Blog #3

The slave trade was the only component of international network that shaped human interactions during 1450 and 1750. The Europeans made their way into an ancient spice trade of the Indian Ocean, developing new relationships with Asian societies. Silver enriched Western Europe and made its way to China where it allowed Europeans to participate in the rich commerce of East Asia. Hunting and trapping fur-bearing animals transformed natural environments and human societies. The twin creators of a global network gave rise to new relationships, disrupted old patterns, brought distant people into contact with one another, and enslaved others.
Europeans encountered an ancient and rich network of commerce that stretched from East Africa to China. They were aware of the wealth that was commercially networked. The motivation for this massive effort was the desire tropical spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and pepper which were widely used as condiments and preservatives. Underlying this growing interest in Asia was the more general recovery of European civilization. European's population was growing again and it national monarchies were learning how to tax their subjects more effectively and to build substantial military forces equipped with gunpowder weapons. Eastern goods had trickled into the Mediterranean through the Middle East from the Indian Ocean commercial network. The source of supply for these desired goods were in the hands of the Muslim. Muslim Egypt was the primary point of transfer into the Mediterranean basin and its European customers. The Italian commercial monopolized the European trade in Eastern goods. A further problem for Europeans lay in paying for Eastern goods. Because of an economical less developed Europe was attractive in Eastern markets, Europeans were required to pay cash, gold or silver, for Asian spices or textiles. The Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch, and British collectively contributed much to the new regime of globalized trade.