The Wealth of Nations was published by the enlightenment thinker Adam Smith in 1776. The Wealth of Nations outlines how nations can and do acquire wealth. It was widely influential and contributed to the break from mercantilism and the embracing of free market capitalism that marked Europe in the early years of the Industrial Revolution.

Triangle trade involved large scale trade of goods and slaves in the Atlantic ocean between Europe, North America, and Africa. In this trade system slaves were sent from Africa to North America; sugar, tobacco, and cotton were sent to Europe; and textiles, rum, and manufactured goods were sent to Africa. 

The Slave Trade Act was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1807.

The Industrial Revolution began first in Britain. It then spread outward to Northern Europe, countries like France and Germany embraced the Industrial Revolution in the early nineteenth century. The United States was swept up in the Industrial Revolution by the mid nineteenth century and was shortly thereafter joined by Japan (following the Meiji Restoration in 1868). Russia, with its massive serf population and agrarian society, was not well-suited to the adoption of the Industrial Revolution. It took many decades of forced social change and economic hardship before Russia finally embraced the Industrial Revolution at the dawn of the twentieth century.

During the Industrial Revolution the demand for raw resources, to be used in manufacturing and heavy industry, increased dramatically. Subsequently the standard of living began to rise as more luxury goods became more readily available to the common person, which led to a further increase in the demand for manufactured products. In this way the Industrial Revolution reinforced itself - industrial innovations led to a demand for more raw resources; rising wages and availability of luxury goods led to an improved standard of living; improved standard of living led to a demand for more manufactured products, which in turn led to a renewed demand for more raw resources.

The Suez Canal is located in the Middle East and has led to many disagreements in the area. For example, the Suez Canal Crisis involved the dispute over its usage between Egypt, Israel, Great Britain, and France. It took international involvement to help temporarily resolve these disagreements.

The Twenty-One Demands were issued by the Japanese government to the Chinese government in 1915. They were intended to ensure Japanese control over China and regional hegemony in the Far East. The Chinese, in no position to dispute the demands after their recent revolution and in the midst of their so-called “century of humiliation,” gave in to Japanese demands and allowed Japan to take control of Manchuria and much of the Chinese economy.

The Panama Canal was constructed by American authorities in Panama in the first decades of the twentieth century. Prior to the construction of the Panama Canal, ships had to sail all the way around South America to trade between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The construction of the Panama Canal dramatically reduced the amount of time required and accelerated America’s growth as an imperial and economic world power.

The Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy implemented by President Truman in 1947. Its stated goal was to stop the spread of communism and prevent Soviet hegemony. The doctrine was solidified in 1948 with America giving significant financial aid to Greece and Turkey to discourage the spread of communism in these countries. The Marshall Plan, similarly, was designed to prevent the spread of communism in Europe by providing aid to help rebuild European economies.

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade first came into effect in 1948. It was an agreement between more than twenty different countries to try and reduce obstacles to free trade and limit tariffs. It subsequently grew over the course of the twentieth century until 1994 when it had a membership of 123 countries. In 1994 the member countries signed an agreement to grow the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade into the World Trade Organization.