Download Unit 1 Globalization

IMMACULATE HEART ACADEMY
World History
2014-2015
C HAPTER 1
Globalization 1.0:
The First Era of
Globalization
1400s-1600s
SETTING THE STAGE. “Globalization,” the relatively free flow of people, goods, technology, and
ideas around the world, is characteristic of the world
today. It was not, however, until the barriers of the
world’s oceans were conquered that truly global interactions could begin. It was Western Europeans, building on the discoveries of other cultures, who pioneered the first era of globalization. Beginning in the
1400s, sailors from Portugal and then from Spain
crossed the world’s oceans and ushered in an era the
writer Thomas Friedman calls “globalization 1.0”--the
first era of globalization.
This map first appeared in the 1633 edition of the Atlas that was
originally published in 1595 by the Flemish cartographer Gerard
Mercator, depicting the world in two hemispheres.
Unit One Proficiencies: students will be able to
1.
Identify and describe economic, religious, and political factors that led to the Age of Exploration.
2. Evaluate the role of technological innovations in exploration.
3. Describe Portugal and Spain’s first voyages of exploration and the alternative routes explored by France, England, and the
Netherlands.
4. Describe the world civilizations Europeans encountered as they explored and assess the impact of Chinese, Islamic, and West
African civilizations on European exploration.
5. Describe the colonial empires established by Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and England in the Americas.
5.
Explain the factors that led to the origins of the Atlantic slave trade and assess its impact on individuals and societies.
6.
Assess the impact of disease on conquest and colonization.
7. Explain the concept of the Columbian exchange; give examples, and evaluate its impact on Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
8. Explain the concept of the commercial revolution and describe the system of global trade that placed Europe at the center of political, economic, and cultural power.
9. Discuss the importance of trade and empire as a measure of national power and describe how the policy of mercantilism relates to national goals.
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S ECTION 1
European Explorations
in the East
H I - LIGHT
THE TEXT AS YOU READ ; NOTE ITEMS IN BOLD .
1.
What motivated European voyages of exploration?
2.
What goods from the East were in high demand and who
controlled the trade in these goods until the 1400s?
3.
What new technologies were key to exploration, and from
whom did Europeans acquire these technologies?
4.
Who were the first Europeans to explore an all-water route
to Asia and what role did government play in the project?
5.
How was conflict avoided and competition for territory
divided between Portugal and Spain?
6.
What other northern Atlantic Powers began to challenge
Portugal’s control of trade in the East?
European Look Outward The thousand year period in European
history known as the Middle Ages (about 500-1500) is often thought
off as a period of decline and backwardness. While Europeans certainly
struggled during the first 500 years of the era, a dynamic expansion of
European society characterized the next 500 years.
A major factor in Europe’s revival were the contacts Europeans made
with Islamic and Chinese civilizations. Around 1100, European armies
called “Crusaders” battled Muslims to return the Holy Land to Christian control. In 1275, the Italian trader Marco Polo reached China and
witnesses the amazing prosperity and technological sophistication of
the Chinese. These important early contacts set the stage for European
explorations of lands across the oceans beginning in the early 1400s.
The desire to grow rich, to spread Christianity, and to expand national
power (summarized by historians as the motivations of “God, Glory,
and Gold) coupled with advances in technology, gave birth to an age of
European exploration. Five Western European “Atlantic Powers”-Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, England, and France--began a competition for trade dominance and for empire.
Europeans Seek New Trade Routes The desire for new sources of
wealth spurred exploration. Through overseas exploration, merchants
and traders hoped to benefit from trade in spices and other luxury
goods from Asia. The people of Europe had been introduced to these
goods during the Crusades, the wars fought between Christians and
Muslims from 1096 through the late 1200s. After the Crusades ended,
Europeans continued to demand pepper, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon, all of which added flavor to the bland foods of Europe. Because
demand for these goods was greater than the supply, merchants could
charge high prices and thus make great profits.
Middle Eastern Muslims and the Italians controlled the trade of goods
from East to West. Muslims sold spices from the Asian “Spice Islands”
and silk and porcelain from China to Italian merchants who developed
a monopoly (total control) on trade routes across the Mediterranean
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Sea. Italian merchants resold the items at increased prices to merchant
throughout Europe. By the 1400s, other European merchants—as well
as the newly powerful monarchs of England, Spain, Portugal, and
France—sought to bypass the Italian merchants and seek sea routes directly to Asia.
The desire to spread Christianity also motivated Europeans to explore.
The Crusades had left Westerners not only with a taste for spices, but
also with an intensified desire to challenge the Muslim world. Europeans believed that they had both a sacred duty to continue fighting Muslims and to convert non-Christians throughout the world. This idea
was particularly powerful in Spain. Since the 700s, Spaniards had been
fighting Muslim invaders known as the Moors. This struggle, known as
the Reconquista (reconquest) produced a culture of superbly talented
soldiers eager to fight to extend Spanish power as well as the Catholic
faith.
