Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the political, social, cultural, and economic relationships of human beings in the world. It first depicts the societies of the Atlantic rim prior to 1492 and explains the interconnections that already existed in Eurasia and Africa before Columbus' voyage. Then, the book situates Christopher Columbus within the European context and examines the motivations for his initial trans-Atlantic voyage. Next, it covers the rise of political and social imperialism, and the growth of Atlantic trade. The book also considers the European Enlightenment and its consequences, and the Atlantic's age of revolutions that spread revolutionary ideologies across the Atlantic basin. It also examines the culmination of many developments, and the shape of nineteenth-century societies in the Atlantic. Economically, the growth of industrialization resulted in an increase in cheap commercial goods and the development of an urban working class who operated industrial machines.