1. Economic Globalization - Then and Now
Global Commerce
Economic Globalization - Then and Now

2. European Commerce
Europeans wanted commercial connections with Asia - Columbus and DaGamma looking for spices - Europe recovered from the plague - Monarchies learning to govern more efficiently - Resented Italian city-states for monopoly on goods from Asia through the Middle East - Constant trade deficit with Asia – needed bullion

3. Christopher Columbus

4. Portuguese Commerce Indian Ocean trade was rich and diverse
Portugal was first to come over – Vasco DaGamma
Portugal didn’t have anything good to trade - so they used piracy to gain control - they had smaller faster ships than India/China
Established a “trading post empire” - took several port cities by force… guns (Macao not taken by force) - didn’t control territories or population - goal was to control commerce

5. Portuguese Trading Post

6. Spain and the Philippines
Spain was the first to challenge the Portuguese - They colonized the Phillippines - It wasn’t too hard b/c they were small competing chiefdoms
Full colonial rule until large scale conversion to Catholicism

7. Philippines Catholic Festival

8. East India Companies
Dutch and English both set up private companies to handle colonization - merchants invested, shared the risks - had power to make war and govern conquered peoples
Dutch empire was focused on Indonesia
English empire focused on India’s ports - both gradually evolved into typical colonial domination

9. Dutch East India Company
Controlled both shipping and production of cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace
Seized small spice-producing islands and forced people to sell only to the Dutch
Destroyed the local economy of the Spice Islands; made the Dutch rich with Dutch planters and slaves

10. Dutch East India Company

11. British East India Company
Not as well financed or as commercially sophisticated as the Dutch; couldn’t break into the Spice Islands
Major ports in India – Bombay, Calcutta, Madras
Could not compete with the Mughal Empire on land - negotiated with local rulers
Britons traded pepper and other spices, but cotton textiles became more important

12. Japan Portuguese reached Japan in the mid 1500’s
Japan at the time was divided by constant conflict among feudal lords (daimyo) supported by samurai
At first, Europeans were welcome - 300,000 convert to Christianity
Then Japan is unified under the Tokugawa Shogunate - increasingly regarded Europeans as a threat to unity - expulsion of missionaries - massive persecution of Christians - Japanese were barred from travel abroad - Europeans were banned, except the Dutch at a single  site
Why do you suppose the Dutch could stay but not Spain???

13. Samurai

14. Silver and Global Commerce
Silver was even more important than the spice trade
Spanish America produced around 85 percent of the world’s silver
China’s economy - huge / growing demand for silver
1570s: all Chinese taxes were to be paid in silver
Foreigners with silver could purchase more Chinese products than before

15. Silver - Central to World Trade
“silver drain” to Asia - why do you suppose most silver wound up here?
The Spanish “piece of eight” was widely used for international exchange
Potosí, Bolivia - largest city in the Americas because it was at the world’s largest silver mine - the city’s wealthy European elite lived in luxury - Native American miners lived in horrid conditions

16. Effects of Silver Trade
Spain – caused inflation, no real economic growth
Spain lost its dominance when the value of silver fell ca. 1600
Japanese government profited from silver - Tokugawa shoguns used silver revenues to defeat rivals and unify the country - worked with the merchant class to develop a market-based economy - heavy investment in agriculture and industry

17. Effects of the Silver Trade
In China, silver further commercialized the country’s economy. - people needed to sell something to obtain silver to pay their taxes - economy became more regionally specialized - deforestation was a growing problem; wasn’t addressed as it was in Japan
Europeans were essentially middlemen in world trade. - funneled American silver to Asia - Asian commodities took market share from European products

18. “Silver Drain” Map

19. Fur in Global Commerce
Europe’s is in demand of fur by 1500 (little ice age)
Intense competition for the furs of North America - became very profitable for Indians in N. America - they received iron tools, guns, textiles, liquor - unfortunately fell victim to diseases
Russian fur trade - Fur – chief motive for Russian expansion - Similar toll on native Siberians as it had on Indians - Russia – no competition like in Americas - forced Siberians to provide fur, no negotiations

20. A Beautiful Summer Day in Siberia

21. The Atlantic Slave Trade
From 1650’s – 1850’s about 11million slaves brought to Americas from Africa. - millions more died on the journey - vast human tragedy - diaspora created racially mixed societies in the Americas

22. Slave Trade Map

23. The Slave Trade in Context
Most human societies have had slaves
Africans had practiced slavery and sold slaves for centuries - trans-Saharan - took slaves to Mediterranean world - East African slave trade
Slavery differed, depending on where and when - slaves were often assimilated into their owners’ households - children of slaves were sometimes free, sometimes slaves - Islamic world preferred female slaves - Atlantic slave trade favored males - In the Islamic world, slaves often had military and political status

24. Slavery in the Americas
The scale and importance was enormous
Plantation agriculture – denied all rights “property”’ - most slaves prior worked in domestic capacity or worked in shops
Slave status was inherited - little possibility of manumission
Slavery was wholly identified with Africa and with “blackness”
Slave – from the word “slav” – sugar plantations in Mediterranean - Ottoman conquest of Constantinople cut off supply

25. Plantation Slavery

26. Why Africans???? Slavs weren’t available
Indians died of European diseases
Europeans were a bad alternative: Christians from marginal lands couldn’t be enslaved; indentured servants were expensive
Africans were farmers, had some immunity to diseases, were not Christian, and were readily available
Long debate on how much racism was involved - Muslims had some racism in regard to sub-Saharan Africans - English had developed anti-Irish racism, may have  transferred it to Africans

27. The Slave Trade in Practice
Europeans traded freely with African elites for slaves - from capture to sale on the coast, trade was in African hands
Destabilization of African societies - smaller societies were completely disrupted by slave raids from their neighbors
Who was enslaved? - people from West Africa: criminals, POW’s, debtors
Africans generally did not sell their own peoples - there was no sense of being “African”
80 percent of slaves ended up in Brazil and the Caribbean - about 15% died on the middle passage

28. Slave Ship

29. The Impact in Africa
Slowed Africa’s growth while population expanded in Europe/China - Sub-Saharan Africa: % % of worlds pop - stagnation and political disruption in Africa
Very few breakthroughs in agriculture or industry - very little demand for African products only its’ people

30. Political Effects some kingdoms (Kongo, Oyo) gradually disintegrated
some took advantage of the slave trade
Benin – one of the largest states (west Africa) - monarchy - avoided the slave trade - diversified exports
Aja-speaking peoples to the west of Benin - slave trade disrupted several small, weak states - involved in slave trade, controlled by the monarchy - annual slave raids by the army - government depended on slave trade for revenue

31. Kingdom of Benin

32. Reflections - Globalization
What is globalization?
Who is Fukuyama?
Globalization Back Then - communication between India and England in 1700’s took 18 months. IPA - empire building and slavery - western civilizations were not the center
Compare Globalization Now

33. Globalization