Effects Of Mercantilism

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The European economic system of mercantilism perhaps shaped the modern world more than any other factor to date. Countries who followed mercantilism sought to have an advantage over its competitors by having colonies and a steady flow of money and resources. Whilst the colonies grew poorer the mother country grew richer. European Consumerism and greed is a major driving factor as to why they colonized other parts of the world, and although it seemed like a great idea to the European countries it caused the destruction and downfall of many unique civilizations and cultures around the world. The European nations destroyed cultures and people around the world by exploitation, enslavement and by outright genocide. At first the Europeans were not …show more content…

Several European nations took advantage of the West African kingdoms there by trading them cheap goods like glass beads, guns and ammunition etc. for slave labour. Without slave labour the colonization of the West Indies and the Americas couldn’t have been sustained because the colonies needed fresh labour to keep going and expanding. The Europeans knew the things they supplied the Africans weren’t very valuable but they readily gave it to them because the Africans had never seen such things before and were impressed by them. In the beginning of the colonization era the Europeans were not strong enough to outright defeat the African nations so this exploitation helped them to weaken and eventually colonize them. By the 17th and 18th centuries Europe had fully began to colonize and dominate West Africa to their pleasure because they had been able to grow stronger and richer than their African counterparts. The Europeans moved inward and captured younger and stronger people which left the African west without enough strong able bodied people to upkeep their society. This was seen as an open invitation for all Europeans to further exploit and completely take over the nations by intensifying their efforts to change the Africans religion and culture and make them more

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