Chapter 13

What large-scale trans- formations did European empires generate?

The European empire building was the cause of the demographic collapse of Native American societies. Moreover, the combination of indigenous, European, and African people helped create new societies in the Americas. It is important to note that large-scale exchanges of plants and animals raised both in the Americas and in the Eastern Hemisphere were the largest and most consequential exchange of plants and animals in human history making a huge impact in the biological environment of the planet. Also, the need for plantation workers and the sugar and cotton trade made lasting connections for Africa, Europe, and the Americas. 

The conventional understanding of the world that Europeans had was being shaped by new information entering Europe. This information contributed to a revolutionary new way of thinking known as the Scientific Revolution. “In short, the colonial empires of the Americas greatly facilitated a changing global balance of power, which now thrust the previously marginal Western Europeans into an increasingly central and commanding role on the world stage” (Strayer, p. 563).