AMSCO 4.8 Continuity and Change from c.1450 to c.1750 Notes

Overview

AMSCO Topic 4.8, Continuity and Change from c. 1450 to c. 1750 (AMSCO pages 261-264), is the wrap-up chapter for Unit 4 of AP World History: Modern. It answers one big question: how did economic developments from 1450 to 1750 affect social structures over time? The short version: transoceanic voyaging connected the Eastern and Western Hemispheres for the first time, Western European maritime powers built trading empires in the Indian Ocean and the Americas, and new coerced labor systems and race-based social hierarchies developed to feed the new global economy.

Because this is a review chapter, it's gold for LEQ and DBQ prep. Almost every continuity-and-change prompt about 1450-1750 can be answered with material on this page.

Timeline of key events in 1450-1750. Image Courtesy of Tien.

Transoceanic Travel and Trade

The single most significant change in this period was the integration of the Western Hemisphere into the global trading network. Western European states wanted a sea route to Asia, and they got there by borrowing and improving technology from the Classical, Islamic, and Asian worlds:

• Astronomical charts and the astrolabe (navigation)
• The compass and magnetic compass (direction-finding)
• The lateen sail (sailing against the wind)
• New ship designs: the carrack, caravel, and fluyt

These tools made the voyages covered in Topic 4.1 on technological innovations and Topic 4.2 on exploration possible.

The Columbian Exchange and the Atlantic System

The result was the Columbian Exchange, the biological transfer of crops, animals, people, and diseases between hemispheres. It changed who grew what foods where, unleashed deadly diseases on populations with no immunity, and triggered massive migrations, many of them forced.

The Columbian Exchange also produced the Atlantic System, a transoceanic trading network linking Western Europe, Western Africa, and the Americas through the movement of goods and people. As people migrated (or were forced to migrate) within this system, cultures mixed. Religions spread and often produced syncretic belief systems and practices. For the full breakdown, see the AMSCO 4.3 Columbian Exchange notes.

Economic Changes: Maritime Empires, Silver, and Capitalism

European voyages transformed the global economy by shifting control of trade from existing merchant networks to European states. The Portuguese led the way in building maritime trading empires, followed by the Dutch and English. Europeans set up trading ports and cities along the coasts of Africa and the Indian Ocean, which brought them into contact, and often conflict, with established Arab, Indian, and Chinese merchants. Over time, Europeans came to dominate global trade at those merchants' expense, profiting from carrying goods between regions.

Colonies and the Silver Trade

Unlike the trading-post empires of the Indian Ocean, Spain built a territorial empire in the Americas, soon joined by Portugal, England, France, and the Netherlands. The discovery of huge silver deposits in Spain's colonies pulled Europe deeper into the global economy. Asian markets, especially China, wanted silver, so shipments of American silver to Asia became a regular feature of global trade and financed the growing Europe-Asia trade. Some experts estimate the amount of silver in the global economy tripled in the 16th century.

Mercantilism Gives Way to Capitalism

European monarchs saw how much wealth trade could generate, so they adopted mercantilist policies designed to funnel a steady stream of income to the ruler. Over time, mercantilism gave way to capitalism as the dominant economic system. Investors formed joint-stock companies (also called chartered companies) to share the risks and rewards of global trading ventures. The AMSCO 4.5 notes on maritime empires cover these economic systems in depth.

Effects of the New Global Economy

The global flow of goods and profits cut both ways. On the benefit side:

• Wealth flowing into Europe expanded the middle class and provided capital that would later fund the Industrial Revolution.
• Regional markets in Europe, Africa, and Asia continued to prosper.
• Merchants and governments used rising profits to sponsor artists and authors. Some rulers used art and architecture to legitimize their rule; other art celebrated global trade itself.

On the cost side, the massive amounts of gold and silver flowing into Spain and China increased the quantity of money in circulation and caused inflation. Economic disputes also fueled rivalries and conflict between states, the kind covered in Topic 4.6 on challenges to state power.

Demand for Labor and New Social Structures

Growing global demand for raw materials and finished products intensified the demand for labor, and that demand reshaped societies on three continents.

