Response to Tony Orpeza's #9

Tony Orpeza's Question & Answer

9.  The image I chose to write about is the one depicting Britain's enormous amount of greed on page 790. I think Strayer chose this particular cartoon because of the volumes of truth it actually speaks. At a time where the world could have been created in a peaceful, equal manner, a country like Britain did everything they absolutely could to extend their power and reach among other civilizations. An example is Britain being defeated in the American Revolution only to go back and try to start an opium war with China. The hand above Egypt, shows me that Britain indeed was plotting a scheme to get a piece of Egypt along with the other countries it has its hands on. I personally do not like this image, but I felt like I could relate to it. Today in America it seems that we owe so many countries so much money. This picture for some reason reminded me of today. The difference is that global bankers and elite families with mass amounts of money are now the "Britain Octopus" with their hands in EVERYTHING. From banking to oil to food supply, the same elite families are tied to vital industries. I suggest doing research on families like the Rothchilds and the Rockefellers to see their impact and their monopolization of the world, not just the United States.

My Response

Tony, the image and topic you choose describes the reach of colonial power perfectly! The meddling hands of England in 10 different countries and about to take the eleventh one shows the vast wealth and control that England hand in its former colonies. England waited for the longest to relinquish its hold of power in these nations. All the resources and labor forces grew England into being a world power. Even though today, Englands wealth comes from its own financial earnings, even in the last 20 years, Hong Kong, the last of England's colonial strongholds had to relinquish ownership to China. From one megalodon to another.

Worksheet for Module 7

 1) What was The Great Dying? Cite examples and details from the historical record in your response. Could this be considered a genocide? Why/ why not? 

P.557 Introduces the Great Dying which was illnesses and disease brought to the new world by foreigners tot he native people. In densely populated Central Mexico with the Nahuatl people amassing 10 to 20 million before Spanish conquest had decimated the civilization down to 1 million (p.559).

Yes, this was genocide! Even though it was not a product that was brought by the Spanish to control, they were aware of the natural interactions that they were bringing with them and used that to the best of their ability. The textbook called it "The Columbian Exchange", biological warfare we could say to the native people fo the Americas. Spaniards were in few numbers, rarely did they have reinforcements, but they sure knew what death blowing illnesses they would bring with themselves and European wildlife and stock.

2) What did native Siberians and native Americans have in common in terms of their experiences with Europeans during the early Modern period?

P.568 Caribbean Colonies - were the new competition to the Arabs in Large-scale sugar production. Fertile farmlands, isolation, controlled workforce, and a large supply of laborers (p. 569 African slaves) converted fertile soil into massive farming production and refineries to outsource Arab producers int he Meditteranean.

P. 573 Siberians - nomadic pastoral people were the first to be conquered by Russians. Having been recently ruled by the Mongol Empire, Russians continued suit with the behavior, taxation, and converting pastoral land fo grassing (the Siberian way of life) into agricultural farmlands to feed the masses of the newly developing Russian empire. 

3) Discuss the history and impact of the Indian Ocean trade network (the Sea Roads) from the Classical to Modern periods.

Historically, Sea Roads stemmed from Asia to Africa. The Classical Ea encompassed monsoon winds that drove the fleets to and from Asia to Africa.

In the Modern Era, Sea Roads were navigated with large armed vessels with superior technology and naval advancements from European design and the coalition of Trading Companies governing and taxing all thoroughfare and goods.

4) Look at the pie chart titled “The Destinations of Slaves” on page 627 of our textbook. What might people find surprising about the percentages of slaves who disembarked in different parts of the Americas? 

The largest two populations were slaves to Brazil, followed by slaves to the Caribbean.

What factors explain why the percentages were this way?

P. 568 - 569  Resources and fertile soil control the destination fo these large slave populations. The ease of producing, the right soil, the right climate maximized the efforts of large-scale production in agriculture and natural resources

5) What does Strayer mean by the “echoes of Atlantic Revolutions”? Cite examples and details from the historical record in your response. Are the Atlantic Revolutions still echoing in the 21^stCentury?

