Chapter 14 pp. 403-417

1450-1750

Significant empires: European colonies- Spanish, Portuguese, British, French, & Dutch.

Russians constructed what was the world's largest territorial empire making Russia an Asian & European power

Qing dynasty: people who practiced Islam, Buddhism and animistic religions.

Modern era was an age of empire. 

European Empires in the Americas.
European Advantage.
-Simply closer to the Americas than any possible Asian competitor.
After 1200: Europeans were increasingly aware of their marginal position int he world of Eurasian commerce and were determined to gain access to that world.

Drove the relentlessly expanding imperial frontier in the Americas.
  -Poor nobles found opportunity to gain wealth and status in the colonies
  - Missionaries were inspired by crusading zeal to enlarge Christendom
  - persecuted minorities in search for new life.

The Great Dying:
 greatest concentrations were the people who lived in MesoAmerican and Andean zones, which were dominated by the Aztec and Inca.
-Because of the lack on content that the Native American people had to the people of Africa and European's, when they came into contact with them, they didn't have any immunity to their diseases.

The Colombian Exchange: 
The Great Dying created an acute labor shortage and certainly did make room for immigrant newcomers. BOTH European and African.
  BOTH brought: Wheat, sugar, grapes, and many veges and fruits. Horses, pigs, cattle, goats, sheep

American food plants represented about 20% of total of China's food production.

Interacting Atlantic world connecting 4 continents.
- Western Europeans were clearly the dominate players in the the Atlantic world, and their societies reaped the greatest rewards.

Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas: 
  Mercantilism.