Professional Documents
Culture Documents
For most people, life still remained a struggle with poverty and uncertainty
Only in science and thought were there significant achievements
European societies still could not produce very much by modern standards
Economic basis of European life was beginning to change
Expansion of agriculture, industry, trade, and population
Led to the Industrial Revolution
Agriculture and the Land
Mercantilism and Mercantilism: system of economic regulations aimed at increasing the power of the
Colonial Wars state
o Practiced by Colbert
o Favorable balance of foreign trade in order to increase tock of gold
o Gold holdings = “treasure chest” to pay for war
Navigation Acts: result of the English desire to increase both military power and
private wealth (mercantile system)
o First established by Oliver Cromwell
o Required most goods imported from Europe into England and Scotland be
carried on British-owned ships with British crews
o Gave British virtual monopoly on trade with British colonies
o Believed it would help British merchants and workers as well as colonial
plantation owners and farmers
o Form of economic warfare (first target: Dutch, second target: France)
o Seriously damaged Dutch shipping and commerce
o New Amsterdam “New York”
o France already building worldwide system of monopolized colonial trade
France vs. England (fighting to be leading maritime power)
o War of the Spanish Succession
Louis XIV accepted Spanish crown willed to grandson
Union of France and Spain threatened British colonies
Peace of Utrecht: Louis XIV had to give land to British; Spain gave
Britain control of West African slave trade “asiento”
o War of Austrian Succession
Started when Frederick the Great of Prussia took Silesia from Maria
Theresa (Austria)
War ended with no change in territory
o Seven Years’ War
Maria Theresa wanted to win back Silesia and crush Prussia
Wanted to Reestablish Hapsburgs
Prussia survived
Decisive round for colonial empire (between French and British)
War to conquer Canada (French)
French and Canadian forces first fought well and had major
victories (Montcalm)
Then British used sea power to destroy French (Pitt)
Quebec – British destroyed France, sealed France’s fate
Treaty of Paris: British victory, France lost mainland North America
(Canada), France gave Louisiana to Spain, France gave holdings in
India British dominance
British naval power realized its goal of monopolizing a vast trading
and colonial empire
o Results
London became West’s largest and richest city
Growing agricultural populations provided expanding market for
English goods English exports to Atlantic economy increased
English exports became more balanced and diversified
Foreign trade
America/Africa = metal
French still profited enormously from colonial trade
Saint Domingue/Martinique/Guadeloupe = fortunes in
sugar plantations, coffee, and slave trading
Land and Labor in Britain’s empire in North America
British America o Surplus population migration abroad limited poverty at home
o Settlers had unlimited free land
o American farmers kept most of what they produced
o Demand for labor growth of slavery
Spanish and Portuguese introduced slavery to Americas
Slaves from Africa
Dutch followed example
Slaves worked on sugar plantations
Large plantations in Virginia were worked entirely by slaves by 1730
Increase in tobacco production
Slavery was uncommon in New England and middle colonies
o Colonists had their place in Navigation Acts (supplying British Isles with their
products)
o Colonial free land population increase
10x
Agricultural development resulted in high standards of living
The Atlantic Slave Most significant portion of trade in African people
Trade Key element in Atlantic system and Western European economic expansion
Intensified after 1750
Taken to Americas in chains
Contribution to the development of the Atlantic economy
o Possible for large-scale production (Africans produced 4/5)
o Sugar, coffee, tobacco, rice, cotton
o Cash from production paid for manufactured goods and services in Britain
Fundamental changes in organization
o Before: costly wars (to control slave exports), After: concentrated on commerce
(shore method, less expensive)
Increasing demands, increasing prices (slaves)
o Negative consequences predominated
o Wars between Africans
o Leaders bought more war arms and less consumer goods
Kingdom of Dahomey profited greatly as a major supplier of slaves
Congo (central Africa): Portuguese search for slaves undermined monarchy,
destroyed political unity, led to constant disorder
Small-scale slave raiding
o Kidnappers seized and enslaved men and women
o Olaudah Equiano
African misdemeanors = sale to slave dealers
Population of Africa stagnated or possibly declined
Most of Europe considered African slave trade a legitimate business
Ships of African slaves never landed in northwestern Europe, there was already
cheap labor
Runaways London
1775: campaign to abolish slavery
o Women played critical role
o 1807: Parliament abolished slave trade
Revival in Colonial Charles II died = Spain almost dismembered, but revived
Latin America European-oriented landowning aristocracy enhanced position in colonial society
Spain recovered because of better leadership
o Philip V
o Reforming ministers
Colonies defended themselves from British attacks and increased in size
Political success = economic improvement
o Spanish influence to northern California
o Silver mining recovered greatly
o Food production for the mining camps
o Creole merchants handled trade
Creole estate owners controlled much of the land and wanted to become a genuine
European aristocracy
Estate owners believed Native Americans should do field work
o Slavery & forced labor debt peonage (form of serfdom)
Mestizos: middle group in Spanish colonies, offspring of Spanish men and Indian
women (about 30% of population)
Many slaves worked on sugar plantations in Portuguese Brazil
South America occupied important place in expanding Atlantic economy
Trade and Empire Europeans continued to dominate Asian trade
in Asia Portuguese had become major players in Indian Ocean trading
Old pattern of merchants from many areas as autonomous players changed with
Dutch and then English
Dutch
o Fleets sailed directly for Indonesia and its wealth of spices (success)
o Dutch East India Company: to capture spice trade for Portuguese
o Won broad commercial concessions (Jakarta)
o Captured a monopoly on spic trade
o Turned autonomous business partners into dependents
o Dutch hold in Asia faltered in eighteenth century because of company’s failure
to diversify to meet changing consumption patterns
o Competition with English East India Company
English
o Initially struggled for foothold in Asia
o East India Company increasingly intervened in local affairs and made alliances
or waged war against Indian princes
o Great rival in India was France (resolved by Treaty of Paris)
o Clive, a company agent, became first British governor general with direct
authority over Bengal
o India was “jewel” of British empire
Adam Smith and Strong reaction against mercantilism
the Economic Adam Smith: idea of freedom of enterprise in foreign trade
Liberalism o Scottish Enlightenment
o Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) basis for
modern economics, highly critical of mercantilism
o said mercantilism meant a combination of government regulations and unfair
privileges
o preferred: free competition
o argued government should only limit itself to three duties: provide a defense
against foreign invasion, maintain civil order, and sponsor public works and
institutions that private investors would not profit from
o pursuit of self-interest in competitive market = gradual progress
o seemed as an advocate for unbridled capitalism
o applauded rise of wages for British workers
o called for government intervention to raise workers’ living standards
o great international impact
o “economic liberalism”