One of the earliest regions to start a revolution was in Saint Dominique (later named Haiti) in 1791-1804 on P. 709. Regarded as the richest colony in the world, boasting a slave workforce of 500,000. The colony had a class system that kept the wealthy, wealthy, and everyone else poor. The ruling class was viciously dethroned by the black army (slaves) and their own white (poorer class) in a financial strick to France. This act echoed throughout the old worlds of Europe, Mediterranean, Asia, and all outlying colonies in the Americas. This act of revolution might be considered the spark that fueled a change in thought from ruled lands to take arms and think for themselves with new ideas and leadership.

 

6) What did feminists and abolitionists have in common? How and why did they sometimes work together?

Fare and Just treatment. Both factions sought liberty and equality (P.715), to show how a group can overcome and excel when given the opportunity was one of their concepts. To no longer be oppressed, no longer be ignored, and to be given the right to choose for themselves. Allowing self-minded individuals to think, education, and create would allow an enhancement into society with a different point of view (P.723).

8) What was the Industrial Revolution? Where and when did it begin? Discuss its long-term significance to people, cities, and the planet.

P.738  Industrial Revolution was an advanced period that humans began to find new methods to use renewable energy since the limits of unrenewable fuels like coal were now at the limit due to population exploding from 375 million in 1400 up to 1 billion in the early nineteenth century.

Long-term significance was to improve on the modern comforts of the home and bring that to a larger scale to companies, businesses, manufacturing whilst trying to expand and improve city dwellings with cleaner and more productive technology. These improvements for the people and living in cities will all the planet to recuperate from the usage of nonrenewable fuel sources and help clean up the environment.

9) Chapter 18 contains some powerful images. Why do you suppose Strayer chose to include these specific images? How do they illustrate concepts introduced in this chapter? Choose one image and a) describe it, b) explain how it illustrates a concept from the chapter, and c) give your general thoughts about the image, as you might do in the context of a small in-class discussion group. The images you can choose from are (your version of the textbook may use different titles and page numbers):

            An American View of British Imperialism (p.790)

            European Racial Images (p.791)

            Map 18.2 Conquest and Resistance in Colonial Africa (p.796)

            Colonial Violence in the Congo (p.803)

            The Educated Elite (p.815)

Colonial Violence in the Congo (p.803)

The image on p. 803 was two young boys that were mutilated as a punishment since the villagers were unable to supply the wild rubber quota. This was a common practice under the Power of the State. Immediate and swift harsh punishments fell to those who did not perform to the standards of the governing body.

Greed, corruption, and distance were the factors that allowed the Power of the State to be unchecked. Fortunately, these horrible images and stories were publicized forcing European countries to take action.

REMEMBER, QUESTION 10 SHOULD BE IN A SEPARATE BLOG POST (BECAUSE YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO COMPLETE IT UNTIL YOU’VE READ SOMEONE ELSE’S ANSWER TO QUESTION 9)

10) Find a classmate’s posting for Question 9. How would you respond to your classmate’s comments if you were participating in an in-class small group discussion about the image?

Chapter 15 

Why did Christianity take hold in some places more than in others?

Christianity was not only spread by priests or prophets, but it was also spread by practicing African slaves, merchants, and roaming philosophers. Christianity had spread to much of Africa during the crusade and resurged when the European nations began to colonize. The added bonus of having African slaves with the same belief was a benefit. Easier incorporation and another layer of control (from the church) was added to secure civilizations, societies, and the birth of new versions of the old world.

Chapter 14

To what extent did Europeans transform earlier patterns of commerce, and in what ways did they assimilate into those older patterns?

