{"product_id":"the-atlantic-in-world-history-new-oxford-world-history-9780195338096","title":"The Atlantic in World History (New Oxford World History)","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs Europeans began to move into the Atlantic in the late fifteenth century  first encountering islands and then two continents across the sea  they initiated a process that revolutionized the lives of people everywhere. American foods enriched their diets. Furs  precious metals  dyes  and many other products underwrote new luxury trades  and tobacco became the first consumer craze as the price plummeted with ever-enlarging production. Much of the technology that made new initiatives  such as sailing out of sight of land  possibly drew on Asian advances that came into Europe through North Africa. Sugar and other crops came along the same routes  and Europeans found American environments ideal for their cultivation. Leaders along the African coast controlled the developing trade with Europeans  and products from around the Atlantic entered African life. As American plantations were organized on an industrial scale  they became voracious consumers of labor. American Indians  European indentured servants  and enslaved Africans were all employed  and over time slavery became the predominant labor system in the plantation economies. American Indians adopted imported technologies and goods to enhance their own lives  but diseases endemic in the rest of the world to which Americans had no acquired immunity led to dramatic population decline in some areas. From Brazil to Canada  Indians withdrew into the interior  where they formed large and powerful new confederations. Atlantic exchange opened new possibilities. All around the ocean  states that had been marginal to the main centers in the continents interiors now found themselves at the forefront of developing trades with the promise of wealth and power. European women and men whose prospects were circumscribed at home saw potential in emigration. Economic aspirations beckoned large numbers  but also  in the maelstrom following the Reformation  others sought the chance to worship as they saw fit. Many saw their hopes dashed  but some succeeded as they had desired. Ultimately  as people of African and European descent came to predominate in American populations  they broke political ties to Europe and reshaped transatlantic relationships.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45646999781429,"sku":"ByrdShop_019533809X","price":22.73,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780195338096.jpg?v=1781684932","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-atlantic-in-world-history-new-oxford-world-history-9780195338096","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}