Section 5 Eurocentrism

Chapter 16 Atlantic Revolutions It is very interesting to look through the lens of Modern Revolution really occurring in the Atlantic regions and then having a global impact. I have never thought about it that way. I also found Strayers definition of "Revolution" to be interesting when he was looking at the American Revolution as a starting point. My generation certainly was not raised to think about the "American Revolution" in terms of just a colony asserting its rights, with no real change happening. I also found it interesting that it is the first big event in the Modern Era to create such huge ripple effects, down to the suffragette movement. Just as I found the information on the volume of slavery that occurred in the Caribbean Surprising, I was also surprised to learn that Haiti had essentially expelled any "whites" remaining once the revolution was complete. I wonder from a social context that even with the snowball effect of revolution happening in "colony" after colony, those in power really did not seem to get the message. If you think about Tsarist Russia and the lack of changes that were occurring it seems a bit self indulgent for the leaders to not realize that sweeping reforms would be needed or they would lose their positions. I had also never made the connection between the emergence of Nationalism and the various revolutions. Finally in this chapter I found the Zooming In story of Kartini to be fascinating, if not somewhat sad to read. I imagine that her father must have been somewhat progressive to let her continue to study even if it was at home on her own. Chapter 17 Industrial Revolution What I wondered at most in reading this chapter was the fact that the Industrial revolution was focused on Britain first and then spreading outward. Given the research indicating that the Islamic Empire and China both looked to be headed for "Industrial Revolutions" if you will. Again using the example of China and the sudden withdrawal of their fleet and drawing inward or reverting to a different way of thinking. One has to really wonder what happened to make those societies pause and say, no I do not wish to go down this path. Why did the European chose to plow forward and ultimately cause epic global change? At what point now does the world halt this progress and slow down to lessen the degree of impact we have on the world? Chapter 18 Colonial Encounters There is a drawing on page 791 of my version of the book and it depicts the 19th Century understanding of development. I call this out because while Racism continues to play largely in our lives today, I really never understood that for Europeans (and I am going to say mostly British/American) they ranked them as evolved to various levels and that they considered the Chinese to be the last step before becoming a White European. I was completely taken aback by this, even though I have thought I understood the levels of racism that exist, I really had no idea. How unbelievably arrogant these men were that colonized the Africas, Pacific Islands and Asia. To think that their idea of industry was far superior to the way these other peoples were living and thus needed to be mastered. I also found the sentiments of Cecil Rhodes reminiscent of the crusades initial launches. We have to many restless people with nothing to do, lets send them somewhere else to "bring christianity", settle areas that would benefit from our people settling in them. One wonders if this is also how homo-sapiens thought when they came across other homo species and essentially out competed them. Another very surprising fact in this chapter for me was the amount of movement between all of the countries between 1846 and 1940. Europe had the largest number of migrants to the Americas and we assume that this is what led to America looking so similar to Britain (even though it was colonized by peoples from all areas of Europe. I liked at the end of the chapter when Strayer asks the question Who Makes History? Marx is certainly correct when he says "Men make their own history." That history is still being made today and hopefully the future brings about a sea change of positiveness for humankind.

