The World Economy PDF

The World Economy How did silver mined by conscripted South American Indians change China's tax system? Silver quickly became the global currency of the Early Modern period. Production and use of silver show the power of the new world economy emerging after 1500. Silver had long been valued, of cour...

The World Economy How did silver mined by conscripted South American Indians change China's tax system? Silver quickly became the global currency of the Early Modern period. Production and use of silver show the power of the new world economy emerging after 1500. Silver had long been valued, of course, but new sources of production made it a commonly traded commodity. Japanese mines raised their output, trading with Europe and China. But it was European discover­ies of silver in the Americas that really turned the tide. Mexican silver mines were important, but the big find, in the mid-16th century, was at Potosi, in Bolivia, where there was an enormous vein of ore (Figure 21.1 ). Desperate for labor, the Spanish revived mita-the Inca system of drafting workers for short stints. By 1600 there were 150,000 miners at Potosi, more than a third of them conscripted through the mita system. Latin American silver was a godsend to Europeans. The Spanish crown kept a fifth of the sil­ver its colonies produced, and this was its chief gain from the American colonies. Silver allowed Spain to build massive armies and grand new public buildings. But most of the silver sent to Europe passed through Spain to merchants elsewhere. They, in turn, used silver primarily to buy Asian goods that had long been sought, such as Indian spices and Chinese porcelain and silk. The Spanish also sent considerable silver to the Philippines, where it was traded for Chinese products sent to elites in the Americas and Europe. Silver greased the wheels of international commerce, allowing Europeans to buy Asian imports that could not otherwise have been afforded. China and India were the largest recipients of New World silver-a clear sign of Asia's dyna­mism in the new world economy. Silver encouraged economic growth in Asia. It began to replace paper money. Merchants required silver even for purchases of common items like food. The Ming dynasty required periodic tax payments in silver. This reduced the number of tax collections (because each payment was now more valuable)-a reform known as "one whip of the lash:' Silver imports helped sustain a standard of living in China that, into the early 19th century, was superior to that of western Europe. But there were also worries. Many Chinese observers thought that silver was creating a wider gap between rich and poor, and they pointed out that the poor had to struggle to find the silver needed to pay their taxes. A few Europeans mused about expending so much effort to obtain sil­ver that would only be swallowed up in Asia, but most agreed that the new consumer goods were well worth the trouble. A very few Europeans, but undoubtedly lots of ordinary Latin Americans, worried about the harsh working conditions in the mines. ■ This chapter deals with the consequences of some key developments long celebrated in American school texts: the voyages of Columbus and other explorers and the empires built by European con­querors and missionaries. The result was a power shift in world affairs, but another set of crucial developments in world history also resulted: the redefinition of interchanges among major societies in the world. The story is not, however, simply the familiar one. European countries did play a disproportion­ate role in causing global change, particularly the huge shifts affecting the Americas and Africa. But African and Asian contributions were active as well. Various European leaders, particularly merchants but also some princes and clergy, had become increasingly aware of the larger world around them since 1100. The Crusades brought knowledge of the Islamic world's superior economy and the goods that could be imported from Asia. The Mongol empire, which sped up exchanges between the civilizations of Asia, also spurred European interest. The fall of the khans in China disrupted this interchange, as China became once again a land of mys­tery to Europeans. Europe's upper classes had by this time become accustomed to imported products Northern European Expeditions Later in the 16th century, the lead in exploration passed to northern Europe, as newly strong monarchies, such as France and England, got into the act and zealous Protestants in Britain and Holland strove to rival Catholic gains (Map 21.2). In part this shift in dynamism occurred because Spain and Portugal were busy digesting the gains they had already made; in part it was because northern Europeans, particularly the Dutch and the British, improved the design of oceanic ves­sels, producing lighter, faster ships than those of their Catholic adversaries. Britain won a historic sea battle with Spain in 1588, routing the massive Spanish Armada. From this point onward, the British, the Dutch, and to some extent the French vied for dominance on the seas, although in the Americas they aimed mainly northward because they could not challenge the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. Only in the sugar-rich West Indies did northern Europe seize islands initially claimed by Spain. The new adventurers, like their Spanish and Portuguese predecessors, appreciated the economic potential of such voyages. Britain and Holland, now Protestant countries, emphasized religious inter­ests less than European Catholics did at this point. Two 16th-century English explorers, trying to find an Arctic route to China, were told to keep an eye out for any native populations en route, for such people would provide a perfect market for warm English