As Atlantic spaces began to experience dramatic shifts in structure and population, Europeans began to attain more prominence in their territories. Commerce among settlement and religious freedom were major factors in shaping the demographics of the Atlantic world. The constant demand for goods exported through trade relied on a labor force of indigenous, enslaved, and European populations (Egerton, 150). People of color were forced to do dangerous backbreaking work and whites in authority exercised total control over them (Egerton, 160). Indentured servants migrated to Atlantic spaces hoping to make a living and gain freedom in new lands (Egerton, 164). Mass migrations of these Europeans eventually led to settlement after their term ended, increasing white populations and leaving a serious impact on indigenous groups. As more native people faltered due to disease and attacks from whites, there were more opportunities for outsiders to claim Atlantic spaces as their own. Trading posts and settlements were used by Europeans to increase their profits in trade, and they maintained relations with native groups if only briefly (Egerton, 168). Lastly, families and religious groups migrated to the Atlantic in search for religious freedom. Prejudice and religious intolerance led Jewish people and Europeans to other countries to practice their religion in a safer place (Egerton, 179). By migrating to North America or other parts of the Atlantic, religious groups began to populate more spaces and further diversify religion. Across centuries, Europeans managed to not only establish great prominence in the Atlantic, but to alter its demographic makeup in dramatic ways.<\/p>\n

I agree with Shreshta’s point<\/a> on Europeans implementing laws to gain superiority over indigenous peoples. The Spanish’s Requirement of 1510 is an example of a law meant to force indigenous people in the Americas to acknowledge authority and risk punishment if they did not (Egerton, 151). Various European groups have initiated laws to gain control over their subjects, and targeted anyone who dared to question their prominence. Chapter Five also reminded me of Stephanie Smallwood’s \u201cAfrican Guardians,\u201d where European masters used African slaves to exercise control over the rest of the slaves on the ship. Both the chapter and the article explain the dynamics of power in the Atlantic. Indigenous peoples exercised great power in their homelands before Europeans established colonies in their territory, and native populations experienced a severe decline not long afterwards.<\/p>\n

…read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Atlantic spaces began to experience dramatic shifts in structure and population, Europeans began to attain more prominence in their territories. Commerce among settlement and religious freedom were major factors in shaping the demographics of the Atlantic world. The constant demand for goods exported through trade relied on a labor force of indigenous, enslaved, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":996392,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9197\/revisions\/996392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist410-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}