(TIS) Transoceanic Interconnections 1450-1750 Module Overview

Transoceanic Interconnections 1450-1750 Module Overview

Triangular Trade Map

 

Introduction 

Before 1500, there was considerable cross-cultural interaction between Europe and Asia and, to a lesser extent, with sub-Saharan Africa. With the voyages of discovery of the fifteenth century, these contacts accelerated and became global in reach. Russian adventurers built an empire that stretched across Eurasia, and they began to explore in the Pacific Ocean basin. Meanwhile, the Chinese and the Ottomans ventured into and explored the Indian Ocean basin. The impact of European contact on the previously isolated societies of the Americas and the Pacific Islands was profound and devastating. This unit will consider the motives and impact of European trade and exploration between the fifteenth and the eighteenth centuries as well as the rise and development of Russia into a major political and military force in Europe.

The new Latin American empires of Spain and Portugal maintained special contacts with the West. Western forms were imposed on indigenous cultures as the militarily superior European invaders conquered their lands. Latin America became part of the world economy as a dependent region. The Iberians mixed with native populations and created new political and social forms. The resulting mixture of European, African, and Indian cultures created a distinctive civilization. Indian civilization, although battered and transformed, survived and influenced later societies. Europeans sought economic gain and social mobility; they used coerced laborers or slaves to create plantations and mine deposits of precious metals or diamonds.

The rise of the West and the Western-dominated economy, however, was a powerful force in influencing the course of African history. The Atlantic slave trade predominated in economic affairs after the middle of the seventeenth century. The forced removal of Africans had a major effect in some African regions and was a primary factor contributing to the nature of New World populations. African culture became one of the important strands in the development of American civilizations.

 

Essential Questions

  • Explain how cross-cultural interactions resulted in the diffusion of technology and facilitated changes in patterns of trade and travel from 1450 to 1750.
  • Describe the role states in the expansion of maritime exploration from 1450 to 1750.
  • Explain the economic causes and effects of maritime exploration be the various European states.
  • Explain the causes of the Columbian Exchange and its effects on the Eastern and Western Hemisphere.
  • Explain the process of state building and expansion among various empires and states in the period from1450 to 1750.
  • Explain the continuities and changes in economic systems and labor systems from 1450 to 1750.
  • Explain changes and continuities in systems of slavery in the period of 1450 to 1750.
  • Explain how rulers employed economic strategies to consolidate and maintain power throughout the period from1450 to 1750.
  • Explain the continuities and changes in networks of exchange from 1450 to 1750.
  • Explain how political, economic, and cultural factors affected society from 1450 to 1750.
  • Explain the similarities and differences in how various belief systems affected societies from 1450 to 1750.
  • Explain the effects of the development of state power from 1450 to 1750.
  • Explain how social categories, roles, and practices have been maintained or have changed over time.
  • Explain how economic developments from 1450 to 1750 affected social structures over time.

 

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