World 4.5

What is the reasoning process and thematic focuses for 4.5.

4.5 Is based on the reasoning process of continuity and change, and has four themes, governance, economic systems, social interactions and organization, cultural developments and interactions.

What is Mercantilism?

Mercantilism is based on the idea that a nation’s power depends on its wealth, and is derived from increasing exports, specifically its supply of gold and silver. In order to generate more wealth, states sought to maintain a favorable balance of trade by increasing exports and decreasing imports through the accumulation of colonies overseas. European states extracted and exported raw materials from their colonies like sugar cane, silver, and cotton, and once they were manufactured into commodities, they would be exported to the global market. Colonies served as markets for European manufactured goods, and were prohibited from trading with rival empires. Finally, in order to further increase exports and minimize imports, states sometimes imposed tariffs, or taxes on imports.

What were the effects of Mercantilism regarding governments?

Mercantilism was a state-sponsored policy, and the government played a significant role in controlling the developing transoceanic economy. Representative and constitutional governments developed in England and the Netherlands that protected private property rights, allowing merchants to charter joint-stock companies as means of generating revenue for colonial expansion, attracting private investors because of limited liability, Moreover, a monarch or ruler would issue a royal charter, or legal document to authorize the company to operate, and generally, it included protections under the law, allowing for the company to own property and enforce contracts. Royal charters also granted the company a monopoly over regions, and/or certain commodities, allowing the company to control prices, regulate supply, and maximize profits without competition. The nation’s military or navy would protect the company’s monopoly abroad.

What did the concept of limited liability do, and give examples.

The concept of limited liability encouraged private investment in joint-stock companies because investors could only lose the money they jointly invested. Since rulers issued the charters that permitted the joint-stock company to operate, they’d take a cut of the profits in taxes or direct shares of the company, and joint-stock companies allowed the empire to expand without the state having to bear all the financial burden. The Dutch government chartered the Dutch East India Company, granting them a monopoly on trade in the Indian Ocean. Queen Elizabeth chartered the British East India Company, granting the British a monopoly over the parts of India.

What are the effects of Mercantilism?

European expansion policies resulted in economic competition and disputes over trade dominance, as Muslim Merchants and States dominated trade networks. Muslim states like the Ottoman Empire responded to European expansion by strengthening their own naval presence in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, in order to protect Islamic trade interests. The Ottomans and Portuguese engaged in naval conflicts over key trade routes to India and East Asia, and the Portuguese won at Diu in India, and the Ottomans won at Aden on the Southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Despite decades of conflict, Muslim traders continued to play a crucial role in regional trade, especially through routes around the red sea. 

What were the Causes for the sugar and Silver trade?

European demand for sugar sored in the 16th, encouraging the establishment of plantations in the Americas to mass-produce the raw sugarcane, that would eventually be shipped back to Europe. It would then be manufactured into sugar as a commodity to be sold on the global Market. Europeans also wanted to exploit silver in their American colonies. The Ming Dynasty also shifted its tax system from collecting goods or labor to collecting taxes ins silver, resulting in a massive domestic demand for silver in China in order to pay taxes, and foreign merchants could now only buy Chinese luxury goods like silk, porcelain, and tea with silver.

What were the effects of the sugar and silver trade?

The Effects were the Spanish discovered massive silver mines at Potosi and Zacatecas In Mexico, where they forced indigenous Americans and enslaved Africans to mine for silver. The Spanish then established the trans-Pacific trade using Manila Galleons to carry silver from Mexico to Manila, where it was traded for Chinese goods. Moreover, coerced labor fuled the plantations and silver mines in the Americans but outside of those colonies, most of the world’s labor systems remained similar to earlier periods in the Form of peasant and artisanal labor.

Name the last effect of mercantilism. 

As trans-Atlantic and trans-pacific trade increased, global demand for food and consumer goods increased as well, indirectly affecting peasants and artisans outside of European colonies. Peasants/ subsistence farers began to grow cash crops like cotton in South Asia for export, ultimately improving their standard of Living. Artisans continued to produce luxury goods like silk textiles from China and rugs from the middle East, but at a much higher rate as demand increased and global trade became more interconnected.

Explain changes of both society and culture in Africa and American Colonies. 

The first change was that as the transatlantic slave trade brought demographic changes to Africa, as most of the slaves were men, it left many states in Africa with larger female populations, and a shortage of men. This demographic change resulted in Polygamy. Syncretism also developed in American colonies, as as African, European, and indigenous cultures mixed and blended over the course of generations. For example the Creole language developed as a hybrid of African, European, and indigenous languages. Religious philosophies also blended as the Portuguese and Spanish basically forced Christianity on the native and enslaved people, in order to spread European cultural values and maintain control over the colonial population. A Dominican priest named Bartolome de las cases wrote and spoke against the Christianization process of indigenous and Africans in the Americans, as an exploitive and abuse relationship, leading to laws banning their enslavement.

Name some continuities of both society and culture in africa and American Colonies.

Some continuities was that Indigenous people still practiced their traditional religious beliefs in private, and in some cases, outwardly adopted Christianity, also an example of cultural resistance, as they were willing to keep practicing their religion, and continued/maintained their culture. Moreover, although syncretism was a change, it still continued African, European, and Indigenous languages and cultures. Moreover, the development of syncretic religious practices made the line between appropriate religious speech and heretical speech and actions less definitive. For example, the Spanish Inquisition targeted syncretic beliefs, speech, or practices in the Americas, example of continuity as it was evident i

Name the last examples of change of of both society and culture in Africa and American colonies.

The last example is Christian Priests incorporated elements of indigenous or African religions to explain, relate, or convert people to Christianity, both representing change through the incorporation of African religions, but continuity by continuing indigenous beliefs. Moreover, he Spanish Inquisition targeted syncretic beliefs, speech, or practices in the Americas, along with anything deemed heretical to consolidate power. The Spanish used methods of torture to identify heretics, and those tortured would accuses others of Hersey to deflect attention from themselves, known as a witchunt. The Spanish burned heretics alive at the stake in public spheres known as the auto de fe.