woolens. And if the territory was unpopu­lated, it might be put to use as a source of fish for Britain. A quest for profit had become a dominant policy motive. French explorers crossed the Atlantic first in 1534, reaching Canada, which they claimed. In the 17th century, various expeditions pressed down from Canada into the Great Lakes region and the Mississippi valley. The British also turned their attention to North America, starting with a brief expedition as early as 1497. The English hoped to discover a northwest passage to spice-rich India, but they accomplished little beyond exploration of the Hudson Bay area of Canada during the 16th century. England's serious work began in the 17th century, with the colonization of the east coast of North America. Holland also had holdings in North America and, for a time, in Brazil. The Dutch entered the picture after winning independence from Spain, and Holland quickly became a major competitor with Portugal in southeast Asia. The Dutch sent many sailors and ships to the region, ousting the Portuguese from the Indonesian islands by the early 17th century. Voyag­ers from the Netherlands explored the coast of Australia, although without much immediate result. Finally, toward the mid-17th century, Holland established a settlement on the southern tip of Africa, mainly to provide a relay station for its ships bound for the East Indies. The Netherlands, Britain, and France all chartered great joint-stock trading companies, such as the Dutch East India Company. These companies were given government monopolies of trade in the regions designated, but they were not rigorously supervised by their own states. They had rights to raise armies and coin money on their own. Thus, semiprivate companies, amassing great commercial fortunes, long acted almost like independent governments in the regions they claimed. For some time, a Dutch trading company effectively ruled the island of Taiwan off the coast of China. The British East India Company played a similar role in parts of India during much of the 18th century. The companies in North America traded actively in furs. No matter where in Europe they came from, explorers and their crews faced many hardships at sea. The work was tiring and uncertain, with voyages lasting many months or years, and diseases such as scurvy were rampant. One expedition accepted only bachelors for its crew because married men would miss their families too much. A sailor on another trip complained that "he was tired of being always tired, that he would rather die once than many times, and that they might as well shut their eyes and let the ship go to the bottom:' Europe's new initiatives added to existing transregional trade patterns. The range and significance of exchange began to increase steadily-a key manifestation of proto-globalization. Simply including the Americas, making exchanges truly global affected almost all major regions. The impact of wider exchange became visible quickly. The extension of contacts across the Atlan­tic spread disease (see Chapter 23). The greatest victims were millions of Native Americans who had not previously been exposed to Afro-Eurasian diseases such as smallpox and measles and who there­fore had no natural immunities (Figure 21.4). During the 16th and 17th centuries, they died in huge numbers. Overall, in North and South America, more than half the native population would die; some estimates run as high as 80 percent. W hole island populations in the West Indies were wiped out. This was a major blow to earlier civilizations in the Americas as well as an opportunity for Europeans to forge a partially new population of their own citizens and slaves imported from Africa. The devasta­tion occurred over a 150-year period, although in some areas it was more rapid. W hen Europeans later made contact with Polynesians and Pacific Coast peoples in the 18th century, the same dreadful pattern played out, again undermining vibrant cultures. Other exchanges were less dire. New World crops were spread rapidly via Western merchants. American corn and sweet potatoes were taken up widely in China (where merchants learned of them from Spaniards in the Philippines), the Mediterranean, and parts of Africa. In some cases these pro­ductive new crops, along with local agricultural improvements, triggered large population increases. For example, China began to experience long-term population growth in the 17th century, and new crops played a key role. When Europeans introduced the potato around 1700, major population upheaval occurred there as well. Indeed, food played a key role in the world system created during the Early Modern period. About 30 percent of the foods consumed in the world today come from plants of American origin. Corn became a staple in the African diet. Europeans, ironically, were more conservative. Rumors spread that American foods spread disease. It took more than a century for the potato to gain ground, but fried potatoes (French fries) were being sold on the streets of Paris by the 1680s. Animal husbandry became more similar across the world as European and Asian animals, such as horses and cattle, were introduced to the New World. The spread of basic products and diseases formed an important backdrop to world history from the 16th century on, with varying effects on population structures in diverse regions. The Columbian Exchange had substantial environmental impact. Europeans ignored the environ­mental experience of local populations in the Americas, bent on introducing European products and expanding output. Introduction of sheep, for example, devastated local vegetation in many parts of the Americas, because of their close grazing, with increased soil erosion an obvious result. Deforestation increased in many regions, either