the way that you live your life?” How might the patterns and trends presented in the video have importance for other studies, later history, or your life more generally?
  • Skim: The Disastrous Effects of Increased Global Interaction
    • No questions for credit, but read to assist you with this week’s Assessment and next week’s work
      • If you prefer having questions to help with notetaking, here you go:
        • Why is it difficult for historians to determine the scale of the Great Dying?
        • What groups of people migrated to the Americas involuntarily?
        • What do the categories “mestizo” and “mulatto” mean? Who came up with these categories?
        • How did the population of sub-Saharan Africa change as a result of the Columbian Exchange? How did this affect production and distribution?
        • What was the plantation complex? Whom did it benefit?
  • Skim: Transatlantic Migration Patterns  
    • No questions for credit, but read to assist you with this week’s Assessment and next week’s work
      • If you prefer having questions to help with notetaking, here you go:
        • According to the article, what three key events shaped transatlantic migration patterns in this period?
        • What were the main reasons Europeans voluntarily migrated to the Americas in this era?
        • How did the forced labor of African and indigenous people in the Americas affect the lives of working-class Europeans?
        • What nineteenth century trend began to change transatlantic migration patterns yet again?
        •  How did the shape of communities change in the Americas due to the circulation of both voluntary and involuntary migrants? Which groups were easily able to shape their new communities, and which groups appear to have had more difficulty? How might these different experiences affect societies in the Americas, still, today?