It has often been said that the greatest invention of all time was the sail, which facilitated the internationalization of the globe and thus ushered in the modern era. Columbus' contact with the New World, alongside European maritime contact with the Far East, transformed human history, and in particular, the history of Africa. It was the sail that linked the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe, and thus it was also the sail that facilitated the greatest involuntary human migrations in history.

The internationalization of the general European economy began with European global expansion, and the acquisition and exploitation of external colonies. In the case of Britain, this began with the 13 colonies that became the United States, and the establishment of Prince Rupert Land as the basis of the future Canada. The most lucrative European acquisitions in the New World however, at least in the early centuries of colonization, proved to be the Caribbean islands, and the South American mainland associated with the Caribbean. Early experiments in agriculture in all of these regions eventually gave way to sugar, and while numerous other crops were produced on a smaller scale, sugar dominated the economy, and it is sugar that resides in the popular memory of slavery, that remains the most potent legacy of the age.

The emergence and growth of the plantation economies of the New World utilized advances in maritime technology, the Industrial Revolution, and the massive reserves of cheap manpower beginning to become available on the west coast of Africa. During this period, the economic system at work was known as mercantilism, and in the British context, it was defined by a partnership of interests between the merchant classes and the government of Britain in the business of acquiring wealth.