[Free Registration/Login Required] Learning tool for advanced US History course covering the period 1491-1607. Site offers videos, essays, timelines, primary source materials and photographs for a comprehensive study.

A brief look at the Native American cultures before Contact and some discussion of the interaction with Europeans after Columbus. From an on-line American History textbook.

Explore the consequences of the discovery of the New World from a different lens. The Columbian Exchange is a term that identifies the earth-shaping swap of plants, animals, and organisms. This paper from the National Humanities Center discusses the magnitude of these exchanges by listing some of the different items from the Old World and the New World.

In this interactive lesson supporting literacy skills, students watch video dramatizations that tell the story of the Spanish explorers who arrived in the Americas with Columbus and introduced European, African, and Asian plants and animals to the Western Hemisphere.

A page on the elements of the Exchange that made the most significant impact. Clicking on the item brings up a page of explanation.

[Free Registration/Login Required] The story of the Columbian exchange is a story of two worlds colliding. The Europeans brought horses and wheat, they also brought germs. Here's a synopsis of the effects of that fateful encounter.

U.S. History is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of most introductory courses. The text provides a balanced approach to U.S. history, considering the people, events, and ideas that have shaped the United States from both the top down (politics, economics, diplomacy) and bottom up (eyewitness accounts, lived experience). U.S. History covers key forces that form the American experience, with particular attention to issues of race, class, and gender.Senior Contributing AuthorsP. Scott Corbett, Ventura CollegeVolker Janssen, California State University, FullertonJohn M. Lund, Keene State CollegeTodd Pfannestiel, Clarion UniversityPaul Vickery, Oral Roberts UniversitySylvie Waskiewicz

Columbus's voyage connected the Americas, Europe, and Africa in a web of exchange that transformed the environments of the Old World and the New World. [9:16]

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By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe how Europeans solved their labor problems
Describe the theory of mercantilism and the process of commodification
Analyze the effects of the Columbian Exchange