Accelerating Global Interaction 3

This section of the chapter focused more on world population growth as well as the global environment. There were three factors that greatly influenced the environmental changes. One factor was the explosion of human numbers, an unprecedented quadrupling of the worlds population in a single century. Another was the ever growing use of our fossil fuels such as coal and oil. The third factor is the rapid growth of our economy. The production of goods has been quickly increasing which means more energy is being used as well. These three factors were the foundation of the environmental change we are still facing today.
     Environmentalism was an effort to better our environment. It began in the nineteenth century when Romantic poets stated that the industrials, "dark satanic mills" were threatening our green and pleasant land. The second wave began in the West with a publication of a book. This book showed how bad our environment is becoming and inspired many people. By the early 1990's, almost 14 million Americans had joined environmental groups that aimed much of their effort at lobbying political parties and businesses. The trend soon spread worldwide. Soon the German environmental movement arose with the Green Party. It then spread farther east to India, the Philipines and Austrailia.

Accelerating Global Interaction Pt 2

This part of the chapter focused a lot on fundamentalism and religious alternatives to fundamentalism. Fundamentalism can be said to be a militant piety- defensive, assertive, and exclusive-that took shape to some extent in every major religious tradition. It represented a religious response, characterized by one scholar as "embattled forms of spirituality". The term started in the US where religious conservatives in the early 20th century were unhappy with the critical and scientific approaches to the bible.
   Fundamentalism wasn't the only religious response to modernity and globalization in the Islamic world. The many people who were concerned about the ways of fundamentalism have established their own political structures. Believers found various ways of responding to global modernity. Liberal and mainstream Christian groups spoke about the ethical issues arising. Fundamentalism seemed to really stir up a religious debate.

Accelerating Global Interaction 1

Accelerating Global Interaction talked a lot about globalization and reglobalization in the world’s economy. People mostly refer to globalization as the economic transactions that took place in the second part of the 20th century. In the 1970’s, major capitalist countries such as U.S. and Great Britain started seeing the world as one big,open market. During reglobalization world trade skyrocketed as department stores and supermarkets started to stock their shelves with merchandise. London marketed 120 blends of tea in over 100 countries and Australian kiwi shoe polish sold in 180. U.S. and Britain started investing in foreign factories to maximize its profit. Globalization started our world’s economic boom.

The maps on page 729 are a great example of why some countries boomed economically and why others were left behind. U.S., China and India had an incredible population which led them to their economic success. China was populated with 1,290 million people which is the main reason for the large number of factories. China was U.S. main go to country for factory investments. Another map shows the economic development in the world. Even though China boomed with population, their per capita income was under $2000. With all the factories, there left room for a lot of cheap labor. Where in the U.S. the per capita income was over $20,000. 

Gandhi vs King Jr

The two quotes I found to compare Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. both speak of non-violent actions. Martin Luther King stated, "At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.", and Gandhi stated, "A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident." These quotes both insinuate that things are possible and can be accomplished in a non violent manner. King's statement means that someone fighting for a cause or movement peacefully, is sensitive to the cause. The desire for their cause comes from the heart, not out of anger and passion. Gandhi's quote means that a weak man may do the right thing by accident, but a strong non violent man always does right and only does wrong by accident. In other words, a good man chooses the right path for a cause where a weak just man is to weak to know the right path. I believe King was inspired by Gandhi in using his peaceful ways. Gandhi fought for his country to be equal and not hate each other based on race where King fought for people not to hate each other based on race. Both sensitive subjects, so they proceeded with caution by using peaceful ways.

