How Did Indian Ocean Trade Affect The Europeans

Worlds Apart Unite

With Western Europe having fewer resources and economic opportunities, they chose to explore and expand. Once Europe rulers had established overland trade, traders hoped to find alternate sea routes that would be able to bypass already set trading routes and give them access to the wealth of the East. These rulers and their governments saw this wealth open and ready for the taking. Finding these routes caused war between governments and affected both Europe and the countries they explored. Over the next century, the control of trade, expansion of land, and exploration across seas alternated from one European country to the next.

Having the desire for new goods, Europeans were pushed towards areas of the world they were

not accustomed to travel to. After Europeans made initial contact with the East through land, a market quickly developed for goods from the China, the Indies and the Middle East. Some of the most desirable goods included spices, gold, jewels, silk, textiles, and perfumes. Overland trade became essential for both the west and the east. Soon enough, world trade would not only be done by land, but also by sea all across the world.
With new explorations under way thorough sea, the world powers of the time fought for control of maritime trade.

These new trades and manufacturing of goods stimulated economic changes in Europe. With growing demand for goods and not enough laborers, Portuguese and other Europeans relied on slave trade. This was the major factor that simulated the economy in Europe. Slave labor was cheap, so African slaves became the most sought after commodity. In Africa, the elites and tribal leaders benefited the most from slave trade. They became wealthy since they were selling off people from their tribes. Europeans were trading goods for slaves by the boatload to work in Europe and in the New

World.
Coming to these new lands in Africa came with hardships for both communities. Most Africans had not been exposed to the diseases the newcomers had brought with them. Alike, Europeans were not immune to tropical diseases such as Malaria and Yellow Fever. While Europe gained riches and goods from slave trade, African populations that lived close to the ocean were dramatically reduced because of enslavement, death, and war.
Once the eastern trading routes were established, the Europeans set their eyes to the west. The most greatly affected by this world convergence was the Native American society from the New World. Voyages to the New World were made to explore and exploit the riches and resources of the Native Americans. The history of Native people was “one long tale of exploitation and abuse.” (Field)
The abuse started with the mining of silver in Mexico and South America. This led to the forced labor of many Native Americans. With the constant influx of silver into the Old World, the prices of silver dropped and caused inflation in many countries. This directly affected the European economy but the most affected was the Asian economy.
With Europe’s population increasing, demand for the newly introduced crops from the Columbian Exchange followed as well.

The problem of Mexican colonial farming, as of most colonial farming, was that of recruiting an adequate supply of labour while at the same time keeping the price of labour down. (Birmingham) Because of this, land as well as people in the Americas was captured and used for cultivation. Native Americans and African slaves were forced to work in these farming lands to produce sugar, tobacco, and other crops. The Columbian Exchange provided the Natives with many new crops and animals, but they paid a heavy price for

it.
In addition to the exploitation of the natural resources of the newly discovered world, Europeans also introduced diseases that had catastrophic effects on to the native population. The spread of these diseases resulted in the death of mostly all of the Native American population who had no immunity against them. The already devastated population of the Americas was affected again by the arrival of more disease from African slaves as a result of the trade routes that were established to bring in more slave labor as wells as trading goods. While a few diseases, like syphilis for example, were also spread from the Americas to Europe, they did not have near the devastating effect of the epidemics, like the measles and smallpox, which skyrocketed the mortality rate in the Americas.
The constant mortality of the Native population led to the eventual domination of the Americas by many European countries. Portugal, Spain, England and France, to name a few, acquired a lot of land for expansion, making their empires flourish. These nations also prospered by the trading of slaves and goods. While the Europeans increased their wealth, the societies they conquered lost much more. The Europeans brought with them famine, death, and war. If the Europeans hadn’t been driven by greed, many lives would’ve been saved from the future they were doomed to endure.