Question

Prompt

From 1500 to 1750, European states incorporated the Americas into their desire for vast empires that
could provide great wealth to the mother country.

Develop an argument that evaluates both similarities and differences in the significance of the trade of
silver and the significance of the trade of furs as facets of the European creation of worldwide, maritime empires from 1500 to 1750.

Answer 1

Silver was more important in the Spanish and Portuguese Americas, where there were several large mines where thousands of tonnes of silver were extracted for over two centuries. Two particular regions to highlight are Potosi, in Bolivia, and the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil.

Fur trade was more important for the French and English colonists in North America, especially for the first. In fact, most of the first French colonizers, in what is now Quebec, but also in some other areas, where fur traders, and to develop that economic activity, they kept important political and economic relations with the Native Americans.