Western Civilization I / Unit 16 WC1 1509 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Columbian Exchange: Crops, Animals, and Disease
Captions available
The idea
The Columbian Exchange ran both ways: maize, potatoes, tomatoes, cacao and tobacco to the Old World; wheat, sugar, horses, cattle, pigs and sheep to the New. Disease was the decisive transfer: smallpox, measles and influenza against peoples without immunity.
In practice
The anchor lists coffee oddly; the course omits it.
Where people slip
Crops enriched both worlds; disease emptied one.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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