Chapter 23

This chapter started off with a very strong introduction about Nelson Mandela. It spoke of his time in jail and his quick accomplishments he made after being released. He was a strong man and one to be remembered in history. His strength led to African freedom against Europeans and mobilized millions of people to take role in political activity and warfare. Decolonization promised national freedom, personal dignity, abundance, and opportunity.
   Freedom was also a problem for India, they had a "freedom struggle" just as South Africa did. Though it took a while, India was one of the first colonies to gain freedom where South Africa was one of the last.  India's most important political expression of an all- Indian identity started in the INC, established in 1885. Its only members were English speaking Indians such as lawyers, journalists, teachers and business men. The INC was an elite organization but still struggled to gain mass among India's vast peasant population. Gandhi stepped into the picture and quickly rose within the leadership ranks of INC. In the 1920's and 30's he tried his approach in periodic mass campaigns that brought support from all over. Gandhi was a political power like no one had ever seen before, he didn't want social revolution but the moral transformation of individuals. He was a peacekeeper and a new face for India. After great non-violent struggle, India finally gained its independence in 1947 as 2 countries, one Muslim Pakistan and a Hindu India. This divide was very destructive, over 1 million Indians were killed.
     South Africa's struggle for freedom was very different to India's. South Africa has been independent since 1910 but the freedom was only granted to the white population which was less than 20%. During the Boer War, South Africans had already sought independence from the Afrikaners but failed. Different from India, South Africa had a well developed industrial economy. White Africans owed factories, plants and farms while Africans worked for  them. Just as India did, South Africans developed their own leadership, the ANC. It started off as professional African men but then branched out to a younger generation. The ANC lead the freedom struggle with Nelson Mandela as their fearless leader. As India did, South Africa eventually won their freedom and their country split into two. The split wasn't over religion like India, it was over things such as race, ethnicity and ideology. The Africans finally had their home.

The Rise and Fall of World Communism Pt 2

Communist expansion into China, Korea and Vietnam led to the Cold War's most destructive and prolonged "hot wars". Both Korea and Vietnam started to turn against its own country to split into two. Thats why today we have not just Korea, but North Korea and South Korea. To save Vietnam, US troops  intervened and hoped to stop a communist victory. In the end, Vietnam united their country under communist control by 1975. Our efforts had failed.
     The United States started to emerge as the "superpower of the west" from 1945-1975. WWII and the Cold War gave the US a chance to take over what had been Britain's previous role. The United States was shipping off it's soldiers to various countries around the world. By 1970, the US had more than 1,000,000 soldiers in 30 different countries, was a member of four regional defense alliances and an active participant in a fifth and much more. Along with United State's dominating military, political, economical power, their popular culture was expanding rapidly. American rock and roll was becoming a big hit. By the 1990's, American movies took about 70 percent of the markets in Europe and there were 20,000 McDonald's restaurants in 100 countries. Brand names such as Kleenex, Coco Cola, Jeep, Spam, Nike and Kodak started being used worldwide as well as words like "groovy", "crazy" and "cool".

The Rise and Fall of World Communism Pt 1

In this chapter I learned that in the past, Communism was a world wide thing. Communist regimes came to power almost everywhere during war, revolutions and other struggles. During the past two decades of the twentieth century communism has collapsed almost everywhere except China and the Soviet Union. Other than Russia and China, communism also traveled to Eastern Europe.
     In Russia, the communists came to power within a single year in 1917. There was one historic event thats opened the door to a huge social upheaval. Soldiers were seeking to end a terrible war or even go a wall. New trade unions arose to defend workers' interests and some workers even tried to gain control. During the civil war the Bolsheviks had harshly regimented the economy by seizing grain from angry peasants, suppressed nationalist rebellions, and perpetrated bloody atrocities.
     When China was under the rule of Mao Zedong many achievements, tragedies and limitations were made. Production in steel, coal, fertilizer and cement increased by large amounts. Along with the increase in production 17 million urban youth were sent to work in the fields and average life expectancy from 35-65 years. 20 million died during the Great Leap forward, 500,000 deaths during the Cultural Revolution and between 1 and 3 million counterrevolutionaries were killed. Mao's rule was both positive and negative but I don't think industry was worth all those lives.

