In 1431, the Portuguese navigator Velho set sail into the Atlantic, establishing a trade route to the Azores and marking the beginning of commerce with the West as we know it today. Equipped with reliable maps and instruments for open-ocean navigation and highly seaworthy, three-masted, cannon-armed ships, Portugal soon dominated the Atlantic trade routes - until the diffusion of Portuguese technologies to wealthier polities made Holland the eventual successor, owing to its geographic position and its immense commercial fleet. It is precisely this interplay of technology and geography, argues Peter J. Hugill, that has guided the evolution of the modern global capitalistic system. Tracing the relationship between technology and economy over the 550 years since 1431, Hugill finds that the nations that developed and marketed new technologies best were the nations that rose to world power, while those that held onto outdated technologies fell behind.
Moreover, he argues, major changes in transportation and communication technologies actually constituted the moments of transformation from one world economy to another; the ramifications of technological change consistently influenced all aspects of the capitalist world system, including economic development, geopolitical strategy and world system hegemony. Finally, Hugill applies the same analysis to project the future of the transnational global system we have today.