Summary+-+Chapter+14+(Europe+and+the+New+World)

__**Europe and the New World**__

//PS: This is taken STRAIGHT from the Chapter fourteen Study Guide.//

The energies released by the Renaissance and the rivalries unleashed by the Reformation made the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries an era of discovery, expansion, and commerce. It was an age of danger, opportunity, and achievement. Long fascinated by the world beyond their shores, Europeans in the late fifteenth century had the technological skills finally to go exploring; and what they found expanded both their minds and their treasuries. First the Portugese and Spanish, then the Dutch, English, and French sent out expeditions that resulted in the empires in the "New World" discovered by Columbus and in the older world of Asia. Between 1500 and 1800 European came to dominate, both culturally and economically, much of the known world. With ships linking far-flung empires, the world of commercial capitalism was born. Nations attempted to enrich themselves through centrally controlled systems of mercantilism; but their efforts proved only partially successful. Mercantilism was doomed ultimately to fail as the first global economy, with multiple interdependencies evolved. The discoveries, conquests, and organization of empires did not come freely. Native peoples were subjugated and enslaved; natural resources were depleted; and the conquerors each year were more convinced of the superiority of their culture and race. The twenty-first century is surrounded by the structures and rubble of Europe's first encounter with the rest of the world.

//Glossary of Names and Terms// 1. __John Mandeville:__ author of a book of fantasy and literature about the wonders of the world beyond Europe, the inspiration for many foreign voyages. 2. __Henry the Naviator:__ member of the Portuguese royal family who founded a school for navigators and encouraged exploration down the west coast of Africa. 3. __Columbus:__ attempted to reach Asia by sailing west into the Atlantic and in the process landed in a "new world" 4. __Todesillas__: a city on the borde of Spain and Portugal where a treaty dividing the pagan world between two countries was blessed by the Pope. 5. __Encomienda:__ Spanish royal system which allowed conquerors to use Indians as labor but required that they convert them to Christianity and protect them from abuse. 6. __De las Casas:__ Dominican friar whose writings exposed the cruelty of the Spanish against the Indians and led to reforms in the imperial system. 7. __Dutch East India Company:__ financial organization that made huge profits in the Indonesian archipelago and set the stage for the creation of the Dutch Empire there 8. Robert Clive: British military commander who established his country's supremacy over both native rulers and other European powers in India. 9. __Samuel de Champlain:__ founder of the first French settlement in North America, at Quebec, which set the stage for the establishment of New France. 10. __Mercantilism:__ the dominant economic theory of eraly modern Europe, which assumed that the total volume of trade was unchangeable nd that each country must gain and keep as large a percentage of it as possible.