How Does Earth's Rotation Influence Global Wind Patterns?

[DaveC426913]

I'm taking a sailing course and reading up on weather. It's making me think.

Why do winds as a global average flow to the East? Does it have to do with the direction of rotation of the Earth? What would the wind pattern look like on an ideal planet where, say, continents didn't deflect the flow?

 

[Bystander]

http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7p.html