The development of the caravels, compasses, mapmaking, guns and canons helped make transoceanic European travel possible. Caravels were vessels that were very maneuverable and could sail against the wind so travel time was much faster and easier. Compasses allowed open sea navigation using the Sun and the stars to guide the navigators. Mapmaking helped document discovered and claimed land and passage ways for travel and trade. Once Europe knew about explosives, guns and canons helped Western Europe conquer other lands.
During the Ming Era in China there were vast growth in population, commerce, agriculture, and expansion. Admiral Zheng He led seven major overseas expeditions. Matteo Ricci and Adam Schall were Jesuit scholars that showed Chinese scholars Christian …show more content…
The Latin American silver then was sent to Europe. Some Europeans would then trade with Spaniard merchants. Spain mainly bought goods from Asia, like Indian spices and silk from China. The biggest beneficiary of New World silver was China and India because of the European demand of their goods.
Mercantilism was the economic idea that governments encouraged the restriction of imports from other countries in order to improve tax revenues. Spain, Portuguese, England, France, and Holland were the main countries that claimed and colonized new land. Cotton was one of the major items in global trade. Cotton was grown and picked in the New World by slaves, then sent to the Old World as a raw material. Then the Old World would make them into textiles and ship them back as manufactured goods.
The Atlantic trading system economically helped the New World. Colonies got new markets and cheap labor. But in Africa populations decreased rapidly because of the high demand of slaves. Socially in the New World the gap between social classes widened. Once slaves became a social norm, it was almost impossible for Africans to