The hundred years after 1750 marked a profound restructuring of world power. Political and economic changes in the Atlantic world impacted Asia and Africa as the power of Europe expanded.

Transformations in the Atlantic World

Dissatisfied with their exclusion from power and wealth, politically aware people began organizing in hopes that a new or reformed system would provide freedom to trade and representation in government. Initially unwilling to revolt, these reformers found powerful resistance among the aristocracy. Arguing for popular sovereignty and free trade, they denounced trade monopolies and aristocratic domination of politics. New identities and concepts of "nation" arose. The question of how much freedom and to whom, however, generally meant for white males only.

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