Blog #8

Haiti was the richest colony in the world. A slave labor force was the vast majority of the colony's population. About 40,000 divided plantation owners, merchants, and lawyers were poor whites. A third social group consisted of mixed-race background. The French Revolution lit several fuses and set in motion a spiral of violence. Some of the principles of the revolution meant different things to different people such as the rich white landowners suggested greater autonomy for the colony and few economic restrictions on trade, but resented the demands of the poor white people who just wanted equality of citizenship for all whites. Both rich and white groups opposed to the insistence of free people of color that the "rights of man" meant equal treatment for all free people regardless of race. According to the slaves, the French Revolution was a personal freedom that challenged the entire slave labor system. In 1791, rumors were spread that the French king had declared and end to slavery. This caused the slaves to burn plantations and kill hundreds of whites and mixed-races as well.
Haiti's independence defined all Haitian citizens as black and legally equal regardless of color or class. Economically, the country's plantation system oriented towards the export of sugar and coffee,had been destroyed. Both private and state lands were redistributed among former slaves and free blacks and Haiti became a nation of small scale farmers.

Blog #19

Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam functioned as a transregional culture that spread beyond their places origin. Buddhist ideas and practices spread to the West, while Christianity of various kinds spread widely in non-Muslim African, South Korea, and parts of India. Christianity found some sixty two of its adherents in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Some missionaries from these regions set about the re-evangelization of Europe and North America. Millions of migrants from the Islamic world spread their religion in the West as well. Religious exchange was not only a simple transmission of Western ideas, but a religious pluralism that characterized many of the world's societies.
Fundamentalism; a militant piety-defensive assertive, and exclusive, that took shape to some extent in every major religious tradition. Scientific and secular focus of global modernity challenged the core beliefs of religion by focusing on the unseen realm reality. Although science and global modernity were not the only problem, social upheavals connected with capitalism, industrialization, and globalization upset customary class, family, and gender relationships that were sanctified by religious tradition. Military defeat, colonial rule, economic dependency, and cultural intrusion came at the hand of the Westerners. Fundamentalism represented a religious response. They searched for an alternative modernity that was infused with religious values.Extensive educational and propaganda efforts, political mobilization , social welfare programs, and sometimes violence, were among the means of fundamentalists.
For some people living in Asia, Africa, or Latin America has been a working environment in foreign-owned production facilities. Companies that are in wealthier countries have an advantage to build facilities in places where labor is less expensive or environmental regulations are less restrictive. In terms of child labor, low pay, few benefits, and dangerous working conditions have been called  sweatshops. In Fig.23.1 it illustrates a Chinese owned company producing Western-style blue jeans in Lesotho.

Blog #18

The end of colonial empires focuses attention on fundamental contradictions in the entire colonial enterprise. Christianity and Enlightenment thought sat clumsily with the colonial racism, exploitation, and poverty. The democratic values of European states ran counter to the dictatorship of colonial rule and the ideal of national self-determination was at odds with the possession of colonies that were rejected any opportunity to show their national character. The force of nationalism now played a major role in its disintegration. 

Europe had weakened from the world wars while discrediting the sense of European moral superiority. The U.S and the Soviet Union opposed the older European colonial empires even as they created empire like international relationships. In the meantime, the United Nations provided a platform form to conduct anticolonial agitation. All of the contribution to the global illegitimacy of empire, transformed social values that encouraged Africans and Asians to seek political independence. 

Social and economic assets within the colonies generated the human raw material for anticolonial movements. Largely male, had arisen throughout the colonial world because they were familiar with European culture. They were deeply aware of the gap between its values and its practices, they no longer viewed colonial rule as people's progress and they increasingly insisted on immediate independence.   

Blog #17

In section 5 of CST, two of the main points that were viewed were the requirements of the common good and the advantages of individual ownership of property. It also focuses on the material things necessary for a good life should be available for use by the whole human community. Although, the Catholic tradition testifies the benefits of individual ownership, not only encouraging the most efficient and orderly of arrangements for material goods but offers people to be productive and to care for the goods God has created. The teachings also taught that the Creator intends the common gift to be used for nourishment and sustenance not just for the benefit of a few privileged people of society. As regarding property now, those who held a great amount of property hurt the poor  by allowing their plantations to lie fallow for long periods of time while nearby peasants were close to starvation.
In section 6 of this packet, it focuses on the conditions of labor. Government has now become the routinely enforces prevailing labor protections such as minimum wage laws, safety and health regulations, pension plans, social insurance, and the rights of workers to organize into labor unions. The most controversial though, is the Church's abiding and enthusiastic support for labor unions. Workers' rights to organize and enter collective bargaining are considered an important outgrowth of other human rights. Although, labor unions have come under substantial criticism. Some of the criticism they went through were them being associated with corruption and being a threat of disruptive and potentially violent strikes. The Catholic's teachings forthrightly contends that a world without labor, unions would witness a much less favorable environment for achieving justice and sharing the earth's resources. Although, its practical benefits were that human labor carries theological  significance as it contains the human response to the God who invites all people to become cocreators of the material world.

