The late Medieval and Early Modern eras saw numerous upheavals in global history, from the collapse of the Mongol Empire in the fourteenth century to the rise of the Chinese, Russian, and West European Empires in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This lecture course will examine the shifts in global power structures, but will also underscore the changes to the lives of slaves transported between continents, mercenaries who fought on distant battle fields, peasants who cultivated new and exotic crops, such as the potato or the tomato, or Christian and Muslim religious figures who spread the Gospel to the far reaches of the Earth.