The main reason for Europeans seeking out new trade routes was to secure direct connection with suppliers, eliminate the middle man (Asians and Muslims) saving money, maintaining control, and having direct pricing with all suppliers. By learning advanced navigation (trade winds) and global geography (mapping) added with systematic intent in creating new trade routes, the security of supply and demand (especially tropical spices) would solely be in their hands.

Weaponization, Military forces, metalwork, and gunsmithing, were the old ways of controlling and conquering. The introduction of a modern fleet that could house all of these strong "force of arms" factors set aside Europeans in controlling "trading post empires" (trade routes) instead fo having to claim land, but still was not enough to secure enough to have a monopoly. Taxation and dependency on Asian goods and Asian ports is where the Europeans reverted back to and just harnessed trading routes to become more efficient and faster by adding shipping lanes.

Chapter 13

The experience of empire for conquered peoples was broadly similar whoever the rulers were. Does the material in this chapter support or challenge this idea?

I believe that conquering empires shared similar methods of assimilating new lands and people. This chapter regardless of geography had the same intention. Conquerers did not intentionally bring biological warfare with the intent of wiping out the natives, that was a natural phenomenon. What they all shared was the merging and establishing a hierarchy in the new members of the civilization and executing a taxation and commerce control in the area. 

The mergeance of cultures is where there are variances but with the same intent, trade control, taxation civil obedience. Some empires were mimicking the old world and others took ad new approach in merging cultures into new civilizations but with either method, the overall intent stayed the same, conquer, exploit and control shared among all members of these new developing societies.

Pastoral Peoples

The Mongols got a bad rap because of the following several points...

5 negative pointed of the Mongols:

1. Theivery - Stealing from lesser communities, taking wealth, profits, historical artifacts
2. Raiders - Raiding, raping, pillaging and demoralizing their enemy
3. Murder - Killing those that did not conform to the will of the Mongols
4. Savagery - Not only killing villages and cities but killing an entire civilization if they are too unruly and hard to control
5. Lack of Integration - The Mongols did not enhance any of the civilizations that they conquered, they did not improve a nation, just controlled them, and used their resources.



5 positive points of the Mongols:

1. Ranching - They taught all nations how to raise livestock, how to grow civilizations beyond the agricultural mindset.
2. Progressive mindset - Incorporating new ideas from other civilizations, implement what works best in that particular area.
3. Tolerance - Mongols did not try and convert and irradicate any religion, philosophy, and teachings.
4. Women's rights - Mongol women had the right to divorce, own property, and be rulers and political figures.
5. Ecological - The aggressive spread of the Mongol's as they decimated civilizations slowed down the stripping of the land for metals, ores, agriculture which promoted nature to reclaim forest which in turn improved air quality and the environment.

Christendom - Birth of a new era

The rise of Christianity stems back to the 4th century during the fall of the Roman empire. New beliefs and views drove this change. This "Christianity" began to spread across the old world, spanning into regions of Anatolia, Egypt, North Africa, Ethiopia, Persia, India, and China. This expansion brought a new European concept of religion to the masses. It reshaped the Mediterranean, divided countries, and created new world powers spanning the globe.

The rise and fall of rulers continued during the rise of a new world order - Christianity (faith) expanded to the masses of Europe. The Roman empire had already begun to collapse and fade into history like sands of time. Christianity, like a Phoenix from ashes, grew in support and believers that spanned the four corners of the world. This new growth under the same faith brought unification of European nations, consolidated and fortified alliances, and whipped out opposing rivals. Like their counterparts to the East - Islamic nations, Christianity began to rewrite the centuries known lines of division, countryside, and countries, into a massive kingdom under one rule.

Under Charlemagne King of the Franks, an even stronger indication would arise, the Holy Roman Empire. The merger of a Monarch and Papistry under one person solidified great wealth, land, and influence in the world. Having now the world divided into larger pieces (Islam, India, China & Europe), trade lines became the new goals and reconquesting former lands were the reason to rewrite the face of the world as we knew it.