Boosted Economic Development The rise of Mercantilism RISE OF CAPITALISM CHANGES TO INDIAN LIFE Impact on Indian women IMPACT ON SOCIAL LIFE IMPACT ON TRADITIONAL LIFE IMPACT ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE ENGLISH PART OF NATIONAL, EDUCATIONAL & BUSINESS LANGUAGE ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES NATIVE PEOPLES INDIANS, AFRICANS, AND OTHERS

1. Impact of European exploration and colonization
1) Boosted Economic Development
Exploration and trade contributed to the growth of capitalism. This economic system is based on
investing money for profit. Merchants gained great wealth by trading and selling goods from
around the world. Many of them used their profits to finance still more voyages and to start
trading companies. Other people began investing money in these companies and shared in the
profits. Soon, this type of shared ownership was applied to other kinds of businesses.
It is set out to build a new comprehensive database of the European share of the
population in the early colonization phases. It also looked at the impact of the settlers on
the former colonies' economic development today. In an "illustrative exercise" that the
two professors run in their paper, they find that "47% of average global development
levels today are attributable to Europeans." Larger populations of Europeans during
colonization also appear to correlate with higher economic growth. In one example in
the paper, the economists' data suggests that if Brazil had 8.4% of Europeans during its
colonial period rather than its actual 7.4%, its average GDP per capita between 1995
and 2005 "would have been $9,797 instead of $7,942.Some economists' view that when
Europeans settled in small numbers during colonization, they hurt economic
development by setting up "extractive institutions" in those colonies. But Easterly and
Levine say that even countries with a relatively small percentage of Europeans during
colonization benefited economically in the long run.
 The rise of Mercantilism
The rise of Mercantilism resulted from economic growth and expanding royal power.
Rulers encouraged exports (sell products to other countries) and discouraged imports
(buy products from other countries). The trade with colonies was expected to supply the
home country with great wealth and new products.
2) RISE OF CAPITALISM
Another aspect of the capitalist economy concerned the way people exchanged goods
and services. Money became more important as precious metals flowed into Europe.
Instead of having a fixed price, items were sold for prices that were set by the open
market. This meant that the price of an item depended on how much of the item was
available and how many people wanted to buy it. Sellers could charge high prices for
scarce items that many people wanted. If the supply of an item was large and few people
wanted it, sellers lowered the price. This kind of system, based on supply and demand,
is called a market economy.
Labor, too, was given a money value. Increasingly, people began working for hire instead
of directly providing for their own needs. Merchants hired people to work from their own
cottages, turning raw materials from overseas into finished products. This growing cottage
industry was especially important in the manufacture of textiles. Often, entire families

2. worked at home, spinning wool into thread or weaving thread into cloth. Cottage industry
was a step toward the system of factories operated by capitalists in later centuries.
Having colonies was a key part of this policy. Nations looked to their colonies to supply
raw materials for their industries at home. These industries turned the raw materials into
finished goods that they could sell back to their colonies, as well as to other countries. To
protect this valuable trade with their colonies, rulers often forbade colonists from trading
with other nations.
3) CHANGES TO INDIAN LIFE
While the Americas remained firmly under the control of native peoples in the first
decades of European settlement, conflict increased as colonization spread. Europeans
placed greater demands upon the native populations, including expecting them to
convert to Christianity (Catholicism or Protestantism). At the same time, European
goods had begun to change Indian life radically. In the 1500s, some of the earliest
Europeans introduced to Indians were glass beads, copper kettles, and metal utensils.
Native people often adapted these items for their own use. For example, some cut up
copper kettles and refashioned the metal for other uses, including jewelry conferred
status on the wearer, who was seen as connected to the new European source of raw
materials.
 Impact on Indian women
Impact on Indian women was precluded from contributing to hunting, a situation
fostered by the horse's effects on their foraging economy. Private property relations
both resulted from and compounded this situation by assuring men a degree of control
over distribution, exchange, and production unknown in the previous century. The result
was the relative decline in the position of women.
4) IMPACT ON SOCIAL LIFE
A historical materialist framework succeeds here. In adopting it, we avoid outlining the
problem in a one-dimensional way by interpreting homeostatic function and conflict
diachronically. The very nature of kinship society precludes class conflict, which occurs
in centralized or formative state systems. But it is no guarantee against structurally
significant discontent.
5) IMPACT ON TRADITIONAL LIFE
The influx of European materials made warfare more lethal and changed traditional
patterns of authority among tribes. If they had access to European metal and weapons,
formerly weaker groups suddenly gained the upper hand against once-dominant
groups. For instance, the Algonquian traded with the French for muskets and gained