because of population increase or, in the Americas, the desire to expand exports. By 1700 25 percent of the world's forests had been cut down, and by 1850 the percent­age had risen to 50. In Latin America alone, forest clearances increased five-fold between 1650 and 1750. Hunting and fishing expanded. Many species lost ground in parts of North America thanks to the fur trade. Beginning with Spanish expeditions in the 16th century, new forms of deep-sea whaling developed, and in general extensive fishing in the North Atlantic-in part to provide cheap food for slaves-began to cut into supplies, particularly of common species like cod. New trading opportunities and population changes generated new, or partially new, labor sys­tems. Faced with market demand for products like sugar, now introduced to the Americas, but short of local workers thanks to disease, Europeans actively sought alternatives. Experiments with indentured servitudewith workers brought from Europe under tight contracts that controlled their labor for many years-had some success, but failed to recruit sufficient labor. The slave trade, quickly devel­oped with Africa, proved a more important response, with millions ultimately forcibly shipped across the Atlantic. Atlantic slavery, however, was no mere imitation of earlier slave systems. Not only were greater numbers involved, but plantation owners actively strove to increase discipline and production (see Chapter 24). The Columbian Exchange thus played a major role in the general global effort to increase human labor during the Early Modern period. Europeans did not displace all Asian shipping from the coastal waters of China and Japan, nor did they completely monopolize the Indian Ocean (see Chapter 27). Along the east African coast, while a few European bases were established, Muslim traders remained active, and commerce continued to move toward the Middle East. Generally, however, western Europe dominated a growing percentage of oceanic shipping, even using war ships to muscle in on trade between other societies, as between India and southeast Asia. This greatly increased Europe's overall profits, and disproportionate control by the great merchant companies increased the European ability to determine the framework for international trade. In the eastern Mediterranean, for example, a Spanish-directed fleet defeated the navy of the Ottoman empire in the battle of Lepanto in 1571. With this setback, any hope of success­ful Muslim rivalry against European naval power ended. The Turks rebuilt their fleet and continued their activity in the eastern Mediterranean, but they could not challenge the Europeans on the larger international routes. Although western Europe did not conquer much inland territory in Africa or Asia, it did seek a limited network of secure harbors. Led by Spain and Portugal, then followed by the various northern powers, European ports spread along the west coast of Africa, several parts of the Indian subconti­nent, and the islands of southeast Asia by the 17th century. Even in China, where unusually strong governments limited the Europeans' ability to seize harbors outright, the Portuguese won effective control over the island port of Macao. European-controlled ports served as areas for contact with overland traders ( usually local merchants) and provided access to inland goods not directly within the reach of the West. Where direct control was not feasible, European influence led to the formation of special western enclaves in existing cities. This was the pattern in the Ottoman empire, where Western merchants were permitted to form limited self-governing communities alongside other foreign merchants within Constantinople, and in Russia, where Western shipping agents set up first in Moscow and then in St. Petersburg. Elements of this system even emerged in Japan after a firm isolationist policy was launched about 1600, as Dutch traders were given special access to the port of Nagasaki, a privilege shared by and formerly enjoyed only by Chinese merchants. The point was obvious: International trade gained growing importance in supplementing regional economies. Because western Europe now ran began to play a larger role in trans-regional trace, its merchants often gained some new access, though Chinese traders were still dominant in most East Asian markets. I m balances in WorldTrade The most active competition in world trade emerged between European nations themselves. Spain briefly dominated, thanks to its imports of silver from the Americas. But it lacked a good banking sys­tem and could not support a full commercial surge. England, France, and Holland, where merchants had firmer status, soon pulled in the lion's share of profits from world trade. Western Europe quickly expanded its manufacturing operations, so that it could export expensive finished goods, such as guns and cloth, in return for unprocessed goods, such as silver and sugar, traded by other societies. Here was another margin for profit. The dominant core nations in the new world system supplemented their growing economic prowess by self-serving political policies. The doctrines of mercantilism, which urged that a nation­state not import goods from outside its own empire but sell exports as widely as possible in its own ships, both reflected and encouraged the new world system. Tariff policies discouraged manufacturing in colonial areas and stimulated home-based manufacturing. Beyond western Europe lay areas that were increasingly enmeshed in the world economy but as dependents to the core nations. These areas produced low-cost goods: precious metals and cash crops such as sugar, spice, tobacco, and later cotton. Human labor was a vital item of exchange. Parts of subSaharan Africa entered the new world economy mainly as suppliers