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AP U.S. History: Period 1: 1491–1607 Drill 1, Problem 3. As a result of the increased contact between the New World and the Old World, Europe's population what?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

[ musical flourish ]

00:04

And here's your shmoop du jour,

00:05

brought to you by the first charter of Virginia,

00:08

the document that inspired Edward Albee to later write,

00:10

"Who's Afraid of the First Charter of Virginia Woolf?"

00:13

[ colonial music ]

00:14

English maidens are roaring over that one...

00:16

All right, well, here's an excerpt for you to pore over.

00:20

[ mumbles ]

00:22

[ mumbling continues ]

00:28

All right, and the question:

00:29

As a result of the increased contact

00:31

between the New World and the Old World,

00:34

Europe's population... what?

00:38

Hmm? What happened to Europe's population?

00:40

And here are your potential answers...

00:42

Decreased, decreased, increased, increased.

00:44

Which is it? Hmm?

00:45

All right, well, we're thinking and we're going.

00:48

So... All right, we're being asked what happened

00:50

to Europe's population once the New and Old World

00:53

started, uh, chilling together.

00:55

Uh, so, can we just say it is so nice to see them

00:58

finally getting along?

00:59

The pigtail pulling was, uh, really getting old.

01:02

Now let's take these options one by one

01:03

and see what's what.

01:05

Did Europe's population A - decrease

01:08

because of the influx of new diseases?

01:12

Eh, strike that and reverse it.

01:14

The Old World had gifted the New World

01:17

with smallpox, but it wasn't really a two-way street.

01:20

Europe still had all their same old diseases,

01:22

nothing new and trendy, so we can eliminate A.

01:25

All right, next.

01:26

Did it decrease because of emigration to America?

01:30

Huh? Nah, it wasn't like hundreds of people at a time

01:33

could just catch the next flight out of Heathrow.

01:35

Travel was dangerous in those days,

01:37

and there weren't all that many ships.

01:39

So, no, emigration didn't have a super-profound

01:42

effect on population in either direction.

01:44

So that means we can nix B and C.

01:47

Well, leaves only D -

01:48

the population increased because of the introduction

01:52

of new crops.

01:53

And, yeah, well, bingo. Believe it or not,

01:55

there was no such thing as potatoes or tomatoes

01:58

in Europe prior to the discovery of the New World.

02:01

You can say "po-tay-to" or you can say "po-tah-to,"

02:04

but they didn't have any word for it at all.

02:07

[ fighting sounds ]

02:09

Then along came the Columbian Exchange,

02:10

and there was suddenly a surplus of crops,

02:12

livestock, slaves, you name it.

02:14

But the crops were the biggie as far as this question

02:16

is concerned.

02:17

The introduction of all this new, wonderful,

02:19

and plentiful food brought about a short-term

02:21

population boom in the Old World...

02:23

...so option D is our answer.

02:25

Now go play nice with the other

02:27

newly discovered continent. Come on.

02:29

[ children's babble ]

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