The First Global Age

The era from the 17th and 18th centuries was arguably  the first global age. This was because of the discovery of the Americas. America was an integral part of this time period for its role in colonization, discovery of tobacco, and growth of sugarcane. Sugarcane was so highly sought after, and thought of as such a profitable crop that "sizable garrisons were stationed in the West Indies to guard the few sugar holdings Britain had left at the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763. In carving up the Americas after the fighting stopped, King George III had decided to cede a few of his Caribbean sugar islands to France in order to secure a sizable chunk of North America...in swapping sweet and profitable Guadeloupe for the barren, sugar-free wasteland of Canada, plus most of the land east of the Mississippi River, many Englishmen thought the King got a raw deal." (Live Science) The interaction between Portuguese slavers who brought slaves to the Americas along with the non-violent trading of land between the British and French shows this to be the first time in history were the majority of the world's land is used and interactions are being made with relative ease from people across the Atlantic.

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