of slaves. The earlier west African patterns of trade across the Sahara yielded to a dominant focus on the Atlantic and therefore to activities organized by Western shippers. In return for slaves and unprocessed goods, Europeans traded their manufactured items, including guns, while profiting from their control of commercial and shipping services. A System of I nternational I n equa lity The new world economic relationships proved highly durable. Most of the areas established as depen-dent by the 17th century still carry some special burdens in world trade today. In dependent areas such as Latin America and the slave-supplying parts of Africa, not all people were mired in poverty. African slave traders and princes who taxed the trade might grow rich. In Latin America the silver mines and commercial estates required regional merchants and farmers to supply food. Furthermore, many peasants in Latin America and even more in Africa were not yet involved in a market economy at all-whether regional or international-but rather produced for local subsistence with traditional motives and methods. However, significant minorities were involved in production for the world market. Also, most African and Latin American merchants and landlords did not fully control their own terms of trade. They might prosper, but their wealth did not stimulate much local manufacturing or general economic advance. Rather, they tended to import European-made goods, including (in the case of American planters) art objects and luxury items. Coercive labor systems spread. Because dependent economies relied on cheap production of unprocessed goods, there was a tendency to build a system of forced labor that would cost little even when the overall labor supply was precarious. In the Americas, given the population loss from disease, this led to the massive importation of African slaves as well as the more limited use of indentured servants. Also, for many Native Americans and mestizos (people of mixed European and Native American blood), systems of estate management developed that demanded large amounts of labor. More limited examples of estate agriculture, with peasants forced into labor without the legal freedom to leave, arose for spice production in the Dutch East Indies and, by the 18th century, in British­ dominated agricultural operations in India. How Much World i n the World Economy? Asia, although not sponsoring the most active merchant ventures, participated strongly, and often profitably, in the world economy. The Chinese government, having renounced large-scale interna­tional trade of its own early in the 15th century, deliberately avoided involvement with international trade on someone else's terms. It did copy some firearms manufacturing from the Europeans, but at a fairly low level. Beyond this it depended on extensive government regulation, backed up by a coastal navy, to keep European activities in check. Most of the limited trade that existed was channeled through Macao. European visitors wrote scornfully of China's disdain for military advances. A Jesuit wrote that "the military . . . is considered mean among them:' The Chinese were also disparaged for adhering to tradition. One Western missionary in the 17th century described how, in his opinion, the Chinese could not be persuaded "to make use of new instruments and leave their old ones without an especial order from the Emperor to that effect. They are more fond of the most defective piece of antiquity than of the most perfect of the modern, differing much in that from us who are in love with nothing but what is new:' So China managed to avoid trying to keep up with European developments while also avoid­ing subservience to European merchants. Chinese manufacturing gains led to a strong export position, which is why Europeans sent a great deal of American silver to China to pay for the goods they wanted. Indeed, at the end of the 18th century, a famous British mission, appealing to the government to open the country to greater trade, was rebuffed. The imperial court, after insisting on extreme deference from the British envoy, haughtily informed him that the Chinese had no need for outside goods. European eagerness for Chinese goods-attested to by the habit adopted in the 17th century of calling fine porcelain "china'' -was simply not matched by Chinese enthusiasm, but a trickle of trade continued. Westerners compensated in part by developing their own porcelain industry by the 18th century, which contributed to the early Industrial Revolu­tion, particularly in Britain. Still, there were hopes for commercial entry to China that remained unfulfilled. Japan, although initially attracted by Western expeditions in the 16th century, pulled back even more fully. So did Korea. The Japanese showed some openness to Christian missions, and they were fascinated by Western advances in gunnery and shipping. Artists captured the interest in exotic for­eigners. Guns had particular relevance to Japan's ongoing feudal wars, for there was no disdain here for military life. Yet Japanese leaders soon worried about undue Western influence and the impact this could have on internal divisions among warring lords, as well as the threat guns posed to samurai military dominance. They encouraged a local gunmaking industry that matched existing European muskets and small cannon fairly readily, but having achieved this, they cut off most contact with any world trade. Most Japanese were forbidden to travel or trade abroad, the small Christian minority was suppressed, and from the 17th until the 19th centuries Japan entered a period of almost complete isolation except for some Chinese contact and trading concessions to the small Dutch enclave near Nagasaki. Other societies participated variously in world trade. The