The Columbian Exchange: plants, animals and diseases crossing the Atlantic

Grade 7 Social Studies Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   What crossed the Atlantic after 1492

   Green arrows run east from the Americas to Europe, Africa and Asia, labeled maize, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, tomatoes, chili peppers, cacao, peanuts, pineapples and tobacco; green and brown arrows run west to the Americas, labeled wheat, sugar cane, coffee, horses, cattle, sheep and goats; red dashed arrows run west, labeled smallpox, measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, typhus and malaria. Key: a green arrow is a crop; a brown arrow is an animal; a red dashed arrow is a disease. Below the map: the historian Alfred Crosby named this the Columbian Exchange in a 1972 book. Before 1492, the only large animals people in the Americas had tamed and raised were the alpaca and the llama; there were no horses or cattle.

2. 1.

   In the key, what does a red dashed arrow stand for, Luz asks?

   • An animal
   • A ship's route
   • A disease
   • A crop
3. 2.

   Which way do the brown arrows for animals point, Milo asks?

   • Both ways, the same amount
   • North, to the Arctic
   • West, to the Americas
   • East, to Europe
4. 3.

   Which way did smallpox travel, by the map, Noah asks?

   • Within Asia, not across the sea
   • From the Americas to Europe
   • Nowhere
   • From Europe to the Americas
5. 4.

   Which crop went from the Americas to the rest of the world, Pia asks?

   • Potatoes
   • Sugar cane
   • Coffee
   • Wheat
6. 5.

   Which animal came to the Americas after 1492, Ren asks?

   • Llamas
   • Alpacas
   • Horses
   • Turkeys from Europe
7. 6.

   Which crop went from the Americas to Europe, Africa and Asia, Tala asks?

   • Coffee
   • Cattle
   • Tomatoes
   • Sheep
8. 7.

   Ari reads that Native peoples had no immunity. What is immunity?

   • The body's defense against a known disease
   • A ship's medicine chest
   • A kind of crop
   • A shot that cures disease
9. 8.

   Who named the Columbian Exchange, and when, Bo asks?

   • Crosby, in 1492
   • Columbus, in 1492
   • Columbus, in 1972
   • Alfred Crosby, in 1972
10. 9.

    Why were diseases like smallpox so harmful in the Americas, Jun asks?

    • The diseases came from llamas
    • People there had extra immunity
    • Diseases were new in Europe too, at the time
    • People there had no immunity to them
11. 10.

    Why is it called an exchange, Kira asks?

    • Things moved west, not east
    • Things moved east, not west
    • Things moved in both directions
    • Columbus traded spices for gold