Continuity and Change, 1450–1750
Still an agricultural world
- Although the world's productive systems continued to be heavily centred on agriculture, major changes occurred in agricultural labour, the systems and locations of manufacturing, gender and social structures, and environmental processes.
- The CED writes the continuity first, and it is the larger fact: most people still farmed.
- The changes are real but sit inside that continuity — which is the shape of the whole unit's answer.
The CED's sentence about productive systems begins with...
Although the world's productive systems continued to be heavily centred on agriculture…
Demand intensified labour everywhere
- The demand for labour intensified as a result of the growing global demand for raw materials and finished products.
- Traditional peasant agriculture increased and changed in nature, plantations expanded, and the Atlantic slave trade developed and intensified.
- Three different labour trajectories, all driven by the same demand — that shared cause is what makes them one argument.
Select all the areas of major change the CED names.
Environmental processes complete the list.
The connection is the cause
- The interconnection of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, made possible by transoceanic voyaging, transformed trade and had a significant social impact on the world.
- That single sentence is the unit's thesis: connection first, then trade, then society.
- Every subtopic in unit 4 is a step along that chain, which is why the review objective is about social structures.
Continuity, change, or the shared cause?
Sort each statement about 1450–1750.
Select all the labour trajectories the CED names under intensified demand.
Factory labour arrives with industrialisation, in unit 5.
Write the continuity before the changes. The CED's own sentence begins although the world's productive systems continued to be heavily centred on agriculture — most people in 1750 still farmed. An answer that leads with plantations and silver has described the exceptional and skipped the general.
The unit's thesis chain is connection, then trade, then ____.
Which is why the review objective is about social structures.
And empires kept colliding
- Empires achieved increased scope and influence around the world, shaping and being shaped by the diverse populations they incorporated, and economic disputes led to rivalries and conflict between states.
- So unit 3's frame carries straight through unit 4, with economics added to the list of causes.
- The two units answer one question together: what did states become between 1450 and 1750?
Put the continuity-and-change routine in order.
Continuity first, because it is the larger fact.
A continuity-and-change routine
- State the continuity first — the world stayed agricultural and most labour was rural.
- Then name two changes inside it: what people grew, and under what compulsion.
- Close by naming the cause both changes share: global demand created by hemispheric connection.
Continuity: in 1750, as in 1450, most people worked the land. Change one: what they grew shifted — American crops in Afro-Eurasia, cash crops in the Americas. Change two: under what compulsion — intensified peasant labour, expanded plantations, an intensified Atlantic slave trade. One cause: global demand created by hemispheric connection.
Productive systems remained centred on agriculture, with major changes in agricultural labour, manufacturing, gender and social structures and environmental processes. Demand for labour intensified — peasant agriculture changed, plantations expanded, the Atlantic slave trade intensified. The unit's thesis: hemispheric interconnection transformed trade and had a significant social impact.