Corn, potatoes, and tobacco were all originally found in the New World and then transfered to the Old World. They would each have profound effects on the nature of life in Europe and Asia. Potatoes in particular changed much of European history with their ability to grow in many types of soil. Sugarcane, on the other hand, is native to India and South Asia and was transported to the New World, where it was grown in massive quantities on plantations. Sugar plantations would have a profound effect on the structure of political, economic, and social life in many American colonies for hundreds of years.

Throughout human history, particularly during the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment Era, smallpox has been one of the worst diseases in European society in terms of the number of people it has afflicted and killed. Due to its longstanding existence within the population, many people had a natural genetic defense against it and populations were never decimated by the disease; however, when Europeans arrived in the New World, they brought smallpox with them, and the Native American populations were not biologically protected. The disease obliterated the population, in many places killing as many as ninety percent of the population. It is one of the primary reasons why Spanish conquest of Central and South America was relatively swift and unchallenged.

The term "Middle Passage" refers to the part of the triangular trade shipping route where Africans were bought or kidnapped in Africa and transported across the Atlantic Ocean to North and South America to serve as slaves on plantations. In the triangular trade route, raw resources were shipped to Europe from the New World, manufactured goods were shipped from Europe to Africa, and slaves were shipped from Africa to the New World.

For two centuries following the original arrival of Europeans in Japan, Japan had operated a closed-door policy to foreign trade and effectively completely isolated itself; however, with the naval expedition of Matthew Perry in the 1850s, Japan was opened to American trade (forcefully and under the threat of total destruction).

The Triangular Trade is a term used to describe the three-way exchange of goods, products, and human beings across the Atlantic between North America, Europe, and Africa. In the system, slaves were sent from Africa to North America, raw resources were then sent from North America to Europe, and finished products and luxury items were then sent from Europe to Africa. The system is a crucial part of the economic system of Mercantilism which prevailed in European thought at the time.

The Manila Galleons connected Mexico (the New World) to Asia (the Old) from the sixteenth century on, so the triangular trade between Europe, Africa, and the New World is not the only example of Old/New World trade connections before the nineteenth century. 

Governments still played a part in joint-stock companies like the VOC and the EIC-they could require a royal charter or rely on state troops for support. Limited-liability corporations, not joint-stock companies, protected their investors from bearing personal responsibility for a company's failure. 

Joint-stock companies like the Dutch East India Company (VOC) or the East India Company (EIC) did make it easier for people to invest in new financial ventures, since they could buy shares but did not need to bankroll entire projects. 

The British Agricultural Revolution took place between 1700 and 1800. During this time period, the introduction of new technologies meant that far fewer people were needed to work the fields in order to provide enough food for the population. This caused people to move from the countryside to cities in search of work, which in turn provided the raw labor required to drive the Industrial Revolution.

The Norfolk four-course crop rotation system was one of the most important developments of the British Agricultural Revolution. It focused on rotating which crops were grown in soil in order to help the soil retain nutrients and maximize fertility and growing power.

All of the individuals mentioned in the answer choices to this question were writers and political thinkers during either the Enlightenment era or the Industrial Revolution. Karl Marx and Frederich Engels wrote The Commnuist Manifesto in 1848. The book is the principle work of communist theory. One form of communism is even called Marxism, and the term also refers to a study of history based on class struggles.