The linking of the Americas and Afro-Eurasia through the Columbian Exchange spread goods, people, ideas, and diseases around the world. How did new maritime empires control the oceans and shape the modern world?

European exploration relied on Afro-Eurasian scientific advances, technology, and trade. Explore how centuries of knowledge sparked the first global age.

Fifteenth-century European explorers used centuries’ worth of Afro-Eurasian knowledge and technology. Despite varied motives, mariners needed state support and resources for successful transoceanic voyages.

Complex exchange networks existed before Columbus, and the “New World” was an old home to Indigenous peoples. Still, new Afro-Eurasian-American connections forever reshaped life across continents.

European exploration and colonization shifted from the establishment of small colonies to large empires. Their rise irreversibly transformed governments, economic systems, and social hierarchies.

From the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, labor and resources extracted from colonies built new economic systems that allowed maritime empires to expand their global power.

As early modern empires expanded, states centralized power to maintain control. This often harmed those on the margins, inciting resistance from colonized people around the world.

The new age of global exchange transformed economies, environments, and social structures around the world. Migration further shifted populations, pushing states to respond to these changes in various ways.

You’re now ready to draw big-picture conclusions about this new global age! Decide what changed and what stayed the same as you evaluate how the Columbian Exchange impacted the Americas.