Unequal development and early Western contact in the Atlantic world

Prologue period of history saw very different events occurring throughout the world, despite the many similarities across these geographic regions. The reasons for these many differences in human history have to do with development of human kind.

For example, during this general period known as the prologue period, in North America human history was undeveloped, at least when compared to the Europe, Eurasia and Asia. In North American the majority of the continent was still dominated by natural resources and was populated by many different tribes and ethnicities of natives. Further, during this time the first contacts with Westerners began to occur. This created a rapid amount of change to occur within the North American area within a relatively short period of time, especially when compared to the amount of time it took Europe, Eurasia and Asia to develop to this same level. In contrast, much of Asia, Eurasia and Asia were moving towards an industrialized society. All of these three areas had remarkably developed urban centers, a generally connected history and a standard form of government.

These differences between the North American experience and the experiences of Asia, Eurasia and Europe during the prologue period had an important and profound effect on the status of international affairs in 1450.