Technology Makes Exploration Possible While “God, glory, and
gold” were the primary motives for exploration, advances in technology
made the voyages of discovery possible. During the 1200s, it would
have been nearly impossible for a European sea captain to cross 3,000
miles of ocean and return again. European ships were not sturdy
enough to endure an ocean voyage. In the 1400s, Portuguese shipbuilders designed a new vessel, the caravel. The caravel was sturdier than
earlier vessels and its triangular sails, adopted from the Arabs, allowed
it to sail effectively against the wind.
Europeans also improved their navigational techniques. To better determine their location at sea, sailors used the astrolabe, which the Muslims had perfected. Using an astrolabe, a sea captain could calculate
latitude--a ship’s location north or south of the equator. Explorers were
also able to track direction more accurately by using a magnetic compass, a Chinese invention that indicates magnetic north (also brought
to Europe’s attention by Arab mariners). European exploration was indebted to the cultural contact with these non-Western civilizations.
A navigator determined the latitude of a ship at sea by measuring the
sun's noon altitude
Portugal Leads the Way The leader in developing and applying
these sailing innovations was Portugal, the first European country to
establish trading outposts along the west coast of Africa. Eventually,
Portuguese explorers pushed farther east into the Indian Ocean.
Portugal took the lead in overseas exploration, in part, due to strong
government support. The nation’s most enthusiastic supporter of exploration was Prince Henry “the Navigator,” the son of Portugal’s
king. In 1415 when he helped conquer the Muslim city of Ceuta in
North Africa, invaders found exotic stores filled with pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and other spices. In addition, they encountered large supplies of gold, silver, and jewels. Henry returned to Portugal determined to reach the source of these treasures in the East. In 1419, Henry
founded a navigation school on the southwestern coast of Portugal.
Mapmakers, instrument makers, shipbuilders, scientists, and sea captains gathered there to perfect their skills.
Within several years, Portuguese ships began sailing down the western
coast of Africa. By the time Henry died in 1460, the Portuguese had established a series of trading posts along western Africa’s shores. There,
they traded with Africans for such profitable items as gold and ivory.
Eventually, they traded for African captives to be used as slaves.
Portuguese Sailors Reach Asia To reach Asia by sea, the Portuguese would have to sail around the southern tip of Africa. In 1488, Por4
tuguese captain Bartolomeu Dias ventured far down the coast of Africa until he and his crew reached the tip of Africa. The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama followed, continuing exploration up the east
African coast. In 1498, he reached India. Filling his ships with pepper
and cinnamon, he returned to Portugal with a cargo that was worth 60
times the cost of the voyage. Portugal now a direct sea route to India
and challenged the Italian monopoly of the spice trade.
Spain The Spanish monarchs also desired a direct sea route to Asia.
Spanish monarchs had been focused for centuries on defeating and
eliminating Muslim conquerers, known in Spanish history as the
Moors. In 1492, the Reconquista (reconquest) was accomplished, the
Moors were finally defeated, and Spain could now turn its attention to
other things. An Italian sea captain, Christopher Columbus, convinced King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to finance a bold
plan: to find a route to Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean.
In October of that year, Columbus reached an island in the Caribbean
Sea. He was mistaken in his thought that he had reached the East Indies, but his voyage opened the way for European colonization of the
Americas.
Spanish competition increased tensions between Spain and Portugal,
but the two countries decided to avoid conflict. The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), brokered by Pope Alexander VI, established a line of demarcation, granting Spain control of areas to the west of the line and
Portugal lands to the east, giving control of most of the Americas to
Spain.
Other Nations Challenge the Portuguese Beginning in the early
1600s, the English and Dutch began to challenge Portugal’s dominance
over the Indian Ocean trade. The Dutch Republic, also known as the
Netherlands, became a leading sea power. By 1600, the Dutch owned
the largest fleet of ships in the world—20,000 vessels. Pressure from
Dutch and also English fleets eroded Portuguese control of the Asian
region. The Dutch and English then battled one another for dominance
of the area.
EUROPEANS IN THE EAST
Shows the routes of the Portuguese explorations of Africa and the areas in Africa and Asia under the control of the Atlantic powers by 1700.
Both countries had formed trading companies to establish and direct
trade throughout Asia. These companies had the power to mint money,
make treaties, and even raise their own armies. The Dutch East India Company dominated the spice trade and the islands of the
Dutch East Indies, while the British East India Company eventually pushed its way into India, a rich source of raw cotton, tea, spices,
and opium for British traders.
As the Europeans battled for a share of the profitable Indian Ocean
trade, their influence inland in Asia remained limited. European traders did take control of many port cities, but their impact rarely spread
beyond the ports. During the first era of globalization, the peoples of
Asia remained largely unaffected by European contact.
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S ECTION 2
Global Encounters
H I - LIGHT
THE TEXT AS YOU READ ; NOTE ITEMS IN BOLD .
1.
Chinese history is marked by frequent changes in the
dynasties that rule: what made it possible for the Chinese
people to accept these changes?
2.
Why did Emperor Yongle support voyages of exploration and
why was this unusual in Chinese history? Why were the
voyages abandoned?
3.
What does the clash between the Islamic world and the
European world first in Spain and later in Palestine reveal
about Europe?
4.
Why was the “third encounter” between Europeans and the
Islamic world particularly important for Westerners?
