Chapter 15: Global Commerce part I

In the chapter of "Global Commerce" the journey of how various countries discovered and navigated the trade routes leads all the way to modern day trade. From the Triangular trade system to the Silk road and the Indian Ocean trade system, were the first trade routes that helped various countries gather what they needed either on a daily basis or just a luxury item. Some countries, such as European didn’t like to rely on other nations to help them gather items that they needed, which lead them to be the power house of trading. European countries were known to contribute much to the new regime of globalized trade. In this chapter you see a different powerful country coming to a rise, other than Europe which is pretty foreign when it comes to world history.

          Portuguese empire was looking its place in trade, which happened to be the spice trade. They never succeeded in controlling much more than half of the spice trade with Europe. Spain and the Philippines were also countries that were beginning to rise because various people fled to Manila, the capital of Philippines which made it a very diverse capital. This most likely lead to other cultures brings foreign items and sharing it among the people that are already citizens of Philippines. This helps Spain and the Philippines gain an upper hand in the trading system during the seventeenth century. The rest of the chapter continues on to other countries such as Asia, which focuses on China and India.