Unit 3
Unit 3 covers the time period of 1450 to 1750.Unit 3 begins with analysis of the development of long distance trade routes which connected different civilizations and enhanced their overall wealth.
Trade itself was carried out by "trade diasporas"--groups of people from one culture who lived in enclaves within other cultures and used their intercultural knowledge and contacts as the foundation of their commercial activity. These people were located at key points along eight trade routes which flourished in the period from 1250 to 1500 C. E.
The key to European success was the development of market capitalism which freed the traders from governmental restriction even as the governments recognized that they would benefit from the flows of wealth which resulted from this action.
The unit continues by examining other actors in the earlier trade networks--such as Russia, India, China and Japan--to discuss how they adjusted to the new trade conditions and how their cultures responded to the trade shifts effected by Europe.
The unit concludes with four "chapters": the migrations of nomadic people such as the Ottomans; the European invasion of the Americas which was accompanied by the death of 90% of the native people and the importation of Africans to the Americas as slaves; the parallel episode of European settlement of Australia and New Zealand; and, finally, the migration of rural peoples to the dynamic national and imperial capital cities which emerged in this era.