Concepts & Relevant Factual Examples in underline / “Facts”
- Describe the degree of global “interconnection” after 1500 CE compared to before 1500. What were the overall effects of this change in global interconnectedness? This is meant to be a general answer here.
- How did the global trade network after 1500 affect the pre-existing regional trade networks?
- What technological developments made transoceanic European travel and trade possible? Where did those developments originate?
Several innovations in technology helped make long distance sea travel and trade possible for Europeans. Some of these were innovations in their own ships. They often built upon previous knowledge. Portugal made important advancements in ship construction with the caravel and the galleon. Ships became faster, more maneuverable, and more seaworthy, as well as more able to support heavy mounted weaponry for defense. Maps were also improved, becoming more precise and accurate. A lot of new borrowed technology helped them in the field of navigation. Navigational instruments such as the compass and astrolabe, an instrument allowing navigation by the stars, allowed for further long distance travel. The compass originated in the East, from China or the Muslim Empire. Through trade, this technology spread to Europe. /
- Indian Ocean
- Mediterranean
- Trans-Saharan
- Silk Road
- Maps, navigational instruments, ship building?
- Discuss the major notable trans-oceanic voyages between 1450-1750.
- What originally motivated Europeans to travel across the northern Atlantic?
- What areas of the world were largely unaffected by the new global connections during this period?
Prince Henry the Navigator was a notable patron of Portuguese exploration. He sponsored numerous voyages down the west coast of Africa, and founded several schools of navigation. The perseverance of these voyages and schools made great headway in the charting of Africa’s coast.
Bartolomeu Dias, a Portuguese explorer, was the first European to round the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa.
Vasco da Gama’s voyage to the Indian Ocean was one of the first naval expeditions from Europe to India. Using routes discovered by previous pioneers, especially Dias, and the help of an Indian pilot, they went down the coast of Africa, rounded the tip, and went across the Indian Ocean to land in Calicut. The efforts of da Gama and Dias opened up a valuable route of trade and communication.
Christopher Columbusset out to sail for Spain in 1492 and sailed across the Atlantic, believing that he would go right around the world and discover a successful new trade route to the spice-wealthy East Indies. However, he inadvertently discovered the Caribbean instead, and brought the Americas into lasting contact with Afro-Eurasia.
Ferdinand Magellan organized the first expedition that circumnavigated the globe. He didn’t survive the voyage, but it proved that without a doubt the world was round, and opened up new possibilities for trade.
Europeans were originally motivated to travel across the northern Atlantic by the possibility of a Northwest Passage for trade through the Arctic Ocean. If a Northwest Passage could be found, accessing the Indian Ocean trading network would be easier. The British and the French led many expeditions into the Northern Atlantic, the French being the first, reaching Canada in 1534. Cod was a highly desired fish, and fishing grounds were found in the northern Atlantic.
Oceania was still mostly left out of the global trade network in this period, and involvement in Polynesia was limited. These regions include present-day Hawaii, Easter Island, New Zealand, and Australia. /
- Zheng He
- Prince Henry, Dias, and da Gama
- Columbus
- Magellan
- Northwest Passage
- Cod?
- What new financial and monetary means made the new scale(s) of trade possible? What previously established scale(s) of trade continued? a more general answer here
- Describe the overall trade role of European merchants c. 1450-1750.
- What role did silver play in facilitating a truly global scale of trade?
- What new mercantilist financial means develop to facilitate global trade?
- What were the economic and social effects of the Atlantic trading system?
Intense trade continued in the Indian Ocean region. Previously established trading markets also remained, including the Hanseatic League in the Baltic Sea.
European merchants didn’t have many new goods of their own to contribute to the world market. They just tended to be middlemen, transporting goods from one region to another. They also established colonies at times and established joint stock companies.
Silver was found in large amounts at Potosi in Argentina by the Spanish, as well as in other areas of the New World. Exploiting the natives for mining labor, this silver was taken out of the ground and shipped off to the Old World where it became used as a currency. Silver was an official currency in China, and peasants had been ordered to start paying their taxes in silver rather than with other goods, so it was in high desire there. On the Western end, in Europe, spices and other Chinese goods were highly desired, and silver was in a humongous supply from the Americas, so they ended up paying for it in silver, causing a perpetual departure of silver from Spain as goods were imported from the East. It flowed from Spain to other parts of Europe, across the Silk Roads and other areas of trade, and eventually to China, where it stayed and did not circulate. There was skyrocketing inflation in Spain due to the large supply of silver, even though it went out of Spain quickly. Silver also helped pull Japan into the economy, since it had silver mines.
