1. European Encounters and Mercantilism
Chapter 8—Section 2

3. Impact on Native Americans
Europeans were learning of the profitability of the plantation system – relying on what?
Economic benefit of using local forced labor
Disease – Europeans, unknowingly brought measles, mumps, chickenpox, smallpox, typhus and others.
The local people had no built-up natural immunity to these diseases yet.

4. Impact on Africans
With decline of native work force, labor was needed from elsewhere.
Slave trade exploded, especially in Western Africa
Over the next 300 years ( ) almost 10 million people were taken

5. Impact on Europeans
Europeans began to cross the Atlantic creating one of the largest voluntary migrations in world history.
Overseas expansion inflamed national rivalries in Europe causing conflict.
Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494
Growth of trade markets completely changed the world FOREVER.

6. Columbian Exchange
New World crops maize (corn), vanilla, white/sweet potatoes, squash (incl. pumpkin), manioc/cassava,
tobacco, peanuts, tomatoes, pineapples, papaya, avocados 
Old World crops rice, wheat, barley oats, rye, turnips onions, cabbage lettuce, peaches pears, sugar,
olives,
bananas

7. The Introduction of New Diseases
Native Americans had no natural resistance to European diseases
Smallpox, measles, influenza, malaria killed millions
Population of central Mexico may have decreased by more than 30 percent in the 10 years following first contact with Europeans
Devastating Impact
Native American population continued to decline for centuries
Inca Empire decreased from 13 million in 1492 to 2 million in 1600
North American population fell from 2 million in 1492 to 500,000 in 1900—but disease not only factor in decrease of population
Intermittent warfare, other violence also contributed

8. Effects of the Columbian Exchange
Different Foods
Exchange of foods, animals had dramatic impact on later societies
Over time crops native to Americas became staples in diets of Europeans
Foods provided substantial nutrition, helped people live longer
Economics and Gastronomics
Activities like Texas cattle ranching, Brazilian coffee growing not possible without Columbian Exchange; cows, coffee native to Old World
Traditional cuisines changed because of Columbian Exchange
Italian Food Without Tomatoes?
Until contact with Americas, Europeans had never tried tomatoes
Most Europeans thought tomatoes poisonous
By late 1600s, tomatoes had begun to be included in Italian cookbooks

9. The Columbian Exchange
Voyages launched large-scale contact between Europe and Americas.
Interaction with Native Americans led to sweeping cultural changes.
Contact between the two groups led to the widespread exchange of plants, animals, and disease—the Columbian Exchange.
Plants, animals developed in very different ways in hemispheres
Europeans—no potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, turkeys
People in Americas—no coffee, oranges, rice, wheat, sheep, cattle
The Exchange of Goods
Arrival of Europeans in Americas changed all this
Previously unknown foods taken back to Europe
Familiar foods brought to Americas by colonists
Sharing Discoveries
The introduction of beasts of burden to the Americas was a significant development from the Columbian Exchange. The introduction of the horse provided people in the Americas with a new source of labor and transportation.

11. The Exchange can be positive or negative in its effects
In the exchange that started along the coast of Newfoundland and was made widespread by Columbus, disease was the most negative for the Native American population
Fatality rate over a period of two to three generations was 95% for many tribal groups
In some cases, as in the Mohegans case, the fatality rate could be 100%

12. Europeans believed that it was God’s will that Indians died
No germ theory at the time of contact.
Illness in Europe was considered to be the consequence of sin
Indians, who were largely “heathen” or non-Christian were regarded as sinners thus subject to illness as a punishment

13. New World Microbes
Not all pathogens traveled from Europe to the Americas
Syphilis, polio, hepatitis and encephalitis were new world diseases
African slaves were less vulnerable to European diseases than were Indians
Europeans succumbed to Malaria easily

14. Old World Diseases European disease was particularly virulent
Smallpox, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, chicken pox, bubonic plague, scarlet fever and influenza were the most common diseases
Nearly all of the European diseases were communicable by air and touch.
The pathway of these diseases was invisible to both Indians and Europeans

15. Diseases
Smallpox
Bubonic Plague
Measles

16. Disease raced ahead of people
In most cases, Indian peoples became sick even before they had direct contact with Europeans
Trade goods that traveled from tribe to tribe though middlemen were often the source
There is little or no evidence to think that Europeans intentionally infected trade items for trade with Indians to kill them

17. Mainland outbreaks
Diseases, especially smallpox, were transported from the Caribbean to the mainland by the Cortez expedition in the 1630s
A sick African infected the Aztecs of Mexico City
Incubation of smallpox is 14 days—this causes the disease to spread over great distances
Smallpox killed half the Iroquois populations in 1738 and again in 1759
Entire tribe of Mandans died during the winter of

18. Conclusion
All of these exchanges then, of microbes, plants and animals had a dramatic effect on the environment of the New World, and by extension, a dramatic, and often negative effect on the economies and cultures of Indian peoples.

19. Mercantilism New Economic Policy Intense Competition
Founding of colonies, new goods in Europe led to significant changes
1500s, Europeans developed new economic policy, mercantilism
Nation’s strength depended on its wealth
Wealthy nation had power for military and expanded influence
New Economic Policy
Wealth measured by amount of gold, silver possessed by nation
Mercantilists believed there was fixed amount of wealth in world
For one nation to become wealthier, more powerful—had to take wealth, power away from another nation
Mercantilism led to intense competition between nations
Intense Competition

20. Balance of Trade Imports Exports
Mercantilists built wealth two ways—extract gold, silver from mines at home, in colonies; sell more goods than it bought from foreign countries, creating favorable balance of trade
With favorable balance of trade, country received more gold, silver from other nations than it paid to them
Increased its power; weakened foreign competitors
To achieve favorable balance of trade, could reduce amount of imports by placing tariffs on goods
Importer paid tariff, added cost to price of good
Imported goods more expensive, discouraged people from buying
Imports
Encourage exports that could sell for higher prices than raw materials
Countries encouraged manufacturing and export of manufactured goods
Governments provided subsidies to help start new industries
Exports

21. Controlling Sources
Third approach for favorable balance of trade, controlling sources
Nation that controlled own sources would not need to import from competing nations
Why important
Country did not need to spend own money to obtain raw materials
Foreign countries considered rivals, might become active enemy, cut off supply of raw materials
European nations worked to become more self-sufficient
Nations began to establish colonies