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RAS question

Which of the following statements about the Columbian Exchange and its impact on world agriculture is INCORRECT?

Correct answer: (D) Coffee and cotton originated in the Americas and were introduced to Africa and Asia through the Columbian Exchange.

Coffee and cotton did not both originate in the Americas; coffee was an Old World crop introduced to the Americas, while cotton had multiple centres of origin, including South Asia and Africa before Columbus.

  1. (A)

    Maize, potato, tomato, and tobacco were introduced to Europe from the Americas after 1492

  2. (B)

    Wheat, rice, sugarcane, and horses were introduced to the Americas from Europe and Asia

  3. (C)

    The Columbian Exchange led to significant population growth in Europe due to the introduction of calorie-rich crops like potato and maize

  4. (D)

    Coffee and cotton originated in the Americas and were introduced to Africa and Asia through the Columbian Exchange

Explanation

Statement D is incorrect because it reverses the geography of the Columbian Exchange. Encyclopaedia Britannica describes the exchange as the post-1492 movement of organisms between the Americas, Europe and Africa, with American crops such as maize, potato, tomato and tobacco moving to other continents. It also notes that Eurasian and African crops had a deep impact on the American hemisphere, naming coffee among the important plant introductions to the Americas. Coffee originated in Ethiopia, spread to Arabia and then wider markets, while cotton was not a single American-origin crop. Although Gossypium hirsutum is linked to Mexico and the Americas, G. arboreum and G. herbaceum belong to South Asia and Africa, so cotton was already established in the Old World before 1492.

Why the other options are wrong

  • (A) This is not the incorrect statement because maize, potato, tomato and tobacco are classic American crops that moved to Europe and other Old World regions after 1492.
  • (B) This is not the incorrect statement because wheat, rice, sugarcane and horses fit the Old World-to-Americas side of the exchange.
  • (C) This is not the incorrect statement because Encyclopaedia Britannica links American crops such as maize and potato with improved food supply, famine resistance and demographic growth in parts of Europe.

Concept

The item tests the Columbian Exchange as a world-agriculture concept: which crops and animals moved from the New World to the Old World, and which moved the other way. RAS often asks it because one wrong origin can invert the whole historical-geographical pattern.

Source

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