Title: In what ways was the world connected by 1800? Was this/were these positive or negative? Did different peoples have different experiences with this?
Introduction
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When you think of how the world is connected you think of travel. By 1800 the ways of travel led to so many discoveries throughout the worlds regions with the movement of people, the trade of goods, and the new ideas. With these discoveries came both good benefits and bad.
Over several centuries many barriers that divide the world began to fall. The Europeans traveled the world, made new discoveries an defeated the new lands. With these discoveries came new ways of trade. Culture began to change and slowly this started to bring the world together.
By 1800, a world of travel started to take place. Europe was one of the major strengths. With this new strength Europe started to work in connection with other developing states. With different people and cultures from all of the lands, along with Africa and the Americas helped to build this new world.
By the eighteenth century these colonial powers would start to move the economic profit from their colonies in many different ways. The moving of Silver to Spain was the most obvious, and of course this had some consequences for the European economy and Asia. Although there was plenty of valued metals which had a big effect on Europe’s new interaction with Asia and America the trade of slaves became far more important.
The slave ships would make voyages back to Europe from the Americas loaded with produce which became very important to Europe.
Trade was not the only type of exchange that developed. The journey of people, ideas, and technologies also started to happen. The Columbian Exchange involved the transfer of plants, animals, and diseases, which had a major impact on the environment.
Animals and horrible diseases would completely alter the New World. The New World plants really created the biggest change. New World plants changed the lives of millions of Africans, Asians and Europeans.
New World food was far more rich than Old World food, this being the greatest cause that the world population doubled during this time. Plants like corn and potatoes could grow in soils that were ineffective for Old World crops.
With all the good also came the bad. One of the most fatal of this era were the death of millions of Native Americans from small pox that was brought from Europe to America. The spread of this disease was devastating.
Another horrible effect and the worst of all was slavery. Salvery forced the movement of millions of Africans to the Americas. There had been between 9-10 million African slaves sent out west. By the eighteenth century they saw the greatest benefit from the slave trade.
Because trade is a two-way street this meant that Africans were caught by other Africans and then were traded to Europeans in exchange for goods like fine metals, textiles, tools and guns. Slaves were a considered a very valuable property.
Slaves were one of the only basis for private wealth in many places due to land was usually owned by the state. Europeans ports like Bristol and Nantes built a new age of commercial wealth and slavery. Because of African slave labor new lands were opened.
Some slaves worked in the houses or skilled crafts work but most of them were farmed laborers. In the Caribbean and Brazil, most of them planted, harvested and processed sugar, working almost year round and working from sun up to sun down.
It was one of the most horrific time in history because these slaves were removed from their culture and their homes. They were thought of nothing but property and this de-humanized them.
Conclusion
Trade overwhelmed the population of the Americas, it led to the slavery of Africans, but it also led to a worldwide population increase and the lives of some became better and more stable.
Fewer people went without food due to the Columbian Exchange. However, the life in this new world declined dramatically with the planting of crops where they didn’t belong damging the environment.
Because of trade and the traveling of the worlds regions the world did become more connected. Trade is what brought everything together both good and bad.
Works Citied page
Roberts, J. M., and Odd Arne Westad, The Penguin History of the World, 6th ed. London: Penguin Books, 2014
John Green Crash course-Atlantic Slave & Trade Columbian Exchange
