The Columbian Exchange: plants, animals and diseases crossing the Atlantic
Grade 7 Social Studies Worksheet
Circle the best answer.
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New crops in new places
Arrows show potatoes reaching Ireland, where they became a main food; chili peppers reaching India, Korea and Hungary (as paprika); tomatoes reaching Italy and Greece; peanuts and pineapples reaching Malaysia and Thailand. A purple arrow carries sugar cane from the Canary Islands to Hispaniola on Columbus's second voyage, 1493; sugar is shipped to Europe by 1516, and Brazil exports sugar to Lisbon by 1526. Another arrow, labeled 1509, carries enslaved Africans to Hispaniola. Key: a green arrow is a crop from the Americas; a purple arrow is sugar cane; a gray arrow is enslaved people forced across the ocean. Below the map: horses, new to the Americas, gave the Spanish an early advantage in war; Native peoples later took up the horse too.
Where did potatoes become a main food, by the map, Ren asks?
- Ireland
- Brazil
- Thailand
- Korea
When does the map show sugar cane reaching Hispaniola, Tala asks?
- 1509
- 1516
- 1526
- 1493
Why did new crops from the Americas matter so much in places like Ireland, Ari asks?
- They were grown as decoration
- They added a big new food supply
- They came from Ireland first
- They ended farming there
Why did horses give the Spanish an early advantage, by the note, Esme asks?
- Horses carried smallpox
- Native peoples had more horses then
- Horses grew sugar
- Horses were new in the Americas
How many years passed from sugar cane reaching Hispaniola (1493) to sugar shipped to Europe (1516), Jun asks?
- 230 years
- 13 years
- 3,009 years
- 23 years
Which came first, sugar shipped from Hispaniola or from Brazil, Kira asks?
- Brazil, by 1526
- Hispaniola, by 1516
- Neither: both in 1600
- Both in 1493
How many years passed from 1493 to Brazil's sugar reaching Lisbon by 1526, Luz asks?
- 3,019 years
- 33 years
- 23 years
- 330 years
Who gained from sugar grown in the Americas, by the map, Milo asks?
- The Taíno people of Hispaniola
- Plantation owners and buyers in Europe
- No one
- The enslaved Africans who worked the fields
Who paid the cost of sugar plantations, by the map, Noah asks?
- Enslaved Africans forced to work
- Farmers in Ireland
- Buyers of sugar in Europe
- The plantation owners
Which sentence about the exchange is the most careful, Pia asks?
- It changed nothing
- It spread disease and nothing else
- It brought gains and great harm
- It helped each group the same