Lecture 1 Outline Europe Creates an Atlantic Economy 75 minutes 1 An analytical approach to American history Power Community equality versus Domination inequality Economy modes of Production and classes Imperialism Settler Solidarity and War Capitalism 2 European imperialism and Gold Hunger Feudal society Lordship vassalage and serfdom in Europe The transition from feudalism to capitalism in Europe Lords peasants and capitalist agriculture Merchants artisans and capitalist manufacturing Centralizing national monarchies Absolutism Rising costs of the central state especially military Conflict between lords rents and kings taxes over peasant production Alliance between lords and kings against peasants centralized feudalism Mercantilism war capitalism and the global economy Imperialist coalition of monarchs treasure and duties merchants profits and gentry land 1 From the India trade to the colonization of the Americas From plunder gold and silver to production sugar and tobacco The labor problem and commercial slavery 3 West Africa and the slave trade Africa and domestic slavery Europeans Africans and commercial slavery Imperial profits from the triangular slave trade 4 Native Americans of the New World Inca and Aztec civilizations Indians of North America Iroquois Confederation Political and economic organization Religion Animism Effect of European invasion The Great Dying biological and social destruction The fur trade and ethnic cleansing 2