Key Concept 4.1

Globalizing Networks of Communication and Exchange

The interconnection of the Eastern and Western hemispheres made possible by transoceanic voyaging marked a key transformation of this period. Technological innovations helped to make transoceanic connections possible. Changing patterns of long-distance trade included the global circulation of some commodities and the formation of new regional markets and financial centers. Increased transregional and global trade networks facilitated the spread of religion and other elements of culture as well as the migration of large numbers of people. Germs carried to the Americas ravaged the indigenous peoples, while the global exchange of crops and animals altered agriculture, diets, and populations around the planet.

I. In the context of the new global circulation of goods, there was an intensification of all existing regional trade networks that brought prosperity and economic disruption to the merchants and governments in the trading regions of the Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Sahara, and overland Eurasia.

II. European technological developments in cartography and navigation built on previous knowledge developed in the classical, Islamic, and Asian worlds, and included the production of new tools, innovations in ship designs, and an improved understanding of global wind and current patterns - all of which made transoceanic travel trade possible.

• New tools
• Astrolabe
• Revised maps
• Innovations in ship designs
• Caravels

III. Remarkable new transoceanic maritime reconnaissance occurred in this period.

• Official Chinese maritime activity expanded into the Indian Ocean region with the naval voyages led by Ming Admiral Zheng He, which enhanced Chinese prestige.
• Portuguese development of a school for navigation led to increased travel to and trade with West Africa, and resulted in the construction of a global trading-post empire.
• Spanish sponsorship of the first Columbian and subsequent voyages across the Atlantic and Pacific dramatically increased European interest in transoceanic travel and trade.
• Northern Atlantic crossings for fishing and settlements continued and spurred European searches for multiple routes to Asia.
• In Oceania and Polynesia, established exchange and communication networks were not dramatically affected because of infrequent European reconnaissance in the Pacific Ocean.

IV. The new global circulation of goods was facilitated by royal chartered European monopoly companies that took silver from Spanish colonies in the Americas to purchase Asian goods for the Atlantic markets, but regional markets continued to flourish in Afro-Eurasia by using established commercial practices and new transoceanic shipping services developed by European merchants.

• European merchant's role in Asian trade was characterized mostly by transporting goods form one Asian country to another market in Asia or the Indian Ocean region.
• Commercialization and the creation of a global economy were intimately connected to new global circulation of silver from the Americas.
• Influenced by mercantilism, joint-stock companies were new methods used by European rulers to control their domestic and colonial economies and by European merchants to compete against one another in global trade.
• The Atlantic system involved the movement of goods, wealth, and free and unfree laborers, and the mixing of African, American, and European cultures and peoples.

V. The new connections between the Eastern and Western hemispheres resulted in the Columbian Exchange.

• European colonization of the America led to the spread of diseases - including smallpox, measles, and influenze - that were endemic in the Eastern Hemisphere among Amerindian populations and the unintentional transfer of vermin, including mosquitoes and rats.
• American foods became staple crops in various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Cash crops were grown primarily on plantations with coerced labor and were exported mostly to Europe and the Middle East in this period.
  • American foods
  • Potatoes
  • Maize
  • Manioc
  • Cash crops
  • Sugar
  • Tobacco
• Afro-Eurasian fruit trees, grains, sugar, and domesticated animals were brought by Europeans to the Americas, while other foods were brought by African slaves.
  • Domesticated animals
  • Horses
  • Pigs
  • Cattle
  • Foods brought by African slaves
  • Okra
  • Rice
• Populations in Afro-Eurasia benefited nutritionally from the increased diversity of American food crops.
• European colonization and the introduction of European agriculture and settlements practices in the Americas often affected the physical environment through deforestation and soil depletion.

VI. The increase in interactions between newly connected hemispheres and intensification of connections within hemispheres expanded the spread and reform of existing religions and created syncretic belief systems and practices.

• As Islam spread to new settings in Afro-Eurasia, believers adapted it to local cultural practices. The split between the Sunni and Shi'a traditions of Islam intensified, and Sufi practices became more widespread.
• The practice of Christianity continued to spread throughout the world and was increasingly diversified by the process of diffusion and the Reformation.
• Buddhism spread within Asia.
• Syncretic and new forms of religion developed.
• Vodun in the Caribbean
• The cults of saints in Latin America
• Sikhism in South Asia

VII. As merchants' profits increased and governments collected more taxes, funding for the visual and performing arts, even for popular audiences, increased.

• Innovations in visual and performing arts were seen all over the world.
• Renaissance art in Europe
• Miniature paintings in the Middle East and South Asia
• Wood-block prints in Japan
• Post-conquest codices in Mesoamerica
• Literacy expanded and was accompanied by the proliferation of popular authors, literary forms, and works of literature in Afro-Eurasia.
• Shakespeare
• Cervantes
• Sundiata
• Journey to the West
• Kabuki