Final answer:
European exploration initiated significant trade networks involving gold, ivory, and slaves, creating the Atlantic World and linking Africa, the Americas, and Europe. The Trans-Atlantic slave trade emerged out of a need for labor in the Americas, profoundly affecting both continents. The Age of Discovery had wide-reaching economic, political, cultural, and social impacts, transforming global interactions.
Step-by-step explanation:
The exploration of Africa and the Americas had profound impacts on both continents. In Africa, European contact began with the Portuguese exploration which started trade networks in gold, ivory, and slaves, significantly impacting the European economy. This trade, eventually incorporating the Americas, morphed into the Triangle Trade, including the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, which tied Africa, the Americas, and Europe together in the Atlantic World—a network that linked these continents economically, politically, culturally, religiously, and environmentally.
In the Americas, the need for labor led Europeans to turn to Africa after failing to sufficiently enslave native populations and finding European indentured labor inadequate. This began the massive and tragic Trans-Atlantic slave trade, bringing Africans to the New World for forced labor. This movement of people not only created the Atlantic World economy but also had lasting cultural and social repercussions on both continents.
Moreover, the Age of Discovery sparked by contact with Africa and the Americas resulted in new goods and precious metals flowing into Europe, new territorial claims and imperial rivalries, and transformed global interactions at a level previously unimagined.