2.6 Environmental Consequences of Connectivity Flashcards
Use these 30 flashcards to master Topic 2.6 by tracking how exchange networks moved crops, pathogens, and ecological pressures across Afro-Eurasia. You will practice factual recall, comparison, and AP-style causation while correcting misconceptions that often cost points on Unit 2 SAQs, DBQs, and LEQs.
What you'll master
- How exchange routes spread crops and diseases across regions.
- Why the Black Death became a major demographic turning point.
- How environmental change linked to urban and economic shifts.
- Regional variation in the effects of disease and crop transfer.
- Common AP misconceptions about diffusion and demographic outcomes.
- Exam moves for causation, CCOT, and evidence reasoning.
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Topic Intro
Topic 2.6 focuses on how expanding exchange networks reshaped environments and populations from c.1200 to c.1450. As goods moved farther, biological transfers accelerated too. Crops such as Champa rice and bananas improved yields in some regions, while denser trade and urban contact helped spread pathogens, most famously the Black Death. Networks across the Silk Roads and maritime circuits enabled faster transmission of both beneficial and harmful biological exchanges. These shifts caused major demographic effects, including local population decline in plague zones and long-term reorganization of labor and land use. Impacts were uneven: ecological conditions, prior immunity patterns, and social structure shaped outcomes. AP questions often test whether students can trace clear causation chains instead of listing events. To score well, connect mechanism to effect and show why one region experienced different consequences from another.
Why it matters
This topic shows that connectivity affects ecosystems and societies together, making environmental history central to political and economic change.
Exam move
For LEQs and DBQs, organize evidence by crop diffusion, disease transmission, and demographic impact, then evaluate degree of change with one continuity claim.
FAQs
How is crop diffusion different from disease diffusion in Topic 2.6?
Crop diffusion often increased food supply and growth, while disease diffusion could trigger mortality shocks and labor disruption across connected regions.
Why is the Black Death tied to exchange networks?
Intensified trade and travel moved infected hosts and vectors across Afro-Eurasia, allowing plague to spread faster than isolated local outbreaks.
Did every region experience the same environmental consequences?
No. Effects varied by ecology, settlement density, prior exposure, and political capacity to respond to crisis.
Why is Champa rice an AP World evidence point for this topic?
It illustrates how transferred crops could raise productivity and support demographic growth in connected agrarian regions.
What is the best way to write an FRQ on Topic 2.6?
Build a clear causation chain from network expansion to biological transfer to demographic or economic outcome, then add regional comparison.