Week Twelve

The understandings of Communism are continuing to exapand because the idea of Communism is growing and in modern times, it does not seem that bad.. It is scary to think that not that many years ago in the early 1960's American's feared "Red Scares" like how we fear the middle east and terrorism. Reading the chapter on Communism was enlightening because I personally did not know the history or the metholdogy behind Communism. Scary to think that Russia, China, Cuba, and Vietnam are communist parties because they do not agree with how we, as American's run our goverment as a captialist. The idea of Communism appealed to 3rd world countries because they had nothing to loose and the idea that everyone would be equall did not sound like a bad idea, especially when that means that elite of the country would have to share their wealth with everyone else. It was a popular and feasible idea that was spreading. The Cold War could have been lost because so many were intrested in a better life that communist party could benefit them. Now the US isnt't concerned about communism countries and going to war because the ideas are not that appealing.

Week Eleven

The Catholic Social Thinking of Labor and property argued that sharing is for the better good for all because God gave peopole property for all to use not just for self. The social aspect of property justifies the reasons of why communist beleived that it was acceptable to have people sharing and that all are equal. The "private" aspect of property was to create initiative to make people want to work for what they have and through distrubution of sharing, full participation is needed in order to make this work.

The terms used in the reading were interesting and I have not heard them used in this context before, like expropriation, meaning to take away excess amount of ownership to be given to the "poor" and those who do not have it. I could not imagine living in a society that would take my belongings that I work hard for away from me because someone does not have it. That would honestly make me not want to work or earn money because someone is going to give it to me because I do not have it, why work?

Week Ten

3/19 Reading
I did not know that China had a Opium War and that it almost had ruined their country because of the powerful effects of how it affect their political leaders. Like any other war, there is always a bigger problem underlying the reason why they are at war with someone else, but from what I understood from the reading, China was fighting for trading rights. There was a tarrif on imported opum, out of fear the Chinnese burned the drug fearful that the people of China would become addicted. The war resulted in China being willing to open their trade markets to foreigners. I remeber learning in high school about Tajikistan, a country in the middle east and how the opium plant was their only source of crop that was profitable. They had many drug addicts and unfourtnely, the country is one of poorest countries in the middle east.

3/21 Reading
We had previously had learned about the women right movenment during the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment period, and obviously women all around the world were fed up with being mistreated by men everywhere in the world. Qui Jin was fed up with the injustice against chinese women, she explains how a girl is lucky to have have a tolerable life depending on how her father treats her, if he tolerable of having a daughter her life will be much better than a girl whose fatehr is "ill-tempered and unreasonable" cursing her birth waiting impatiently to marry her off to become someone elses property. Refering to another human being as "property" is never okay as we have learned from reading and learning about slavery from the early motives and thinking of why they thought it was okay to enslave another human being. Sadly, these girls are born intoa culture that does not acknowledge them as humans and are forced to partake in a culture that does not honor them. Favoritism towards men and any form of punishment is "retribution for some sin commitied in her previous existance". Jin wanted all women of China to know that the country was near destructuion and relying on men was not a smart move because they do not know what to do themselves.

Week Nine

Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Portugal,Spain, and Italy were the leaders in taking over a piece of Africa and were the predominant in the scramble for for Africa. It disturbs me that these countries did everything in their power to take over the land and the people with no regard for them as human beings, let alone natives of the land who were indeed there first. Conflict had emerged amongst the difference countries because they were all fighting for the same thing and wanted to be the country that had conquered the most of Africa.

Visual 18.1
The image is of a game board that depicts the travels of David Livingstone and Henry Stanley. Livingstone was a british missionary and explorer of central Africa who exposed the Arabs horrific slave trade. He became unbelievably famous. Stanley was a British journalist and explorer who gained fame from finding Livingstone who was lost in Africa. I find the game board disturbing because the way the game is starts you begin off the boat and on land, you encounter a village and the Arabs, the game ends with you receiving more people to the land. It emphasis that to win, one must conquer and bring more people to Africa because it is now your land. The game board illustrates the British soldiers shooting and running away a village of African people from their homes, which is close to the end, signifying that you are in control and "winning" the game.

