Plantation owners could have changed their practices, but the reduced profits would have exceeded the replacement costs of the slaves, so planters chose to work slaves to death quickly and buy more.
This shows how slavery in the Caribbean was driven purely by profit even at the cost of human life.
The contrasts between Spanish and British colonization in the Americas are stark, and help explain subsequent social and economic development in the Hemisphere.
The author is arguing that early colonial systems shaped long-term differences between Latin America and the United States.
This emptying of the land was often seen by English settlers like the Pilgrims and the Puritans as a gift of divine providence.
Colonists interpreted Native deaths from disease as God supporting their settlement, which justified expansion in their minds.
Constitutional states like Britain shared power between hereditary monarchs and legislative bodies that represented (some of) the people
This highlights the key differences between Britain and France. Britain limited royal power through parliament.
When he was but a short distance from the ship, the horse which Eric was riding stumbled, and he was thrown from his back and wounded his foot,
This moment shows how chance events and superstition influence decisions, as Eric interpreted the accident as a sign not to go on further.
Leif invited his father, Eric, to become the leader of the expedition, but Eric declined, saying that he was then stricken in years,
This highlights the generational shift in leadership and explains that exploration required physical endurance, reinforcing how risky sea voyages were.
Biarni gave an account of his travels [while lost at sea in a fog for several days, he apparently landed in America] when he saw the lands, and the people though that he had been lacking in enterprise, since he had no report to give concerning these countries; and the fact brought him reproach.
This shows that exploration was judged by result, not effort. Even though Biarni saw new lands, he was criticized for not investing them further, which helped motivate later voyages.
Native Americans experienced their own agricultural revolution about the same time as Europeans and Asians, but instead of domesticating cattle, horses, sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens (which were not native to the Americas) they developed three of the world’s current top five staple crops: corn, potatoes, and cassava; as well as additional foods such as hot peppers, tomatoes, beans, cocoa, and tobacco.
This show how amazing Indigenous people were and how they independently developed major staple crops, proving their agricultural systems were complex and globally significant.
Even the Black Death did not kill as large a percentage of Europeans, and when diseases recurred in Europe, they generally killed their victims over a much longer time-span due to the inherited immunity of European populations.
This compares disease impact, which helps explain why Native American populations collapsed very quickly after contact.
Chinese silks and Indian cotton goods were the world’s best quality and lowest-cost textiles, and clothes made from them were worn throughout the world – even in Spain’s colonies where the law required people to trade only with the home country.
Even as Europe expanded overseas, Asian economic dominance remained central to global trade well into the early modern era.
American maize, potatoes, and cassava fed growing European, African, and Asian populations, allowing the building of new cities and industries.
This shows the global impact of New World crops on population growth and economic change outside the Americas.
and others are brought during the night so that they might not be recognized.
The secrecy indicates awareness that the slave trade was illegal and morally wrong even at the time.
keenly desirous as they are of the wares and things of your kingdoms,
Alfonso says that dependency on European goods reshaped local desires, making foreign trade central to everyday life and harder to control.
the thieves and men of bad conscience grab them wishing to have the things and wares of this kingdom
This passage acknowledges African participation in kidnapping, but frames it as consequence of foreign economic pressure rather than cultural acceptance of slavery,
many of our vassals, whom we had in obedience, do not comply because they have the things in greater abundance than we ourselves;
Alfonso shows that European trade goods undermined traditional systems of loyalty, weakening royal authority and social hierarchy within Kongo.
The ancient Persian city had once been a home for Israelite refugees freed from the Babylonian Captivity by Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BCE. Shah Abbas continued the tradition of settling refugees in Isfahan, welcoming hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the early 1600s from the disputed border region separating the Shiite Safavids from the Sunni Ottoman Empire.
This policy shows how the Safavid Empire used refugee populations to strengthen their cities and economy.
The human cargo taken from Africa by the Portuguese in the 1400s, however, became much more highly favored than slaves from eastern Europe: not only were dark-skinned people considered more exotic for service in royal courts, they also could not easily escape by blending in with the local population.
With different races, it became a justification for enslavement after the system was established.
One of the major changes in Europe in the early modern period, which we take for granted today, is the beginning of a tendency toward people organizing themselves as nations rather than empires
This shows a major shift in Europe where shared language, religion, and customs were starting to define political identity rather than loyalty to a single ruler.
“Study the past if you would define the future.”
This explains why Chinese education so heavily emphasized classical texts. Tradition and history were seen as guides for good governance.
“When anger rises, think of the consequences.”
This quote emphasizes Confucian idea of self-control. Having emotional restraint was looked at as essential for keeping up harmony in society.
“The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.”
Confucius separates moral leadership from self-interest very clearly here. It reinforces why officials were expected to prioritize professional duty over their personal gain.
“Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.”
This explains why education was so focused upon to Confucian society. Learning wasn't just personal, it was a way to create social stability.
Most Chinese words are made of one or more characters. For comparison, the English alphabet uses 26 letters and the average American has a practical vocabulary of about 10,000 words. While a foreigner learning Chinese today would be judged proficient on the national exam (the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi or HSK) with a vocabulary of about 9,000 words, they would need to know the 2,865 characters that made up these words in order to study at a Chinese university or work in a Chinese business.
Because of how complex the Chinese writing system explains why literacy was such a powerful skill to have. Having the knowledge of thousands of characters created skilled educators that could control administration and culture.
Based mostly on irrigated rice agriculture, the population of China grew to 50 to 60 million people as early as 2,000 years ago.
These numbers stood out to me because having 50-60 million people two thousand years ago really shows how China was able to support such large armies and long-lasting dynasties.
Along with exposing China to foreign cultures, the Mongols’ reopening of the Silk Road brought foreign diseases to China. Bubonic Plague, the “Black Death” that killed possibly half the European population in the 14th century, actually hit China first. The plague began in central Kyrgystan and killed up to 25 million people in China in the 1330s and 1340s, about two decades before it first arrived in Europe.
It is interesting that the Black Death was actually present in China before it was in Europe showing us how interconnected Europe and Asia were through trade routes like the Silk Road.
Yuan rule marked the first time the Chinese throne was controlled by foreigners. The Khan distrusted Confucian officials, but he did not completely replace them as regional administrators.
It is surprising and interesting that even foreign conquers like the Mongols still continued to rely on Confucian administrators. This tells us that Chinese culture was so strong that it shaped its rulers and not just the other way around.