The trade networks of the post-Columbian world altered the world political scope in terms of how governments would begin looking at expanding. In earlier eras, most empires grew from the capital outward in every-growing circles, with each expansion …show more content…
Slavery existed prior to triangular trade, however it was localized into various regions of the world, with many of a nation’s slaves being enemy soldiers defeated in battle. By no means is this humane, however these people are more like prisoners than slaves. Even indentured servantry supersedes pure slavery, as the indentured servants have freedom waiting on the horizon should they meet their service requirement as payment for their transport to the New World. Yet, with the “discovery” of the Americas, and their knack for allowing cash crops to blossom, European nations seized the opportunity to make a fortune on tobacco, cotton, and sugar plantations, and in the process, threw all care for their workers out the window. According to outside and objective observer, Giuseppe Andreoni, “The most dangerous place on the [Brazilian sugar] plantation is the sugar mill…” (Doc. 3). Think about that. An unbiased viewer describes the slaves’ place of employment as the most dangerous place on the entire plantation. The landlords made enormous profits, while their workers labored in conditions that threatened their beating hearts. They could do this because replacements kept being deployed from the east. Millions of slaves traveled across the Atlantic on the dreaded “Middle Passage” before being sold to an owner in the Americas, as shown on the historically reliable Atlantic …show more content…
The path to an interconnected world commenced and its inertia was massive; nothing could stand in its way. In many ways, triangular trade draws parallels with the Cold War. During their near 70 years of rivalry, the United States and the U.S.S.R. were the world’s two true superpowers, and the nations of the world realized that. Countries allied with one not out of want, but out of necessity to prevent the other from ending them. With their large groups of followers, each nation advocated for changes in the established world order. The Americans pushed their constituents economically towards capitalism while the Soviets shoved theirs towards communism. Similarly, triangular trade either pushed a state towards a slave-based economy or away from it; there was not in between. Each was divisive in their own ways, but each served their purpose in aligning the world in its current manner, setting the stage for the only present most would care to live