(TIS) The World Economy, continued Lesson

The World Economy, continued Lesson

Toward a World Economy

Columbian exchange Image From the Americas to Europe, Africa & Asia Sweet Potatoes Squash Pumpkins Peppers Tomatoes Corn Pineapple Cacao Turkey Tobacco Potatoes Vanilla From Europe, Africa, and Asia to the Americas Bananas Grapes Citrus Fruits Peaches Onions Sugar Cane Honey Bees Coffee Beans Turnips Cattle Sheep Pigs Horses Rice Wheat Barley Smallpox Influenza Typhus Malaria Measles Whooping CoughEurope's new maritime activity had three major consequences for world history: the creation of a new international pool for exchanges of food, diseases, and manufactured products; the forming of a more inclusive world economy; and the opening of some parts of the world to Western colonization.

 

The Columbian Exchange of Disease and Food

The extension of international interaction facilitated the spread of disease. Native Americans and Polynesians, lacking natural immunities to smallpox and measles, died in huge numbers. In the Americas, Europeans forged new populations from their own peoples and through importation of African slaves. New World crops spread rapidly. American corn and the potato became important in Europe; corn and the sweet potato similarly changed life in China and Africa. Major population increases resulted. The use of tobacco, sugar, and coffee slowly became widespread in Europe. European and Asian animals passed to the New World.

 

The West's Commercial Outreach

Westerners, because of their superior military might, dominated international trade, but they did not displace all rivals. Asian shipping continued in Chinese and Japanese coastal waters, Muslim traders predominated along the East African littoral, and the Turks were active in the Eastern Mediterranean. Little inland territory was conquered in Africa or Asia; the Europeans sought secure harbors and built fortifications to protect their commerce and serve as contact places for inland traders. When effective indigenous states opposed such bases, Europeans gained protected trading enclaves within their cities.

 

Imbalances in World Trade

By the seventeenth century a new world economy, dominated by Europeans, had formed. Spain and Portugal briefly held leadership, but their economies and banking systems could not meet the new demands. England, France, and Holland, the core nations, established more durable economic dominance. They expanded manufacturing operations to meet new market conditions. The doctrines of mercantilism protected home markets and supported exports; tariff policies discouraged competition from colonies and foreign rivals. Beyond Europe, areas became dependent participants in the world economy as producers and suppliers of low-cost raw materials; in return they received European manufactured items. Africa entered the world network mainly as a slave supplier. The Europeans controlled commercial and shipping services.

 

A System of International Inequality

The rise of core and dependent economic zones became an enduring factor in world economic relationships. Some participants in the dependent regions had an opportunity for profit. African slave traders and rulers taxing the trade could become rich. Indigenous merchants in Latin America satisfied regional food requirements. Many peasants in all regions remained untouched by international markets. Still, indigenous merchants and landlords did not control their terms of trade; the wealth gained was expended on European imports and did not stimulate local manufacturing or general economic advance. Dependence in the world economy helped form a coercive labor system. The necessity for cheap products produced in the Americas resulted in exploitation of indigenous populations or use of slaves. In the Dutch East Indies and British India, peasants were forced into labor systems.

 

How Much World in the World Economy?

Huge world areas remained outside the world economy. They were not affected politically or economically by its structure, and until the eighteenth century did not greatly suffer from the missed opportunities for profit or technological advance. East Asian civilizations did not need European products; they concentrated on consumption or regional commerce. China was uninterested in international trading involvement and remained mainly outside the world economy until the end of the eighteenth century. China was powerful enough to keep Europeans in check. Some limited trade was permitted in Portuguese Macao, and European desire for Chinese manufactured items made China the leading recipient of American silver. In Japan, early openness to Europeans, in missionary activity and interest in military technology, quickly ended. Most contacts were prohibited from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Mughal India, the Ottoman Empire, and Safavid Persia all allowed minimal trade with Europeans but concentrated on their own internal development. Russia and African regions not participating in the slave trade were outside the international economic orbit.

 

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