• Silk Routes across Asia to the Mediterranean basin

• Maritime routes across the Indian Ocean

• Trans-Saharan routes across North Africa

• Northern European links with the Black Sea

• Western European sea and river trade

• South China Sea and lands of Southeast Asia

 

• Exchange of products and ideas

• Expansion of overseas territorial claims and European emigration to North and South America

• Demise of Aztec and Inca Empires

• Legacy of a rigid class system and dictatorial rule in Latin America

• Forced migration of Africans who had been enslaved

• Colonies’ imitation of the culture and social patterns of their parent countries

 

• European trading posts along the coast

• Trade in slaves, gold, and other resources

 

• Colonization by small groups of merchants (India, the Indies, China)

• Influence of trading companies (Portuguese, Dutch, British)

• Western Hemisphere agricultural products, such as corn, potatoes, and tobacco, changed European lifestyles.

• European horses and cattle changed the lifestyles of American Indians.

• European diseases, such assmallpox, killed many American Indians.

 

• Shortage of labor to grow cash crops led to the use of African slaves.

• Slavery was based on race.

• European plantation system in the Caribbean and the Americas destroyed indigenous economics and damaged the environment.

• mercantilism: An economic practice adopted by European colonial powers in an effort to become self-sufficient; based on the theory that colonies existed for the benefit of the mother country

 

• European maritime nations competed for overseas markets, colonies, and resources.

• A new economic system emerged:

– New money and banking systems were created.

– Economic practices such as mercantilism evolved.

– Colonial economies were limited by the economic needs of the mother country.

 

• Gold and silver exported to Europe and Asia

• Impact on indigenous empires of the Americas

• Impact on Spain and international trade

• Creation of foreign enclaves to control trade

• Imperial policy of controlling foreign influences and trade

• Increase in European demand for Chinese goods (tea, porcelain)

 

• Characterized by a powerless emperor controlled by a military leader (shogun)

• Adopted policy of isolation to limit foreign influences