Commercial Revolution

This led to a focus on a trading system because Europeans didn’t want to take on territorial responsibilities. During the Old imperialism era, Europeans set up trading posts, ports, and docks. These trading centers benefited the places the mother country was supplying too. They had objectives to protect their trading centers in native places and none to obtain territories in them. Europe’s trade within and between native lands led to cultural diversity which may have caused a small breach in unity. However, the old Imperialism era ended due to high costs in taking over territories and too much time to supply the mother country. There was no time to build up a superior, organized, skilled army for anyone. Also, due to the Industrial Revolution there was now a faster more efficient way to create and manufacture products. Throughout Western Europe, political authority was completely controlled by central governments, while leaders, such as Isabela I, were busy with the concept of how to increase the power of the state. National wealth was widely viewed as the groundwork of national power, governmental controls soon dominated nearly all of the state's domestic economy.

Mercantilist ideas emphasized that nations should strive toward economic self-sufficiency and that the power of a nation should be measured by the amount of its gold and silver reserves. Ultimately, a nation should arrange to produce everything it needed for its own citizens and sell surpluses to for hard currency. This metal reserve, in turn, could be used in emergency situations to pay for wars or solve shortages. Colonies, like those England had in North America, played an important part in this economic equation. They could help England become self-sufficient by producing things that could not be made or grown there such as tobacco, sugar, and tall masts for ships. Colonists could also provide a market for British goods, particularly manufactured products, such as woolen cloth or beaver hats. This meant that the home economy in England could become more fully developed, while the colonial economies were relegated to a role of supplying raw materials.

During the period of 1492 to 1750, Europe experienced drastic changes during their Age of Discovery. As a result of contact and colonization, Western Europe’s economy, political, social, and military systems changed, but also maintained certain aspects that enabled them to build strong civilizations. Such changes include increased (international) trade routes, more centralized governments such as monarchies, decreased unifying influence of the Catholic Church, and increased interest in military conquest and expansion.

It is evident that in 16th century Europe there existed both the motivation and the means to explore and colonize territory across the seas. As it can be said, “With the dawn of the 16th century, there came together in Europe both the motivation and the means to explore and colonize territory across the seas.” This statement is true to a large extent, especially in the areas of trade and technology. The physical means to explore and colonize came from the advances in technology that the Europeans had gone through, allowing them to sail far across the oceans and take over native populations easily. The motivation, on the other hand, came from trade-related reasons, such as the desire to trade new resources, to find gold, and to find new trade routes. Without the technology or trade at the dawn of the 16th century, there would not have been the means nor the motivation for Europeans to explore and colonize the New World.

A description of the eighteen hundreds in one word would be amend. The trial and era years were in full swing and many people had thoughts about what was right and what was wrong. People had learned from past events such as the American revolution and America was growing into a powerful self-ruling nation. The market revolution brought upon the reform impulse which was impactful to events such as the abolishment of slavery and women’s rights.

This decade portrays the exploration of the Europeans to the American colonies which allowed England, France, Holland, Spain, and British to colonize with other lands and obtain power by expanding their territory. Nevertheless, England rose as the country with the dominant colonial power. Throughout this decade, the demand for silver and other valued items influenced trade globally by commercializing and strengthening European trade. In addition, the desire for power and control enriched the economy of the Europeans. The rise of European colonization also shaped cultural globalization since traders established various ethnic societies in foreign regions. European explorers were to stop at nothing in order to achieve success in expanding their

The British had the idea of mercantilism where a the economys wealth was judged by how much gold and silver it had, the colonies supplied the mother land with materials and then the mother country produced products to sell back to the colonies

Mercantilism is an economic theory where a nation's strength comes from building up gold supplies and expanding its trade. Britain formed the American colonies so that they could increase their gold stores. They wanted raw supplies to make into products to sell and make money. They wanted America to pay taxes so that Britain could make money. America used the theory in that they thought they ought to, in order to be strong expand their trade beyond Britain. Countries like Belgium, and France wanted to also increase their trade, and expand it to trading with America. They also wanted to increase their gold stores by trading with America. Britain however did not want America to trade with France and Belgium and the Netherlands because they

