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.

James Watt was a Scottish inventor who helped perfect the Newcomen Steam Engine in the 1770s. Although he did not actually invent the steam engine, he is generally remembered as having done so. His adaptations to the steam engine created the necessary machinery that led to the Industrial Revolution. 

The Industrial Revolution began in England in the early nineteenth century. Due to England's relative wealth, agricultural prosperity, surplus of workers, colonial holdings, and history of capitalist democracy, the prerequisites for the Industrial Revolution were heavily concentrated there. The Industrial Revolution quickly spread from England around Europe and to North America. 

Leonardo da Vinci is often considered the ultimate "Renaissance man," a term that suggests being supremely skilled in many different areas of life, particularly artistically and intellectually. Perhaps Da Vinci's most famous work is The Last Supper. 

During the Italian Renaissance, the country we now know as Italy was divided up into several independent city-states. All of the answer choices were city-states except for the United Provinces. The United Provinces refers to territory in what is now the Netherlands and Belgium during the time when this territory was under Spanish control.

Cosimo de Medici was the ruler of Florence throughout a large period of the Italian Renaissance. He is renowned as a patron of the arts who encouraged the Renaissance to flourish in his city-state.