Transoceanic Travel and Trade

The most significant change to the global economy in this period was the integration of the Western Hemisphere into the global trading network. This change resulted from Western European states wanting to find a sea route to Asia. They borrowed and developed technology that made ocean travel easier:

• astronomical charts

• astrolabe

• compass

• magnetic compass

• lateen sail

• carrack

• caravel

• fluyt The result was the Columbian Exchange: a biological exchange of crops, animals, people, and diseases between the Eastern and Western Hemisphere. The Columbian Exchange had wide-ranging effects on both hemispheres.

The Atlantic System The Columbian Exchange also caused the development of a transoceanic trading network called the Atlantic System. The Atlantic System was made up of the regions of Western Europe, Western Africa, and the Americas and involved the movement of goods and people among those regions. Columbian Exchange forever changed who grew what foods where and how they grew them. It also unleashed deadly diseases on populations that had no immunity to them. In addition, it led to massive migrations, many of them forced, and new social structures.

As people migrated or were forced to migrate within the Atlantic System, cultural changes occurred. For instance, religion spread and often created syncretic belief systems and practices.