Introduction for Chapter 16

16 The Acceleration of Global Contact 1450–1600

> What new global connections were forged in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries? Chapter 16 examines the causes, course, and effects of European expansion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Before 1500 Europeans were relatively marginal players in a centuries-old trading system that linked Africa, Asia, and Europe. By 1550 the European search for better access to Asian trade goods had led to a new overseas empire in the Indian Ocean and the accidental discovery of the Western Hemisphere. With this discovery South and North America were drawn into an international network of trade centers and political empires, which Europeans came to dominate. The era of globalization had begun, creating new political systems and forms of economic exchange as well as cultural assimilation, conversion, and resistance.

image
Nezahualpilli At the time of the arrival of Europeans, Nezahualpilli was ruler of the city-state of Texcoco, the second most important city in the Aztec Empire after Tenochtitlan. (Nezahualpilli, portrait from Codex Ixtlilxochitl, 1582, pigment on European paper/Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France/De Agostini Picture Library/akg-images)

LearningCurve

After reading the chapter, use LearningCurve to retain what you’ve read.

1271–1295 1519–1522
Marco Polo travels to China Magellan’s expedition circumnavigates the world
1443 1521
Portuguese establish first African trading post at Arguin Cortés conquers Aztec Empire
1492 1533
Columbus lands on San Salvador Pizarro conquers Inca Empire
1494 1571
Treaty of Tordesillas ratified Spanish establish port of Manila in the Philippines
1518 1602
Atlantic slave trade begins Dutch East India Company founded