Prepare: Read
Nunn, Nathan and Qian, Nancy Qian. “The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas (Links to an external site.).” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 24, no. 2 (2010): 163-188. Accessed February 15, 2016. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25703506.
Fassnacht, Max, Stephanie Fink, Robert Jackson, and Michelle Warn. “The Anatomy of a Discussion Board (Links to an external site.).” Accessed February 15, 2016. https://sites.google.com/site/anatomyofadiscussionboard/home.
Fassnacht, Max, Stephanie Fink, Robert Jackson, and Michelle Warn. “Critical Thinking: A Guide to Skillful Reasoning (Links to an external site.).” Accessed August 15, 2016. http://www.criticalthinkingandreasoning.org/evaluating-critical-thinking.
Reflect: Reflect upon the importance of cross-cultural interaction as discussed in the second discussion of last week and the written assignment. Modern historians have created the term “Columbian Exchange” to refer to the complex movement of people, animals, plants, trade items, diseases, ideas, attitudes, and technology from the “Old World” that consisted of Europe, Africa, and Asia to the “New World” of the Americas that commenced with Columbus’s arrival in the western hemisphere in 1492. The many manifestations of the Columbian Exchange had profound consequences, affecting the cultures and societies of the Atlantic World in wide-ranging ways. Consult “Critical Thinking: A Guide to Skillful Reasoning (Links to an external site.)” as you formulate your response.
Write: How did the Columbian Exchange affect social, cultural, economic, political, religious, or ecological systems in the New World or the Old World? As part of your response, address the following issues:
- Identify an example of something that was part of the Columbian Exchange.
- Consider how this example impacted a specific region of the Atlantic World.
- Consider how this example affected a particular society or societies.
- Assess the significance of the changes wrought by the Columbian Exchange.
- How can studying the economic, political, social, biological, or cultural significance of an element of the Columbian Exchange help explain multiple forms of interaction in the Atlantic World?