The Age of Exploration marks the beginning of truly global interactions
among the civilizations of the world, the beginning of modern “globalization.” What cultures did Europeans encounter, learn from, and begin
to trade with?
China
When the Italian trader Marco Polo visited China in the 1200s, he was
astonished by the wealth and technological advancements of China.
Hundreds of years before they were known in the Western world,
paper, the compass, gunpowder, printing and strong metals were developed by the Chinese. When Marco Polo returned to Europe, he wrote
about what he saw but few Europeans believed him. Yet, the lure of
China and its luxuries helped inspire Europeans to explore the world.
Many of the luxury goods Westerners desired came from China across
a long land route--the Silk Road-- from China to the Middle East. In
turn, Arab traders transported goods on the next leg of the journey
West. Westerners wanted spices, silks, porcelain, and later tea, but
they wanted an efficient, all-water route to reduce costs and enhance
profits from their sale. For Europeans merchants outside Italy, the goal
of the early voyages of exploration was to find an all-water route to the
riches of the East that would cut out the Italian and Arab middlemen.
Mongols and Mings The story of China’s remarkably history is usually told through “dynastic cycles”--families of emperors who rise to
power and then fall. Remarkably, while the imperial political system in
China (rule by emperors) remained unchanged for thousands of years,
the Chinese were able to accept new ruling dynasties as the will of the
gods, the “mandate of heaven.”
In the 13th century, the Chinese endured conquest by invading nomadic horsemen from Central Asia, the Mongols, led by the remarkable Genghis Khan. China became part of the vast Mongol Empire
(see map on the next page and note the route of Marco Polo in yellow).
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The Mongols adopted the Chinese name Yuan for their dynasty, established a new capital city at Beijing, and vastly expanded Chinese trade
with the Middle East.
The explorations, however, did not survive the deaths of Yongle and
Zheng He. The successor emperors of Yongle had other priorities, turning their attention to other military issues. China had always been a
large, complex, land-based empire, and maintaining Chinese security
in the face the continuing threats from the Mongols pressing on their
northern borders absorbed the resources and attentions of the emperors. So the voyages were abandoned and students of history are left to
wonder how things might have been different if Chinese mariners had
continued their voyages around Africa from the east, just as the Portuguese were making way around Africa from the west.
The Islamic Connection
But by the middle of the 1300s, political infighting among the Mongols,
heavy taxation of farmers in the countryside, and the outbreak of the
bubonic plague weakened the Mongols (who as outsiders were never
popular among the Chinese). A new dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, came
to power just as the era of European exploration was beginning.
In the 600s on the Arabian Peninsula, a new religious, cultural, and
political force had appeared. Founded by the Prophet Muhammed,
Islam spread throughout the Middle East, swept westward across
North Africa, crossing into Spain, and moved north and eastward into
central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The map below shows the
extent of Islamic conquests a little over a century after the death of Muhammed.
It was during the reign of the second Ming Emperor, Yongle (yunglu), that China began an astonishing project of sea exploration. The
Mongols still controlled much of central Asia along with the caravan
routes to the Middle East--the Silk Road. Yongle, then, sought to establish a sea link around Africa as an alternative to the land route, and he
sponsored a series of voyages under the leadership of the great Chinese
admiral Zeng He (jung-huh). From 1405 to the 1430s, fleets as large
as 300 ships extended Chinese influence across the Indian Ocean and
down the coast of Africa (one of the larger Zeng’s larger vessels could
carry six times the capacity of Columbus’s entire fleet).
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The Islamic and Western worlds experienced three significant encounters in the centuries leading up to the era of exploration in the 1400s.
The first happened in the 700s when Islamic armies pushed westward
exploiting European weakness after the fall of the Roman Empire and
establishing control over the Iberian peninsula (Spain and
Portugal)--control that lasted for over 700 years. Later, as Europe revived in the 11th and 12th centuries, it was now Western “Crusader” armies that marched eastward. During the Crusades, Europeans tried
to reclaim Palestine, the “Holy Land” of Jesus’s birth, and place it under Christian control. After some initial successes, Crusader armies
were pushed out of the region and Palestine was once again under Muslim control.
vances from Arab mariners: improved ship and sail design and the use
the astrolabe and the compass.
Finally, it was through contacts with the Muslim world that Europeans
learned abound another key invention: gunpowder. Invented by the
Chinese and used as a weapon of war as early as the 1100s, it was the
Mongols who spread the technology to the Middle East where Italian
traders encountered it. First used in battle in Europe in Italy in the
1300s, by the 1400 and 1500s, Portuguese and Spanish ships were
equipped with cannon and manned by sailors who carried guns.
West Africa
West Africa was the location of several large empires that flourished
between 300 and 1500. They carried on extensive trade with the Roman Empire and later with Islamic civilizations. The region was famous for its gold and ivory as well as its ironwork and leather production.
The empire of Mali arose between the 1200s and 1400s and grew prosperous through trade across the Sahara Dessert with Arab traders. Control of the gold and copper trade across West and North Africa made
Mali the richest African kingdom of its day.
