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| 3. Global Interaction Networks |
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| In the early modern era a number of global patterns of interaction developed. These emerging networks, which created a worldwide context for human activity, involved (1) the more consciously organized commercial activities, (2) the exchange of new products, and (3) the spread of diseases. | 1 |
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| a. The Emerging World Economy |
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| The commercialization of societies opened the way for the commercialization of global interactions. In the 16th century, local and regional networks of commercial exchange continued to be of great importance. The Mediterranean and Indian Ocean basins remained important zones of interaction, and the growth of the European-controlled oceanic trade created new regional networks in both the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. These large zones became increasingly interconnected and integrated with the older continental overland routes of Asia and the emerging continental systems of Russia and Europe and in the Western Hemisphere. By the end of the 18th century, maritime trade represented a European-controlled global commercial network in which products from nearly every part of the world were exchanged. | 2 |
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