The Atlantic Slave Trade and Coerced Labor

The Columbian Exchange and Atlantic System caused a demographic shift in Africa as the Atlantic slave trade intensified. Slavers captured and sold millions of African men, who ended up on American plantations producing cash crops like sugar, cotton, and tobacco. Some African communities experienced a gender imbalance, and Africa's population declined, though it eventually recovered as people grew new American crops such as manioc.

Track the continuities and changes in labor systems side by side:

Many European settlers arrived in the Americas as indentured servants, contracted to work for a set period before they were free to pursue other occupations.

Race-Based Hierarchies

As Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans coexisted in the American colonies, new social systems based on racial or ethnic identity appeared. The result was a rigid, hierarchical society in which white Europeans (or Americans of European descent) held most of the wealth and political power. A new subculture of people with mixed European and African heritage emerged. These societal conflicts eventually fed into revolutions. The AMSCO 4.7 notes on changing social hierarchies go deeper here.

The Black Legend: How Historians Debate Spanish Colonization

The chapter closes with a historiography case study you can use for sourcing and argumentation practice. In 1552, the Dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas described the greed and cruelty Spanish officials inflicted on native populations, and historians have debated his accuracy ever since.

• In 1914, Spanish historian Julián Juderías labeled the belief in the evils of Spanish rule the "Black Legend." He argued that jealous European rivals in the 16th and 17th centuries were primed to believe the worst about Spain, and that historians ignored Spanish colonialism's achievements.
• Religion shaped the debate too. The Black Legend fit Protestant suspicions of Catholic Spain, and in the 19th-century United States, where Protestants dominated history writing, acceptance of the Black Legend was common.
• Spanish historians defending colonization developed what critics called a "White Legend." American historian Lewis Hanke argued that Las Casas was one of many Spanish reformers and called the Spanish empire "one of the greatest attempts the world has seen to make Christian precepts prevail in the relations between peoples." Critics countered that Hanke exaggerated the reformers' influence and that what actually happened was extraordinarily harsh.
• Recent historians taking a global, comparative approach have found widespread brutality across all European colonial empires. Whether the Spanish were worse than other Europeans remains hard to determine.

The chapter pairs this debate with seven DBQ-style documents about European rivalries and conquest, including Cortes's 1520 letter to Charles V describing Tenochtitlan, Elizabeth I's 1588 declaration against the Spanish Armada, al-Fishtali's account of Morocco's dispute with Songhai over the salt tax, Schiller on the Thirty Years' War, a Spanish general's 1669 letter to privateer Henry Morgan, the 1731 Captain Jenkins ear incident, and a 1739 etching of the East India Company's 1612 victory over the Portuguese at Suvali. Notice the through line: economic disputes drove rivalries and conflicts between states.

Key Terms to Know

Practice and Next Steps

Try these AMSCO and released-exam prompts using this chapter's material:

1. "Identify historical developments in the period from c. 1450-c. 1750. Rank them according to how significant they were in either 1) maintaining continuity or 2) bringing about change. Explain your rankings." (AMSCO)
2. "Explain how economic developments from c. 1450 to c. 1750 affected social structures over time." (AMSCO)
3. "Describe and explain a significant continuity and a significant change in labor migration in the period 1450-1750 C.E." (College Board, 2017 AP World Exam, LEQ #2)
4. "In the period circa 1450-1750, European expansion affected the development of numerous East Asian and South Asian states. Develop an argument that evaluates the extent to which the economies of East and/or South Asian states in this time period changed in response to European expansion." (College Board, 2021 AP World Exam, LEQ #3)

For prompt #4, useful evidence includes European trading posts disrupting existing Asian merchant networks, Chinese demand for American silver reshaping trade, and the East India Company displacing the Portuguese monopoly in India after the 1612 Battle of Suvali.

Keep going with these resources:

• Review the matching 4.8 Continuity and Change course topic study guide
• Browse all AP World AMSCO notes for other Unit 4 chapters
• Drill Unit 4 multiple choice with guided practice questions
• Write a continuity-and-change LEQ and get instant feedback with FRQ practice
• Test the whole period with a full-length practice exam