Chapter 22

I learned about the struggle that many countries within Africa had to go through to try to gain independence.  Empires started to fall after WWI and WWII which weakened Europe and discredited their thought of them being the most superior, opening a perfect door for them to be overthrown in colonies. Europeans began to alter relationships with colonies so they could still gain profit, but not have to deal with the headache of colonial governments. Europeans were able to successfully do this, using elections, writing constitutions and building railroads and ports.

Chapter 21

In chapter 21 I learned the  journey to Russia becoming the USSR. World War I made lower class Russians unhappy, forcing them to take more drastic measures such as organizing into parties and overthrowing elites. Many changes were instantly made throughout Russia, soldiers abandoned their posts, trade unions were created, peasants took over landlords' land and redistributed them. Even then, the government wasn't able to meet peoples demands, so a small socialist party, the Bolsheviks, came to power. The Bolsheviks managed to stay in power and renamed the country USSR. This was also Russian's road to communism and how it came to be.

Chapter 20

Chapter 20 talks about important historical events such as World War 1 and 2 as well as the great depression. WW1 was pretty much a civil was between Europe and is what resulted in the great depression. However, after WW1 the United States did become the superpower in the West. What I didn't know was exactly why the WW1 help spiral the United States into a Great Depression. During the war American produced more goods than it could sell, creating a huge deficit. Something I learned in-class was that another main cause was the crash of the housing market. I was baffled to learn that interest rates were so much that people that paid off their mortgage on time every month weren't actually making a dent in their mortgage, but instead just the interest rate. So people that thought they were paying off their mortgage, realistically never started paying it.

Chapter 19

Chapter 19 taught me many things I didn't previously know about the 1800's such as that British sold addictive opium to the Japanese's  against the Japanese' will. The problem of opium addiction was one of the many reasons their country began to decline, but also because of Japan's rising population and little wealth and resources. Japan especially did not want their citizens to be addicted to opium because if those citizens are addicted to drugs and aren't doing anything for the country like have a job then they are useless to society.

Chapter 18

Chapter 18 taught me a lot of things I didn't previously know about European conquest and colonial economies. Europe started having struggles with gathering colonies because during this time nationalism began to arise. These colonies wanted to be a strong independent colonies and became hard to conquer. Chapter 18 also made me aware of how screwed the farmers got in the colonial times. Machinery became more efficient than Artisans could be, as well, blacksmiths were no longer needed.  Slowly but surely machines and assembly lines took over individual human work. The Industrial Revolution was good to a select amount of people, but were more importantly devastating to others.

Chapter 17

I learned many things from chapter 17, almost all including things about the Industrial Revolution.
First, I was not aware that The Industrial Revolution specifically began in Britain because of the amount of available workers and how easy it was to create a company with these workers. Britain believed in science, and through experiments were able to create advancements in medical. I was also intrigued to find out that without the industrial revolution there would be no working or middle class. These are vital class' to our society today. Along with the introduction of new class', came the representation of those people. I learned that there was no political party presenting the workers, as well, socialist ideas didn't resonate with Americans because the population was so diverse, making many different view points.

Chapter 16 (Part 2) summary

The abolition of slavery
Enlightenment thinkers thought slavery as a violation to the rights a person has. To add to the argument, at the time it was found that slavery was not essential for economic progress. Movements were a very effective way to bring attention to your concern, which at the time was wanting slavery to end. Finally Britain cut off the sale of slaves in 1807 and by 1834, emancipated the rest of their slaves that were still captive. Soon after, other nations followed because of the growing international pressures to do so from Britain. Life after slave life wasn't all what it was cracked up to be, most slaves economic lives did not improve dramatically. With former slaves reluctant to work on plantations for low-wages, this caused a shortage of workers, in return brought a whole new wave of immigrants mainly from India and china. The former slaves were right not to work for the plantation owners because the conditions the new wave of immigrants worked in were slave like.
Nations to nationalism 
Nationalism was extremely important to civilizations and proved to be a powerful idea during the nineteenth century Europe. This caused some areas to unify and some areas to branch out from the rule they were under. It also caused a highly competitive drive for colonies in Asia and Africa. It also  caused nations to invest in themselves and their future by adding schools, public rituals, mass media, and military services. There were many different versions of nationalism, liberal democracy and representative governments used by France and the US emphasized "the people" to control. Germany defined the nation in racial terms, they excluded those who did not share common ancestry, such as Jews.
Feminist Beginnings
Feminism started widely in Europe and North America. European thinkers challenged ancient traditions like women inferiority. With a growing middle class, women found more opportunities in education and profession. What women saught most was access to schools, universities and professions. By 1914, there were a whopping two million member's of the National American Women Suffrage Association. By 1900, women were starting to get what they ask for, a small number of women got access to universities and literacy rates for women began to rise.

