#atlanticworld

Tomorrow, we will discuss the state of the globe in 1491. As promised to my students, I’ve put together post of the four (4) Reading ID questions they are to submit each week before 11:59pm Monday night. This should help them a) identify key terms in the work each week and b) help prepare for the exams. 

Students should write a brief description of each term and insert an image/clip/gif which represents the ID for them. Students should cite where the clip originates as well as include hyperlinks to outside information they use to define the ID. Posts should be clearly titled and dated to ensure accuracy.

Here are my four IDs:

The Atlantic Slave Trade:

While estimates vary, around 11 million people were forcibly transported from Africa to labor in the Americas from the 16th to the 19th century. The vast majority of those sold into chattel slavery were sent to either Brazil or the Caribbean; however, landowners in British North America came to increasingly depend on the unpaid labor of enslaved Africans (and their descendants) as the cost of indentured servants rose throughout the 17th and 18th century.

Source: http://imgur.com/jT3jb8j

Cahokia:

Cahokia is home to the mound-building Mississippian people of North America. It was an urban center of around 20,000 located near modern day St. Louis between 900 and 1200 CE. Similar to the Hohokam and Anasazi of the American Southwest, they were displaced by climate change in the 13th century as the globe entered “the little ice age.”

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYvrMrVILgE

Caravel:

Portuguese and Spanish explorers used caravels to sail the globe. These ships could sail the wide ocean and gave the Iberian empires the capacity to travel beyond Europe to search for resources. 

Their oceanic strength made it possible for Columbus, as captain of the Santa Maria, to “discover” America and facilitate the trade of goods and ideas over sea routes (as opposed to land routes) between Asia, Africa, and America.

Source: http://www.modelships.de/Verkaufte_Schiffe/Santa_Maria/Santa_Maria_eng.htm

Columbian Exchange:

The Columbian Exchange refers to the transmission of animals, technology, and diseases between the “Old World” of Africa/Eurasia and the “New World” of the Americas. The introduction of animal labor and metal tools made it far easier to capitalize on crops indigenous to the Americas, such as tobacco, or to cultivate imported crops, such as sugarcane, for resale in the “Old World” market.

These cash crops, along other food sources such as potatoes,  became staples in the Old World diet after contact was established with the Americas.