16th Century America Essay
Little did the people of Europe know that the sixteenth century would be the start of something that would change their lives forever; the discovery of the Americas. The encounter caused the economic power in Europe to shift from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, causing effects such as the Price Revolution in Spain, which increased the power of the middle class, and the Columbian Exchange which spread goods from the Old and New World. Prior to the encounter with the Americas, the economic power of Europe was Italy, since it was the center of the Mediterranean Sea. In Italy, there were powerful banking families with an abundance of foreign trade. The trade routes of Italy linked them to the other countries’ ports that had access to the Mediterranean.
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One short-term effect of the shift would be the inflation of the Spanish economy. The discovery of the Potosí mines in the Americas made the Spanish very powerful. The Spanish used the Atlantic to transport the riches back to the mother country. Due to the influx of gold and silver from the colonies into then Spanish economic system, inflation was the result. This was in favor of the merchants, but negatively impact the nobility. The merchants increased the prices of their products which allowed for them to obtain more money while most of the nobility couldn’t. A majority of the nobility had fixed rent incomes and could not charge more, so while merchant incomes were increasing, the nobility’s income was staying the same. Because of the shift of economic power, many merchants became wealthier then the nobility. One long term impact of the shift would be the Columbian exchange. The Columbian exchange was the trading over the Atlantic with the New world, Spain, and Africa. Spain got goods such as tomatoes, maize, and tobacco from the Americas while the New world obtained horses, and goods such as coffee bean, olives, and wheat. The Americas not only got things that benefited them, but also lethal diseases like small pox, malaria, and typhus. This resulted in the depletion of about ninety percent of the Native
One short-term effect of the shift would be the inflation of the Spanish economy. The discovery of the Potosí mines in the Americas made the Spanish very powerful. The Spanish used the Atlantic to transport the riches back to the mother country. Due to the influx of gold and silver from the colonies into then Spanish economic system, inflation was the result. This was in favor of the merchants, but negatively impact the nobility. The merchants increased the prices of their products which allowed for them to obtain more money while most of the nobility couldn’t. A majority of the nobility had fixed rent incomes and could not charge more, so while merchant incomes were increasing, the nobility’s income was staying the same. Because of the shift of economic power, many merchants became wealthier then the nobility. One long term impact of the shift would be the Columbian exchange. The Columbian exchange was the trading over the Atlantic with the New world, Spain, and Africa. Spain got goods such as tomatoes, maize, and tobacco from the Americas while the New world obtained horses, and goods such as coffee bean, olives, and wheat. The Americas not only got things that benefited them, but also lethal diseases like small pox, malaria, and typhus. This resulted in the depletion of about ninety percent of the Native