Editing Atlantic Ocean (section)

=== Atlantic World ===
{{Main|Atlantic world|Atlantic history}}
{{See also|List of notable crossings of the Atlantic Ocean|Battle of the Atlantic}}
[[File:Map of Portuguese Carreira da India.gif|thumb|left|The Atlantic [[Gyre]]s influenced the [[Portuguese discoveries]] and trading port routes, here shown in the India Run ("''Carreira da Índia''"), which would be developed in subsequent years.]]
[[Christopher Columbus]] [[Voyages of Christopher Columbus|reached the Americas]] in 1492, sailing under the Spanish flag.<ref name="Chamb-184">{{Harvnb|Chambliss|1989|loc=Piracy, pp. 184–188}}</ref> Six years later [[Vasco da Gama]] reached India under the Portuguese flag, by navigating south around the [[Cape of Good Hope]], thus proving that the Atlantic and Indian Oceans are connected. In 1500, in his voyage to India following Vasco da Gama, [[Pedro Álvares Cabral]] reached Brazil, taken by the currents of the [[South Atlantic Gyre]].<!-- unref --> Following these explorations, Spain and Portugal quickly [[Colonization of the Americas|conquered and colonized]] large territories in the New World and forced the Amerindian population into slavery in order to exploit the vast quantities of silver and gold they found. Spain and Portugal monopolized this trade in order to keep other European nations out, but conflicting interests nevertheless led to a series of Spanish-Portuguese wars. A peace treaty mediated by the Pope divided the conquered territories into Spanish and Portuguese sectors while keeping other colonial powers away. England, France, and the Dutch Republic enviously watched the Spanish and Portuguese wealth grow and allied themselves with [[Piracy in the Atlantic World|pirates]] such as [[Henry Mainwaring]] and [[Alexandre Exquemelin]]. They could explore the convoys leaving the Americas because prevailing winds and currents made the transport of heavy metals slow and predictable.<ref name="Chamb-184" />

[[File:Atlantic slavetrade estimates.png|thumb|Embarked and disembarked slaves in the [[Atlantic slave trade]] 1525–1863 (first and last slave voyages)]]
In the colonies of the Americas, depredation, [[smallpox]] and other diseases, and [[slavery]] quickly [[Genocide of indigenous peoples|reduced]] the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous population of the Americas]] to the extent that the [[Atlantic slave trade]] was introduced by colonists to replace them{{snd}}a trade that became the norm and an integral part of the colonization. Between the 15th century and 1888, when [[Slavery in Brazil|Brazil]] became the last part of the Americas to end the slave trade, an estimated 9.5 million enslaved Africans were shipped into the New World, most of them destined for agricultural labor. The slave trade was officially abolished in the [[Slavery in the British Isles|British Empire]] and the [[Slavery in the United States|United States]] in 1808, and slavery itself was abolished in the British Empire in 1838 and in the United States in 1865 after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Lovejoy|1982|loc=Abstract}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Bravo|2007|loc=The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, pp. 213–215}}</ref>

From Columbus to the [[Industrial Revolution]] trans-Atlantic trade, including colonialism and slavery, became crucial for Western Europe. For European countries with direct access to the Atlantic (including Britain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain) 1500–1800 was a period of sustained growth during which these countries grew richer than those in Eastern Europe and Asia. Colonialism evolved as part of the trans-Atlantic trade, but this trade also strengthened the position of merchant groups at the expense of monarchs. Growth was more rapid in non-absolutist countries, such as Britain and the Netherlands, and more limited in [[Absolute monarchy|absolutist monarchies]], such as Portugal, Spain, and France, where profit mostly or exclusively benefited the monarchy and its allies.<ref name="Acem-p546">{{Harvnb|Acemoglu|Johnson|Robinson|2005|loc=Abstract; pp. 546–551}}</ref>

Trans-Atlantic trade also resulted in increasing urbanization: in European countries facing the Atlantic, urbanization grew from 8% in 1300, 10.1% in 1500, to 24.5% in 1850; in other European countries from 10% in 1300, 11.4% in 1500, to 17% in 1850. Likewise, GDP doubled in Atlantic countries but rose by only 30% in the rest of Europe. By the end of the 17th century, the volume of the Trans-Atlantic trade had surpassed that of the Mediterranean trade.<ref name="Acem-p546" />