Americas: Silver, Sugar, and Slavery

The provided text explores mercantilism as a foundational economic and political system from the 16th to 18th centuries, emphasizing its role in driving European colonial expansion. It details how American silver, primarily from mines like Potosí and Zacatecas, financed global imperial ambitions and sparked the Price Revolution in Europe. The text then examines the sugar complex, highlighting how the immense demand for sugar fostered an agro-industrial plantation model reliant on the brutal transatlantic slave trade. Finally, it synthesizes these elements, arguing that this "unholy trinity" of silver, sugar, and slavery was crucial for the rise of modern capitalism and left enduring legacies of global inequality and racial hierarchies.

Research done with the help of artificial intelligence, and presented by two AI-generated hosts.