Although the Crusades failed in their original purpose, they brought
about a third important point of contact between the Islamic and Western worlds: additional trade and cultural interactions from the 1100s1400s. It was Arab merchants who controlled the flow of luxury goods
from the East, so Western merchants had to do business with them. In
so doing, Westerners learned important business techniques from Islamic traders. The also learned about key naval and navigational ad-
As a result of contrast with Arab traders, Mali adopted Islam peacefully, a result of cultural contacts not conquest. When Mali ruler
Mansa Musa made a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325, his entourage was
reported to include 60,000 slaves, vast caravans of goods, and over 80
camels carrying packages of gold. He returned to Mali bringing back
scholars, artists, engineers, and architects who transformed the city of
Timbuktu into a for learning and the arts.
After Mansa Musa’s death, Mali began to decline and was replaced by
the Songhai Empire in the 1450s. When Portuguese explorers first arrived in Songhai they encountered an empire with a flourishing economy, complex trade routes across the Sahara and cities as large and
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complex as their capital city of Lisbon.
WEST%AFRICAN%KINGDOMS%
West African kingdoms: note the locations of cities and trade routes.
Songhai was the largest empire in African history, dominating thousands of tribes and controlling a region comparable in size to the continental United States. The central regions included the major cities of
Gao and Timbuktu--Timbuktu was one of the world’s foremost centers
of Islamic scholarship.
Mansa Musa on a golden throne. Note lines of communication that radiate from Mali urban centers.
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S ECTION 3
Europeans in the
Americas
HI - LIGHT THE TEXT AS YOU READ ; NOTE ITEMS IN BOLD
1.
What did Columbus believe he accomplished; what impact
did he have on the peoples he encountered?
2.
What areas of the New World did Cortes and Pizarro add to
the Spanish Empire? What factors contributed to their
conquests?
3.
What impacts did the Spanish conquest and control have on
native populations and on the global economy?
4.
What made the colony of Brazil profitable?
5.
What Europeans sought an alternative route to the East--the
Northwest Passage?
6.
Where did the French built New France and how did their
colony contrast England’s empire in North America?
7.
How did the colonies establish by the English in Virginia and
New England differ?
8.
How was the struggle for North America resolved?
The Spanish and the Portuguese
The Voyages of Columbus Competition for wealth in Asia among
European nations was fierce. This competition prompted the Genoese
sea captain Christopher Columbus to make a daring voyage for
Spain in 1492. Instead of sailing south around Africa and then east, Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic in search of an alternate trade
route to Asia and its riches. The Niña, Pinta, and Santa María sailed
out of a Spanish port around dawn on August 3, 1492. In a matter of
months, Columbus’s fleet would reach the shores of what Europeans
saw as an astonishing new world.
Columbus never reached Asia, but always believed he had, naming the
peoples he encountered “Indians,” believing them to be Asians. Instead, he stepped onto an island somewhere in the Caribbean Sea,
claiming the island for Spain. That event would bring together the peoples of Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
Columbus made a total of four voyages to the Americas, on his second
voyage 17 ships transported 1,000 Spanish settlers to the New World,
beginning the process of European colonization of the Americas. Casualties of the process were the Native American populations of the islands, the Tainos and Arawak Indians, wiped out by a combination of
disease, warfare, and forced labor.
Spanish Conquests in Mexico In 1519, the Spaniard Hernan
Cortés landed on the shores of Mexico. After colonizing several Caribbean islands, the Spanish had turned their attention to the American
mainland. Cortés marched inland, looking to claim new lands for
Spain. Cortés and the many other Spanish explorers who followed him
were known as conquistadors (conquerors). Lured by rumors of vast
lands filled with gold and silver, conquistadors carved out colonies in
regions that would become Mexico, South America, and the United
States. The Spanish were the first European settlers in the Americas.
As a result of their colonization, the Spanish greatly enriched their em10
pire and left a mark on the cultures of North and South America that
exists today.
Soon after landing in Mexico, Cortés learned of the vast and wealthy
Aztec Empire in the region’s interior. After marching for weeks
through difficult mountain passes, Cortés and his force of roughly 600
men finally reached the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City).
Cortés was able to enlist the help of various native groups, who resented Aztec power, to fight on his side. Finally, and most important,
the natives could do little to stop the invisible warrior that marched
alongside the Spaniards—disease. Measles, smallpox, and typhus were
just some of the diseases Europeans were to bring with them to the
Americas. Native Americans had never been exposed to these diseases.
Thus, they had developed no natural immunity to them. As a result,
they died by the hundreds of thousands.
Spanish Conquests in Peru In 1532, another conquistador, Francisco Pizarro, marched a small force into South America. Pizarro and
his army of about 200 set about the conquest of the Incas and met the
Incan ruler who brought a force of about 30,000 mostly unarmed men
for the meeting. The Spaniards waited in ambush the Incans, seized,
the Incan leader, and offered to ransom. However, after receiving the
ransom, the Spaniards strangled the Incan king. Demoralized by their
leader’s death, the remaining Incan force retreated. Pizarro then
marched on the Incan capital, Cuzco, capturing it without a struggle.
