"The introduction of New World food crops, particularly maize and sweet potatoes, to Afro-Eurasia during the sixteenth century triggered a major demographic transformation. Unlike traditional European grains, these American crops yielded significantly more calories per acre and could grow in soils previously deemed marginal. The resulting agricultural surplus contributed to a population boom across Western Europe, which eased the long-term demographic pressures of urbanization and provided a surplus of laborers. In turn, this population pressure, combined with economic shifts such as the commercial revolution, generated a large pool of displaced people who became the primary source of labor and colonists for European empires in the Americas during the seventeenth century."
Based on the passage, which of the following was a major long-term consequence of the biological transfers described?
- AThe widespread adoption of European crops like wheat and barley that caused a massive population boom among indigenous societies.
- A demographic surge in Europe that helped generate the population pressure and labor pool for future colonization.Answer
- CThe transition of the encomienda system from a labor-based tribute system into a system of voluntary land distribution for Spanish colonists.
- DThe development of a uniform agricultural economy among Native Americans, replacing their diverse regional food-gathering systems.