1.8-1.10

What was the Columbian Exchange?

The global transfer of goods, animals, plants, cultural practices, and diseases between the Old and New Worlds, triggered by European imperialism.

How did disease affect indigenous populations in the Americas?

Diseases like smallpox decimated native populations, leading to the “Great Dying,” with some regions seeing up to a 90% decline in population.

Disease= transported from Europe to America

Which foods were transferred from the Americas to Europe?

Maize, tomatoes, potatoes, and cacao.

Food from Europe to America

Rice and wheat

Consequence of the food exchange

Led to a better diet which bettered living conditions and increased life expectancy and life spans

What minerals were exported from the Americas to Europe and what was the result?

Gold and silver, especially from the Incas and Aztecs; they enriched Spain and helped fund further colonization.

effects of the increasing European wealth due to American Minerals

Replaced the feudalistic system with Capitalism

Feudalism

• A system where peasants lived and worked on the land of a noble in exchage for armed protection from nobles

Capitalism

• an economic system based on private ownership and a free and open exchange of goods between property owners

  • Beginning of capitalist influence and these states still operated mostly on mercantilism

Enslaved people

From the old world to the new world

What was the primary cause of the shift in European economic power from Mediterranean to Atlantic states?

The rise of exploration and maritime empires, which brought wealth to Atlantic states through global trade.

Antwerp(in the Netherlands)

Became one of the most prosperous European trade ports during early globalization due to its central location

Amsterdam

Replaced Antwerp as the dominant trading port of Europe

Spanish Casta System

organized american societies into a hierchy based on race and origin of birth

• natives at the bottom

Encomienda System

To provide protection and Christian teaching to the indigenous laborers in exchange for labor that led to the abuse of the native population

Why did the Encomienda System resemble slavery in practice?

Because Spain’s distance made it hard to enforce protections, leading to exploitation of indigenous people.

Why did Europeans shift from using native labor to enslaved Africans?

Natives died from disease and often escaped due to their knowledge of the land. Africans had more immunity and were unfamiliar with the terrain.

Crops driving the plantation economy

Cash crops like sugarcane and coffee.

What was the plantation economy in the New World and why was it profitable?

The plantation economy relied on growing a few cash crops, like sugarcane and coffee, for export. The year-round growing seasons made large-scale agriculture profitable, generating significant wealth for European parent economies.

Why did the demand for enslaved Africans increase in the New World?

Enslaved Africans were seen as a solution to labor shortages; they had some immunity to European diseases and were less likely to escape due to unfamiliarity with the land.

Middle passage

The Middle Passage was the brutal transatlantic journey endured by enslaved Africans, lasting 2–6 weeks in inhumane, overcrowded, and disease-ridden conditions.

How did conditions on slave ships during the Middle Passage contribute to suffering and death?

Enslaved people were packed tightly, forced to lie on their sides, received little food, and suffered from rampant disease, leading to high death rates.

What happened to enslaved Africans who survived the Middle Passage?

Survivors faced brutal plantation slavery in the New World, where they were forced into labor under harsh and dehumanizing conditions.

How did the success of the plantation economy impact the African slave trade?

As plantations grew more profitable—especially with crops like sugar and coffee—demand for enslaved African labor increased significantly.

Commercial Revolution

Money becoming the most desirable commodityin Europe instead of land

why was Europe opening up new Banks?

Europe was undergoing a shift into a money economy (economy in which goods and service and wages for work were paid with money)

Why did banks become essential during European imperialism?

As global trade expanded, the system of exchanging skill for material became inefficient. A money-based economy developed, making banks necessary to manage and facilitate financial transactions.

What role did the Bank of Amsterdam play in the Commercial Revolution?

It facilitated Europe’s growing money economy and handled vast financial transactions, including those from joint-stock companies like the Dutch East India Company.

Double Entry Book keeping

Debits into one column and credits in another column And the Need for this system meant that there were huge amounts of money flowing through these banks

Major effects of the Rise of Banking centers

shift of economic power in europe to places like amsterdam and genoa and london

What was the Dutch East India Company and how did it reflect financial innovation?

It was a private joint-stock company where investors bought shares, sharing profits and risks of Indian Ocean trade. Its success was managed by the Bank of Amsterdam, symbolizing the shift to a money-based economy in the 16th century.

What was the significance of the Mountain Cerro Rico in Potosí during the 16th century?

Located in the Spanish Americas, Cerro Rico was rich in silver. The Spanish extracted massive amounts, sending it to Europe, where it flooded the economy and had major economic effects.

Price revolution

The Price Revolution was a period of steadily rising prices in Europe over 150 years, mainly caused by an influx of silver from the Americas leading to inflation.

Who benefited and who suffered during the Price Revolution?

Wealthy individuals with access to silver benefited, while the poor—who didn’t receive silver—suffered as prices rose beyond their means.

subsistance farming

Subsistence farming involved growing just enough food to survive. It was practiced on manors controlled by nobles using either the 2-field or 3-field system to manage soil exhaustion

What led to the Enclosure Movement in England and what were its effects?

Large landowners and capable investors viewed the open-field system as wasteful, leading to legislation that allowed investors to buy public land. This shifted power to large landowners and increased peasant poverty, as they lost land to private ownership.

How did the Enclosure Movement benefit large landowners?

The Enclosure Movement allowed large landowners to increase crop yields by consolidating land and using it for profit. However, it significantly hurt the peasantry, who lost access to common land and became poorer.

How did the rise of capitalism change agriculture in Europe?

Capitalism shifted the focus from subsistence farming to the commercialization of agriculture. Land was now seen as a source of profit, with goods produced for the market rather than for survival, which created hardship for peasants.

How did the increasing power of banking elites affect Europe’s economy?

As banking elites and landowners gained more power, many places in Europe transitioned from mercantilism to capitalism, which led to greater profit-driven agricultural practices and shifted economic focus toward private ownership and market trade

Effects of the Commercial Revolution

Rise of new economic elite, freedom of serfs, Urban migration, change in family patterns

Rise of Nobles of the Robe

Risen in France, consisted of those who didn’t have nobility in their blood but could afford to buy their way into nobility

• Before this, titles of nobility connected to land and the only way to be a noble was to be born into the family

Serfs

Peasant who worked the land

In feudal period, serfs were bound to the land and lived at the pleasure of the nobility

After movement to commercial revolution, many peasants were cut free of the feudal arrangement

Freedom for serfs

There was an increasing freedom for serfs in Western Europe, while in easter Europe serfdom became more entrenched

• In east, Nobles held onto serfdom and restricted the rights of serfs to consolidate power

  • Led to peasant revolts but they were put down by nobility

Urban migration

Because many of the serfs earned their freedom, they began migrating to cities to find jobs which strained the cities resources leading to disease spreading due to the crammed, rough living conditions

Urban Poverty

Too many people and not enough jobs

Family Patterns

After Black Death, the rate of marriage significantly rose and younger marriages occurred

What were the effects of the Little Ice Age on family patterns in Europe?

The Little Ice Age, which began around 1300, caused malnutrition and disease due to food scarcity. As a result, the agricultural class had smaller families, delayed marriage until they were financially stable, and there was a decline in multi-generational households. Late marriages led to fewer childbearing years for women, resulting in more miscarriages, stillbirths, and higher infant mortality rates.