As Cortés and Pizarro conquered the civilizations of the Americas, fellow conquistadors defeated other native peoples. Spanish explorers
also conquered the Maya in Yucatan and Guatemala. By the middle of
the 16th century, Spain had created an American empire. It included
New Spain (Mexico and Guatemala), as well as other lands in Central
and South America and the Caribbean.
Despite being greatly outnumbered, Cortés and his men conquered the
Aztecs in 1521. Several factors played a key role in the stunning victory.
First, the Spanish had the advantage of superior weaponry. Aztec arrows were no match for the Spaniards’ muskets and cannons. Second,
Spain’s Pattern of Conquest In building their new American empire, the Spanish lived among them and imposed their Spanish culture
upon them. The Spanish settlers to the Americas were mostly men. As
a result, relationships between Spanish settlers and native women were
common. These relationships created a large mestizo—or mixed Spanish and Native American—population.
In their effort to exploit the land for its precious resources, the Spanish
forced Native Americans to work within a system known as
encomienda. Under this system, natives farmed, ranched, or mined
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for Spanish landlords. These landlords had received the rights to the
natives’ labor from Spanish authorities. The holders of encomiendas
promised the Spanish rulers that they would act fairly and respect the
workers. However, many abused the natives and worked many laborers
to death, especially inside dangerous mines.
For the Spanish, the New World was a rich source of gold and silver,
especially the silver mines of Peru and Bolivia. Silver production had
global economic impacts, increasing the European money supply and
promoted global trade expansion. Large quantities of America silver
made possible the purchase of Asian spices, silk, and porcelain.
The French, English, and Dutch in North America
Spain’s successful colonization efforts in the Americas did not go unnoticed. Other European nations, such as England, France, and the Netherlands, soon became interested in obtaining their own valuable colonies. The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in 1494, had divided the
newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal. However, other
European countries ignored the treaty. They set out to build their own
empires in the Americas. This resulted in a struggle for North America.
Spain claimed the route around the southern tip of South America.
Other European countries hoped to find an easier and more direct
route to the Pacific. If it existed, a northwest passage through North
America to Asia would become highly profitable. Not finding the route,
the French, English, and Dutch instead established colonies in North
America.
New France French explorers sailed west with dreams of reaching
the East Indies. They sailed into the gulf that leads into the St Lawrence rivers, founding the cities of Montreal and Quebec, laying the
foundations of a Canadian empire in the north: New France. Sailing
down the Mississippi River, French explorers claimed much of the interior mid-west of what will become the United States.
The Portuguese in Brazil One area of South America that remained
outside of Spanish control was Brazil. In 1500, Pedro Cabral claimed
the land for Portugal. During the 1530s, colonists began settling Brazil’s coastal region. Finding little gold or silver, the settlers began growing sugar. Clearing out huge swaths of land, the Portuguese built giant
sugar plantations. The demand for sugar in Europe was great, and the
colony soon enriched Portugal. Tragically, an enslaved population of
Africans became the answer to the need for labor on sugar plantations.
France’s North American empire was immense. But it was sparsely
populated. By 1760, the European population of New France had
grown to only about 65,000. The French were not interested in building a territorial empire but rather a trading one based on the fur trade.
Unlike the English, the French were less interested in occupying territories than they were in making money off the land.
Explorations inspire the English In 1606, a company of London
investors received from King James I a charter to found a colony in
North America. In late 1606, the company’s three ships, and more than
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100 settlers, pushed out of an English harbor. About four months later,
in 1607, they reached the coast of Virginia. The colonists claimed the
land as theirs. They named the settlement Jamestown in honor of
their king.
The colony’s start was disastrous. The settlers were more interested in
finding gold than in planting crops. During the first few years, seven
out of every ten people died of hunger, disease, or battles with the Native Americans.
Despite their nightmarish start, the colonists eventually gained a foothold in their new land. Jamestown became England’s first permanent
settlement in North America. The colony’s outlook improved greatly
after farmers there discovered tobacco. High demand in England for
tobacco turned it into a profitable cash crop.
In 1620, a group known as Pilgrims founded a second English colony,
Plymouth, in Massachusetts. They were part of a religious group
called the Puritans who were persecuted for their religious beliefs in
England, so these colonists sought religious freedom in a new world.
Ten years later, a second group also sought religious freedom from England’s Anglican Church. They established a larger colony at nearby Massachusetts Bay with its capital of Boston.
The Puritans wanted to build a model community that would set an example for other Christians to follow. Although the colony experienced
early difficulties, it gradually took hold. This was due in large part to
the numerous families in the colony, unlike the mostly single, male
population in Jamestown.
The Dutch Found New Netherland Following the English and
French into North America were the Dutch. The Dutch explored and
claimed the region along the Hudson River. They established a fur
trade with the Iroquois Indians and built trading posts along the Hudson River at Fort Orange (now Albany) and on Manhattan Island.
Dutch merchants formed the Dutch West India Company and in 1621,
the Dutch government granted the company permission to colonize the
region and expand the fur trade. The Dutch holdings in North America
became known as New Netherland.
Although the Dutch company profited from its fur trade, it was slow to
attract Dutch colonists. To encourage settlers, the colony opened its
doors to a variety of peoples. Gradually more Dutch, as well as Germans, French, Scandinavians, and other Europeans, settled the area.
