CASH CROPS

• What's the difference between staple crops and cash crops? 

  • American plants became staple crops, which were the most important foods that were spread across Afro-Eurasia.
  • EX: potatoes and maize
  • Cash crops are more profitable crops sold 
  • EX: sugar, tobacco, coffee
• What different effects did staple crops and cash crops have?

  • Staple crops transformed agriculture in Afto-Eurasia and reshaped the size, health, and wealth of global populations
  • Cash crops were very profitable, which made Europeans want to profit more off of them. This resulted in enslaved people to farm in vast fields. Additionally, cash crops sped up the transfers of new foods and cultural tastes around the world
• How did European plantation owners maximize profits? 

  • Utilizing forced labor systems, such as slavery, to minimize labor costs
  • Employing large-scale agricultural production techniques to increase yields
  • Monopolizing land and resources to control production and distribution
  • Exploiting natural resources and ecosystems for maximum output
  • Participating in global trade networks to access markets and sell their products for high profits
• Ways European colonists impacted exchange networks and global production/distribution of goods

  1. Establishment of colonial trade monopolies

  2. Introduction of new crops and products

  3. Exploitation of resources

  4. Development of infrastructure

  5. Integration into global trade networks
• Colonial trade monopolies


  European powers imposed exclusive trading rights and tariffs on colonies, controlling the flow of goods
• New crops and products introduced

  • Maize
  • Potatoes
  • Tobacco
  • Sugar
  • Cotton
• Exploitation of resources

  Colonists exploited natural resources, such as precious metals, timber, and spices, for export to Europe and other markets
• Development of infrastructure

  • Colonists built transportation networks, such as roads, canals, and ports, to facilitate trade and transportation of goods
• Integration into global trade networks

  European colonies became integral parts of global trade networks, connecting producers and consumers across continents and driving economic growth for European powers
• How did European use of crops and animals affect the environment in the Americas?

  • The crops that Europeans brought to the Americas devastated local ecosystems and cultural practices. European animals, especially cattle, destroyed indigenous plants. The Spanish replaced indigenous, or native, crops with wheat, barley, and sorghum. European plantation owners destroyed the food and habitats of indigenous animals to make farmland
• What effect did the introduction of the potato have on European populations? How did this change over time?

  • Europeans became too dependent on potatoes after they understood how much it could feed a country and increase its size. When a disease wiped out the potato crops in Ireland, they suffered from fmaine because they were too dependent on potatos
• • european colonist learned that the best way to profit mote cash crops was to farm huge numbers of the same species of plants, which is called monoculture
• • the plantation system forced enslaved people to farm vast fields of monoculture cash crops
• • cash crops and plantations were profitable because Europeans established global trading networks
• • staple crops from the Americas helped grow Afro-Eurasian empires
• • cash crops made fortunes for European colonizers