4.3

Columbian Exchange

AP World History: Modern

What was exchanged

Diseases: the catastrophic exchange

Plants: transforming global agriculture

Animals: transforming American landscapes

Columbian Exchange diagram
Caption: Items transferred from the Americas to the Old World in the Columbian Exchange. Source: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

Silver and global economic transformation

Population and demographic effects

Primary sources

Bartolome de las Casas, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1552)

Bernardino de Sahagun, Florentine Codex (c. 1577)

Thomas Harriot on Virginia (1588)

Key figures

Key events summary

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Vocabulary

Unit 4 topics

Unit 4 overview4.10Comparison of Coerced Labor Systems4.1Technological Innovations from 1450 to 17504.2Exploration: Causes and Events from 1450 to 17504.3Columbian Exchange4.4Maritime Empires Established4.5Maritime Empires Maintained and Developed4.6Internal and External Challenges to State Power from 1450 to 17504.7Changing Social Hierarchies from 1450 to 17504.8Continuity and Change from 1450 to 17504.9The Atlantic Slave Trade
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