Although seemingly unrelated and irrelevant to each other, economic interactions between global and regional dynamics have greatly changed almost all the nations of our world. The Latin America and Caribbean region, in particular, has experienced the great strength of these forces, especially in driving environmental change. The silver trade, sugar trade, and economic dependence on hydroelectric power demonstrate how international economic catalysts have changed the environment of Latin America and the Caribbean. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayThe boom in the world silver trade in the late 1500s not only revolutionized the world economy, but also significantly affected the Latin American environment. Although the great abundance of silver in Spanish American regions such as San Luis Potosi was a catalyst for the boom in world silver trade, perhaps the greatest contribution to the dynamic rise of silver trade and the transformation of the world economy was its steadily increasing trade with China. Because of the “Single-Whip” reform of 1581, under which taxpayers were required to pay silver payments to the government rather than crops, China's use of silver skyrocketed, making silver more more valuable in China than anywhere else in the world. This, combined with the high demand for Chinese trade goods in Europe, made the Chinese one of the largest consumers of the Spanish silver trade and led them to constantly demand silver. This ever-growing Chinese demand for silver pushed the Spanish to constantly expand their silver production. mines of New Spain, and therefore also to continuously cut down the trees that were used to fuel the silver mines. Severe soil erosion caused by deforestation, coupled with severe overgrazing by livestock to feed communities created by the mining industry, has often rendered landscapes beyond repair. Furthermore, this deforestation decreased the biodiversity of the mining regions, the fires that the Spanish used to cut down forests turning them into grasslands and destroying the habitat of animals suited to living in the forests. However, this clearing of the landscape of trees and creating grasslands laid the foundations for the development of colonial forms of land use, particularly agriculture and pastoralism, and of the colonies themselves, as the ashes provided nutrients that prepared the soil for cultivation of crops and grass. The sugar trade was another factor that affected Latin America's environment, primarily through disease. With Caribbean dominance of the sugar industry in the mid-to-late 1600s came the rise of the triangular trade system, a transatlantic trade route with sugar produced in the Caribbean sent to their parent countries and exchanged for manufactured goods, who were then sent to Africa in exchange for slaves who were transferred to the Caribbean. Due to the creation of the Triangle Trade Route, the demand for sugar only increased and so large plantation systems were established to meet it. As a result, many slaves were needed to work on the plantations and so the slave trade also thrived. Thanks to the prosperity of the slave trade, port cities developed to create a market for fresh slaves. However, slave ships brought more than just slaves,.