3. power against their enemies, the Iroquois. Eventually, native peoples also used their
new weapons against the European colonizers who had provided them.
6) IMPACT ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE
European colonialism began in the fifteenth century and reached its culmination point in
the late nineteenth century. At the height of European colonialism, more than three-
quarters of the earth belonged to the European countries–Britain, France, the
Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Germany. These colonial powers were
interested in increasing their own political power and exploited the colonies" resources.
Most of the indigenous people of the colonial territory were oppressed and enslaved by
the occupying power. At the same time, they were forced to give up their cultural
heritage and assimilate to the colonizers" culture. These quotes from Crystal show the
factors leading to a language's success to become an international language and exist
for a long time, particularly the English language. Another example of English linguistic
imperialism was seen in post-independent India.
 ENGLISH PART OF NATIONAL, EDUCATIONAL & BUSINESS
LANGUAGE
The country's authorities initially sought to make Hindi a national language, but due to
protests from southern states and West Bengal, the national language policy did not
succeed. Both Hindi and English were made the official languages of the Indian Union
Government. However, since the economic liberalization in 1991, English has become
the lingua franca of business, higher education, and research. In urban India, the
medium of education, even in primary schools, is now mainly English. English is now
the dominant or official language in over 60 countries and is represented on every
continent. It means English is used in every country, across the globe, more or less.
Most of the scientific, technological, and academic information in the world is expressed
in English, and over 80% of all the information stored in electronic retrieval systems is in
English. In a practical sense, the knowledge of English is essential.
7) ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES
The European presence in America spurred countless changes in the environment,
setting into motion chains of events that affected native animals and people. The
popularity of beaver-trimmed hats in Europe, coupled with Indians' desire for European
weapons, led to the Northeast's overhunting of beaver. Soon, beavers were extinct in
New England, New York, and other areas. With their loss came the loss of beaver
ponds, which had served as habitats for fish and water sources for deer, moose, and
other animals. Furthermore, Europeans introduced pigs, which they allowed to forage in
forests and other wildlands. Pigs consumed the foods on which deer and other
indigenous species depended, resulting in scarcity of the game native peoples had
traditionally hunted.

4.  NATIVE PEOPLES
European ideas about owning land as private property clashed with natives'
understanding of land use. Native peoples did not believe in private ownership of land;
instead, they viewed land as a resource to be held in common for the group's benefit.
The European idea of usufruct—the right to common land use and enjoyment—comes
close to the native understanding, but colonists did not practice usufruct widely in
America. Colonizers established fields, fences, and other means of demarcating private
property. Native peoples who moved seasonally to take advantage of natural resources
now found areas off-limits, claimed by colonizers, because of their insistence on private-
property rights.
 INDIANS, AFRICANS, AND OTHERS
Indians who possessed a vast understanding of local New World plants and their
properties, would have been a rich source of information for those European botanists
seeking to find and catalog potentially useful plants. Enslaved Africans, who had a
tradition of medicinal plants in their native land, adapted to their new surroundings by
learning the use of New World plants through experimentation or from the native
inhabitants. Native peoples and Africans employed their knowledge effectively within
their own communities. One notable example was the use of the peacock flower to
induce abortions: Indian and enslaved African women living in oppressive colonial
regimes have used this herb to prevent the birth of children into slavery. However,
Europeans distrusted medical knowledge that came from African or native sources and
thus lost the benefit of this source of information.