Topic 2.4

📍Topic 2.4 Transatlantic Trade

📖 AMSCO p.49 - p.53

Main Idea

Key Timeline

Image Courtesy of Siya

Things to Know

Triangular Trade

• Merchant ships followed a three-part route that reached New England, Africa, and Europe 🚢
• The Middle Passage was a terrible route for enslaved people that transported them from Africa to the West Indies.
• Since the Royal African Company (RAC) couldn’t meet demands for enslaved people, it lost its monopoly and New England merchants took over.

Mercantilism

• Most European governments promoted their own goods to their colonies while discouraging the importation of goods into their country by using tariffs.
• Colonies existed simply to make the parent country richer. 💰
• Navigation Acts (1650-1693)
  • Navigation Acts were created by England to strictly control colonial trade. Under these acts, colonists could only trade with them.
  • The acts helped some colonists with things like shipbuilding, and it didn’t affect the triangular trade.
  • They also limited economic development in the colonies because they couldn’t produce their own goods and had to buy expensive ones from England.
  • Due to the physical distance, the English Civil War, and a corrupt Parliament, these acts were not properly enforced (salutary neglect).

The Dominion of New England

• The new king, James II, combined New York, New Jersey, and other New England colonies into the Dominion of New England.

• James II assigned Sir Edmund Andros to govern over them and enforce stricter policies to increase royal control.

• The Glorious Revolution was successful in overthrowing James II, so the Dominion separated into individual charters and were able to levy taxes, assemble, and own land again. Ongoing Trade Tensions****

• Regulation of trade policies remained a problem because of salutary neglect and colonial resistance.

Terms to Remember