During the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, West Africa was the primary region from which Europeans acquired the large numbers of slaves used for agricultural labor throughout the Western Hemisphere. Though some slaves were also acquired from East Africa, far fewer were sent to the New World.

Sadly, the Renaissance era’s humanistic philosophy did not extend to the institution of slavery. Europe had a long slave-holding tradition, stretching back to the mass slave markets run by Viking warriors to the ancient Roman and Greek practices of selling prisoners of war. Enslaved individuals came from many ethnic groups across Europe, Asia, and Africa – including Greeks, Russians, Persians, Tatars, Irish, Africans, and Serbs. This practice continued unabated through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, especially in cases of warfare, where it was established practice for the victorious army to seize captives from the both military and civilian populations to sell in various slave markets. The wholesale devastation of the Black Death heightened the popularity of slavery among Europeans even further, as the demand for laborers rose in the wake of all the plague’s mass casualties. The most common form of slavery was domestically based, in which slaves lived, worked, and served in a household, performing various duties such as cooking, cleaning, farming, and caring for livestock. The Middle Ages and the Renaissance saw the development of plantation style slavery, in which groups of slaves were used in tandem to grow sugarcane on the various Mediterranean islands. In most cultures, including the birthplace of the Renaissance itself, slaves had no legal standing or protection under the law whatsoever; their owners were free to treat their slaves however they pleased, largely without fear of reprisal from any government figures or religious institutions.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Central and Eastern Europe was not nearly as economically prosperous or as advanced as Western Europe. This unfortunate situation was due to a combination of several factors. First of all, the region’s economic system was overwhelmingly based on agriculture; manufacturing, artisanship, and other rising capitalist endeavors hadn’t taken hold here. While Western Europe was seeing rapid urban growth and expansion, Central and Eastern Europe had very few cities. In fact, most of the land in the region was made up of large estates, with an even larger population of serfs who spent their entire lives working the land. This sort of economic setup didn’t allow for any empire building, so while Spain, England, and France were seizing land in the New World, Central and Eastern European leaders couldn’t even consider such a possibility. As for overseas trade, this region hardly engaged in the practice either, which further impoverished and isolated the area. An additional history of local military disputes, conflicts, and disregard for authority prevented any notable measures of economic reform and/or stability from taking hold.

The Encomienda System was established by Spanish colonists in Latin America and the Caribbean. It was an economic and political system that allowed for the effective enslavement of the native population.

Indentured labor, or indentured servitude, was most common in plantations in North America. Indentured servitude was a common way for poor Europeans to emigrate to the Americas. In exchange for an agreed upon period of labor, often three to seven years, a wealthy plantation owner would fund the passage of the worker to the New World. After working for the wealthy plantation owner for a number of years the worker would be able to set up a free life for himself in the Americas.

The Encomienda System was often vehemently opposed by Christian missionaries in the Spanish colonial empire who were appalled by the excesses and abuses of Spanish rule. Dominican and Franciscan friars were occasionally outspoken in their criticism of the realities of the Encomienda System.

The conditions of slaves in the Caribbean were probably worse than they were anywhere else in the world, with the possible exception of slaves in Portuguese Brazil. Slaves in the Caribbean worked on extremely labor-intensive sugar plantations and were considered as expendable labor due to the ready and continuous supply of new slaves arriving from Africa.

Mercantilism was the prevailing economic theory in Europe during the first few centuries of European colonialism, before it was replaced in the eighteenth century by free market capitalism. Mercantilism involves strict government control over the economy and proposes that the government regulate large-scale economic ventures for the purposes of enhancing state power. It also involves the establishment of colonies for the purpose of extracting raw resources (particularly gold and silver), which can be used to directly enrich the metropole. Mercantilism, by its very nature, is competitive and led to many wars between competing European powers.

The Repartimiento System was employed in many parts of Spanish colonial America after the abuses of the Encomienda System had been brought to light. The Repartimiento System differed in that the natives were no longer enslaved, but instead were forced to work for several months of the year in slave-like conditions.

Shoguns and Daimyos were the two ruling groups in Japanese feudal society. Shoguns were powerful military rulers, best understood as warrior-kings. Daimyos were wealthy, hereditary landowners. At various times in Japanese history these two groups worked together, fought against one another and fought amongst themselves for control of Japanese society.