The Columbian Exchange refers to the flow of goods between the Americas, Europe, and Africa that followed Columbus’s widely advertised “discovery” of the New World. People, animals, plants, and microorganisms passed from continent to continent affecting virtually all aspects of the environment in all three. For American Indians, disease was the most significant aspect of the exchange with as many as 90 percent of the Native population dying out during the first century of colonization. For Africans and Europeans the most important items...

The Federal Trade Commission Act prohibited unfair interstate commerce competition and created a commission to investigate illegal business practices.

Macon’s Bill No. 2 replaced the Non-Intercourse Act and reopened trade with Britain and France, but it provided that if either country agreed to respect American shipping, the US would cut off trade with the other.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) was established in 1995 as an international body charged with supervising world trading systems. With more than 140 member nations, the WTO establishes and enforces international trade agreements and works to liberalize trade and resolve disputes, create cooperation with global economic institutions, and bring developing countries into global trade. The WTO has also been subjected to criticism from those who oppose globalization and view its purposes as cultural imperialism.