Wanderlust World Wanderlust World European colonial powers extracted these primary raw materials from their colonies:
Sugar, tobacco, cotton, rice, wheat, maize, coffee, cocoa, spices (pepper, cloves, nutmeg). Plantation economies reshaped global diets and labor systems (including slavery).
Gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, diamonds. Fueled European minting, industry, and warfare. Potosí (Bolivia) and Witwatersrand (South Africa) were legendary sources.
Pine, oak, mahogany, teak from North America, Caribbean, India, Southeast Asia. Critical for shipbuilding (Royal Navy), construction, furniture.
Beaver, otter, mink, fox, raccoon from North America and Siberia. Drove exploration and trade (Hudson's Bay Co., Russian-American Co.). Hats were a European fashion staple.
Cod (Grand Banks, Newfoundland), herring, whale oil. Salted/dried for European protein supply. Cod was "the beef of the sea" for Catholic Europe.
These flows underpinned the Columbian Exchange and the rise of Atlantic capitalism.