The document summarizes the expansion of trade and influence between Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas from the 15th to 18th centuries. It describes how Portugal established the first global trade networks by pioneering oceanic routes around Africa and to India. It also discusses the Spanish conquests in the Americas under figures like Cortes and Pizarro, as well as the growth of the transatlantic slave trade that transported millions of Africans to labor in the Americas. The document outlines the establishment of European colonial empires and trading posts in various regions and the impacts this had on existing societies and political structures.