Section Four - The Modern World

Chapter 13 One of the first things that struck me in reading Chapter 13, was the fact that many of the peoples that were part of the Aztec Empire assisted Cortes in his destruction of the empire. It strikes me because no matter where you look in history you see these same behaviors, which never end well for those helping the incoming conquerors. I was also surprised to read that many of the Aztecs settled down willingly with the Spanish. I have never seen the history presented in this manner. It was additionally interesting to read about how differently the British Colonies evolved as opposed to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the Americas. The plague of European illnesses wiping out so much of the native american populations was huge. And the distinct differences between the ethnic mixing in the Southern American Continent vs. no mixing in the North American Continent between conquerors and indigenous peoples. I thought it interesting that Russia grew it's empire by simply annexing and incorporating other regions and peoples into their territories rather than going on conquest. I'd always understood that Church was a huge part of the Russian Empire pre - communism, but the reading leads me to a different conclusion. Not that Christendom did not pay a large role in the creation and maintenance of the empire, but that is was not a driver for the creation of the empire. I found reading about the Mughal Empire much more fascinating than reading about Chinese Expansionism and Empire building. It was very interesting to read how the Mughals went from one extreme (highly Cosmopolitan in their rule) to the other, strictly enforcing Sharia Law and trying to get the entire continent to convert. I had previously not understood how Briton was able to take over such a vast country. The Ottoman Empires big surprise for me was the incursion as far as Vienna of this I was not aware. Islamic state building then was very cosmopolitan and allowed peoples to retain much of who they were including their Christianity. I very much appreciated the way the chapter tied everything together, with all of the foods that were now spread around the world due to colonization of the Americas as well as the impacts globally to the various peoples that were affected by all of this. I was very interested to see the different way to look at European expansionism vs Chinese and Islamic (Ottoman) expansionism and how even today we are all impacted by those results. Chapter 14 Early in Chapter 14 we learn that Europe really had nothing of value for trade purposes with the East. It was the discovery and colonization of the Americas that truly allowed Europe to step on to the World Stage and become a dominant power. I was very surprised to read about the importance of Silver during this time. We don't think of it being the biggest commodity needed for the Asian trade market in todays terms, so this was a bit of a surprise to read about. And that much of it was filtered from the Americas through the Philippine Islands. I was also very interested to read the differences between Japan's use of silver and Spain's use of it. The Japanese were very smart in their use of Silver and their 18th and 19th century societies appear to have the hallmarks of where we are attempting to get today in the world, marrying later, having children later, protecting the environment. I was very surprised to learn the origins of the tie in between racism and slavery, and the different theories that historians have around how Slaver become so strongly associated with African Slavery. Chapter 15 What I got most out of Chapter 15 is the impact of cultural borrowing. Something that I believe we still do today.

Islam and Comparing China to Europe.

I actually found the cadence of reading these three chapters a little difficult and choppy. We jump from paying attention to the rise and spread of Islam, to a rapid overview of the changes occurring during the Medieval Period leading into the modern period. I won't address my thoughts on Chapter 9 here as I did so last week, because I apparently can not follow instructions. That said, I did re-read the chapter just to see if I had really missed anything. I did appreciate being able to re-read the chapter after we had discussed some of the information class. For me one of the most interesting things to read about was "Pastoral Peoples" I had never though of the Mongols or Huns in this manner. The way I read this the empire the Mongols built was the first time we truly had a global economy, in as much as it encompassed the entire known world at the time. It was also interesting to read that it was most likely the Silk Roads that brought plague around the Eurasian world. I had only ever thought of it in terms of coming via ships, not that it also travelled over land, for me it was an interesting correlation to the way HIV travelled around the world. I also very much appreciated the comparison to the colonization of the Americas to that of the Mongol conquests. The similarities are unnerving. In looking at the worlds of the 15th century I appreciated reading about how Paleolithic Hunter Gatherer societies persisted (and I believe to some small degree still do) in Australia, but also in the Americas. I like the way Strayer implies that it is possible those societies really saw no reason to change the way they lived. Being part Algonquin I was raised hearing about the five nations and that in some parts of our version of Democracy in America was based originally on the ideas and tenants of the Iroquois League. Strayer while jumping around did help me to see all of the civilizations and somewhat compare them. From Mind dynasty China working to erase the legacy of the Khans and return to their roots, to the creation of the Europe we in the West grew up studying. Also in looking at the Mexica and Aztec societies, truly getting a sense of why the Aztecs believed so strongly in sacrifice. Or the fact that women had parallel roles in both Mayan and Aztec societies. I really liked his question of What If? What if the Chinese had continued their seafaring explorations and expanded their Empire, how different would our world look today? Makes me think about that Netflix show "Man in the High Castle".