Colonial Encounters Pt 2

Western education seemed to have a big impact on the way people acted. Many people embraced European culture, dressing in European clothes, speaking French and English, building "European" houses, getting married in long white gowns and many other European ways of living. Education in western India was a bit different. With their new intelligence they wanted a new Indian culture free of underage marriage, caste, discrimination against women and Hinduism. The western education gave the Indian culture the inspiration it needed to change.
    Throughout the twentieth century, Christianity seemed to have spread worldwide. Around 10,000 missionaries had descended on Africa by 1910, and by 1960 almost 50 million Africans became Christians. Protective charms and medicines started to be used as well as medicine men. Western education influenced every type of person in different ways. It helped to shape the way our world is today.

Colonial Encounters Pt 1

This chapter was a very interesting one to me. I liked how he began the chapter with a personal experience in his life. he talked about how when he was traveling through Africa his bus broke down so he had to hitchhike from Kenya to Uganda. During that journey he learned a lot about the African culture that he didn't expect to hear. The African men weren't suppose to know english because the white men were scared the Africans would take their white women. The englishmen wanted nothing to do with interracial breeding or relationships.
     Another big part of this chapter was about control over Africa and Africa's fight for independent nations. The French owned 6 nations in Africa; Algeria, Mauritania, West Africa, new Guinea, Sengal and Gambia. The British owned a whopping 11 states; Gold Coast, Nigeria, Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, Rhodesia, South Africa, ect. All the rest of the nations are owned by many other countries. Some such as Germany, Italy, Portugal, Belgium and Spain. Only Ethiopia and Liberia are
independent states in Africa.

Industrial Revolution

Industrialization has always been a good topic of discussion. There is always the question of whether it was the best decision for our country or not. Mahatma Gandhi stated, "Industrialization, I'm afraid, is going to be a curse for mankind...". I don't know where I stand in this debate, I guess you could say I'm neutral. I think there are both ups and downs to how fast our country evolved. One good thing is that it brought our country more efficient ways of life and made things easier on people. Things such as tractors and plows made growing crops easier on farmers. In some countries today, farmers use humans to pull plows because they aren't modernized. Also trains and steam engined provided a much more efficient way  of transporting things across the country.
   Though a lot of good came out of the revolution it also brought some negatives. There were a lot more jobs to give out but some of them were dangerous. Things such as coal mining and factory working caused great danger to ones health. Coal mining could get you sick very easily and with working in a factory you always risk injury from getting caught in one of the machines. Another down side is the hygiene and how unsanitary the city was. The industry boomed so quickly, the city didn't have time to prepare for the amount of people it would bring. People working in the city often lived in cramped apartments with multiple people, sometimes with no bathrooms. They would use a bucket if they didn't want to walk to the nearest bathroom. There was no trash or recycling man so trash filled the streets. It took a good amount of time for the city to adjust to the boom. The revolution shaped big cities all around the world into what they are today. It was good, it was bad, it changed us.

Revolutions and Slavery

Throughout this chapter I have noticed how one revolution seems to echo off of another. The French Revolution echoed off the North American Revolution, the Haitian Revolution echoed off the French, and the Spanish American echoed after all three. What was so intriguing about the Haitian Revolution was that it was one of the richest colonies in the world. It produced about 40% of the worlds sugar and half of its coffee. With all these plantations they had a lot of slaves, about 500,000. But what's interesting is that even with slaves there were about 30,000 gens de couleur libres, which are free colored people. Their revolution was about slavery, to free slaves or keep the system. The French sided with the slaves and declared an end to slavery as well as burning 1000 plantations and killing hundreds of whites. It was soon an interracial war. From this is where we got the Louisiana Purchase.
     After these revolutions many different movements started taking off worldwide: The abolition of slavery, nations taking in nationalism, and women's right. Nationalism brought countries to unite but also forced dissatisfied ones to revolt. Overall it did more good than evil.

