Introduction

Introduction

A painting depicts an African woman, a white woman, and an Indian woman, all of whom are nude. Their hands and arms are intertwined and they all hold a vine or strand. The African and Indian women wear a gold armband on each arm.

Globalization, the ever-increasing interconnectedness of the world, is not a new phenomenon, but it accelerated when western Europeans discovered the riches of the East. During the Crusades (1095–1291), Europeans developed an appetite for spices, silk, porcelain, sugar, and other luxury items from the East, for which they traded fur, timber, and Slavic people they captured and sold (hence the word slave). But when the Silk Road, the long overland trading route from China to the Mediterranean, became costlier and more dangerous to travel, Europeans searched for a more efficient and inexpensive trade route over water, initiating the development of what we now call the Atlantic World.

In pursuit of commerce in Asia, fifteenth-century traders unexpectedly encountered a “New World” populated by millions and home to sophisticated and numerous peoples. Mistakenly believing they had reached the East Indies, these early explorers called its inhabitants Indians. West Africa, a diverse and culturally rich area, soon entered the stage as other nations exploited its slave trade and brought its peoples to the New World in chains. Although Europeans would come to dominate the New World, they could not have done so without Africans and native peoples ([link]).

Candela Citations

Instructor Resources (Materials Available with Log In)

The Americas, Europe, and Africa Before 1492

Early Globalization: The Atlantic World, 1492-1650

Age of Empire: American Foreign Policy, 1890-1914

Creating New Social Orders: Colonial Societies, 1500-1700

Rule Britannia! The English Empire, 1660-1763

Imperial Reforms and Colonial Protests, 1763-1774

America's War for Independence, 1775-1783

Creating Republican Governments, 1776-1783

Growing Pains: The New Republic, 1790-1820

Industrial Transformation in the North: 1800-1850

Jacksonian Democracy, 1820-1840

A Nation on the Move: Westward Expansion, 1800-1860

Cotton is King: The Antebellum South, 1800-1860

Antebellum Idealism and Reform Impulses, 1820-1860

Troubled Times: The Tumultuous 1850s

The Civil War, 1860-1865

Appendices