New Netherland was by far the most religiously diverse of the European colonies founded in the Americas.
The Struggle for North America
As they expanded their settlements in North America, the nations of
France, England, and the Netherlands battled each other for colonial
supremacy.
The English Oust the Dutch To the English, New Netherland separated their northern and southern colonies. In 1664, the English king,
Charles II, granted his brother, the Duke of York, permission to drive
out the Dutch. When the duke’s fleet arrived at New Netherland, the
Dutch surrendered without firing a shot. The Duke of York claimed the
colony for England and renamed it New York.
With the Dutch gone, the English colonized the Atlantic coast of North
America. By 1750, about 1.2 million English settlers lived in 13 colonies
from Maine to Georgia.
England Battles France The English soon became hungry for more
land for their colonial population. So they pushed farther west into the
continent. By doing so, they collided with France’s North American
holdings. As their colonies expanded, France and England began to interfere with each other. It seemed that a major conflict was on the horizon.
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In 1754 a dispute over land claims in the Ohio Valley led to a war between the British and French on the North American continent. The
conflict became known as the French and Indian War. The war became part of a larger conflict known as the Seven Years’ War. Britain
and France, along with their European allies, also battled for supremacy in Europe, the West Indies, and India.
In North America, the British colonists, with the help of the British
Army, defeated the French in 1763. The French surrendered their
North American holdings. As a result of the war, the British seized control of the eastern half of North America.
14
S ECTION 4
Transformations: Of Populations and Environments
HI - LIGHT THE TEXT AS YOU READ ; NOTE ITEMS IN BOLD
Describe features of slavery in Africa.
1. What factors led to the enslavement of Africans for labor in the
Americas?
2. For what purposes did the Spanish and the Portuguese import
enslaved Africans?
3. What aspect of the Atlantic slave trade set it apart from other
instances of slavery in history?
4. What was the “Middle Passage” and what were its horrors;
what were its consequences?
5. Define the concept “Columbian Exchange.”
6. What food transplanted from the Americas most changed the
world’s food supply? What foods and animals unknown in the
Americas were brought there by Europeans?
7. Assess the impact of the transplantation of disease on the
Americas.
Impacts of Slavery and Disease
European conquest and colonization dramatically altered the population of the Americas, but European settlement in the New World was
just one part of a larger, dramatic, and tragic story of population
change. The forced transplantation of Africans in the slave trade and
the accidental transplantations of diseases that decimated Native
American populations are important parts of the story of exploration
and colonization.
The Causes of African Slavery Beginning around 1500, European
colonists in the Americas who needed cheap labor began using enslaved Africans on plantations and farms.
Slavery had existed in Africa for centuries. In most regions, it was a
relatively minor institution. The spread of Islam into Africa during the
seventh century, however, ushered in an increase in slavery and the
slave trade. Muslim rulers in Africa justified enslavement with the Muslim belief that non- Muslim prisoners of war could be bought and sold
as slaves. As a result, between 650 and 1600, Muslims transported
about 17 million Africans to the Muslim lands of North Africa and
Southwest Asia.
In most African and Muslim societies, slaves had some legal rights and
an opportunity for social mobility. In the Muslim world, a few slaves
even occupied positions of influence and power. Some served as generals in the army. In African societies, slaves could escape their bondage
in numerous ways, including marrying into the family they served.
The Demand for Africans The first Europeans to explore Africa
were the Portuguese during the 1400s. Initially, Portuguese traders
were more interested in trading for gold than for captured Africans.
That changed with the colonization of the Americas, as natives began
dying by the millions.
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Europeans saw advantages in using Africans in the Americas. First,
many Africans had been exposed to European diseases and had built
up some immunity. Second, many Africans had experience in farming
and could be taught plantation work. Third, Africans were less likely to
escape because they did not know their way around the new land.
Fourth, their skin color made it easier to catch them if they escaped
and tried to live among others.
In time, the buying and selling of Africans for work in the Americas—
known as the Atlantic slave trade—became a massive enterprise. By
the time the Atlantic slave trade ended around 1870, Europeans had
imported about nearly ten million Africans to the Americas.
Spain and Portugal Lead the Way The Spanish took an early lead
in importing Africans to the Americas. By 1650, nearly 300,000 Africans labored throughout Spanish America on plantations and in gold
and silver mines. The Portuguese, however, began to surpass the Spanish in the importation of Africans to the Americas. During the 1600s,
Brazil dominated the European sugar market. As the colony’s sugar
industry grew, so too did European colonists’ demand for cheap labor.
During the 17th century, more than 40 percent of all Africans brought
to the Americas went to Brazil.
While race, historically, was not a factor in slavery--most often, slaves
were captured and exploited as prisoners of war. However, the slavery
that developed in the Americas was based on race and on an ideology
of racial inferiority. Europeans came to view black people as naturally inferior and so a process of treating human beings like any other
possession that could be bought and sold was made easier. Because of
this, slavery in the Americas was a permanent condition and a status
that was passed on to the children of slaves.
