Global Economic Systems Essential Question: How did mercantilism encourage colonial expansion abroad?

Columbian Exchange In the Columbian Exchange, plants and animals were traded between Europe and other parts of the world.  Crops from the New World affected European food supplies.  Diseases, such as smallpox, had a devastating impact on Native American communities.  Native Americans were forced to work in terrible conditions in a system call Encomienda.

Columbian Exchange

European Rivals The Dutch reached India in 1595 and established the East India Company as a trading monopoly.  The Dutch were superior on the sea, having invented an advanced and versatile cargo ship called a fluyt. The development of a money-based economy and banking in Holland contributed to a commercial revolution there.  The Dutch West India Company participated in trading enslaved Africans to the Americas.

Atlantic Slave Trade Slavery had been practiced in Africa since ancient times, but slave traders expanded operations there due to the increased demand for slaves on American plantations.  The desire of slave traders to provide a constant supply of enslaved persons, increased warfare in Africa.  The slave trade had devastating effects on some West African societies.

Enslaved Africans in the Americas There were several reasons Africans came to be enslaved in the Americas. Sugarcane plantations were established in the Americas in the 1500s Growing sugarcane requires many laborers. There were too few Native Americans (many of whom had died from European diseases) to supply the needed labor force. 

Triangle Trade The Middle Passage or slave trade business added a third leg to the trade cycle connecting the old world and new.  This system became known as triangular trade. 

Commercial Revolution European colonial expansion around the world producing an increase in European trade was one of the first steps in the development of a world economy.  Mercantilism dominated economic thought throughout the seventeenth century.  Mercantilist theory that there is a fixed amount of wealth in the world based on gold and money.  The colonies were sources of raw materials for manufactured goods, which Europeans could trade to increase their wealth.

Extension  Read the "Economics of History" activity 17.2 and complete the following: Copy the three economic terms and their definitions into your notes. Answer the three (3) comprehension questions in complete sentences, explain your answers using specific information from the reading or the lesson.