rulers of India's new Mughal empire in the 16th century were interested in Western traders and even encouraged the establishment of small port enclaves. India also sold goods-not only spices but also manufactured cottons textiles and other items-in return for New World silver. Most attention, however, was riveted on internal development and land-based expansion and commerce; world trade was a sideline. The same held true for the Ottoman and Safavid empires in the Middle East through the 17th century, despite the presence of small European enclaves in key cities. Russia lay partially outside the world economic orbit until the 18th century. A largely agricultural society, Russia conducted much of its trade with nomadic peoples in central Asia, which further insulated it from west European demands. The Expansionist Trend The world economy was not stationary; it tended to gain ground over time, as the centerpiece of the process of proto-globalization. The process also linked to the formation of new kinds of empire. South America, the West Indies, a part of North America, and some regions in west Africa were first staked out as colonial dependencies beginning in the 16th century, and the list later expanded. Portions of southeast Asia that produced for world markets, under the dominance of the great Western trading companies, were brought into the orbit by the 17th century. By the early 18th century, Western traders were advancing in India as the Mughal empire began to fall apart. The British and French East India Companies staked out increasing roles in internal trade and administration. Early in the 18th century, Britain passed tariffs against the import of cot­ton cloth made in India as a means of protecting Britain's own cotton industry. The intent was to use India as a market for British-processed goods and a source of outright payments of gold, which the British were requiring by the late 18th century. I India maintained a complex regional economy still, with much internal manufacturing and trade; it was not forced into such complete dependency as Latin America, for example. However, what had initially been a position outside the world economy was changing, to India's disadvantage. Manufac­turing began to decline. Eastern Europe also was brought into a growing relationship with the world economy and the west European core. The growth of cities in the West created a growing market for imported grains by the 18th century. Much of this demand was met by east European growers, particularly in Prussia and Poland but also in Russia. Export grains, in turn, were produced mainly on large estates by serfs, who were subjected to prolonged periods of labor service. This relationship was similar to that which prevailed in Latin America, with one exception: Outside of Poland, east European governments were much stronger than their Latin American counterparts. Opportunities to establish colonies were particularly inviting in the Americas, where European guns, horses, and iron weapons offered special advantages and where political disarray and the population losses provided openings in many cases (see Chapter 24). The Americas: Loosely Control led Colonies Spain moved first. The Spanish colonized several West Indian islands soon after Columbus's first voyage, starting with Hispaniola and then moving into Cuba, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Only in 1509 did they begin settlement on the mainland, in search of gold. The first colony was established in what is now Panama, under an able but unscrupulous adventurer, Vasco de Balboa. Several expeditions fanned out in Central America, and then a separate expedition from Cuba launched the Spanish con­quest of the Aztecs in Mexico. Another expedition headed toward the Inca realm in the Andes in 1531, where hard fighting was needed before ultimate victory. From this base several colonial expeditions spread to Colombia, other parts of the Andes, and portions of Argentina. Expansion resulted from the efforts of a motley crew of adventurers, many of them violent and treacherous, like Francisco Pizarro (1478-1541), admittedly one of the more successful examples (Figure 21.5). Pizarro first came to the Americas in 1502 and settled on the island of Hispaniola. Later, he joined Balboa's colony in Panama, where he received a cattle ranch. Learning of wealth in Peru, he joined with an illiterate soldier and a priest, mounting two expeditions that failed. In 1528 he returned to Spain to gain the king's support and also his agreement that he would be governor of the new province. With these pledges and a force of about 180 men, he attacked the divided Inca empire. Captur­ing Emperor Atahuallpa, he accepted a large ransom and then strangled him. Several revolts followed during Pizarrds rule from Lima, a coastal city he founded. But the Spanish king ennobled Pizarro for his success. At a dinner in 1541, Pizarro was assassinated by a group of Inca rebels. Early colonies in the Americas typically were developed by small bands of gold-hungry Europeans, often loosely controlled by colonial administrations back home. Colonial rulers often established only lim­ited controls over native populations at first, content to exact tribute without imposing detailed administration and sometimes leaving exist­ing leaders in place. Gradually, more formal administration spread as agricultural settlements were established and official colonial systems took shape under control of bureaucrats sent from Spain and Portugal. Active missionary efforts, designed to Christianize the native peoples, added another layer of detailed administration throughout the Spanish holdings in North and South America. France, Britain, and Holland, although latecomers to the Americas, also staked out colonial settlements. French