During the late sixteenth century, Western Europe began to experience a vast influx of wealth from the New World. This wealth was quite diverse in form – not only the traditional gold and silver but also new food and agricultural products, such as tomatoes, corn, and tobacco. However, all these new riches did not enrich every sector of society. Instead, the top social classes, mostly the monarchy and aristocracy and wealthy merchants, reaped substantial benefits, growing ever more wealthy and powerful. By contrast, very little of these profits trickled down into the lower segments of society, causing the gap between rich and power to demonstrably widen. The New World’s bounty also triggered a population boom across Western Europe, especially in England, France, and the Netherlands. This population expansion occurred so rapidly that the economy couldn’t keep up and rampant inflation soon developed, which in turn led to an increase in food prices, a scarcity of food products, and a decrease in the amount of available jobs. Western Europe was indeed prospering thanks to the New World, but only certain social classes got to enjoy these benefits.

The Dutch East India Trading Company used the strategically placed Cape Town on Africa’s southern tip as a supply point on its journeys between Europe and Asia. The Dutch East India Trading Company had an incredibly profitable business transporting spices from Asia back to Europe. The settlement established in Cape Town became a gateway into the interior of Southern Africa, leading to the establishment of European colonies. These colonies faced hostility from the local populations, leading to violence between the two sides and eventual subjugation of the native Africans by the European colonists.

Vasco de Gama was a Portuguese explorer whose voyage to India from 1497-1499 contributed to the emergence of Portugal as a leading maritime and colonial power in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Due to their exploration and settlement of southern Asia in the fifteenth century, Portugal would maintain an Asian empire well into the nineteenth century.

Hernan Cortes was a Spanish conquistador in the sixteenth century who led the Spanish conquest of modern-day Mexico. His expedition to Mexico, in 1519, conquered the Aztec Empire and committed widespread atrocities in the former Aztec territory.

All of these reasons contributed to the conquests of the Spanish conquistadors except the destabilizing impact of Christian missionaries. The expeditions of Cortes (in Mexico) and Pizarro (in Peru) were the first Spaniards that those native people encountered and so there cannot have been any prior contact between Christian missionaries and the native population.

Akbar the Great is the most famous ruler of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent. Akbar the Great is remembered for his successful military campaigns and the expansion of Mughal territory across virtually the whole of the subcontinent. He is also associated with religious tolerance and for appointing ministers on the basis of merit, rather than nepotism.

Francisco Pizarro was one of the Spanish conquistadors who conquered much of South America in the early sixteenth century. Pizarro led a series of expeditions to try and conquer the Inca Empire in the 1520s and was finally successful in the early 1530s when he captured the Incan emperor and had him executed. Pizarro is responsible for establishing Spanish control over the modern-day country of Peru.

In South America the vast majority of colonies were established directly by the Spanish or Portuguese crowns. However, European colonies in North America were generally established by private investors and joint-stock companies. Some of the differences between the colonial experiences of settlers in North America and settlers in South America can be explained by this distinction.

Sonni Ali ruled the Songhai Kingdom in West Africa for several decades in the second-half of the fifteenth century. Sonni Ali was a successful military commander and it was during his reign that the Songhai Empire captured the wealthy cities of Timbuktu and Djenne.

The Spanish conquest of the Philippines took place in the sixteenth century and culminated with the conquest of Manila by the forces of Lopez de Legaspi in 1571. The Philippines would continue to be controlled by the Spanish until it was ceded to the United States after the Spanish-American War in 1898.