US History › Section A · Worlds meet › Topic A.6
Labor, commerce, and the Columbian Exchange
Colonies needed workers, and empires wanted profit. This topic shows how Europeans forced Indigenous and African people to labour, how mercantilist ideas and American silver reshaped trade, and how the movement of crops, animals and germs across the Atlantic changed life on every continent.
In this topic
- Empires short of workers
- The encomienda
- Las Casas and the New Laws
- Worked example: reading Las Casas as a source
- African labour and sugar
- Mercantilism and American silver
- Commodification
- The Columbian Exchange
- Disease and depopulation
- Worked example: a chain of consequences
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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