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The Plants

The document discusses four plants that have significantly impacted history and development: the potato, tobacco, tea, and white mulberry. The potato originated in South and Central America and was adopted by Europeans, almost completely changing people's diets but also causing famine when crops failed in Ireland in the 1800s. Tobacco originated in the Americas and was a major cash crop and driver of development in North America in the 1800s, though it increased demand for slaves. Tea originated in China and played a role in the American Revolution through taxes imposed by Britain. The white mulberry also came from China and increased trade between the East and West, though it facilitated the spread of disease.

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89 views2 pages

The Plants

The document discusses four plants that have significantly impacted history and development: the potato, tobacco, tea, and white mulberry. The potato originated in South and Central America and was adopted by Europeans, almost completely changing people's diets but also causing famine when crops failed in Ireland in the 1800s. Tobacco originated in the Americas and was a major cash crop and driver of development in North America in the 1800s, though it increased demand for slaves. Tea originated in China and played a role in the American Revolution through taxes imposed by Britain. The white mulberry also came from China and increased trade between the East and West, though it facilitated the spread of disease.

Uploaded by

Morh Morph
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Plants

In my talk today, I’m going to be looking at plants that have had an impact on our world and our
history. Let’s start with the potato. It was originally one of the 1.staple foods of Central and South
America and when Spanish 2.Explorers travelled to the Americas some time in the 16th century
the potato found its way into Europe. This had several important consequences. In particular, it
almost totally 3.altered people’s diet in many European countries. The potato is also believed to
have been responsible for the start of a new trend – that of migrating to America. So you could
say that the humble potato actually allowed many people to change their lives.
However, there were also problems associated with this crop. Largely in 4.Ireland where the poor
were very much 5.reliant on the success of the crops. Sadly, a disease in the crop spread rapidly
across the country and led to widespread potato crop failures in the mid-1800s. This meant that
millions suffered from 6.starvation as a result.
Let’s move on to look at another plant from the same part of the world, the 7. tobacco plant.
This originated in the Americas and had and 8. enormous influence on the way North America
developed in the 1800s. It’s famed for being the original cash crop there and for funding a great
deal of the development that occurred during this time.
On the downside, the success of this crop resulted in a greater demand for 9. slaves to work the
crops and this eventually led to war breaking out between the Northern States and those in the
South.
Now, the next plant I’d like to mention is one known and used all around the world. Tea. It
originated in China and in terms of its historical 10.significance, it played a large part in the US
independence from Great Britain. This came about because the British government declared that
the colonies had to pay a tax on the produce brought into America. It was because of the protest
against these taxes that the American Revolution came about.

The final plant I’ll look at today is the 11.white mulberry. Again it originated in China and had an
enormous influence on development in this part of the world, in particular in establishing trade
between the East and the West. Sadly, the increase in trade brought with it the 12. spread of
disease and weapons.
Listen to a talk about plants that changed the world and answer the following questions.

a. What is the purpose of the talk? The impact of plants on our world.
b. The speaker mentions four plants in her talk. What are they? Potato, tobacco, tea, and
white mullbery
c. Mention the origin of each plant. Potato : South America, tobacco : Americas, tea :
China, white mulberry : China
d. Give one example of positive impact that one of the plants has on the world. British
government declared that the colonies had to pay a tax on the produce brought into
America. It was because of the protest against these taxes that the American
Revolution came about.
e. Give one example of negative impact that one of the plants has on the world. A
greater demand for slaves to work the crops and this eventually led to the outbreak of
war between the Northern States and those in the South

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