The Columbian Exchange · seed 1 · A4, ink-friendly. The answer key prints on its own page for grown-ups.

When two worlds swapped crops and germs

History · World History · ages 16-18
Name ______________________   Date ____________

  1. Which crops travelled east to Europe, Africa, and Asia?

    • Wheat, coffee, and sugar
    • Cotton, rubber, and cocoa
    • Maize, potatoes, and tomatoes

  2. Which crops travelled west to the Americas?

    • Wheat, coffee, and sugar
    • Maize, potatoes, and tomatoes
    • Rice, tea, and silk

  3. Potatoes from the Andes became a staple feeding many in Europe.

    Circle one:   True   False

  4. Sugar plantations reshape a Caribbean island using enslaved labour. What fed that labour system?

    • A surplus of willing local workers
    • Machines doing all the harvest
    • Collapsed Native populations plus brutal plantation work

  5. Why did smallpox and measles kill far more in the Americas than in Europe?

    • European doctors cured every case
    • American peoples had no past exposure or resistance
    • The germs disliked European weather

  6. Where did maize and potatoes become staples?

    • Only on one island
    • Across Europe and Asia
    • Nowhere outside the Andes

  7. Potatoes feed millions in Europe while sugar demands slave labour in the Caribbean. What does the pair show?

    • Crops never change societies
    • One exchange held gain for some and catastrophe for others
    • Sugar grew itself without workers

  8. A museum label calls the exchange a fair trade. What is missing from that verdict?

    • The names of three ships
    • The colour of potato flowers
    • Death and enslavement paid mostly by Native peoples
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Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

When two worlds swapped crops and germs W1-mt_R6zh3S5dha-s1

  1. Maize, potatoes, and tomatoes · American crops moved east and remade diets there.
  2. Wheat, coffee, and sugar · Those three crossed the Atlantic westward after 1492.
  3. True · Potatoes fed growing European cities far from home.
  4. Collapsed Native populations plus brutal plantation work · Death plus harsh work drove demand for enslaved workers.
  5. American peoples had no past exposure or resistance · One-sided immunity let conquests follow small bands.
  6. Across Europe and Asia · They fed millions far from where they first grew.
  7. One exchange held gain for some and catastrophe for others · Even foods cut both ways across the exchange.
  8. Death and enslavement paid mostly by Native peoples · A fair verdict weighs who gained against who paid.
Worksheet · LightMySky