explorations along the St. Lawrence River in Canada led to small colonies around Quebec, from 1608 onward, and explorations in the Mississippi River basin. Dutch and English settlers moved into portions of the Atlantic coastal regions early in the 17th century. Also in the 17th century, all three countries seized and colonized several West Indian islands, which they soon involved in the growing slave trade. British and French North America: Backwater Colonies Colonies of European settlers developed in North America, where patterns differed in many respects from those in Latin America and the Caribbean. English colonies along the Atlantic received religious refugees, such as the Calvinists who fled religious tensions in Britain to settle in New England. Government grants of land to major proprietors such as William Penn led to explicit efforts to recruit settlers. New York began as a Dutch settlement but was taken over easily by an English expedition in 1664. In Canada, the first substantial European settlements were launched by the French government under Louis XIV. The initial plan involved setting up manorial estates under great lords whose rights were carefully restricted by the state. French peasants were urged to emigrate, although it proved dif­ficult to develop an adequate labor force. However, birth rates were high, and by 1755 New France had about 55,000 settlers in a peasant society that proved extremely durable as it fanned out around the fortress of Quebec. Strong organization by the Catholic Church completed this partial replica of French provincial society. Britain attacked the French strongholds (Figure 21.6) as part of a worldwide colonial struggle between the two powers. In the conflict, known as the Seven Years War, France lost its colony under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, which in 1763 settled the war. France eagerly regained its West Indian sugar islands, along with trading posts in Africa, and Britain took control of Canada and the Mississippi basin. Relations between British officials and the French Canadian community remained strained as British settlements developed in eastern Canada and in Ontario. The flight of many Ameri­can loyalists after the 1776 revolution added to the English-speaking contingent in Canada. Colonial holdings along the Atlantic and in Canada were generally of modest interest to West­ern colonial powers in the 17th and even the 18th centuries. The Dutch were more attached to their Asian colonies. British and French leaders valued their West Indian holdings much more than their North American colonies. The value of North American products, such as timber and furs, was not nearly as great as profits from the Caribbean or Latin America, so much less attention was given to economic regulation. As a result, some merchant and manufacturing activities emerged among the new Americans. However, the American colonies that would become the United States had a population of a mere 3 million, far smaller than the powerful colonies in Latin America. Southern colonies that produced tobacco and sugar, and then cotton, became important. Patterns there were similar to those of Latin America, with large estates based on imported slave labor, a wealthy planter class bent on importing luxury products from western Europe, and weak formal governments. Still, in world historical terms, the Atlantic colonies in North America were of limited value amid the larger colonial holdings staked out in the Early Modern centuries. Yet European settlers did arrive. Driven by religious dissent, ambition, and other motives, Europe­ans, many from the British Isles, colonized the Atlantic coastal region, where native populations were quickly reduced by disease and war. The society that developed in the British colonies was far closer to west European forms than was that of Latin America. The colonies operated their own assemblies, which provided the people with political experience. Calvinist and Quaker church assemblies gave governing power to groups of elders or wider congregations. Many colo­nists thus had reason to share with some west Europeans a sense of the importance of representative institutions and self-government. Colonists were also avid consumers of political theories written in Europe, such as the parliamentary ideas of John Locke. There was also wide reading and discussion of Enlightenment materials. Institutions such as the 18th-century American Philosophical Society deliberately imitated European scientific institutes, and hundreds of North Ameri­cans contributed scientific findings to the British Royal Society. The colonies remained modest in certain cultural attainments. Art was rather primitive, although many stylistic cues came from Europe. There was no question that in formal culture, North American leaders saw themselves as part of a larger Western world. By the late 18th century, some American merchants were trading with China, their ships picking up medicinal herbs along the Pacific coast and exchanging them for Chinese artifacts and tea. Great Britain tried to impose firmer limits on this modestly thriving local economy after the Seven Years War. It hoped to win greater tax revenues and to guarantee markets for British goods and traders, but the effort came too late and helped encourage rebellion in key colonies. Unusual among the colonies, North America developed a merchant class and some stake in manufacturing in a pattern similar to that taking shape in western Europe itself. The spread of Western values in the Atlantic colonies and in Brit­ish and French settlements in Canada was facilitated by the modest impact of Native Americans in these settled areas The native population of this part of North America had always been less dense than in Central America or