The Horrors of the “Middle Passage” After being captured, African men and women were shipped to the Americas as part of a profitable trade network. Along the way, millions of Africans died.
One African, Olaudah Equiano, recalled the inhumane conditions on
his trip from West Africa to the West Indies at age 12 in 1762. “I was
soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation
[greeting] in my nostrils as I never experienced in my life; so that,
with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became
so sick and low that I was not able to eat . . . but soon, to my grief, two
of the white men offered me eatables; and on my refusing to eat, one
of them held me fast by the hands...while the other flogged me severely.”
England Dominates the Slave Trade As England’s presence in the
Americas grew, it came to dominate the Atlantic slave trade. From
1690 until England abolished the slave trade in 1807, it was the leading
carrier of enslaved Africans. By the time the slave trade ended, the English had transported nearly 1.7 million Africans to their colonies in the
West Indies.
African slaves were also brought to what is now the United States. In
all, nearly 400,000 Africans were sold to Britain’s North American
colonies. Once in North America, however, the slave population steadily grew. By 1830, roughly 2 million slaves toiled in the United States.
Africans packed into a slave ship for the Middle Passage
The Triangular Trade Africans transported to the Americas were
part of a transatlantic trading network known as the triangular
trade. Over one trade route, Europeans transported manufactured
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goods to the west coast of Africa. There, traders exchanged these goods
for captured Africans. The Africans were then transported across the
Atlantic and sold in the West Indies. Merchants bought sugar, coffee,
and tobacco in the West Indies and sailed to Europe with these products.
On another triangular route, merchants carried rum and other goods
from the New England colonies to Africa. There they exchanged their
merchandise for Africans. The traders transported the Africans to the
West Indies and sold them for sugar and molasses. They then sold
these goods to rum producers in New England.
ment of the Americas. Their greatest contribution was their labor. Without their back-breaking work, colonies such as those on Haiti and Barbados may not have survived. In addition to their muscle, enslaved Africans brought their expertise, especially in agriculture. They also
brought their culture. Their art, music, religion, and food continue to
influence American societies.
The influx of so many Africans to the Americas also has left its mark on
the very population itself. From the United States to Brazil, many of
the nations of the Western Hemisphere today have substantial AfricanAmerican populations. Many Latin American countries have sizable
mixed-race populations.
The Columbian Exchange
Conquest and colonization had an enormous impact, too, on the plant
and animal world of the Americans. The global transfer of foods,
plants, and animals during the colonization of the Americas is known
as the Columbian Exchange. Ships from the Americas brought back
a wide array of items that Europeans, Asians, and Africans had never
before seen. They included such plants as tomatoes, squash, pineapples, tobacco, and cacao beans (for chocolate). And they included animals such as the turkey, which became a source of food in the Eastern
Hemisphere.
Consequences of the Slave Trade The Atlantic slave trade had a
profound impact on both Africa and the Americas. In Africa, numerous
cultures lost generations of their fittest members—their young and
able—to European traders and plantation owners. In addition, countless African families were torn apart. Many of them were never reunited. The slave trade devastated African societies in another way: by
introducing guns into the continent.
While they were unwilling participants in the growth of the colonies,
African slaves contributed greatly to the economic and cultural develop-
Perhaps the most important food transfer from the Americas to the
rest of the world was the potato. Inexpensive to grow and nutritious,
potatoes, supplied many essential vitamins and minerals. Over time,
potatoes, became an important and steady part of diets throughout the
world, helping people live longer and boosting the world’s population.
The planting of the first white potato in Ireland and the first sweet potato in China probably changed more lives than the deeds of 100 kings.
Traffic across the Atlantic did not flow in just one direction, however.
Europeans introduced various livestock animals into the Americas.
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These included horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs. Foods from Africa (including some that originated in Asia) migrated west in European ships.
They included bananas, black-eyed peas, and yams. Grains introduced
to the Americas included wheat, rice, barley, and oats.
World’s “most efficient killer.” Those who survived small pox were left
horribly scarred.
Some aspects of the Columbian Exchange had a tragic impact on many
Native Americans. Disease was just as much a part of the Columbian
Exchange as goods and food. The diseases Europeans brought with
them, which included smallpox and measles, led to the deaths of millions of Native Americans. They had no exposure to these diseases and
lacked the immunity to epidemic diseases that Europeans shared.
Sixteenth century illustration of Native American small pox victims.
A Spanish missionary in Mexico described the effects of smallpox on
the Aztecs: “There was a great havoc. Very many died of it. They
could not walk. . . . They could not move; they could not stir; they
could not change position, nor lie on one side; nor face down, nor on
their backs. And if they stirred, much did they cry out. Great was its
destruction.”
Other diseases Europeans brought with them included influenza,
measles, and typhus, but one scholar has called small pox the New
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S ECTION 5
Global Trade
HI - LIGHT THE TEXT AS YOU READ ; NOTE ITEMS IN BOLD
1.
What flowed around the world as part of the “world system
of trade” from Asia, from Africa, and from the Americas?
2.
What did Europeans contribute as part of this global
system?
3.
What was a “joint stock company” and why was the
development of this new business method so important to
global trade?
4.
