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1500 as a Turning Points: The Birth of Globalization - Trade

5 important questions on 1500 as a Turning Points: The Birth of Globalization - Trade

Name examples of expanded trade, thanks to altered geography.

- American production of silver, organized by the Spanish, quickly fed commerce particularly between Western Europe and Asia, as the Europeans used the valued commodity to pay for goods that were otherwise out of their reach.
- China imported silver with great zeal, accelerating output of porcelain, tea, and other items in the process. Peasants expanded silk production, destroying forests in favor of plantations of mulberry trees to feed silk worms.

What consequences did the quest for silver have?

Silver became so common that the country shifted to payments in silver even for ordinary taxes by the seventeenth century, putting greater pressure on peasants to produce more for the market so that they could earn money for payment, and in general increasing commercialism and also social inequality throughout the empire.

What did growing trade in the Philippines do?

It encouraged urban growth and large colonies of foreign businessmen in this island group.

How did global trade growth affect European conditions?

Global trade on the whole stimulated manufacturing. Profits from world trade and expanding domestic production brought improved living standards to many West Europeans.

What clashes were there because of global trade?

Trade motivated war. Britain and Spain battled for sea supremacy off the coasts of Europe but also in the Americas. Clashes between Britain and Holland and Britain and France had deep roots in the effort to establish global trade advantage.
What was essentially the first global war, the Seven Years War in the mid-eighteenth century, pitting Britain against France in North America, the Caribbean, and India, as well as in Europe itself, mixed goals of colonialism and global commerce.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

Globalization in World History | 9780367279868 | Peter N Stearns

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