1. Notes: Mercantilism & Colonial America

2. Mercantilism
Definition: The system used by England to control trade in its empire
Using mercantilism, a mother country will become wealthy if they export more than they import
The main reasons to have colonies were:
To get raw materials from the colonies
To extent military power and influence
To sell products to the colonists
To sell finished goods to the colonists

3. Triangular Trade
Definition: Trading networks in which goods and slaves moved among England, the American colonies, and Africa
Countries export, or send away, goods they don’t need
Countries import, or bring in, goods they don’t have.

4. Triangular Trade
Ships from Europe brought : iron, cloth, rum, & guns to Africa.
Africans needed these “European” goods and traded them for Africans (slaves).
The ship set sail for the Americas, where the enslaved people were exchanged for sugar, tobacco, or some other product.
The final leg brought the ship back to Europe.

5. Middle Passage
The Middle Passage was the forced transportation of African people from Africa to the Americas as part of the Atlantic slave trade.
Sometimes slaves were allowed to move around, but most ships kept them shackled, or chained
Slave exports doubled during the 1700s
Slave labor was used in the southern British colonies to grow crops for export
Tobacco
Sugar
Rice

7. Life on Slaving Ships
Enslaved people were fed one small meal a day with water.
About 25% of slaves died from:
Malnutrition
Dehydration
Scurvy
Smallpox
Dysentery

8. Navigation Acts Definition: England’s laws restricting colonial trade
These were laws passed by Parliament
Colonies could only trade with England for certain items
Colonial traders had to use English ships and pay port taxes when they landed in English ports

9. Great Awakening
Definition: A religious movement that became widespread in the American colonies in the 1730’s and 1740’s
All types of people participated
Various Races, genders, classes
People from all of the colonies met each other, worshipped together, wrote letters
At revivals ministers talked about spiritual equality and how everyone should seek forgiveness for their sins or be punished
This message got some people thinking about social and political equality