Chapter 16: pgs. 477-488

            In the second half of the chapter the author focuses on the scientific revolution. When reading this section I was shocked to learn that the Europeans were the first to have a breakthrough in science. This is because the Europeans had a legal system that granted its people some independence. Also they had different institutions that help aid the growth of the scientific revolution. In the west there were many universities that helped and fueled the growth of science. Many great thinkers came from these universities. The scientific revolution also challenged and questioned the ideals of the Catholic Church resulting in people being killed. Lastly the scientific revolution helped create the Enlightenment period in the eighteenth century.

Chapter 16: Pgs. 461-477

            In the reading the author talks the out spread of the different religions and how new religions were formed. In the west there was the spread of Christianity. Out of Christianity Protestantism formed. This is because some people like Martin Luther did not agree with what the Roman Catholic Church was practicing. As a result he began the reformation in order to challenge the authority of the church and especially the pope’s power. Because of the growth of Protestantism a war broke out between Catholics and the protestant. This was called the Huguenots. As a result the German population decreased. Soon after, the Council of Trent was formed to fix the corruption and the abuse in the Catholic Church that started the protestant movement.

            Europeans had the greatest success in spreading Christianity especially through the Americas and the Philippines. In order for them to spread their ideals they would use force and in some cases they would destroy the natives’ religious items in order to make them convert. Yet what I found interesting was when Christianity came to China. There were Christian missionaries that would come to China in order to teach the Chinese about Christianity. These missionaries were called Jesuits. They would first have to get permission from the Chinese authorities before entering China. Instead of forcing their religion on to the Chinese, they would first lean the Chinese culture, langue, the Confucian text, and they would dress like the scholars. The Jesuits would respect the Chinese culture by showing them the similarities between Christianity and Confucianism instead of trying to convert them. Even though they were not successful I feel like this was a better way to reach others about the religion rather than forcing it on them. As a result they were able to teach each other about t the religion and culture and exchange ideas. I feel like more people would have converted on their own if all of the missionaries would have used this technique instead of forcing it on the others.    

Week 3 Readings

Chapter 15: Global Commerce

In chapter fifteen the author talks about commerce between different empires and what they traded and how they expanded their empires. The Portuguese, Spain, the East India companies all had their own strategies for taking over the trade routes and creating a monopoly over some of items that they traded. For example the Portuguese created the “trading post empire” in the Indian Ocean. Yet silver became very important in trading. The use of silver became important in the network of exchange in Eurasia. I never realized how valuable silver became before the use of gold. During this time period everyone wanted silver. Because of silver, the Pacific commerce was created. Also the Spanish America became very wealthy because of the silver since they produced eighty-five percent of the silver. But unfortunately it hurt the Spanish economy by causing inflation.

            Later in the chapter the author discusses the commerce of people. In other words the trade of slaves. I found it interesting that not all of the slaves had back breaking jobs. There were some that were involved in the military and politics. This was shocking because I have only learned about slaves being forced to work on plantations or be given life threating jobs. I also found interesting was the graphs. I understand and can see why as the years go on in the first the number of slave that came to the Americas increased and then after the year 1775 the number of slaves began to decrease. This is because at firs the demand for slaves slowly increased and then in 1787 slavery in the northern states was abolished in the Americas causing a decrease in the amount of slaves that were imported in the Americas. I found the other graph about the destination of slaves in the eighteenth century shocking because British North America and U.S. had the lowest percentage of slaves compared to other nations. I thought they would be a country with the most amount of slaves because mainly we hear about the slave trade that happened in north America. Because of the slave trade it had a great impact on Africa. As a result their population decreased and they did not benefit from it economically.  

Week 2 Readings

Chapter 14: Empires and Encounters

In the beginning of the chapter the author, Strayer, discusses how the Europeans were able to dominate in America and their advantages of doing that. I may not agree with how they were able to concur and take control of the Americas but I can see that it was successful. It was not right for the Europeans to pretty much come to the new land and take over by killing off most of the native people and or enslaving them. Once the Europeans came to North America they brought with them new diseases that the native people were not immune as a result the native population was killed off. This was called “The Great Dying”. I feel like this was very unfair because the natives did not have a chance to defend themselves in order stay living on their own land. Also if they were able to survive the Europeans still had weapons and more advance technology then the natives had, so as a result the Europeans still dominated over the Native Americans. Yet even though the Europeans did take over the new land unfairly they this still gave them some advantages in which help them grow. I believe that it was a good thing for the Europeans to come to the new word. This then helped them grow. Coming to the new world allowed the Europeans to find wealth, enlarge their empire, they then were able to spread their religious belief. I think since the Europeans came to America it was a great achievement for them.

            Further in the chapter Strayer talks about other empires and how they grew and expanded. For example he talks about the Russian Empire, the Asian Empire, the Mughal Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. He discusses how in order for each Empire to grow they have to concur more land outside of their own empire. Theses empires began taking over land throughout Asia like the Europeans took over the land in America. I feel that in order for any person, it doesn’t have to be an empire, to be successful they need to grow somehow and this is what theses empires did in order to gain power and be the strongest. Yet what I don’t agree with is how these empires forced those who they concurred into living a curtain way and making them convert. But I do understand that that is how many societies took over land especially the Russians.

Sugar and the Origins of the Modern World

            It is amazing to think about how we generally get our food and goods and we forget about the concept that we have to trade in order to get these items. I am like most people that take advantage of the goods and luxuries that are so easily accessible to me and to think that, that was not the case when trade began. We forget about how valuable a simple item like sugar could be and that not everyone had it. Because sugar became such a luxury item people started to create large plantation for the production of sugar. This was new since before people would only items on a small scale. I also found it interesting that because the sugar was being produced so much it went from a luxury good to a good that the common person could enjoy. As a result having sugar soon then did not represent the amount of wealth a person had. It is amazing how just a production of one product can bring together a group of different types of people that work in different fields of sugar industry in which creates a social and economic system. I did not realize how many different field of work there in order the sugar to be distributed. For example there are the consumers who want the product, there are the laborers who produce the product, there are the organizers of production who make sure that everything moves smoothly, there are then the manufacturers and lastly the merchants who then trade and sell the product. I did not realize that in the seventeen hundreds there were some people who saw that sugar was unhealthy for humans and made the connection by seeing that when the increase of sugar intake cause people to not be as healthy. I also felt that the British government was smart in taxing the sugar production since it created a lot of revenue even though it did create wars when the tax was raised. 

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