Blog #15

The most obvious division was among competing states, a long standing feature of European political life. Historical rivalries further sharpened as both Italy and Germany joined their fragmented territories into two major new powers around 1870. Arrival on the international scene of a powerful and rapidly industrializing Germany, Germany was a disruptive new element in European political life, especially for the more established powers such as Britain, France, and Russia. In the early twentieth century, that balance of power was expressed in two rival alliances, the Triple Alliance of Germany, Italy, and Austro Hungarian Empire and the Triple Entente of Russia, France, Britain.  These two commitments undertook in the interests of national security transformed a relatively minor incident in the Balkans into a conflagration that consumed almost all of Europe.

In June 28,1914, when a Siberian nationalist assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Surging nationalism of Serbian Slavs was a mortal threat to the cohesion of their fragile multinational empire, which included other Slavic people. A system of alliances intended to keep the peace created obligated that drew the Great Powers of Europe into a general war by early August 1914. Slavic nationalism and Austro-Hungarian opposition to it certainly lied at the heart of the war’s beginning. Rulers of the major countries of Europe saw the world as an arena of conflict and competition among rival nation states.

The Great Powers competed intensely for colonies, spheres of influence, and superiority in armaments. School, mass media, and identities were profoundly and personally meaningful. Public pressure of these competing nationalism allowed statesmen little room for compromise and ensures widespread popular support for the decision to go to war. British women were encouraged to present a white feather, a symbol of cowardice, to men not in uniform, thus affirming a warrior understanding of masculinity. While the conservative governments, prospected the of war as a welcome occasion for national unity in the face of the mounting class and gender based conflicts in European societies.

Another contribution was an industrialized militarism. Europe’s armed rivalries had long ensured that military men enjoyed great social prestige and most heads of state wore uniforms in public. All Great Powers had substantial standing armies, except for Britain, relied on conscription to staff them. An example of a quickening rivalry among these states was a mounting arms race in naval warships, mostly between Germany and Britain.Each major state developed “war plans” that spelled out in great detail the movement of men and materials that should be occur immediately upon the outbreak of war. Rapid industrialization of warfare had generated an array of novel weapons, such as submarines, tanks, airplanes, poison gas, machine guns, and barbed wire. This new military technology contributed to the staggering casualties of the war. Majority were male.  The Ottoman Empire entered the conflict on the side of Germany which then became the site of military actions and witnessed an Arab revolt against Ottoman control. After initially seeking to avoid involvement in European quarrels, United States joined the war in 1917 when German submarines threatened the American shipping.

The war relentlessly went on for more than four years before ending in German defeat in November 1918. Trench warfare resulted when the military experts expected a war of movement and attack but then went down on the western front into a war attrition. This warfare resulted in an enormous amount of casualties while gaining or losing only a few yards of muddy, bloody soaked ground. Everywhere it became a “total war” requiring the mobilization of each country’s entire population. The German state assumed such control over the economy that its policies became known as “war socialism”. Therefore, propaganda campaigns sought to arouse citizens by depicting a cruel and inhuman enemy that killed children and violated women. Labor unions agreed to suspend strikes and make sacrifices while the women abandoned the factories since they were replacing the men for the vote. 

Call to Action

            During Call to Action day, I and along with some other students, went to the creek to pick up trash alongside the creek and within the park. This experience made me realize how careless people can be by just throwing their trash or leaving their trash wherever they feel like it. At one point my group and I found a shopping cart in the creek. Honestly, that was pretty ignorant of someone to dump a shopping cart in the creek. That was a very unintelligent decision because now the cart cannot be lifted because rocks and trees have made it one of its own and now it is engraved into the dirt and water and it is very hard to pick out. After a period of time, the rust of the cart will bleed into the water, probably destroying the small creatures that live in that environment. The cart was not the only thing that was there that was disgusting. There was a lot of plastic bags and broken pieces of glass scattered throughout the creek. Pulling the plastic bags from the branches of the tree were gross because it was wrapped around multiple branches and it was filled with dirt and water.

            When my group and I were picking up the trash alongside the creek we noticed somewhat of a cave. Most of us went in there, but then soon got scared because we heard noises coming from the darkness. In general, the location was very beautiful. It was peaceful and quiet and it had a nice scenery from wherever viewpoint one was looking at.

