Unit 2
By 1450 Europe was a backwater in terms of global trade. The world’s trade centers were focused around the Indian Ocean where the Afroeurasian trade created cosmopolitan cities in African and Asia; however, Europe’s role in the global exchange of goods was about to change. With the Ottoman sack of the Byzantine capital of Constantinople in 1453 European powers were forced to find new trade routes to the east. Within a century European explores had developed overseas empires in the Indian Ocean region and in the “New World” with the accidental discovery of the Americas. The events of the Age of Discovery shape and become the foundation for the modern world.
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