12–15% of the AP exam. Key topics: European maritime exploration: Portuguese along African coast and to Asia; Spanish in the Americas, Columbian Exchange: transfer of crops (potato, maize, tomato, cassava), diseases (smallpox, measles), and animals (horses, cattle), Demographic collapse of indigenous American populations due to Old World diseases, Atlantic slave trade: triangular trade routes, Middle Passage conditions, scale and demographics, Plantation economies: sugar, tobacco, and cotton as cash crops driving enslaved labor demand, New social hierarchies in Spanish Americas: peninsulares, criollos, mestizos, mulatos, indigenous, Silver trade: Potosí mines, Manila Galleons connecting Americas to Asia, effects on Ming Chinese economy, Dutch and English joint-stock companies (VOC, EIC) and early commercial capitalism, Coercive labor systems: encomienda, mit'a, chattel slavery.
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