World history concepts · AP World History: Modern
Columbian Exchange
Columbian Exchange: The transfer of plants, animals, diseases, people and ideas between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres after 1492.
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What it means
European contact with the Americas began an exchange that changed both hemispheres. Diseases such as smallpox devastated Indigenous populations. American crops such as maize, potatoes and cassava spread to Afro-Eurasia and supported population growth. Horses, cattle, sugar and wheat transformed American landscapes and economies.
The exchange was tied to coerced labor systems, including the Atlantic slave trade, as Europeans built plantation economies.
Example
The potato, native to the Andes, became a staple crop in parts of Europe and contributed to population growth there.
On the exam
The Columbian Exchange is a major Unit 4 topic and a classic DBQ and LEQ subject on causation and comparison.
Lessons and practice questions
Related terms
- Encomienda systemA Spanish colonial labor system that granted colonists the right to demand labor or tribute from Indigenous people in exchange for supposed protection and religious instruction.
- Atlantic slave tradeThe forced transport of millions of enslaved Africans to the Americas from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
- MercantilismAn economic theory that a nation's power depends on accumulating wealth through a favorable balance of trade, with colonies supplying raw materials and buying finished goods.