At the same time that all this new trade was happening, an economic idea called mercantilism emerged and took hold among many European nations. Mercantilism is the idea that every country has a fixed amount of wealth. Therefore, there are only a few ways to gain more wealth: 1) mine for more gold and silver among the natural resources of your nation, 2) export more than you import (that brings in more wealth to your country), or 3) colonize new parts of the world and use their raw materials to make your country wealthier. Mercantilism quickly became the driving force behind the colonization movements in Great Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal.

Do you agree with this assessment of wealth? Should countries look to colonize newly discovered areas of the world in order to make themselves richer? Pretend you live in this time. Would your answer be different than it is today?

Source: Colonisation 1800, Jluisrs, Wikimedia