Mercantilism developed as a dominant financial theory in this period. The key idea of mercantilism was to import less and export more while sponsoring domestic productivity, and the economy was supposed to be regulated to make this happen. It encouraged countries to acquire colonies for its economic sake, and encouraged trade to be regulated in these colonies to help develop monopolies on certain goods and block competing countries from getting any form of advantage. This facilitated colonialism and imperialism. Joint Stock Companies such as the Dutch and British East India Companies regulated and facilitated trade in the regions they were responsible for, separate from the government. This helped the flow of the global economy.
The Atlantic trading system connected the Old World and the New World economically. Sugar, tobacco, and other cash crops were in high demand in Europe. This led to the development of large plantations to mass produce these products. Sugar plantations were common in Brazil and the Caribbean Islands. The tasks that needed to be performed to create these goods were very labor-intensive, but in the Americas, a large amount of the native population had been wiped out by disease. There was not enough labor from the native population to keep these plantations running, so the Europeans used the labor of slaves they obtained from Africa. As the sugar industry and the industries of the other cash crops grew in importance, more and more labor was needed to fit the supply with the growing demand. Massive amounts of slaves were shipped to the Americas over the Atlantic ocean in a horrific journey known as the Middle Passage. This forced migration was a major aspect of the Atlantic trading system, and specifically the Slave Trade. In the Americas, new social designations and hierarchies based on race and ancestry formed. As intermingling happened, Mestizos, who were half-Indian, were joined by Mulattoes, who were half-African. Also, since there weren’t as many female slaves brought over to the Americas, intermingling often occurred between male slaves and females from the native population. Usually, the people with the “purest” European ancestry were on top of the hierarchy. Creoles were people who were born in the Americas, but the children of Europeans. In West Africa, since many of the young, strong men had been enslaved and sent to the Americas, there was often a higher proportion of women to men. This led to an increase in polygamy in some areas. Also, on the coasts, as the slave trade kicked in, Africans were often intensely involved, economically, because they were in charge of supplying slaves to Europeans. Slaves became a chief export in the region. /
- royal charters—joint stock companies
- Potosi
- mercantilism,
- Dutch and British East India Companies
- Migrations including the Trans-Atlantic slave trade
- What were the effects of the Columbian Exchange?
The transfer of foods/animals to new geographic regions? Discuss “new” world to “old” AND “old” world to “new”
- What effects did American food crops have on the diet of Afro-Eurasians…and what demographic impact ultimately? Why?
- How did the actions of European settlers in the Americas affect the region environmentally?
One major feature of the Columbian Exchange was the transfer of foods and animals to new geographic regions. Crops such as potatoes, maize, and manioc from the New World went to the Old World and greatly enriched nutrition and agriculture. For example, potatoes, when they came to Afro-Eurasia, were hardier and more productive than the existing staple crops. They had a higher yield, and brought better nutrients to the people. This lead to a large population increase in the Old World. Maize and the sweet potato were very effective in China. Okra was introduced to the New World from the Old World. Sugar was brought to the New World from the Old World, and could be cultivated very efficiently and profitably; the increasing demand for sugar had a large impact on the economies of both the Old and the New World. Animals were also a large part of the Columbian Exchange. Prior to the Columbian exchange, the Americas had almost no domesticated livestock. As settlers came from Europe to the Americas, they brought horses and cattle with them. The Old world got Turkeys and Guinea Pigs from the New World.
When European settlers came to the Americas, they started to impact the region environmentally. Their need for wood and farmland led them to cut down a large part of the native forests, and their methods of agriculture led to soil depletion. Earthworms and red marsh worms were brought to America as a result of the English trading tobacco for soil.They took all the nutrients in the soil. Plantation farming and livestock took up massive amounts of land. The exploitation of natural resources such as silver in mining also had degrading effects on the environment. Deforestation also occurred due to Spanish cutting down trees to make pastures for cattle and accelerated when areas for plantations and mines were needed. /
- Smallpox, measles
- Potatoes,maize, manioc
- Okra
- Sugar
- Horses, cattle
- Turkeys, guinea pigs
- Deforestation
- Soil depletion
- How did the Columbian Exchange affect the spread of religions?
- Overall—where did the “universal” religions of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam spread in this period?
- What other syncretic religion developed during this period—why?