Definition: Limited liability business, chartered by the state, funded by private investors.
Limited liability: Investors only lose what they invested.
Interdependence of state and merchants:
States relied on merchants for expansion.
Merchants relied on states for monopolies.
States using joint stock companies prospered.
Example: Dutch East India Company (VOC)
Chartered in 1602 with a monopoly on Indian Ocean trade.
Expanded Dutch influence and enriched investors.
British and French also developed joint stock companies.
Rivalries among European states for dominance in the Indian Ocean, leading to conflicts.
Rise of Sea-Based Empires
Portugal:
Prince Henry the Navigator: brought together sailors, mapmakers, and shipbuilders.
Initial interest in the gold trade in West Africa.
Established a trading post empire around Africa and the Indian Ocean.
Trading posts called factories
Used fast ships like the Caravelle and the Carrick (with cannons).
Spain:
Sponsored Christopher Columbus to find a western route to the spice trade.
Columbus "ran into" the Americas instead of Asia.
Spanish voyages led to colonization (not just trading posts).
Opened the Trans-Atlantic trade.
Established a base in the Philippines and used tribute collecting and coerced labor.
Other European States:
France: Sponsored westward expeditions to find a North Atlantic sea route to Asia.
Established a presence in Canada for the fur trade.
England:
Queen Elizabeth I sponsored exploration in the Americas.
Established the first colony, Virginia (Jamestown).
Sought influence in India but lacked naval power initially.
Dutch:
Gained independence from Spain and became prosperous.
Challenged Spanish and Portuguese control in the Indian Ocean; VOC came out on top.
Colonized in the Americas (New Amsterdam).
Columbian Exchange
Definition: Transfer of new diseases, food, plants, and animals between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
Refers to environmental phenomena.
Transfer of disease:
Afro-Eurasians had immunities due to contact over millennia.
Indigenous peoples of the Americas lacked immunity (isolation).
Smallpox and measles spread rapidly and were deadly (killed up to 90% in some cases).
Malaria was introduced via mosquitoes.
"The Great Dying" refers to the devastation of indigenous populations.
Transfer of food and plants:
Europeans brought wheat, olives, and grapes.
Eventually introduced African and Asian foods like rice, bananas, and sugar.
American crops like maize and potatoes were introduced to Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Led to population growth after 1700
Enslaved Africans introduced foods including okra and rice.
Cash cropping: Growing crops (usually a single crop) primarily for export
Fueled by the demand for American crops in Europe.
Sugarcane in the Caribbean, worked by enslaved African laborers.
Transfer of Animals:
Europeans introduced pigs, sheep, and cattle.
Horses enabled indigenous plains peoples to more effectively hunt buffalo and feed their populations.
Resistance to Maritime Empires
Asian States:
Tokugawa, Japan:
Initially open to trade with Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch for gunpowder weapons.
Suppressed Christianity due to perceived threat to unification.
Almost completely isolated itself from European commerce, only trading with the Dutch.
Local Resistance in Europe:
The Fronde in France:
Rebellions against absolutism and increased taxation.
Led by the French nobility and peasants.
Crushed, resulting in increased monarchical power.
Resistance from the enslaved:
Maroon societies:
Communities of runaway slaves in the Caribbean and Brazil.
Colonial authorities sought to crush them.
In Jamaica, Colonial troops could not defeat queen nanny and were forced to recognize maroon society's freedom.
Growth of African States
Expansion of maritime trading networks fostered growth of some African states.
States connected to global economic linkages prospered.
Asante Empire (West Africa):
Provided goods like gold, ivory, and enslaved people to European traders.
Expanded military and political power.
Kingdom of the Congo (Southern Africa):
Made diplomatic ties with the Portuguese and provided goods like gold, copper, and enslaved people.
King converted to Christianity to facilitate trade.
Change and Continuity in Networks of Exchange
Indian Ocean Network:
Change: Entrance and power grabs of European states.
Continuity:
Middle Eastern, South Asian, East Asian, and Southeast Asian merchants continued to use the network.
Increased profits for some merchants.
Gujaratis continued to trade and increased the Mughal Empire's wealth.
Overland routes like the Silk Roads remained controlled by Asian land-based powers.
Peasant and artisan labor intensified (e.g., cotton in South Asia, silk in China).
The West (Atlantic System):
Change: Opening of the Atlantic system of trade; European wealth and power increased substantially.
Goods: Sugar was important. Colonial plantations specialized in sugarcane.
Wealth: Silver from the Americas was used to purchase luxury goods from China and traded on the Atlantic System.
Labor: Relied on coerced labor, e.g. the use of Indigenous labor, indentured servitude, or enslaved Africans. Enslaved Africans become the bulk of the imperial labor force.
Silver and trade monopolies maintained the system.
Change and Continuity in Labor Systems
The Americas:
Economies based on agriculture and mining.
Continued existing labor systems and introduced new ones.
Mit'a System:
Inca's system of requiring labor on state projects.
Spanish used the mit'a system for silver mining (dangerous and deadly work); For the spanish, this was done to force people to work in private mines for the good of individuals and the Spanish state.
New Labor Systems:
Chattel slavery:
Total ownership over enslaved person.
Race-based and hereditary.
Not entirely new, but differed from previous forms (pre-1500 African slave trade).
Earlier enslavement not race-based.
Economic engine of empires was difficult agricultural work and mining.
Transatlantic slave trade was massive (over 12.5 million people).
Slavery was identified with blackness
Social effects of the African slave trade:
Profound gender imbalance (more men than women sold to the Americas).
Changing of family structure.
Rise of polygyny.
Cultural synthesis (e.g., Creole languages).
Indentured servitude:
Laborers signed contracts for a period of work (usually seven years).
Common in British colonies in North America.
Encomienda system:
Spanish divided indigenous Americans among settlers, who provided labor in exchange for food and protection.
Hacienda:
Indigenous laborers were forced to work on fields; a system centered on land ownership
Change of Belief Systems
Christianity in The Americas:
Spain and Portugal sought to convert indigenous people via Catholic missionaries (Jesuits).
Religion became a justification for conquest.
Syncretism: blending of Christian beliefs and practices with indigenous beliefs and practices.
Indigenous African religions also participated (e.g., Vodun).
Changing Social Hierarchies
State responses to ethnic and religious diversity:
Spain and Portugal expelled Jews after the Reconquista.
Ottoman Empire opened its empire to displaced Jews.
Rise of new political elites:
Spanish casta system in the Americas: organized society based on race and ancestry.
Qing dynasty in China: Manchu reserved bureaucratic positions for themselves.
Struggles of existing elites:
Russian boyars: Peter the Great curtailed their power by abolishing the rank of boyar and requiring anyone who wanted bureaucratic employment to serve the state directly.