America took great pride in their bustling, robust economy that was built from nothing. From the Columbian Exchange after Columbus’s discovery of America in 1492, to Triangular Trade in the eighteenth-century America

Mercantilism operated in the colonies. Mercantilism is the belief that the colonies existed to gain wealth for the mother country. England regulated trade by forbidding the colonies to trade with each other or other European countries. England took control over major port cities along the east coast and as a result, they were able to reduce the number of ships that traveled to other colonies and countries for trade. Because of this, the colonies saw a decrease in exported goods due to the British blockages. Also, England’s naval force was so powerful that other nations became intimidated by them and they stopped exporting goods to the colonies. As a result, inexpensive imports because rare and very expensive. The main purpose of this strategy was to benefit the British economy. Between 1651and 1673, the Parliament established four Navigation Acts and they were meant to ensure proper mercantilism trade balance. These acts established that only English ships could carry cargo to colonial ports, goods such as tobacco and rice could only be shipped to England and Scotland, the Parliament would pay bounties to colonists who made certain goods and raising the price of those goods in other nations, and colonists could not compete with English manufacturers. This was also an unsuccessful strategy because colonists disagreed and they went ahead and secretly began

In the early nineteenth century, the market revolution helped the growth of the United States’ economy and become the nation that exists in present day. This was one of the biggest change that helped the United States to take its first step in creating the strongest economy and maintaining it stable for decades. This change did not happen in a short time, but it took several years to build it up and with that came along some positive and negative effects. The market revolution acknowledges the radical changes that took place in the early 1800s, it helped link the country together through an impact of society, religion and majorly through the growth of economy, meanwhile at the same time increasing the nation’s sectional differences

The Virginia Company of London, a modern corporation that sold shares of stock and used the capital to pay for overseas exploration under charter.

The Industrial Revolution brought about an overwhelming amount of economic change to the United States. The first Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain and in Europe in the latter part of the eighteenth century and, it then spread to the United States and Germany. The Industrial Revolution itself refers to a change from hand and home production to machine and factory (Kelly). During this time period, America was growing in knowledge. The industrialization of America involved three great developments. Transportation was expanded, electricity was effectively harnessed and many improvements were made to several industrial processes (Kelly). Although this change greatly helped the United States economy, it had both a positive and negative impact on the lives of the American people.

The early western world benefitted from revenues from trading European products to the Eastern countries (Pomeranz, 2000). High earnings obtained from trading with eastern countries and sales of slave established seven percent profit per annum, which is a “relatively high rate of return considering the high rate of depreciation on pre-industrial capital stocks, which limited the amount of savings and capital accumulation”, stated Pomeranz (2000). Many theories suggest that the Great Divergence occurred as a result of trade development from Europe to Asia, which later on became the main factor of the New World. As, Pomeranz (2000) stated, “the greatest significant advantage for Europe was the vast amount of fertile, uncultivated land in the North America which could be used to grow large quantities of farm products required to sustain European economic growth and allowed labour and land to be freed up in Europe for industrialization.” A great example of this is how England saved approximately 23-25 million acres of agricultural space by importing goods such

Colonialism has been viewed and interpreted from multiple perspectives. Both the coloniser and the colonised are said to have benefitted therefrom. While on the one hand it is considered abject exploitation by the coloniser to fill his coffers, on the other, the routine by-products of colonisation were of absolute benefit to the colonised. The four century long period of colonisation that gripped the world is one of the most oft debated and scrutinized periods of human history. In the period beginning sixteenth century AD, trade and commerce through the sea route became a means of expanding markets in many countries. Great Britain, France, Belgium and Portugal were amongst the pioneers in taking their wares to countries far away, like Africa and Asia. One early form of colonialism that was thrust upon the colonised country was economic exploitation.