ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your shmoop du jour,

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brought to you by the first charter of Virginia,

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the document that inspired Edward Albee to later write,

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

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[ colonial music ]

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English maidens are roaring over that one...

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

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[ mumbles ]

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[ mumbling continues ]

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All right, and the question:

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As a result of the increased contact

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between the New World and the Old World,

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Europe's population... what?

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Hmm? What happened to Europe's population?

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And here are your potential answers...

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Decreased, decreased, increased, increased.

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Which is it? Hmm?

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

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

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to Europe's population once the New and Old World

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started, uh, chilling together.

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

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finally getting along?

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The pigtail pulling was, uh, really getting old.

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Now let's take these options one by one

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and see what's what.

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Did Europe's population A - decrease

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because of the influx of new diseases?

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Eh, strike that and reverse it.

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The Old World had gifted the New World

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

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Europe still had all their same old diseases,

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nothing new and trendy, so we can eliminate A.

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All right, next.

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Did it decrease because of emigration to America?

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

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could just catch the next flight out of Heathrow.

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Travel was dangerous in those days,

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and there weren't all that many ships.

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

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effect on population in either direction.

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So that means we can nix B and C.

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Well, leaves only D -

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the population increased because of the introduction

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of new crops.

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

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there was no such thing as potatoes or tomatoes

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in Europe prior to the discovery of the New World.

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

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

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[ fighting sounds ]

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Then along came the Columbian Exchange,

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and there was suddenly a surplus of crops,

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livestock, slaves, you name it.

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But the crops were the biggie as far as this question

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is concerned.

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The introduction of all this new, wonderful,

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and plentiful food brought about a short-term

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population boom in the Old World...

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...so option D is our answer.

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Now go play nice with the other

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newly discovered continent. Come on.

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[ children's babble ]

Full Transcript