Part A

1. Why did populations begin to rise in most parts of the world in the eighteenth century? How did increased health care and urbanization affect demographic trends?

2. Why did the economic disparity between China and India and the West begin to narrow in the eighteenth century?

3. What are the key tenets of mercantilism? Why is silver more important that gold in trade?

Part B

1. What was the economic rationale for slavery in the Americas? Why did the Atlantic slave trade last so long?

2. How did Black people in the Americas craft their own customs and norms of behavior? Why did laws designed to protect slaves mostly fail?

3. How did the Spanish and British empires try to deal with Native Americans in the mid-eighteenth century?

4. How do the three world maps circa 1700s demonstrate the world view held by people at that time? How do these maps differ from maps today?