Columbian Exchange SAQ

Use the passage below to answer the question:

“First and most important in the early modern era [1450–1750 C.E.] is the intensified human land use in every world region. Rising human numbers put increasing pressure on the land. Almost invariably [human] expansion caused a reduction in the quantity and diversity of vegetation or, to put it in other terms, a reduction in biomass and biodiversity. That is, sedentary cultivation depended on selection of one or a few favored plant species . . . in place of a variety of grass, shrubs, and trees. . . . Agriculture was and continues to be the single most important means by which humans change the world’s lands and its ecosystems.

John F. Richards, historian, The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World, 2003

Identify and explain ONE historically specific example of intensified human land use in the period 1450– 1750 C.E. that would support the author’s argument