Section outline

  • Part 1: THEMATIC FOCUS

    Governance GOV
    A variety of internal and external factors contribute to state formation, expansion, and decline. Governments maintain order through a variety of administrative institutions, policies, and procedures, and governments obtain, retain, and exercise power in different ways and for different purposes.

    LEARNING OBJECTIVE

    Unit 4: Learning Objective H
    Explain how rulers employed economic strategies to consolidate and maintain power throughout the period from 1450 to 1750.

    HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS

    KC-4.1.IV.C
    Mercantilist policies and practices were used by European rulers to expand and control their economies and claim overseas territories. Joint-stock companies, influenced by these mercantilist principles, were used by rulers and merchants to finance exploration and were used by rulers to compete against one another in global trade.

    KC-4.3.III.ii
    Economic disputes led to rivalries and conflict between states.

    Part 2: THEMATIC FOCUS

    Economics Systems ECN
    As societies develop, they affect and are affected by the ways that they produce, exchange, and consume goods and services.

    LEARNING OBJECTIVE

    Unit 4: Learning Objective I
    Explain the continuities and changes in networks of exchange from 1450 to 1750.

    HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS

    KC-4.1.IV.D.i
    The Atlantic trading system involved the movement of goods, wealth, and labor, including enslaved persons.

    KC-4.1.IV
    The new global circulation of goods was facilitated by chartered European monopoly companies and the global flow of silver, especially from Spanish colonies in the Americas, which was used to purchase Asian goods for the Atlantic markets and satisfy Chinese demand for silver. Regional markets continued to flourish in Afro-Eurasia by using established commercial practices and new transoceanic and regional shipping services developed by European merchants.

    KC-4.2.II.A
    Peasant and artisan labor continued and intensified in many regions as the demand for food and consumer goods increased.