The French Revolution

The French Revolution took place from 1789 till 1815. It was considered to be Act Two of the drama in the Atlantic Revolutions. Considering that the American Revolution was Act One of the drama I found it interesting that US and France teamed up in an effort to overpower Britain. Thomas Jefferson stated that France "has been awakened by our revolution". France was falling into bankruptcy in the struggle so king Louis XVI was called into session an ancient parliamentary body consisting of 3 estates: the clergy, the nobility and the commoners. The clergy and nobility consisted of 2% of the population and the commoners 98%. Shortly after this was established the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was drawn up declaring that "men are born and remain free and equal in rights".
    The French and American Revolutions differed a lot in how they let influence spread. Once Napoleon took over a lot of things changed for France. He is given credit for taming the revolution and all of its social conflicts it generated. He managed to preserve civil equality, a secular law code, religious freedoms and promotion by merit. Napoleon's intent was to spread these benefits far and wide. Many people followed in his footsteps. He saved France from Britain and should be considered a hero.

The American Revolution

     The French Revolution was considered to be the "centerpiece" and starting point for the Atlantic Revolutions. The Haitians followed them with the first successful slave revolt in history. These were only two of the many Revolts and Revolutions made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. All of the Revolutions were said to have shaped most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
     The North American Revolution took place from 1775-1787. In simple terms, it was a struggle for Independence from British rule. The Declaration of Independence started the struggle, followed by a military victory in 1781. Even with gaining independence, British soldiers still held a tight reign on the thirteen colonies. Britain began to get power hungry, imposing new taxes and tariffs on the colonies with no consent from them whatsoever. Even with the long struggle, we were still yet to be fully independent from the Brits.

The Big Picture

The modern revoltuion between 1750 and 1940 has guided human behavior for centuries and beyond. It has improved notions of progress, constitutional government, political democracy. socialism, nationalism, feminism and opposition of slavery. The modern era was a worldwide thing and affected everyone it in. Another theme in this extended 19th century was the growing ability of these modern societies to exercise enormous power and influence over the rest of human kind. In small regions this affected economic penetration, military intervention, diplomatic pressure and missionary activity.
    I also took a look at the chart on pages 496 and 497. I found it very interesting that almost every continent had a revolution between the years 1775-1800. Also between 1800 and 1850 every continent was either getting invaded or having some sort of war. This seemed to be a period of great violence. It seems that once the fighting was over, unification and progress was made in various countries. There was a unification of Italy and Germany, Mexico established a girls school, Cuba and Brazil abolish slavery and the Ottoman constitution was established. What is most interesting to me is the fact that after all this change, war broke back out in the 20th century. WW1 broke out as well as the Spanish-American War, Mexican Revolution, Chinese Revolution, Russo-Japanese War and Boer War in South Africa.
    

Religion and Science Pt 2

When finishing the science and religion chapter I found the section about Science and Enlightenment to be most interesting. During the Enlightenment there seemed to be a new level of knowledge which everyone wasn't comfortable with. Large numbers of people believed that the long-term outcome of the revolution would be "enlightenment". If human reason could control the universe, it could uncover ways where humankind could govern itself more effectively.
    The Enlightenment was described as "a mans emergence from his self-imposed inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance' by Immanuel Kant. The age of the Enlightenment also witnessed a reaction against too much reliance on human reason. It was challenged not only by romanticism and religious enthusiasm but also by the continued development of science.

Religion and Science

In the section Globalization of Christianity, it talks a lot about the expansion of the Christian religion. The religion spread from Spain and England to Russia, all the way down to Egypt, Ethiopia and Southern India. There was also a chart on pg 464 which showed great differences between Catholics and Protestants. One difference I found to be the most interesting was the religious authority. Catholics have the pope and church hierarchy, where the Protestants used the Bible as their leader. Another bid difference between the two is their form of prayer. The Catholics pray to god but through Mary and the Saints. The Protestants also pray to god but Mary and the saints play no role.

