1. What was the Commercial Revolution and what factors drove the expansion of trade during the 17th and 18th centuries?

2. How did Atlantic port cities and advances in shipping enable European nations to establish global trade networks?

1. What is mercantilism and what methods did European nations use to achieve a positive balance of trade?

2. How did mercantilism and colonization work together to strengthen European economic and military power?

3. What resources and products did European colonial powers extract from different regions of their empires?

1. What new financial institutions and government policies emerged to support overseas trade and commerce?

2. How did the shift from feudal farming to a wage-based economy driven by consumer demand transform European society?

3. What were the negative consequences of European commercial expansion and colonial competition?

1. Why did European colonizers turn to African slaves as a labor source in the Americas?

2. What were the scale and human costs of the transatlantic slave trade from the 15th to 19th centuries?

1. What was the Middle Passage and what conditions did enslaved Africans endure during the transatlantic journey?

2. How did enslaved people resist their captivity during the Middle Passage?

1. What was the triangle trade and what goods were exchanged at each leg of the route?

2. How did the triangle trade connect Europe, Africa, and the Americas in a system of colonial commerce?

1. What was primogeniture and how did it contribute to European emigration and plantation establishment in the Americas?

2. How did plantation owners control Caribbean society and economy, and what factors eventually weakened plantation economies?

1. How did the availability of raw materials and slave labor change European consumer culture and purchasing habits?

1. Why was sugar the most important product driving transatlantic trade and colonialism?

2. How did Britain use mercantilist policies to protect and profit from its sugar industry?

3. What role did Britain and France play in the mass production of cotton and silk textiles?

4. How did tobacco from the Americas become an economic force in colonial development and trade?

5. What factors contributed to the decline of Britain's rum trade in the late 18th century?

6. How did British mercantilist policies on tea lead to colonial protests and contribute to the American Revolution?

7. How did coffee become an alternative to tea in the Americas and what role did European colonizers play in its production?

1. What economic and social benefits did European nations gain from colonial expansion and overseas trade?

2. How did improvements in diet, weather, population, education, and technology contribute to Europe's Commercial Revolution?

3. How did the emergence of a money-based economy and growing merchant middle class reshape European society?