Unit 1: The First Global Age 🌍📚

African Diaspora: The transatlantic slave trade caused a large-scale migration of African peoples over the Atlantic, which had an enormous impact on the Americas' culture and population. 

Cash Crops: agricultural goods produced mostly for market and financial gain rather than for personal use; in the Americas, they included cotton, sugar, and tobacco, all of which required a lot of work and frequently included slave labor. 

Columbian Exchange: The extensive spread of illnesses, people, animals, plants, and culture between the Americas and the Old World after Columbus's explorations had a significant impact on the economics and populations of the world. 

Mercantilism: An economic theory that was popular in Europe from the 16th to the 18th centuries, it promoted a positive trade balance and the building of riches through colonial expansion and strict government control. 

African Slave Trade: Africans were brought to the Americas by force as slaves as part of the transatlantic trade system, which was an essential component of the triangular trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. 

Middle Passage: Africans held in slavery faced a terrifying sea voyage to the Americas that was marked by high mortality rates, overcrowding, and sickness. 

Casta Paintings: The complex racial mixing and hierarchical classifications (castas) among Europeans, Indigenous peoples, Africans, and their descendants are portrayed in artistic representations from colonial Latin America. 

Triangular Trade: Transatlantic trade was a three-legged network that linked Europe, Africa, and the Americas. It involved the trade of raw materials, slaves, and products. 

• Explain Spanish motives for Empire building in the Americas: Three main motivations drove Spain's desire to create an empire: glory, God, and gold. They wanted to make Spain wealthy by finding gold and silver. Additionally, they sought to convert Native Americans to Catholicism in order to spread Christianity. Lastly, Spanish soldiers and explorers want authority and notoriety. Spain rose to become one of the world's most powerful nations by adding land and controlling trade. 

• What regions did the European conquest of the America’s connect?: Europeans established connections between the Americas, Africa, and Europe as they conquered portions of the continent. Explorers, troops, and settlers were dispatched to the Americas by Spain, Portugal, and other European nations. Additionally, they imported African slaves to labor on plantations. As a result, a vast system of trade was established between both continents, involving the movement of people, products, and ideas. 

• What regions did the global flow of silver connect? 
  Europe and Asia collected silver that was mined in the Americas, particularly in Mexico and Peru. Spain traded luxury items like silk and porcelain with China with this silver. Spain got wealthy as silver rose to become one of the most valuable materials in the world, but it also led to inflation, which is the loss of money. The world economy was linked by the silver trade between Asia, Europe, and the Americas. 

• Describe how Europeans engaged in the Atlantic slave trade (European Merchants).  
  In the Atlantic slave trade, European traders played a significant role. They transported manufactured items to Africa, including as cloth and firearms, and exchanged them for slaves. Following their forced slavery, these Africans were transported to the Americas over the Middle Passage, a dangerous voyage. They were sold to work on plantations that grew valuable crops like tobacco and sugar after arriving in the Americas. 

•  What was the most common destinations of slaves in Americas? 
  Most Africans who went missing as slaves were sent to Brazil and the Caribbean. Large sugar plantations in these areas need a large workforce. Plantation owners continued to import additional Africans into slavery since the labor was so hard and many enslaved individuals died from illness or overwork. North America received a smaller number of enslaved individuals than the Caribbean and Brazil. 

• What are the differences between African slavery and slavery in the past?  
  Slavery used to exist in plenty of societies, but it was typically not based on race, and enslaved people sometimes had the opportunity to become free. Slavery became racially based during the Atlantic slave trade, capturing people of African origin for life and enslaving their children from birth. Additionally, it was far more severe, particularly on American plantations. 

• What’s the significance of the Columbian Exchange? What were the effects on the Americas? 
  Plants, animals, people, and diseases were shared between the Old World (Europe, Africa, and Asia) and the New World (the Americas) during the Columbian Exchange. On both sides of the globe, it altered people's lives. While crops like potatoes, corn, and tomatoes were shipped to Europe and Asia, Europeans sent wheat, horses, and cattle to the Americas. Unfortunately, millions of Native Americans died from diseases like smallpox that Europeans carried with them. 

• Which European country dominated colonialism in the Americas?  
  In the Americas, Spain controlled the largest territory and authority. They ruled over huge areas of land, including sections of the Caribbean, Central America, South America, and modern-day Mexico. While other European nations like England and France held lesser colonies, Portugal ruled over Brazil. Spain became one of the most powerful empires of its time thanks to its wealth from cash crops and silver. 

• What demographic effect did the Europeans have on the Native populations in the America’s? 
  Native Americans suffered greatly as a result of the European conquest. Many of them died from illnesses to which they had never previously been exposed, such as measles and smallpox. Others were forced to work in hazardous conditions or lost their lives in battle. As European colonizers stole their resources and territory, certain Native American traditions were destroyed. 

• Explain the social structure of the Spanish colonies in the America’s during the early modern era. 
  A strict social hierarchy based on race and place of birth developed in Spanish colonies. Peninsulares, or Spanish-born persons, were at the top. Creoles, or individuals of Spanish ancestry born in the Americas, were below them. Mulattoes, who had a mixed Spanish and African heritage, and mestizos, who had a mixed Spanish and Native heritage, came next. Slave Africans and Native Americans were at the bottom. Europeans continued to hold the control of power under that system. 

• Explain the causes and effects of the Casta social hierarchy in colonial America.  
  The Spanish created the Casta system to group people due to their race. By giving greater rights to those with European ancestry and reducing the authority of Indigenous and African-descended people, it was intended to maintain control over the colonies. In Latin America, the system led to long-lasting inequality and highly rigid social classes. Casta paintings, which showed the various racial groupings and their social levels, were another result of it.