070052 SE Spices, Sugar and Silver: Making the Modern World (2012W)

In this seminar, we will consider how three commodities shaped the course of global history in the early modern era. The European desire to directly access the lucrative spice trade led to the age of great maritime explorations and the accidental “discovery” of the Americas in 1492. The Chinese thirst for silver stimulated new networks of exchange, and from 1571, the Galleon trade provided a direct trade link between the Americas and Asia via the Pacific. The insatiable demand for sugar in the European market provided the impetus for the forced trans-Atlantic migration of African slaves to work in the plantations and the formation of triangular trade networks between Europe, Africa and the Americas. We will trace the role of spices, silver and sugar in the forging of new global connections and the development of ‘world trade’ on a scale not before thought possible. While some historians may trace these pathways as evidence of the ‘rise of the West’, we will take a broader global perspective. Were Europeans the dominant agents of globalisation or were they intermediaries in longer term global processes? How can we better understand the historical roots of this important phase of world history?

Scope: 15th to the 18th centuries: Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.