Editing Commercial revolution (section)

==Effects==
The commercial revolution, coupled with other changes in the [[early modern period]], had dramatic effects on the globe.

For more than 2000 years the [[Mediterranean Sea]] had been the focus of European trade with other parts of the world.  This focus shifted to the Atlantic Ocean by routes south around the [[Cape of Good Hope]] after 1488, and by trans-Atlantic trade after 1492.  Older overland trade routes such as the [[Silk Road]] suffered economic decline due to the new maritime competition.

[[Christopher Columbus]] and the [[conquistador]]s, through their travels, were indirectly responsible for the [[Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas#Depopulation from disease|massive depopulation]] of South America.  They conquered the [[Inca]], [[Aztec]], and [[Maya civilization|Maya]] peoples and incorporated their territories into the Spanish Empire. Other Europeans similarly affected the peoples of North America as well.

An equally important consequence of the commercial revolution was the [[Columbian Exchange]]. Plants and animals moved throughout the world due to human movements. For example, [[Yellow fever]], previously unknown in North and South America, was imported through water that ships took on in Africa.<ref>{{cite web | last = Bergman | first = Leslie | title = History of colonization in South America | url = http://academic.sun.ac.za/forlang/bergman/real/mission/h_s-am.htm | publisher = Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa | access-date = 25 October 2009 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100524174317/http://academic.sun.ac.za/forlang/bergman/real/mission/h_s-am.htm | archive-date = 24 May 2010 }}

Stellenbosch, South Africa's Department of Modern Foreign Languages's Historical Background article ''South America'' says: "Yellow fever was an uninvited "guest" brought to the Americas on the slave ships from West Africa. Yellow fever is caused by a virus spread by the bite of a species of mosquito native to West Africa, the ''[[aedes aegypti]]''. This mosquito was accidentally carried across the Atlantic in water barrels on the slave ships. Yellow fever struck communities from New York to Rio de Janeiro, but ''aedes aegypti'' flourished in tropical zones. The mosquito, and with it yellow fever, spread rapidly throughout the Amazon River valley. The disease was so lethal to Europeans, who had little immunity to it, that mass settlement of the Amazon region was not possible until present times."</ref>  [[Cocoa bean|Cocoa]] (chocolate), coffee, maize, [[cassava]], and potatoes moved from one hemisphere to the other. Better food and more wealth allowed for larger families. The [[human migration|migration]] of peoples from Europe to the Americas allowed for European populations to [[Population growth|increase]].  Higher caloric yields of the New World staple crops reduced the percentage of the workforce engaged in agricultural labor and accelerated urbanization.

Europe's commercial revolution also created a foundation of wealth needed for the [[Industrial Revolution]].<ref name="how_it_all_began_a04-225">{{Cite book  | title = How it all began: origins of the modern economy | year = 1975 | publisher = Methuen | location = London  | isbn = 0-416-55930-1 | page = 225  | last= Rostow | first= Walt Whitman }}</ref>   The expanding labor force was also redirected into nascent industrialization. Economic prosperity financed new forms of [[Western culture|cultural]] expression during this period.