A tiny network of merchants controlled all European commercial speculation

Evidence

Our ship is an elaborately crafted model made of gilded copper and iron, which stands about one metre (40 inches) high. … Its intricate inner workings did once create noise, smoke and movement. … This fantastical mechanical galleon is one of the grandest executive toys of the European Renaissance, and it sums up not just shipbuilding in Europe but Europe itself between 1450 and 1650. … In the course of those 200 years Europe’s view of the world and its place in it was completely transformed. — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 1171 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

The nineteenth-century armies of imperialist Europe continued the tradition of relying on substantial recruitment among ethnic minorities, “riff-raff,” outcasts, aliens and the peasantry: to the million serfs of the Russian army were added the Asiatic Bashkirs and Kalmucks, Ingush and Ossietin; the Corsicans and Bretons of the French army were augmented by the Legion founded on Kabyle swordsmen, Swiss and other European mercenaries, but by mid-century the army itself had come to be dominated by West Africans; in the Philippines, the Spanish army was native, as was the Dutch army of the East Indies. In India, the East India Company and the Bengal army (1842) employed between them upward of 70,000 natives in their sepoy regiments. In Britain itself, in 1832, the Irish accounted for 42 percent of the army. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1520 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The galleon model represents European trade and warfare innovations. — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 1171; Imperial European armies recruited heavily from ethnic minorities and colonized peoples — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1520; A small elite controlled all European financial exchange networks

Related

• The galleon model represents European trade and warfare innovations. (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• The galleon model represents European trade and warfare innovations. #qualifies (0.45) — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 1171
• Imperial European armies recruited heavily from ethnic minorities and colonized peoples #expands (0.35) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1520