     With Catholicism and Christianity conversion played a big role. Followers were encouraged to spread their religion globally. Christian faith spread into Spanish America in countries such as Mexico, Spain and other Spanish colonies. With many other religions conversion wasn't important, they were fine keeping their religions in set countries such as India and China.   

The Atlantic Slave Trade

I really enjoyed this reading because the subject of slavery has always intrigued me. Reading the section, Slave Trade in Context really broke down the thought of slavery and how it began. I found it very interesting that in the 15th century slavery was widely accepted as a perfectly normal human enterprise. To me, slavery has never been an acceptable subject. Slave trade seemed to rely on the Mediterranean World. Trade between the Europeans and Africans all took place in that area. Europeans provided things like sugar, honey and fruits, where Africans sole provided a wide variety of slaves.
    Looking at the charts on pg 454 was really shocking. The first chart was of the rise and decline of slavery. Slavery seemed to start off very slow until around the 1600's, then out of the blue it boomed. The peak of the slavery was between 1751-1775, importing over 60 thousand slaves to the US. It seemed to last until around 1870, until slavery was abolished. The second chart shocked me even more than the first. It showed the destination of slaves in the eighteenth century. I thought the Americas would for sure have the highest number of slaves, when in fact it was the lowest. British North America and US had a mere 348,000 slaves combined with Spanish America that had 578,600. Brazil and the Caribbean combined had over 5,000,000 slaves between 1450-1750. The high amount of agriculture in the region called for a higher need for slaves. The fast expansion of slavery was an incredible topic to read about.

Global Commerce

I thought the most interesting part of the reading was learning about the Portuguese Empire and explorers. In the beginning of the European and Asian Commerce section it spoke of Columbus and Portuguese explorers. They spoke of how Columbus accidentally came across the Americas but the Portuguese discovering Asia was a different stories. They were on a decade long escapade to find a good sea route to the east. They sailed down the coast of west Africa, around the southern tip, and back up the east coast until they discovered India.
     Global Commerce started a huge expansion of world trade. In the early modern era furs, silvers, textiles and spices were introduced as major items of global commerce. Since fur became so popular, fur-bearing animals population started to diminish. Animals such as beavers, rabbits, sable, marten and deer. I think using poor animals just for our own selfish profit is wrong. Shows how much things have changed over time. By 1500 everyone was wearing fur coats. A surprised visitor from Venice observed, "The weather is bitterly cold and everyone is in furs although we are almost in July". Fur coats were the thing to have.

I thought this reading was really interesting because of how they teach you about the change in agriculture because of the sugar cane. Sugar cane happened to be one of the most luxurious goods introduced to the markets in Western Asia and Europe. It grows in hot, moist areas and the production is extremely labor- intensive. Even with these flaws, I found it very interesting how quickly sugar cane popularity grew. It wasn't just growing cane in the backyard. Now there were huge plantations sole for the production of sugar cane. Its amazing how quickly popularity of agriculture grew because of one simple plant. The plantaions ran their companies in a master and field slave type of manner. It seemed to be a common commodity-producing system they were using.

Russian Empire

I thought the reading about the Russian and Asian Empires was really interesting. When it started off, I was first surprised to learn that the Europeans and Russian Empire were both expanding in the Americas at the same time. The Russian Empire seemed to expand much quicker than expected. From 1500-1800, the Empire had managed to expand to the Pacific Ocean. They brought Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, Belorussians and Baltic peoples to the America's. I would have expected the Europeans to bring more people, but the Russian Empire's expansion was a big surprise to me.
    Religion in the Mughal and Ottoman Empire was another big topic in our reading. The central part of the Mughal Empire was most religious. With the ruling dynasty, about 20% of the population were Muslim, where the rest practiced Hinduism. Within the Ottoman Empire, its two main religions were Muslims and Christians. Turks and Arabs were also were also a big part of the Ottoman Empire. Overall, the Ottoman empire combining with European expansion started admiration and envy as well as fear for the future.