Towards the end of the experiment, while walking back to the meet up point to put our supplies away, an older man thanked us for what we were doing. This showed me how thankful he was for us doing something to keep the environment clean and trash free. 

Blog #13

Section seven talked about colonialism and economic development. In the Catholic teaching a major topic that is taught concerns the legacy colonialism and the challenge of economic developments in the poorest parts of the world. Formal patterns of colonization was an ongoing discussion, while observes expressed concern about equally pernicious practices known as neo-colonialism or neo-imperialism.

 Not only did colonizers wrought political and economic changes by the Europeans, they also pursued a religious agenda. The European ships carried priests, preachers, and missionaries seeking to spread Christianity to indigenous people. Present economic order features a gap between the world’s richest and poorest lands. History of European colonialism and superpower imperialism have played an important role in causing these disparities.

Catholic social teachings offers two sets of ideas. One is the consistent part of its message that the church repeatedly insists that all people have a moral obligation to care deeply about the world poverty and  to do all they can to address this scourge on common humanity. Hunger and disease is a concern for all people an demands urgent attention. The richest nation to combat poverty in the poorest lands are needed and encouraged to express human solidarity.The second catholic social teaching addresses poverty and underdevelopment by inviting believers to ponder the cause of these problems and offer suggestions for improvement.

Blog #12

Due to the Industrial Revolution, it gave rise to new economic needs and it found solutions abroad. Enormous productivity of industrial technology and Europe's affluence created the need for extensive raw materials and agricultural products. Wheat, meat, bananas, rubber, cocoa, palm oil, tea, gold, and diamonds radically changed the patterns of economic and social life. Industrial capitalism produced more manufactured good than people could afford to buy. European soon found it more profitable to invest money abroad. Between 1910 and 1913, Britain sent half of its savings overseas as foreign investments. Wealthy Europeans saw social benefits to foreign markets. This helped Europe's factories humming and its workers employed. Imperialism promised to solve the class conflicts of an industrializing society while avoiding revolution or the serious redistribution of wealth. Imperialism became popular when the growth of mass nationalism began in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Colonies and spheres of influence abroad became symbols of "Great Power". Imperialism appeared as a strategy in economic and social grounds to the wealthy or ambitious. To them it seemed politically and strategically necessary in the game of international power politics.
The industrial era made overseas expansion more desirable and it provided new means for achieving goals. Steam-driven ships allowed Europeans to reach distant Asian and African ports more quickly and to penetrate interior rivers too. The underwater telegraph made almost instant communication. Also, the discovery of quinine to prevent malaria reduced  the death rates for Europe. Industrialization changed the way Europeans perceived themselves and others. Europeans held onto the sense pf religious superiority, but still adopted many ideas and techniques of more advanced societies. They held Chinese and Indian civilizations in high regard and mixed with Asian and African elites. They often married their women.

Blog #11

In Western Europe, China, and Japan wood and charcoal was the major industrial fuels. During the Industrial Revolution fossil fuels such as coil, oil, and natural gas replaced energy sources such as wind, water, wood, and the muscle power of people and animals. Because of the massive extraction of nonrenewable raw materials to fuel industrial machinery it altered the landscape. Industrial waste was emptied into rivers turning the rivers poisonous. Smoke from the coal-fired industries polluted the air in urban areas and increased respiratory illness. Industrial Revolution marked a new era in both human history and the history of the planet.

Blog #9

Julie and Francoise went through a lot of stuff during their lives. There story just goes to show how much they would do for others even if they were confined to a bed and hiding for awhile.
Julie found herself disabled, but even though she was disabled, poor and neglected children still went to visit her to learn their lessons. Meanwhile, Francoise carried on her grandmother's tradition after she passed away and started to pay attention to villagers'medical health and nutritional needs. It was during this time that she developed to take medicinal plants seriously and to be exposed to the realities of peasant life and compare them to her own reality. This period offered her to develop her relationship with others, profound sense, and deep respect for individual person.
Julie on the other hand, focused on the teachings of the Church and preparing children for their first communion. She became known as the Saint of Cuvilly, but she also came to be known as the enemy of the revolution. Julie went into hiding due to the fact of her being an active supporter of several non-juring priest  who could not in good conscience take the required Oath of loyalty to the state.
Julie Billiart and Francoise Blin de Bourdon were courageous women who fought against the French government during the Revolutions. They both went through with their missions no matter what problems they had to face. These two women proved that women are just as capable to contribute to their country like men instead of being stuck at home like all the other women. There acts showed other women to stand up for what is right and to make changes to create a better society.