What was the goal of mercantilism and how did a nation
create and maintain a “favorable balance of trade” under the
system?
5.
Why were colonies a vital part of mercantilism?
6.
What impact did the revolution in global trade have on
A World System of Global Trade
We live in a world today characterized by the term globalization,
which can be defined as the relatively free global flow of investments,
goods and services, workers, and ideas. This world began during the
age of exploration and empire building.
The greatest barrier to globalization in the 1400s were the oceans of
the world. European sailors, map-makers, shipbuilders, merchants, investors, and monarchs were determined to triumph over those barriers
in the era of exploration. One result was the creation of a world system of trade with Europeans at the center of things.
European societies?
Map of the “Spice Islands” of the East Indies, 1600s
Luxury goods from Asia Having reached the East by all-water
routes, Europeans had direct access to the luxury goods they had
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been importing for centuries through Italian and Middle Eastern middlemen. From China, Europeans got silks, porcelain "china," and teas;
from India, indigo dye, cotton textiles and precious stones; and from
the islands of the East Indies, spices such as pepper, cinnamon, and
cloves. Coffee became an important import from the Middle East.
These goods enriched European merchants and changed lives in ordinary ways for many Europeans, altering what they wore and what they
ate and drank. Luxury goods made up one very important link in the
world system of trade but was only one part of this global system.
Commodities from the Americas The enormously profitable commodities of the Americas enriched Europeans, too. The natural resources of the Americas made them the most valuable colonies in the
1600-1700s. The forests of North American provided the abundant supplies of oak needed to maintain European sailing fleets and tobacco
from the Southern colonies fueled a new European habit and lined the
pockets of tobacco traders in Europe. But by far, the most profitable agricultural commodity was Brazilian and Caribbean sugar--called
“white gold.”
Especially in the first century or so, the gold and silver mines of Central
and South America enriched Spain. Since there was little in Europe
that Asians wanted, American silver and gold completed the global trading circle, providing the money Europeans needed to purchase the luxury goods of Asia.
While the world system was global in scope, Europeans dominated
two important parts of the system. Europe became the producer and
supplier to the world of finished products and it was European merchants and European ships that controlled the flow of the goods
around the world.
As a result of overseas colonization and trade, European merchants obtained great wealth. These merchants continued to invest their money
in trade and overseas exploration. Profits from these investments enabled merchants and traders to reinvest even more money in other enterprises. As a result, businesses across Europe grew and flourished.
Labor from Africa Africa, which European traders rounded regularly on their way to the East by sea, at first provided way stations for
replenishing stores for the voyages to Asia. Africa soon became something much more than a obstacle to get around: it was a valuable
source of gold, ivory, and— above all—slave labor for the plantation
economies of the Americas. Within a decade of Columbus's first voyage, African slaves were working in the Americas.
New Business Arrangements A business venture that made much
of this economic activity possible was the joint-stock company. The
joint-stock company worked much like the modern-day corporation,
with investors buying shares of stock in a company. Joint stock companies made is possible to raise large amounts of money for investment,
capital, and provided the protection of limited liability, investors
only risked the money they put into a joint stock company.
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It took large amounts of money to establish overseas colonies. Moreover, while profits may have been great, so were risks. Many ships, for
instance, never completed the long and dangerous ocean voyage. Because joint-stock companies involved numerous investors, the individual members paid only a fraction of the total colonization cost. If the
colony failed, investors lost only their small share. If the colony
thrived, the investors shared in the profits. It was a joint- stock company that was responsible for establishing Jamestown, England’s first
North American colony.
sale of certain goods to exclude foreign countries. The English passed a
series of Navigation Acts which limited trade within its colonies to
English ships and cargos, establishing a specific list of goods that could
not be sold to other countries.
The Growth of Mercantilism
During this time, the nations of Europe adopted a new economic policy
known as mercantilism. The theory of mercantilism held that a country’s power depended mainly on its wealth. Wealth, after all, allowed
nations to build strong navies and purchase vital goods. As a result, the
goal of every nation became the attainment of as much wealth as possible.
According to the theory of mercantilism, a nation could increase its
wealth and power in two ways. First, it could obtain as much gold and
silver as possible. Second, it could establish a favorable balance of
trade, in which it sold more goods than it bought. A nation’s ultimate
goal under mercantilism was to become self-sufficient, not dependent
on other countries for goods.
Mercantilism went hand in hand with colonization, for colonies played
a vital role in this new economic practice. Aside from providing silver
and gold, colonies provided raw materials that could not be found in
the home country, such as wood or furs. In addition to playing the role
of supplier, the colonies also provided a market. The home country
could sell its goods to its colonies.
Government played a powerful role in regulating trade under the system of mercantilism, establishing high tariffs and restrictions on the
Economic Revolution Changes European Society The economic
revolution brought about by global trade spurred the growth of towns
and the rise of a class of merchants who controlled great wealth. While
towns and cities grew in size, much of Europe’s population continued
to live in rural areas and the majority of Europeans remained poor
peasant farmers. More than anything else, the economic revolution increased the wealth of European nations. In addition, mercantilism contributed to the creation of a national identity and helped expand the
power of European monarchs, who became powerful rulers.
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