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1500 as a Turning Points: The Birth of Globalization - Global Inequalities and Regional Patterns

5 important questions on 1500 as a Turning Points: The Birth of Globalization - Global Inequalities and Regional Patterns

What are regional inequalities linked to?

Regional inequalities linked trading advantages or disadvantages not just to commerce itself, but also to social and political structures.

What made regional inequalities happen?

European governments and merchants, benefiting among other things from their superior weaponry, forced their way into the Americas hoping to find great wealth. Spain and Portugal headed the parade, but ultimately Britain, France, and Holland gained the clearest economic advantages.

In what three forms did profit came in a colonial economic relationship?

- First, the products Europe sold, because they were processed goods, commanded better prices than the colonial commodities did.
- Second, the goods were carried in both directions in European ships, and while there was risk involved in this there were also additional opportunities for earnings.
- And finally, the whole operation was organized as we have seen by European merchant companies, who had their own fees to charge.

How did European earnings increase wealth?

They were providing new levels of capital, new opportunities for consumer spending, and new sources of tax revenues for growing states.

Why was it difficult for the poor regions to escape poverty?

Ill-paid workers often lacked skills for more than menial labor, and they certainly had scant motivation to strive for more. The lack of a vibrant merchant group was an obvious problem. Estate owners had wealth, but often saw little reason to try to change the system that brought them individual profit.
Notoriously, they typically preferred to use personal wealth to expand their own consumption levels, traveling to Europe and buying European art objects, rather than investing locally.

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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