CCOT Essay Outline

Thesis: During the time period between 1492 and 1750, new contacts between Western Europe,
Africa, and the Americas resulted in the expansion of a global trade network, a newly developed
racial hierarchy between Western Europeans and the Americans that differed from earlier ideas,
and the cultural fusion of Western Europe and African culture.
Social
-racial hierarchy
-Western europeans intermarry, mixes lead to the need for a racial hierarchy to justify social inequality
between races
-The sociedad de casas- whites on top, black and Indians on bottom, and mixed races in the middle
-many diff variety of crosses; mestizo, mulatto, etc..
-race mattered more than social status; race tended to determine social status
WESTERN EUROPE+ AMERICAS
- Cultural Syncretism
-AMERICAS+ AFRICA
-Africans have native culture and attempt to perserve it while in America
- Westerners bring african slaves to america and introduce western ideas (also to lose the African identity)
-ex. Some slaves converted to catholism or Protestantism, and some African relious traditions, ex. Obeah
in the English islands, developed and flourished
-american culture reflected specific African roots
-lead to the african adoption of african creole culture, blended both western and African ideas
Economic
- Trade expanded
EUROPE +AFRICA +AMERICAS
- Colombian exchange leads to exchange of supplies including... slaves, sugar, manufactured goods,
crops, animals, disease, and technoogy
- before trade was limited to people in the common area
-Colombian exchange creates INTERNATIONAL contacts that expand products+market in all regions
-introduces new products, goods, species (animals) and crops into new areas ex. Horses, tomatoes,
potatoes, corn