Atlantic World
History
Over the past two decades a large number of
historians have come to treat Atlantic World history as a formal
area for scholarly inquiry. This arose from recognition that many of the most
significant historical forces of the Early Modern World could be
better understood by analysis of their generation and impact over
this broad geographic area. Intercontinental trade, the
exchange of ideas and technology, and the mass emigration of peoples
reshaped life in each of the Atlantic continents in the Early Modern
World. European empire-building and colonization, the rise
of merchant capitalism, and consumer demand for goods in all areas,
led to intensive extraction of natural resources, new forms of
agricultural production and organization, and long-distance transport
of commodities from one continent to the next. These economic
forces prompted a massive international slave trade, the creation
of new forms of slavery and other types of unfree labor, and the
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