Europe Trading posts in Africa and Asia

Dutch – Batavia [Island of Java]

Getting access to the goods – transporting
The Trading Companies
Why was this an advantage
Main players – British East India Trading Company [1600]
Dutch United East India Company [Voc] – 1602
Privately owned ships, government support
Given rights to trade, build posts, even make war
Extremely profitable! – people came back and would come and work later
Spanish conquered the philppines – manila became major port city
Significant missionary activity
Dutch concentrated on spice trade in Indonesia
Established Batavia, trading post in Java
Less missionary activity
In part due to the fact that the Dutch were Protestant and not Catholic – Catholic had a
more extensive missionary project going on – Jesuits
Very little missionary activity in India – which becomes a British colony

The Seven Years’ War [1756-1763]

Causes – European politics
Commercial rivalries between empires at sea
Global conflict – fought in Europe, India, Caribbean, North America – the world’s first world war
On so many different continents
North America: French and Indian War, 1754-1763
Battles in the Caribbean, etc.
The British were victorioius – more direct control over India [Primacy in India, Canada]

Social Trends – Population trends

Pretty steady growth
Nutrition imporves – overall mortality rates
People who are moving/migraating because – need jobs, land
Steady population growth in Europe, India, China,
In Europe – was tripling in Europe

Early Capitalism
Definition: private, not government h
Private parties offer gods and services on a free market
Own bmeans of production
Private initiative, not government control
Supply and demand determines prices
Banks, stock exchanges developed
Join-stock companies
Relationship with empire building
Like VOC – initial companies were profitable – government pressure to relax the
monopoly and others
Medieval guilds declined
 Putting out system favored – becomes the intermediate – the important part – there’s
an individual contract being made between the person who’s doing the labor or creating the thread and
the merchant who’s buying and selling it back – for services and labor – not being controlled by the guild
and moreover, it’s happening out in the countryside and not in the cities.
Usually controlled everything
Impact of Capitalism on the Social Order
Rural life
Access to manufactured goods – at all levels of society
Increaesing opportunities in urban centers  decline of rural population
Enclosure Movement – fences to prvent sheep!
Lack of opportunity helps propel the farmers into factory centers [employment]
 Industrialiazation
Serfdom abandoned in western Europe – but retained in Russia until the 19 th century
Nuclear familiies replaced extended families
Women entered income-earning work force