the Andes region. Because few Native American groups in these regions practiced settled agricul­ture, instead combining hunting with slashand-burn corn growing, European colonists found it easy to displace them from large stretches of territory. The ravages of European-imported disease reduced the indigenous population greatly. Many forest peoples were pushed west­ward. Some abandoned agriculture, turning to a new horse-based hunting economy on the plains (the horse was brought to Mexico by the Spaniards). Many territorial wars further distracted the Native American groups. The net result of these factors was that although European colonists interacted with Native Americans, learned from them, and feared and mistreated them, the colonists did not combine with them to forge new cultural groups like those emerging in much of Latin America. By 1700, the importation of African slaves proved to be a more important addition to the North American experience, particularly in the southern colonies. The practice of slaveholding and interactions with African culture distinguished North American life from its European counterpart. By the 18th century, 23 percent of the population of the English colonies was of African origin. North America and Western Civi l ization On balance, most white settlers intended to transplant key Western habits into their new setting. For example, family patterns were similar. American colonists were able to marry slightly earlier than ordinary western Europeans because of the greater abundance of land, and they had larger families. Still, they reproduced most features of the European-style family, including the primary emphasis on the nuclear unit. The new Americans did have unusual concern for children, if only because they depended so heavily on their work in a labor-scarce environment. European visitors commented on the child-centeredness of American families and the freedom of children to speak up. These variations, although significant, played on trends also becoming visible in Europe, such as the new emphasis on family affection. Even when key colonies rebelled against European control, as they did in 1776, they moved in the name of Western political ideas and economic goals against the dependency the British tried to impose. They established a government that responded to the new Western political theories, imple­menting some key ideas for the first time. Africa and Asia: Coasta l Trading Stations In Africa, Europeans for the most part contented themselves with small coastal fortresses, negotiating with African kings and merchants but not trying to claim large territories of their own. They sold Asian products, like Indian cotton, and European guns and decorative items in return for slaves. Gen­erally, Europeans were deterred by climate, disease, and non-navigable rivers from trying to reach into the interior. Mostly, they dealt with West African governments and traders. There were two important exceptions. From initial coastal settlements, Portugal sent expeditions into Angola in search of slaves. These expeditions had a more direct and more disruptive impact in this part of southwestern Africa than elsewhere along the Atlantic coast. More important still was the Cape Colony planted by the Dutch on the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. The intent was to form another coastal station to supply Dutch ships bound for Asia. But some Dutch farmers were sent, and these Boers ( the Dutch word for farmers) began to fan out on large farms in a region still lightly populated by Africans. They clashed with local hunting groups, enslaving some of them. Only after 1770 did the expanding Boer settle­ments directly conflict with Bantu farmers, opening a long battle for control of southern Africa that raged until the late 20th century in the nation of South Africa. European colonies in Asia were also exceptional. Spain set up an administration for the Philip­pines and sent active Catholic missionaries. The Dutch East India company administered portions of the main islands of present-day Indonesia and also ( for a time) Taiwan, off the China coast. Colonization in Asia entered a new phase as the British and French began to struggle for control of India, beginning in the late 17th century when the Mughal empire weakened. Even before the Mughals faltered after the death in 1707 of their last great emperor, Aurangzeb, French and British forts dotted the east and west coasts, along with Portuguese Goa. As Mughal inefficiency increased, with a resultant surge of regional states ruled by Indians, portions of the subcontinent became an arena for the growing international rivalry between Britain and France. The British East India Company had two advantages in this competition. Through negotia­tion with local princes, it had gained a station at Calcutta, which gave it some access to the great wealth of the Ganges valley. Furthermore, the company had enormous influence over the British government and, through Britain's superior navy, excellent communication on the ocean routes. Its French rivals, in contrast, had less political clout at home, where the government often was distracted by European land wars. The French also were more interested in missionary work than the British, for Protestants became deeply committed to colonial missions only in the 19th cen­tury. Before then, the British were content to leave Hindu customs alone and devote themselves to commercial profits. French-British rivalry raged bitterly through the mid-18th century. Both sides recruited Indian princes and troops as allies. Outright warfare erupted in 1744 and then again during the Seven Years War. In 1756, an Indian ruler in Bengal attacked and captured the British base at Calcutta. In the aftermath of the battle, English prisoners