Chapter 3 Solutions — The Making of a Global World

Even before the seventeenth century the world was linked through the exchange of goods, people, foods, germs and ideas.

Example from Asia: The silk routes were a vibrant example of pre-modern trade and cultural links. West-bound Chinese silk, along with Chinese pottery, and textiles and spices from India and Southeast Asia, travelled along these routes, while precious metals such as gold and silver flowed from Europe to Asia. Traders, missionaries and preachers, and even Buddhism, spread along these routes.

Example from the Americas: Many of our common foods such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies and sweet potatoes were not known to our ancestors until about five centuries ago. They were introduced in Europe and Asia only after Christopher Columbus reached the Americas, having come originally from America's original inhabitants.

The most powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors of America was not a conventional military weapon but the germs, such as those of smallpox, that they carried on their bodies.

Because America's original inhabitants had been isolated for a very long time, they had no immunity against these diseases coming from Europe. Smallpox in particular proved a deadly killer. Once introduced, it spread deep into the continent, ahead even of any Europeans reaching there, killing and decimating whole communities and paving the way for conquest.

Unlike guns, which could be bought or captured and turned against the invaders, the Europeans were mostly immune to smallpox, so the disease gave them a decisive advantage in colonising the Americas.

Technology greatly improved the transport and supply of food in the nineteenth century.

Example 1 - Railways and steamships: Faster railways, lighter wagons and larger ships helped move food more cheaply and quickly from faraway farms to final markets. This allowed food produced thousands of miles away to reach consumers, so that food no longer came from a nearby village but from distant lands.

Example 2 - Refrigerated ships: Earlier, animals were shipped live from America to Europe, which was costly because they took up ship space, died in voyage or lost weight, making meat an expensive luxury. The development of refrigerated ships allowed animals to be slaughtered in America, Australia or New Zealand and transported as frozen meat. This reduced shipping costs, lowered meat prices in Europe, and allowed even the poor to add meat to their diet.