Global Trade and International Relationships Midterm

~ Oversea expansion did lead to better opportunities to trade worldwide, but the relationship all these countries and colonies had was not necessarily made stronger by these routes; rather, the stronger, greedier countries were able to abuse their newfound colonies to boost their own mercantile economy by abusing both goods and people while giving nothing in return.
- Expansion of Trade

• East and West

- Mercantilism
- Slave trade

• Africa and Americas

**Prince Henry the Navigator sailed out into the Pacific, found the Madeiras and Azores, and paved the way to what would be a whole new way of life for everyone in Europe.  After him came many explorers life Pedro Cabral, who discovered Brazil, and Vasco de Gama, who was the first to round the Cape of Good Hope in Africa.  These explorers opened up a whole new world of possibilities for trade.  Now, there were even more resources available to everyone in both the New World and the old, which they could trade to boost the entire global economy.  However, this was not the case.  European countries like Spain and Portugal and later England did not want to trade fairly with their colonies, instead abusing their resources.  Oversea expansion did lead to better opportunities to trade worldwide, but the relationship all these countries and colonies had was not necessarily made stronger by these routes; rather, the stronger, greedier countries were able to abuse their newfound colonies to boost their own mercantile economy by abusing both goods and people while giving nothing in return.
**As explorers branched out into the ocean and across the land, trade routes opened up across the whole world.  The Columbian Exchange led to all sorts of goods being transfered from the Americas back to Europe.  The East and West India Trading Company allowed for goods to be traded east of Europe in Asia.  New animals were brought to new places and new foods were introduced to new soils.  This also paved the way for immigration of people to new places.  Even though Europe had much to offer their new colonies, these colonies still suffered because of the greed of their European founders.
**In the 17th century in Europe, there was a big focus on mercantilism.  This type of economy was one where a bigger emphasis was put on importing than exporting, and a country's wealth could be told by the amount of gold and silver in their possession.  Because of this type of economy, countries and Europe would take all the raw materials from their colonies in order to manufacture goods for themselves.  Colonies would not be able to manufacture the goods out of their raw materials on their own; they would later have to buy them back from Europe.  Even so, Europe kept most of the goods for itself.  The colonies would have to pay even more for the goods made from their own raw materials, rather then being able to make the goods themselves.  Though they did get money for the raw materials originally, in the end they still suffered the deficit while their European counterparts were rolling in their gold and silver.
**A newly discovered land that was being abused the most was Africa.  People were being taken from their homeland and being sold as slaves to labor in fields for no pay.  This also happened in what is now Mexico, where the Spanish conquistadors conquered the people there and forced them to work on encomienda plantations.  There was no respect for life in the Europeans' minds, only greed.  They saw these natives as resources, and abused them like they did the rest of their colonies.  The people in the colonies they found were nothing more than yet another way to bring in profit.
**Having new trade routes open up should have been an opportunity for unity around the world, where relations between countries could flourish, blossom, be beneficial, but European rulers and this time would have none of that.  All they saw was the money that could boost their mercantile economy.  Europe stripped their colonies of as many resources as possible, raw materials and even people.  Exploration could have been symbiotic and helpful to all parties involved, but instead it was only beneficial to the most powerful nation who was in control.