Visual 18.2
Jean-Baptise Marchand is portrayed in the illustration as the ultimate leader, one who was fearless and that he is being commended for his epic journey across Africa. The illustration has africans in the picture, but they are nothing like the africans that we seen in the first illustration. They are wearing western attire and holding guns, it seems as if they are allies with the French, helping them with journey.

Visual 18.3
This illustration depicts exactly how cocky and condescending the British were about especially regarding their conquers of Africa. Cecil Rhodes was a british businessman and politician who made is money from South African diamonds and encouraging the British Imperialism movement. I do not like the picture nor find it entertaining because it shows how he justified taking over a whole continent of people as if they were lost cattle that came with the land, as if the people were in his way.

Visual 18.4
The British and French were rivals but in this image it shows them toasting to their accomplishments because they both had conquered parts of Africa. It is like they are toasting to envying one another because they are both making great strides.

Visual 18.5
Image depicts that Ethiopia remained calm during battle because they were confident in their soldiers, they were fighting for their country and for the rights of their people, they knew that if the Italian won nothing would be the same.

Week Seven

During the Industrial Revolution, many people struggled with transition from farm life to city life. In this reading were given insight from different perspectives on how life was for those who partook in the Industrial Revolution.
"Testimony" by Elizabeth Bentley, a young factory worker, was more than sad it was depressing because I am about her age and I could not imagine working in those conditions or even tolerate being treated in the manner. She mentions the hours being long from 5am till 9pm if they were busy, I can appreciate work labors laws because I could not even be able to work those long hours. Those working in the factories had no time to eat yet alone rest, they got off work when work was completed for the day. She mentions how the young girls were strapped so hard they had marks, but yet the parents did not say anything because they feared their daughter would loose their job. That is sad and shows how desperate families were for income, they scarified their daughters for survival.

Visual 17.3 depicts a group of women who have gotten off work and it is so unrealistic. The women are clean, well clothed, and happy. From all that we have read this chapter, we already know this illustration was a gimmick to make others believe that working in a factory was a happy place to be and easy money, which it was not.

Week Six

The Industrial Revolution took place in Europe specifically in Britain. The Industrial Revolution was considered the "age of man: and drew from the Scientific Revolution and accompanied the French Revolution in their efforts to transform Europe as well. Life for people during the Industrial Revolution changed drastically, in ways that life had not been changed since the Agriculture Revolution. One of the reasons why it affected the way of life was because the growth of population and the need for energy, local and regional ecological limits had to be pushed and more quantities. I believe that because they were advancing so quickly, they did not think thoroughly of where they putting the excessive waste from the industrial machinery. The reading states that Romantic poets, William Blake and William Wordsworth wrote poems that were against the “dark satanic mills” of industrial England and wanted to return to the “green and pleasant” way of life. I found it very interesting that in the earlier years of industrialization we were aware that we are polluting the earth and even then, people were against the pollution and excessive waste of machinery waste.

I felt like the reading that tried to argue why Europe and Britain were the first to industrialize was extremely vague because I felt like other parts of the world were doing the same, yet they were not as recognized. Islam had generated major advances that was way before the Industrial Revolution but the credit to them seems overlooked, same goes with India who in a way “over industrialized” themselves.  China was and still is the current leader in technological innovation. History is repeating itself. The explanation of “Why Britain?” mentioned that the British had established libraries that had information and publications of recent scientific advances, keeping track to know what else they could invent. Scientist and entrepreneurs worked together.  The British aristocrats encouraged the world of business and welcomed the works of those all different faiths. They just wanted innovative inventions to contribute to their industrial revolution.  

