4.8: Continuity and Change from 1450 to 1750

• Better technology enabled the Western and European hemispheres to connect

• Western European maritime powers established trading post empires throughout Afro-Eurasia

• Religion and cultural practices continued to be spread

• Coercive labor systems continued to exist but new forms also developed

• World truly became a global economy during this time period

Transoceanic Travel and Trade

• Technologies that made long-distance ocean travel easier: astrolabe, magnetic compass, lateen sail, caravel

• The result of the connection of the two hemispheres was the Columbian Exchange

• Cultural changes that occurred included the spread of religion by missionaries and the creation of new syncretic belief systems

Economic Changes

• Europeans came to dominate global trade at the expense of Arab, Indian, and Chinese merchants
• Also made lots of wealth transporting goods from one region to another

• Rise of silver as a global currency

Colonies in the Americas

• While trading post empires were established in the Indian Ocean, large land-based empires were built in the Americas

• Silver mined from Americas

Mercantilism and Capitalism

• The expansion of trade and the conquests of new colonies brought great wealth to European powers
• This was what was supposed to happen through mercantilist policies

• We also see rise of joint-stock companies in which private investors share the risks and rewards of global trading opportunities

Effects of the New Global Economy

• The increased circulation of silver on the global economy would later cause inflation

• One continuity is the regional markets in Europe, Africa, and Asia continued to prosper

• One change is the rise of funding of the arts thanks to the extra wealth

Demand for Labor Intensifies

• Atlantic slave trade intensified thanks to the European conquests of the Americas

• Africans would be captured and end up on American plantations to produce cash crops like sugar, cotton, and tobacco

• Some African communities experienced a gender imbalance and population decline
• Crops from the Columbian Exchange, like manioc and yams, however, countered this

Change & Community of Coerced Labor Systems

• Traditional coerced labor systems like serfdom continued to exist

• New forms of coerced systems, like the encomienda and hacienda systems, were also developed

• Existing systems like the mit’a system were reappropriated to fit the Spanish’s needs

New Social Structures

• Casta system in Latin America was based on race and ethnicity

• White Europeans or Americans of European descent possessed the majority of wealth and political power