SND Handout

I found it fascinating the different lifestyles Julie and Francoise grew up in. Julie was raised in a lower class family in a small town in France while Francoise was born into a very wealthy family and didn't have to worry about money. In result of their economic status', Julie had to take up a very strenuous job in order to help keep her family stable financially, but Francoise didn't have to even think about working. Francoise's job was to go to school, learn household management skills, and marry a man and manage the house. In the society Julie grew up in, only parents that were able to pay for schooling and felt that their child needed schooling would receive it, unlike François, where everyone was expected to attend school. Once Francoise was ready to become a part of the French society as a lady, Julie was working to help keep her family afloat, something Francoise would never have to worry about. When Julie and Francoise were in their 20's and 30's, Julie was just finding out she had multiple sclerosis and was going to be bedridden for the rest of her life. Francoise on the other hand was the last sibling living in her big luxurious house with her parents, until she moved back to Gezaincourt to take care of her grandmother. Even though they both had two very different paths of life, they ended up doing what made them feel most for filled and that was taking care of people who did not have the same luxuries as them.

Chapter 14 Part 2

Commerce in people: The Atlantic Slave trade

Between 1500 and 1866 the Atlantic slave trade took about 12.5 million people from African societies. The slave trade benefitted and enriched European and Euro-American societies while destroying the slaves lives.

The Slave Trade in Context

The slave trade was closely tied to both warfare and capture. Before 1500 Mediterranean and Indian ocean was the main slave trade, with most slaves being imported from southern Russia. Many regions had different needs for male, female, and different age groups. Slavery in America however, was different then anywhere else. In America we mostly had plantations for the slaves to work on, but the conditions were so terrible many described it as dehumanizing to these slaves. When slaves were cut off by the Ottoman Turks, the Portuguese turned to western Africa for their slaves. Africa soon became the go to for slaves working in plantations. They were sought after because of their skill with farming, immunity to diseases, not Christians, and they were "close".

The slave trade in practice

Europeans would not intrude on some African societies because of the African societies ability to protect themselves as well as the harmful diseases that were most dangerous to the Euros then it was to the African society. Instead, they waited for the slaves to be brought to them, they waited on their own ships or their settlements to be safe from the disease. In exchange for slaves, African sellers sought Euro and Indian textiles, such as cowrie shells and firearms/gunpowder. Slaves would be treated so poorly that many would rather jump off the boat and drown themselves before the boats could come rescue them. Africans did not sell their own people into slavery, they sold prisoners of war, criminals, and debtors. They captured and sold outsiders for short term economic and political gain.

Consequences: the impact of slave trade in Africa

Slave trade had a huge impact on African population. In the 1600, Africans population was at 18%, by the 1900, Africans population took a drastic fall to only 6%. Slave trade had terrible consequences socially and economically on Africa. Lemba Officials were brought together to try to counter the disruptive impact. Because mostly men were sent to be slaves, more men were able to marry multiple women. A small number of women were able to accumulate wealth and power from the fur trade, hiring their own slaves.

Economic globalization: Then and Now

The three centuries before us have similarities. Some of these similarities were global circulation of goods, an international currency, production for world market, and private enterprises. The main differences are the scale and speed of the market, by 2000 there was substantially more goods in circulation.

Chapter 14 part one

European and Asian Commerce
The initial cause for the Portuguese going out on their big voyage was because of their desire for cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, clover, and especially pepper. During the 15th century Europe began to grow, some of the biggest cities being started in England, Netherlands, and northern Italy. Europeans were very persistent with obtaining goods. When it came to trading in the Asian market, Europeans  goods were seen as crude and unattractive. When Portuguese arrived to Asia and saw how weak their merchant ships were and they quickly used their superior naval warfare to assert bases all over. Even though Asia was weak by military standards they were much richer in economic standards. Once Portuguese realized their goods were not trading they started becoming heavily involved in transferring of Asian goods to Asian ports.

Spain and Philippines
The Spanish established themselves on the Philippines islands in order to catch up with the race for the riches. These islands had an abundant amount of spices. They soon took over the island using their military and took over completely by 1565.

East Indie Companies
The Dutch and British both established their own trading post empires much better then the Portuguese. The Dutch forcibly over threw two islands that produces spices, killing most of people that inhabited the islands and sold the spices they obtained from those islands for more then fourteen times the price they bought it for in Indonesia. The British were mostly left out of the spice trade because of the monopoly the Dutch had on it. The British also were not able to "trade by warfare" like the Portuguese, instead they worked together with the Mughal empire.

Asians and Asian Commerce
Euro's were not seen as a economic threat or a militant threat to the great powers (Mughal India, China, and Japan). Once Shogun became the power of Japan he expelled all Europeans and saw them and their new ways as a threat.

Silver and Global Commerce
Even bigger then the spice trade was the silver trade. The Chinese authorities created taxes, which a majority of the population had to pay in silver. This began the huge demand for silver. Even though Spain was rich in silver the way they used it was poor. And when silver prices came barreling down, Spain lost its early position of dominance. Japan, much like Spain was rich in silver, but unlike Spain they used silver to boost their economy, which ultimately brought them to a highly commercialized economy by the nineteenth century.

The World Hunt: Fur in Global Commerce
People in Europe wanted fur just as bad as the most popular products like silver, textiles, and spices.
One cause for this was the Ice-Age, with it being colder the demand for warmth grew. With fur being used in Europe it rose the standard of living and helped build many communities by trading fur for goods they could use.