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Chapter 15 is about Global Commerce between 1450-1750. It covers the North Atlantic Slave trade, trade between Europe and Asia and the East Indian companies. Spanish trade between the Philippines  trade within Asia and the role of precious metals such as silver and fur. To me the most interesting part of this chapter was the discussion of the Atlantic Slave trade. It is amazing to think that 12.5 million human  beings from Africa were stolen and shipped across the Atlantic to the Americas. Crossing the ocean which is called "Middle Passage" left 1.8 million who died being captured and sent across the ocean. The African men, woman, and children were treated probably worse than if they were silver coins or hides of fur. They were simply objects to be traded not people. The boats crammed so many slaves into them that the captains knew it was certain that some number could survive. The slave trade and the labor of the slaves in the new world made many Europeans and white Americans incredibly wealthy. Unlike indentured servants, white people who came of their own will or were sent as part of a prison sentence were sent to North America to work for a period of time. Slaves and their children and grandchildren would never escape slavery for the great majority. There was slavery in the Mediterranean region where mainly Slavic people were forced to work on plantations but with the rise of the Ottoman Empire the supply of Slavic slaves was cut off. The Portuguese found a supply of slaves in West Africa and the Atlantic Slave trade took off on there. One of the ways the English and Spanish and Portuguese and Dutch people justified owning slaves was that as Black people who were racially different they could think of them as inferior and "have attributes that are quite similar to those of dumb animals" (page 692). This link between slavery, race and racial inferiority has shaped the entire history of the United States to this day. Slaves were sold by fellow Africans as well as other slave traders who wanted European goods such as guns and alcohol. African people were so desperate not to leave Africa that many committed suicide by jumping in to the sea. The high point of the slave trade was between 1700-1850 as the plantation economies of the Americas grew bigger and richer. The loss of so many African people slowed the growth of nations within Africa so slavery caused harm everywhere it touched. When people say the United States is made of immigrants we can never forget that it is a country made through the killing of the Native peoples and the importation of millions of slaves from Africa.