AP Modern World History Flashcards: Environmental Consequences of Connectivity
Written by AP Content Team, Verified for 2026 AP Exams, Last updated: May 2026
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What is a specific example of an agricultural development in East Asia resulting from trade network diffusion?
The spread of new rice varieties throughout East Asia is a prime example of crop diffusion along these exchange networks.
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What is a specific example of an agricultural development in East Asia resulting from trade network diffusion?
The spread of new rice varieties throughout East Asia is a prime example of crop diffusion along these exchange networks.
Explain the connection between 'networks of exchange' and 'environmental effects' in the period c. 1200-1450.
Networks of exchange directly caused environmental effects by facilitating the movement of biological species, including new crops and deadly pathogens, across vast distances.
How did the same trade routes facilitate both agricultural prosperity and demographic catastrophe?
The routes that enabled the spread of valuable new crops like rice and bananas also acted as vectors for pathogens, leading to deadly epidemics like the bubonic plague.
What was the primary mechanism for the spread of both crops and diseases along exchange networks?
Both crops and pathogens traveled along with merchants, goods, and animals moving along the established land and sea-based trade routes of Afro-Eurasia.
What is a specific example of a crop that diffused within Africa due to trade networks in the c. 1200-1450 period?
Bananas are a key example of a crop that continued to diffuse in Africa as a result of increased connectivity.
What were two major, contrasting environmental effects of the networks of exchange in Afro-Eurasia from c. 1200 to c. 1450?
The two major effects were the diffusion of beneficial crops, which could increase food supplies, and the spread of deadly pathogens, which caused devastating epidemics.
What is meant by 'diffusion of crops' as an environmental consequence of connectivity?
It is the process by which agricultural products, such as new rice varieties in East Asia or bananas in Africa, spread from their regions of origin to new areas via trade.
Identify the most significant epidemic disease mentioned that spread along Afro-Eurasian trade routes.
The bubonic plague is identified as a significant epidemic disease that spread via these trade routes.
The spread of the bubonic plague is a historical example of which environmental consequence of connectivity?
The spread of the bubonic plague is a historical example of the diffusion of pathogens along trade routes.
Define 'diffusion of pathogens' in the context of c. 1200-1450 trade routes.
It refers to the spread of epidemic diseases, such as the bubonic plague, along the networks of exchange that connected distant parts of Afro-Eurasia.