4 | Transoceanic Interconnections

• Europeans were exposed to maritime technology from Asia through trade routes and thanks to Pax Mongolica, adopting the lateen sail from Arab merchants and the magnetic compass from China
• Magnetic compass: helped sailors reckon direction on the seas

  Astrolabe: enabled ships to determine latitude and longitude by measuring the stars

  Lateen sail: Triangular sail that could take wind from either direction
• The Portuguese armed their ships with cannons, allowing them to set up a trading post empire by force. Portuguese ships included the smaller, more maneuverable caravel and the carrack, a large trade ship meant to carry lots of cargo
• The Dutch fluyt was a ship designed for trade, it had a massive cargo hold and was relatively cheap to build
• Portugal established various trading posts throughout the West and East African coast, and Vasco da Gama from Portugal found a sea route to India in 1498
• The Portuguese used the guns on their ships (the caravel and the carrack) to forcefully establish trading posts in India
• In North America the French established the colony of Quebec, gaining access to the lucrative fur trade, while the Dutch established New Amsterdam
• The Dutch eventually dethroned Portugal as the king of the Indian Ocean trade, and were also the only European empire allowed to trade with Japan during the Tokugawa Shogunate
• European diseases destroyed indigenous populations and caused the Great Dying. Diseases included malaria, measles, and smallpox
• Food crops brought from the Europeans included bananas and sugarcane (which would eventually lead to plantation economies in the Caribbean)
• New World foods like maize and potatoes diversified European diets and led to longer lifespans, with potatoes becoming a staple food in Ireland
• Europeans brought domesticated animals (pigs, sheep, cattle) and horses changed indigenous societies by allowing natives to effectively hunt large herds of buffalo, one of their staple foods
• Britain set up multiple trading posts in Mughal Empire India which would eventually turn into full-blown colonial rule
• Threatened by the number of conversions to Christianity, the shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan expelled missionaries and Japan entered an isolationist period
• The Asante Empire in West Africa traded with the Portuguese and British, trading gold, ivory, and slaves. Wealth from trade with Europe was used to expand the military
• The Spanish made use of the old Incan mit'a system, requiring indigenous laborers to assist in silver mining operations, with Potosi being a main location for silver mining
• Encomienda system: The Spanish forced natives to provide labor for them in exchange for food and protection

  Hacienda system: Haciendas were large agricultural estates owned by Spaniards, natives were forced to work the fields
• The preference of male slaves for agricultural work in the Caribbean on sugar plantations influenced gender ratios in African states like the Asante Empire which were key players in the slave trade
• Mercantilists defined wealth in gold and silver, and mercantilist economies valued exports over imports with their colonies
• Joint stock companies: Limited liability businesses, often chartered by the state, funded by a group of investors

  • Investors could only lose the money they invested
  • Governments granted trade monopolies in various regions
  • Privately funded
• The Dutch East India Company was granted a trade monopoly in the Indian Ocean and investors became exceedingly rich
• In Spain and Portugal, trade and imperial ventures were state funded, a factor that led to their decline on the world stage
• European colonies provided silver which was highly desired by China, and silver purchased Chinese goods including silk, porcelain, and steel
• The African slave trade changed family structures in Africa as it led to the rise of polygamy where men would have multiple wives
• Creole languages developed as a synthesis of African and European languages in the colonies, with one example being Haitian Creole in the Caribbean
• Spain and Portugal sent many Catholic missionaries to their colonies, and a syncretic blending of Christianity and native belief systems occured
• The Fronde occurred in France as a resistance of increased taxation from the monarchy, where the French nobility led peasants in spontaneous rebellions
• Queen Ana Nzinga's resistance: Nzinga grew concerned over encroachment of Portuguese merchants in West Africa, allied with the Dutch in the Kingdom of Kongo to defeat Portuguese
• Pueblo Revolt: Pueblo people in North America felt terrible abuses from the Spanish as disease destroyed populations and they were forced into coerced labor, so in 1680 they violently reblled against the Spanish
• Maroon societies in the Caribbean and Brazil were communities of free blacks and runaway slaves
• British colonial authorities tried to crush maroon societies in Jamaica, but the colonial militia failed to and a treaty was signed in 1738 recognizing freedom of this maroon community
• During the Stono Rebellion of 1938 in South Carolina, enslaved Africans stormed their local armory and killed their enslavers
• By 1492 Spain completed the Reconquista, and the Spanish expelled Muslims and Jews. Jews were welcome into the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Mehmed II but had to pay the jizya, a tax on non-Muslims