WORLD COLONIAL SYSTEM: FACTORS OF FORMATION AND INCIPIENCE IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD (LATE XV – FIRST HALF OF THE XVII CENTURY)

Abstract

The article highlights the key factors that influenced the formation of the world colonial system in the period of the early modern times (late XV – first half of the XVII century). Attention is focused on the fact that modernization processes in the countries of Western Europe, which were accompanied by the formation of large centralized states, the development of absolute monarchies, the establishment and systematic development of market-capitalist relations, the accumulation of capital, the rapid development of cities and trade, powerful industry development, became an important factor in European colonialism industry and the increase in the marketability of agriculture, which led to the urgent need to intensify the search for new ways of expanding sales markets. It has been found that the key moment of the beginning of the global colonial expansion of the Europeans was the Great Geographical Discoveries, which had a strong economical, political and social basis and the result of which, in terms of the analysis of colonialism, was the acceleration of the process of initial accumulation of capital. The social, cultural, ideological, information and scientific and technical prerequisites of the Great Geographical Discoveries are characterized. It was determined that the great geographical discoveries of the XV–XVI centuries became an important and in many aspects a defining moment in the realization of the aspirations of Europeans for enrichment and domination. It is shown that the active colonial expansion and the desire for dominance among European countries were accompanied by the aggressive colonial policy of the western states, which was characterized by the imposition of a strict European monopoly in matters of trade with the colonies, their primitive non-economic robbery, and the imposition of harsh forms of exploitation of the conquered local population. It has been proven that in the middle of the XVII century active colonial expansion and the desire for dominance among European countries led to changes in the political arrangement of forces in Europe, became the main component of further radical geopolitical transformations.