Social Science (087) — AI-generated practice question

Potatoes, tomatoes, and chillies originally belonged to the Americas and were the food of America's original inhabitants — the American Indians. They were completely unknown in Europe and Asia until Christopher Columbus accidentally discovered the Americas about five centuries ago. Before that, in the pre-modern world, traders and travellers played a key role in spreading food crops across continents. They introduced new crops to the lands they travelled through, enabling long-distance cultural exchange. This is how foods from distant regions gradually reached and transformed kitchens across the world.

Source: Food Travels: Spaghetti and Potato, Chapter 3

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• The examiner wants three clear points: (1) origin of these foods — the Americas/American Indians, (2) the role of Columbus in connecting the Americas to the rest of the world, and (3) the general mechanism — traders and travellers spreading crops across distances in the pre-modern world.
• Avoid writing about 19th-century trade or colonialism — the question specifically asks about the pre-modern world.
• Keep it factual and concise; no unnecessary elaboration needed for 3 marks.