Europeans as Explorers, Conquerors & Traders
History 104 / January 9, 2013

I. Comparative perspective: the advance of the Ottoman Turks
      A. The conquest of the Balkans
      B. The end of the Byzantine Empire
      C. The siege of Vienna, 1529
II. The Iberian monarchies take to the sea
      A. Portugal's navigators round Africa
      B. Spain's newfound power
            1. Castile and Aragon united in marriage
            2. 1492, a momentous year on three counts
      C. Guns and germs
            1. Centralization: the bane of empires
            2. The “Columbian Exchange”
III. European consequences of the new global economy
      A. Conceptual reorientation: the possibility of the truly new
      B. Ah, the irony: Spain 's distorted development
            1. Social effects
            2. Inflationary effects
      C. Central Europe's relative decline
      D. Dutch capitalism and the spirit of opportunity
            1. From marauders to traders
            2. The slave trade


Recommended further reading (some day)
Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (New York: Norton, 1999)