were placed in their own jail, where humidity and overcrowding led to perhaps as many as 120 deaths before Indian officials became aware of their plight and released them. The English used this incident, which they dubbed the "black hole of Calcutta;' to rally their forces. The East India Company's army recaptured Calcutta and then seized additional Indian and French territory, aided by abundant bribes to many regional princes. French power in India was destroyed, and the East India Company took over administration of the Bengal region, which stretched inland from Calcutta. Soon after this, the British also gained the island of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from the Dutch. The full history of British India did not begin until late in the 18th century, when the British government took a more active hand in Indian administration, supplementing the unofficial government of the East India Company (Figure 21.8). Indeed, British control of the subcon­ tinent was incomplete. The Mughal empire remained, although it was increasingly weak and it controlled scant territory, as did other regional kingdoms, including the Sikh state. Britain gained some new territories by force but was also content to form alliances with local princes without disturbing their internal administration. In most colonies, European administration long remained fairly loose. Few settlers arrived, except in south Africa and the Americas. Out­ side the Americas, cultural impositions were slight. Missionary activity won many converts in the Philippines but not elsewhere in Asia or in Africa at this point. The main impact of colonies supplemented the more general development of the world economy: Colonial administrations pressed for economic advantage for the home country by opening mar­kets and prompting commercial production of cheap foods and raw materials. Here, of course, the consequences to colonial peoples were very real. I m pact on Western Europe Western Europe was hugely affected by its own colonial success, not only economically but also diplomatically. Colonial rivalries and wars added to the existing hostilities between key nation-states. England and Hol­land early turned against Spanish success, with great effect. The Dutch and the English competed, engaging in many skirmishes in the 17th century. Then attention turned to the growing competition between the British and the French. This contest had extensive geographic scope: the Seven Years War (1756-1763), fought in Europe, India, and North America, has been called the first world war. There were also less obvious but equally dramatic effects on Euro­pean society, including daily life. For example, from the mid-17th century onward, the use of colonially produced sugar spread widely. Previously, sugar had been a costly, upper-class item. Now for the first time (salt had been the one previous exception), a basic product available to ordinary people was being traded over long distances. The spread of sugar had cultural as well as social and economic signifi­cance in giving ordinary Europeans the ability to obtain pleasurable sensations in quick doses-an interesting foreshadowing of later features of Western consumer behavior. It also promoted a growing role for dentists by the 18th century. More broadly, the profits Europeans brought in from world trade, including the African slave trade, added wealth and capital. Many Europeans turned to manufacturing operations, as owners and workers, partly because of opportunities for export in world trade. These developments enhanced Europe's commercial character, while reducing dependence on agriculture alone. They provided addi­tional tax revenues for growing governments and their military ambitions. The I m pact of a New World Order The development of the world economy and European colonialism had immense impact. The range of unfree labor systems to supply goods for world trade became more widespread than ever before. Slavery and serfdom deeply affected Latin America and eastern Europe, while the slave trade dis­rupted west Africa, and millions of individual lives as well. Yet the world economy brought benefits as well as hardships, quite apart from the profits to Europe. New foods and wider trade patterns helped some societies deal with scarcity. Individual mer­chants and landowners gained new wealth virtually everywhere. China prospered from the imports of silver, although rapid population growth limited gains overall. The mixture of profits and compulsion brought more and more people and regions into the world economy network. TH E WORLD ECONOMY-A N D THE WORLD Buoyed by its growing role in the world, western Europe unques­ tionably saw its economy and military power increase more rapidly than those of any other society during the Early Modern period. As the next chapter shows, Europe changed internally as well, often in dramatic ways. Because of these facts, it is tempting to see the Early Modern centuries as a European drama in which other regions either played supporting roles or watched in awe. Yet the relationships to the world economy were in fact quite complex. They ranged from conscious isolation to controlled participation to undeniable dependency. Many societies retained vibrant political systems and internal economies. Some, although attracted to certain western features, wanted to stand apart from the values and institutions that world economic success seemed to involve. Even societies that had changes thrust upon them, like Latin America, were hardly passive. Pressed by missionaries, Latin Ameri­cans did not simply adopt European-style Christianity, but rather blended in traditional beliefs and practices and many distinctive artistic forms. The world was growing closer, but it was .wa not neces­sarily becoming simpler