Maritime Empires: Economic Strategies

• Maritime empires transformed commerce from small-scale trading to large-scale international trade using gold and silver.
• These empires utilized new economic models like joint-stock companies.
• Investors financed trade by buying shares in companies like the East India Company, boosting trade in Asia.
• New ocean trade routes expanded the global economy.
• The Atlantic trading system involved the movement of labor, including enslaved people, and the mixing of cultures, resulting in cultural synthesis.
• Silver, sugar, and slavery were crucial to the development of mercantilist empires.

Economic Strategies

• In the 17th century, European countries measured wealth by the amount of gold and silver they possessed.
• Countries aimed to sell as many goods as possible to acquire gold and silver and minimize spending on foreign goods.
• Capital accumulation in Western Europe grew as entrepreneurs engaged in long-distance markets.
• Capital shifted from entrepreneurs to laborers, improving laborers' positions as consumers and investors.
• Lending money at high interest rates became common, despite Church restrictions.
• Actual wealth increased with the influx of gold and silver from the Western Hemisphere.

Commercial Revolution

• The shift to a trade-based economy using gold and silver is known as the Commercial Revolution.
• The Commercial Revolution was influenced by:
  • Development of overseas colonies
  • New ocean trade routes
  • Population growth
  • Inflation
• High inflation in the 16th-early 17th century is referred to as the Price Revolution.
• Joint-stock companies, owned by investors, facilitated the growth of the global economy.
• Investors shared profits and risks in exploration and trade ventures, with limited liability making investing safer.
• The European middle class invested in their own countries' businesses and purchased imported luxuries.
• The Dutch, English, and French developed joint-stock companies in the 17th century, including the British East India Company (1600) and the Dutch East India Company (1602).
• Spain and Portugal primarily invested through government grants to explorers.
• Joint-stock companies drove maritime empire development by enabling continued exploration, colonization, and resource development with reduced investor risk.
• The Dutch acted as commercial middlemen, establishing trade routes to Latin America, North America, South Africa, and Indonesia.
• Dutch ships were faster, providing a trade advantage.
• The Dutch East India Company thrived as a joint-stock company, earning significant profits in the Spice Islands and Southeast Asia.
• The Dutch had a stock exchange by 1602 and the Bank of Amsterdam traded currency internationally by 1609.
• The Dutch enjoyed the highest standard of living in Europe, with goods like diamonds and tulip bulbs traded by Dutch merchants.
• France and England experienced speculative financial schemes called financial bubbles in the 18th century.
• These schemes involved selling shares with promised returns, leading to a frenzy of buying that eventually burst, causing financial ruin for investors.

Triangular Trade

• European demand for enslaved workers in the Americas, coupled with Portugal's exploration of West Africa, made Africa a labor source.
• Enslaved Africans became part of the triangular trade system, involving three segments.:
  • European manufactured goods (firearms) to West Africa
  • Enslaved Africans to the Americas
  • Sugar or tobacco from the Americas to Europe
• Sugar was the most profitable product from the Americas.
• By the 1700s, Caribbean sugar and rum production financed fortunes in Britain, France, and the Netherlands.

Rivalries for the Indian Ocean Trade

• After Europeans discovered the Americas, Atlantic Ocean trade became important.
• States still competed for control of Indian Ocean trade routes.
• The Portuguese defeated a Muslim and Venetian force in 1509 to control trade in the Arabian Sea.
• In 1578, the Portuguese were defeated by Moroccan forces in a battle on land.
• Morocco captured the riches of the Songhai Kingdom in 1590 despite a prohibition against warring with other Muslim states.
• Moroccan forces overcame the Songhai near Gao using firearms, leading to the empire's collapse.
• The Spanish and Portuguese soon overtook much of the territory.

Change and Continuities in Trade Networks

• Trading networks resulted in a new global distribution of goods, wealth, and labor.
• Silver from Spanish colonies flowed to Asia, where it was exchanged for goods like silks and porcelain.
• Asian goods were in demand in Atlantic markets.
• Monopolies, chartered by European rulers, maintained trade patterns.
• These monopolies granted exclusive trading rights to certain merchants (often joint-stock companies) or the government.
• The Spanish government monopolized domestic tobacco and later tobacco from American colonies, enriching itself.
• Tobacco income constituted about one-third of Spain's total revenues.
• Traditional regional markets in Afro-Eurasia persisted alongside global trade.
• Improved shipping allowed merchants to increase product volumes.
• Increased peasant and artisan labor output (wool, linen, cotton, silk) was exchanged in global port cities.

Effects of the Atlantic Slave Trade

• The Atlantic slave trade significantly weakened West African kingdoms like Kongo.
• Population growth slowed due to the loss of people.
• Trade competition led to violence and made African kingdoms dependent on European goods.
• Such societies developed complex economies slowly, setting the stage for European conquest and imperialism in the late 19th century.
• African societies like Dahomey and Oyo grew richer by selling captives to Europeans.
• Societies that exchanged enslaved people for firearms gained an advantage over those without them.
• Raiding societies became richer and more fortified with firearms.
• Intergroup warfare increased in frequency and intensity due to the slave trade.
• The slave trade heavily affected West African populations in present-day Ghana and Benin.
• Gender distributions became imbalanced, with more than two-thirds of enslaved individuals being male, leading to increased polygyny and women taking on traditionally male roles.
• The Atlantic trading system spurred population growth in Africa through improved diets with crops like maize and manioc.

Political and Cultural Changes for Indigenous People

• European empires in the Americas contrasted with earlier land-based empires in their treatment of conquered people.
• Spanish and Portuguese empires erased basic social structures and many cultural traditions of indigenous Americans within a century of European arrival, leading to depopulation.
• Indigenous political structures in Latin America were replaced by Spanish and Portuguese administrations.
• Spanish royalty appointed viceroys and also the audiencias to keep them from operating independently of the crown.
• Due to slow communication, the Spanish crown didn't focus on colonial affairs in the Western Hemisphere.
• Indigenous peoples lost much of their culture and history.
• Conquistadors burned native books, leaving few original accounts.

Effects of Belief Systems

• The increase in global connections extended the reach of existing religions, contributed to syncretic belief systems, and religious conflicts.
• Cultural syncretism developed, combining religious beliefs and practices.

Syncretic Belief Systems in the Americas

• African religions in the Americas combine religious beliefs and practices:
  • Santería: a African faith that means "the way of the saints." which became common in CUba and LAtin America and North America. -Vodun: a belief system means "spirit" or "deity" that began with African peoples of Dahomey, Kongo, and Yoruba who became enslaved and living in Saint-Domingue, which is now Haiti. -Candomblé: a combination of Yoruba, Fon, and Bantu beliefs, originating in different areas of Africa that means “dance to honor the gods" developed in Brazil.
• Enslaved Africans in the United States established the African American church, blending Christianity and African spiritual traditions.
• About 1 in 10 enslaved Africans practiced Islam, establishing the first significant presence of Islam in the Americas.
• Catholic religious orders sent missionaries to Latin America to convert people to Christianity.
• Religious syncretism originated in Spanish colonies, with Catholic saints' days coinciding with indigenous celebrations.
• In Mexico, the Virgin of Guadalupe became a cult figure, revered for her ability to perform miracles.
• Akbar attempted to reduce religius conflicts between Muslims and Hindus.

The rise of maritime empires transformed commerce, utilizing gold, silver, and joint-stock companies. The Atlantic trading system led to cultural synthesis. Silver, sugar, and slavery were crucial for mercantilist empires and capital accumulation in Western Europe.