World History

The transatlantic slave trade is unique within the universal history of slavery for three main reasons: its duration - approximately four centuries, those vicitimized: black African men, women and children, the intellectual legitimization attempted on its behalf - the development of an anti-black ideology and its legal organization As a commercial and economic enterprise, the slave trade provides a dramatic example of the consequences resulting from particular intersections of history and geography. It involved several regions and continents: Africa, America, the Caribbean, Europe and the Indian Ocean. The transatlantic slave trade is often regarded as the first system of globalization. The transatlantic slave trade was the biggest deportation in history and a determining factor in the world economy of the 18th century. Millions of Africans were torn from their homes, deported to the American continent and sold as slaves. The transatlantic slave trade, ...

Causes of European migration:  After 1492, the motivations for European migration to the Americas centered around the three G’s: God, gold, and glory. Gold refers to the desire to extract natural resources like gold and sugar from the New World. European colonizers also had a desire to spread Christianity to the New World. Glory refers to the desire for European colonizers to increase their nation’s status as a world power and gain military strength through colonization. Technological innovation:  European colonization of the Americas was made substantially easier through several technological innovations like compasses, caravels, and astrolabes. It affected economic development by making it possible for large scale trade networks between the Old World and the New World to develop. Cultural exchanges and trade networks:  Initial contact between Native Americans and European colonizers began a process of cultural and biological exchanges between the Old World and...

Advantages for the Europeans: They had immunity to the infections diseases they brought with them. The only possible disease that went from the Western Hemisphere to Europe was syphilis. The European diseases did most of the killing of the First Americans. The Europeans had an effective writing system. The First Americans, while some were literate, most were not. The Mayan system of writing, for example, was insanely intricate. The Europeans had a higher technology; steel, and guns, were just two examples. Finally, one other European advantage was the population of Europe was large and growing. They could export their excess people to the colonies. The First American’s population was smaller and shrinking, due to all the European diseases ravaging the Western Hemisphere.By the way, that was not “genocide”. Genocide includes intent; the Spaniards, for example, wanted First Americans as slaves to work the farms and mines. NO ONE in the world in the 16th Century knew what infectious ...