The World 'Shrinks' in the Sixteenth Century
The pre-modern world shrank greatly in the sixteenth century after European sailors found a sea route to Asia and successfully crossed the western ocean to America. For centuries the Indian Ocean had known a bustling trade, and the Indian subcontinent was central to these flows. The entry of the Europeans helped redirect some of these flows towards Europe.
Before its 'discovery', America had been cut off from the rest of the world for millions of years. But from the sixteenth century, its vast lands, crops and minerals began to transform trade everywhere. Precious metals, particularly silver, from mines in present-day Peru and Mexico enhanced Europe's wealth and financed its trade with Asia. Legends of South America's fabled wealth spread, and expeditions set off in search of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold.
Disease as a Weapon of Conquest
The Portuguese and Spanish conquest of America was under way by the mid-sixteenth century. But European conquest was not just a result of superior firepower. The most powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors was not a military weapon at all — it was the germs of smallpox that they carried on their bodies.
Because of their long isolation, America's original inhabitants had no immunity against diseases that came from Europe. Smallpox in particular proved a deadly killer: it spread deep into the continent, even ahead of the Europeans, killing whole communities and paving the way for conquest. Guns could be bought or captured and turned against invaders — but not diseases like smallpox, to which the conquerors were mostly immune.
The Shift of World Trade to Europe
Until well into the eighteenth century, China and India were among the world's richest countries and pre-eminent in Asian trade. However, from the fifteenth century, China restricted overseas contacts and retreated into isolation.
China's reduced role and the rising importance of the Americas gradually moved the centre of world trade westwards. Europe now emerged as the centre of world trade. Poverty and hunger were still common in Europe until the nineteenth century, and thousands fled religious conflict and persecution to America, where by the eighteenth century plantations worked by slaves captured in Africa grew cotton and sugar for European markets.
Questions and Answers
Q1. What does it mean to say the world 'shrank' in the sixteenth century? Ans. It means that distant parts of the world became more closely connected after Europeans found a sea route to Asia and crossed the ocean to America. Goods, people, crops, minerals and diseases now moved between continents that had earlier been cut off, making the world seem 'smaller'.
Q2. How did disease help the European conquest of the Americas? Ans. The most powerful weapon of the Spanish was not a military one but the germs of smallpox. America's original inhabitants had no immunity to European diseases, so smallpox spread rapidly, killing whole communities and paving the way for conquest.
Questions and Answers (continued)
Q3. Why did the centre of world trade shift to Europe by the eighteenth century? Ans. China restricted overseas contacts from the fifteenth century and retreated into isolation, while the Americas grew in importance. China's reduced role and the rise of the Americas moved the centre of world trade westwards, and Europe emerged as its centre.
Q4. What was El Dorado? Ans. El Dorado was a fabled city of gold in South America. Legends of South America's wealth spread in seventeenth-century Europe, and many expeditions set off in search of it.