Section 5 Changes in Europe

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Chapter 16

• Section 5 Changes in Europe

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• Setting the Scene
• In 1570, Joseph de Acosta visited the Americas.
  He wrote in amazement about the many strange
  forms of life that he saw there. "There are a
  thousand different kinds of birds and beasts of
  the forest, which have never been known, neither
  in shape nor name. To Europeans like Acosta, the
  Americas seemed like a "new world."
• As you have read, European explorations between
  1500 and 1700 brought major changes to Asia,
  Africa, and the Americas. Here, we will look at
  the impact that these explorations had on Europe
  itself.

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I. A Global Exchange

• Columbus began a vast global exchange during his
  voyages between the new and old worlds

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I. A Global Exchange

• Because this global exchange began with Columbus,
  it is called the Columbian Exchange

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A. New Foods

• Important foods from the Americas were corn and
  the potato, which fed Europe's rapidly growing
  population

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A. New Foods

• Europeans brought plants and animals to the
  Americas

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A. New Foods

• The introduction of horses and donkeys changed
  the lives of Native Americans

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B. Impact on Population

• By the 1700s, new food crops were contributing to
  a population explosion around the world

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B. Impact on Population

• The Columbian Exchange sparked the migration of
  millions of people to the Americas, Africa and
  Asia

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II. A Commercial Revolution

• New links with the world had economic
  consequences - a price revolution and the rise of
  capitalism

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A. The Price Revolution

• Prices rose due to inflation caused by an
  increased demand for goods, and an increased
  amount of money in circulation

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B. Growth of Capitalism

• Expanded trade spurred the growth of European
  capitalism, the investment of money to make a
  profit

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B. Growth of Capitalism

• Entrepreneurs organized, managed, and assumed the
  risks of doing business and expanded into
  overseas ventures

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B. Growth of Capitalism

• Entrepreneurs and capitalists changed the
  European economy into an international trading
  system

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C. New Business Methods

• Joint stock companies allowed capitalists to pool
  large amounts of capital needed for overseas
  ventures

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D. Bypassing the Guilds

• Guilds controlled the small-scale manufacture of
  goods and could not meet the growing demand

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D. Bypassing the Guilds

• Capitalists devised a way to bypass the guilds
  through the putting-out system

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III. Mercantilism

• European monarchs competed for trade and power
  through mercantilism

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III. Mercantilism

• Mercantilists believed a nations power was
  measured in gold and silver and that it must
  export more than it imported

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A. The Role of Colonies

• Colonies provided raw materials for the parent
  country and served as a market for manufactured
  goods

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B. Increasing National Wealth

• European rulers adopted policies to increase
  national wealth by
• - exploiting resources
• - adopting a single national currency
• - establishing standard weights and
  measures
• - imposing tariffs on imported goods

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IV. The Lives of Ordinary People

• Merchants became wealthy, and middle-class
  families enjoyed a comfortable life

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IV. The Lives of Ordinary People

• Most Europeans were still peasants, and in towns
  and cities many hired workers lived in poverty

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IV. The Lives of Ordinary People

• In European families, the male was responsible
  for the behavior of his wife and children, women
  had few property or legal rights

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Looking Ahead

• In the 1500s and 1600s, the voyages of
  exploration marked the beginning of European
  domination of the globe. European expansion would
  spread goods and changes throughout the world.
  European settlers would transplant their culture
  to the Americas and, later, to Australia and New
  Zealand. It would also revolutionize the European
  economy and transform its society. In the
  centuries ahead, competition for empire would
  spark wars in Europe and on other continents.