o Overview
-> Mercantilism and companies
-> Silver and production networks
o Mercantilism and companies
-> Mercantilism tied regulated commerce to state power.
-> Rulers sought bullion (gold and silver) and export earnings.
-> Colonies supplied resources and bought home-country goods.
-> Trade rules reserved colonial shipping for favored fleets.
-> Joint-stock companies pooled investors' capital and risks.
-> Royal charters granted monopolies over designated trades.
-> English and Dutch East India companies held trade charters.
-> Some companies could build forts, wage war, and make treaties.
-> Anglo-Dutch wars reflected rivalry over shipping and trade.
-> Profits and customs helped finance fleets and imperial power.
o Silver and production networks
-> Potosi and Mexican mines supplied Spanish American silver.
-> Silver crossed the Atlantic and the Pacific via Manila.
-> Acapulco-Manila galleons linked American and Asian markets.
-> Chinese silver taxes increased demand for imported bullion.
-> Merchants exchanged silver for Chinese silk and porcelain.
-> Asian merchants and older regional markets stayed important.
-> Export demand intensified Indian cotton and Chinese silk work.
-> European households also produced wool and linen for sale.
-> Peasant households and artisan workshops remained important.
o Overview
-> Atlantic societies and families
-> Religion and cultural encounters
o Atlantic societies and families
-> Atlantic routes moved manufactures, crops, wealth, and people.
-> Enslaved Africans endured the violent Middle Passage crossing.
-> Plantation exports tied American labor to overseas demand.
-> Actual routes varied; not all voyages formed a triangle.
-> Slave raiding and sales tore apart African families.
-> Male-heavy exports altered gender balances in some regions.
-> Women often assumed added farming and household burdens.
-> African, European, and Indigenous peoples formed new cultures.
-> Food, language, music, and worship changed through contact.
o Religion and cultural encounters
-> Catholic missionaries spread Christianity in colonial lands.
-> Mission churches linked conversion to imperial settlement.
-> Islam also spread through merchants and teachers in Asia.
-> Both faiths crossed cultures; routes and patrons differed.
-> Iberian missions often relied on conquest and state backing.
-> Suppression of Pueblo rituals fueled resistance to missions.
-> Syncretism combined elements of distinct religious traditions.
-> Indigenous and African rites could adapt Catholic observances.
-> Kongo crucifixes (1500s-1600s) recast Christian symbols.
-> Some crucifixes linked Christ with ancestral beliefs.