Chapter 14

Chapter 14 Empires and Encounters

In China, Russia, and the United States alike, the legacy of early modern empire building continued to provoke both debate and action as a new millennium dawned. Between 1450 and 1750 is when Europeans and Africans came into contact with one another for the first time in world history. Russians constructed what was then the worlds largest territorial empire, making Russia and Asia as well as Europe. Thus the early modern era was an age of empire.

            Western Europe was distinctive because they were initiated by maritime expansion and because the conquered territories lay an ocean away from imperial heartland, rather than adjacent to it. The Spanish focused their empire building efforts in the Caribbean and then in the early sixteenth century turned to mainland, with stunning conquest of the powerful Aztec and Inca empires.

            The societies that developed within the American colonies drove the process of globalization and reshaped the world economy of the early modern era. The silver mines of Mexico and Peru fueled both transatlantic and transpacific commerce, which encouraged Spain’s unsuccessful effort to dominate Europe, and enable Europeans to buy the Chinese tea, silk, and porcelain that they valued so highly. The plantation owners of the tropical lowland regions needed workers and found them by the millions in Africa.