Today, spices are seen as average household commodities of basic value, purchasable at your nearest local supermarket. The path taken by most common spices to reach the common use that they hold today is that of simultaneous cultural expansion and loss as well as global development. Spices today however are due a great amount of appreciation in that they fueled major European colonial endeavors, in turn altering the course of world history.

In “ancient times,” anything with a strong aroma could be considered a spice. It was the European desire to control the trade and use of this valuable commodity however that led to the development and classification of the various spices known today. Starting with the Crusades (1095-1275), the spice market was opened up and expanded into Europe in large scale for the first time.

The European monarchies and governing bodies sought religious and colonial expansion and as such, explorers such as Portuguese navigator Dom Vasco da Gama sailed eastward into uncharted regions of the globe. What they discovered and developed contributed the shaping of world history. The spices found in India as well as the Moluccas and current day Sri Lanka in the Age of Discovery brought about European governing bodies promoted further world exploration and colonial expansion while also spreading the goods that were spices (pepper, nutmeg, cloves cinnamon, etc.) from continent to continent.

Vasco da Gama
biography.com 

Intercontinental trade markets formed and prospered and the European aristocracy and wealth behind the various countries’ desire to control the spice trade brought about huge pools of financial security for governments but also a myriad of human and cultural conflict. Entire indigenous populations in the Moluccas were wiped from existence as the powerful European governments traded weapons and hard goods to tribes in civil conflict for access to spices. In addition to the fueling of wars, explorers such as the Dutch and British East India Company in the early 17^th century exterminated entire local populations to gain control of the world-sought spices and control of their trade.

European Spice Trade
http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~vaucher/Genealogy/Documents/Asia/EuropeanExploration.html

The European monarchies and governing bodies that pushed eastward in search of spices and dominance in their trade altered the course of world history in that they colonized and discovered entirely untouched civilizations, lands, and cultures. World economies developed, but at the cost of vast cultural loss and human life.    

World Wide Spice Accumulation
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2010/03/27/what-do-ancient-spice-traders-and-the-modern-financial-industry-have-in-common/

Tobacco and Cotton were two founder crops of the United States of America.  Explain how and why, highlighting any connections / similarities between the crops.

Both the tobacco and cotton crop were essential to the founding of independent colonies in the western world that would become the United States of America. The two crops could grow profusely in the warm, temporal climate of eastern North America and as a result, Britain found itself in a time of major colonial expansion. As major trade markets opened up in Europe and Asia, tobacco and cotton spread across the world, consumed in an enormous variety of fashions. 

Photo credit: Paul Owen 2012

When colonist John Rolfe arrived at the hell that was the Jamestown settlement, the British Empire was on the verge of abandoning and losing the settlement due to the impact of famine and disease. Rolfe’s work on the cultivation of tobacco crops began in the ideal climate and environment of the settlement lands and the colony prospered.

Jamestown Settlement, early 17th Century
Photo Credit: Nasa.gov

The tobacco crop allowed the colonists to persevere through the initial winters and move out of the terrible existing living conditions and into a thriving effort of imperialism that brought thousands of new settlers and eventually, horrifyingly enough, slavery.

Tobacco Crops
Photo Credit: LearnNc.org

Similarly synonymous with the evils of slavery in the United States’ development is the cotton crop. Like tobacco, cotton was a widely popular and highly useful good around the world and as such there was a very high global demand. With the foundation that tobacco laid for society in the Western World, cotton provided economic and material resources for the expansion of the American settlements. This exposed an appalling cycle that led to the growth and prosperity of the tobacco and cotton industry in which slave labor was used as a manner of production of the crops as well as a currency to acquire goods and further common assets. This boosted an entire economy which in turn provided autonomy and self sustaining resources for the founding of the United States of America.

Photo Credit: Slave Breeding in The US, Wikipedia

Tobacco and cotton’s widespread popularity and global consumption in the 17^th and 18^th century provided financial stability to Britain’s endeavor in colonizing the Western World and as such, the American colonies saw continuous backing from the British Empire and prospered exponentially. This led to a mentality of independence among the colonists and with the mismanaged tariffs, taxes, and legislation imposed on  the colonies by the British government, the settlers were on the path to American independence. The tobacco and cotton crops were only players in the full development of the United States, but the usefulness and resilience of the colonists brought about by the two crops are what allowed for such a monumental expansion of a new, independent society.