We had discussed in our last class discussion about the Feminist movement and during the industrial revolution, women expected to be their husbands “emotional haven” because they were out in a heartless cutthroat capitalist world. Women were the moral centers of family, educators of “respectability”, and to manage the consumption of the household, which explains why women are expected to like to shop. Back then, women were given the task to shop for the household and at this time, it was a new concept provided by industrial revolution. Status was determined by those who were able employ servants to help the lady of the house take care of the family, one could be middle class with one servant. The new wealth of the industrialization revolution aspired families to become middle class. The amount of women working in the labor force declined but was only temporally because women were back in the labor force working as teachers, clericals, and nurses. Many middle class women in the 19^th century were educated and were very much a part of the labor force. 

Week Five

The Echoes of Atlantic Revolution were influenced by the Enlightentment because the Enlightenment because it was a time that people were thinking for self, it was the age of man and how people thought for themself instead of letting the church dictate what they beleive. It was about seeking truth and seeking evidence through science not because the bible said so. The feminist movement, nationalism, and the abolotion of slavery were echoes of  Atlantic Revolution that were each trying to seek justice for a specific cause.

The Feminist movement was women challenging male dominance, they wanted to the same rights and treatment that men were given. Women were tired of being treated like second class citizens or not even human by men. 

Abolotionist were fighting to abolish slavery for the obvious reasons because it was bad and so many countries were depending on the labor of slaves to sustain their economies. That was not going to continue to work well, especially when countries like Haiti had revolted against their oppressors and became the first slaves to claim their indepence.

Week Four

From the readings this week, I was most intrested by the "Voices of the Slave Trade". The passages themselves were each different and offered different perspective on the slave trade. I thought it was very effective to write letters to the different people who wrote the passages. I chose the second passge because I was a feeling that most would have assumed that one in his position would have being involved in the slave trade. I did not expect him to feel bad or even feel for the slaves he was purchasing, but the language Thomas Phillips used to describe his journey of buying slaves really angered me because he spoke of trading humans as one today would talk about trading stocks. I wrote : A man like yourslef is clearly a money motivated and well educated on how business trades are conducted. Your efforts and profits would be commendable, if you were not selling humans for the benefit of your personal and financial gain. in your passgae you describe your experience as if it was a pleasent journey through the market looking for slaves and barding prices for the finest African you could fine in exchange for goods. Did the horror on the slaves faces not make you feel bad or think that you were doing something wrong? I hope that on your journey back to England you were able to talk to he slaves and get their perspective.

Week Three

Early Modern commerce in people 
"Between 1500 and 1866, this trade in human beings took an estimated 12.5 million people from African societies, shipped them across the Atlantic in the infamous Middle Passage, and deposited some 10.7 million of them in the Americas, where they lived out their often brief lives as slaves" was a passage from the reading that not only made me sad, but hurt me to read. Knowning that my ancestors had to endure such hardships because of their skin color and their different ways of being civilzed, they were taken from their land to become slaves. The defintion of a slave is someone who has no contract or is unwillingly being controlled by another person agianst their will. The Atlantic Slave trade was the most recent large-scale of human trafficking of owning and exchanging human beings. No matter how much I learn about slavery, I am still shocked by the justifications or stories about slavery. Slavery was practiced before the Atlantic Slave trade, in some African countries they sold their own people to different coutries, and slavery was being practiced in other parts of the country as well. The Atlantic Slave Trade bought so many slaves to the new world because of the need and want for sugar. They knew that the labor work was  difficult, dangerous, and nobdoy would want to do it so they relied on slavery to be their source of labor for sugar plantations. This is similar to how American companies product their products in other countries for cheap labor to save money and not paying the proper legal wages.

Week Two

Reading the handout "Sweet Mexus: Sugar and the Orgins of the Modern World" was an eye opening experience to know that something as simple as sugar was once upon a time in history a major factor in the mistreatment and was the justification for having slaves. Slavery and sugar were two of the main investments that people around the world wanted to part take. The reading states that at one point sugar was unknown to Europe and later with exploration of other countries, they were hooked and wanted more. Money was to be made, so mass production of sugar cane continued the high supply and demand for sugar. It was once a luxary and become a necessity, which explains the rapid demand for sugar and how sugar plantations evolved. It was an intresting reading and it explained how the time period of slavery had evolved.

YAY - I'm done