Blog #6

Islam had generated the most advanced science in the world between 800 and 1400. China's technological accomplishments and economic growth were unmatched anywhere after 1000.
Europe's historical development of a fragment civilization gave rise to conditions uniquely favorable to the scientific enterprise. Europeans had evolved a legal system that guaranteed a measure of independence for a variety of institutions. The development of science in the West was the autonomy of its emerging universities. Such universities became "neutral zones of intellectual autonomy" for scholars that could pursue their studies in relative freedom from the dictates of church or state authorities.
Science was patronized by a variety of local authorities in the Islamic world, but it occurred largely outside the formal system of higher education. Quranic studies and religious law held the central place while philosophy and natural science were viewed with great suspicion. The Quran held all wisdom according to the religious scholars and scientific thinking may challenge it.
Chinese education focused on preparing for a defined set of civil service examination and emphasized the humanistic and moral texts of classical Confucianism.
Western Europe was in a position to draw on the knowledge of other cultures especially the Islamic world. Arab medical texts, astronomical research, and translated Greek classics played a major role in the birth of European philosophy. Then Europeans found themselves at the center of massive new exchange of information as they became aware of lands, peoples, plants, animals, societies and religions from around the world. This new knowledge shook up older ways of thinking and opened the way to new conceptions of the world.

Blog #5

In the early modern era two intersecting cultural trends continued to play out in the twenty first century. The first one was the spread of Christianity to Asians, Africans, and Native Americans. The second one lays in the emergence of a modern scientific outlook which challenged Western Christianity. The early modern era also witnessed novel cultural transformations that connected distant people. Christianity was established solidly in the Americas and the Philippines. A new understanding of the universe and a new approach to knowledge were taking shape among European thinkers of the Scientific Revolution which gave rise to another kind of cultural encounter-science and religion. Science became the new competing worldview and for some it became a new religion. Europeans were central players in globalization of Christianity and the emergence of modern science. Science emerged meeting various receptions in different parts of the world and Islam continued a long pattern of religious expansion and renewal even though Christianity began to compete with its as a world religion. 

Christianity was limited to Europe at the beginning of the early modern era. Christendom stretched from Spain and England in the west to Russia in the east with small communities of various kinds in Egypt, Ethiopia, southern India, and Central Asia. Christianity was divided between the Roman Catholic and Central Europe and Eastern Orthodox. 

Protestant Reformation shattered the unity of Roman Catholic Christianity which provided the cultural and organizational foundation of Western European civilization. Reformation began in 1517 when Martin Luther a German priest publicly invited debate about various abuses within the Roman Catholic Church by issuing a document known as the Ninety-five Theses and nailing it to the door of a church in Whittenberg. Luther's protest was potentially revolutionary because of its theological basis. Luther had come to a new understanding of salvation which held that it came through faith alone.The good works of the sinner nor the sacraments of the Church had any bearing on the eternal destiny of the soul for faith was a free gift of God and it was granted to his needy and undeserving people. Luther took this as a source of beliefs and religious authority as it was not teaching of the Church, but the Bible alone. This was the stuff of revolution in the sixteenth-century. 

Blog #4

The Native American peoples who hunted, trapped, process, and transported fur products had various benefits at the beginning. For example, the Hurons exchanged approximately 20,000 to 30,000 pelts mostly beaver, to receive copper pots, metal axes, knives, cloth, firearms, and alcohol. Because these items were valuable, it strengthened the Hurons relationship with neighboring peoples. These goods also enhanced the Huron chiefs by providing them with gifts to distribute among their followers. The fur trade protected the Native Americans from the extermination, enslavement, and displacement.

Although they were only protected for a certain amount of time, they were not protected from the diseases that the Europeans carried. About half of the Hurons perished influenza, smallpox, and other European-borne diseases. Furthermore, the fur trade generated warfare.

Even thought the Native Americans became enmeshed in commercial relationships with the Europeans, they ended up being dependent on European trade goods. Tools such as iron tools and cooking pots replaced those of stone, wood, or bone and gunpowder weapons took place of bows and arrows. European textiles proved more attractive than traditional beaver and deerskin clothing and flint and steel became more effective for starting fires than wooden drills. In the end, traditional crafts were lost because the native peoples were not able to gain corresponding ability to manufacture the new items themselves.

Blog #3

The slave trade was the only component of international network that shaped human interactions during 1450 and 1750. The Europeans made their way into an ancient spice trade of the Indian Ocean, developing new relationships with Asian societies. Silver enriched Western Europe and made its way to China where it allowed Europeans to participate in the rich commerce of East Asia. Hunting and trapping fur-bearing animals transformed natural environments and human societies. The twin creators of a global network gave rise to new relationships, disrupted old patterns, brought distant people into contact with one another, and enslaved others.
Europeans encountered an ancient and rich network of commerce that stretched from East Africa to China. They were aware of the wealth that was commercially networked. The motivation for this massive effort was the desire tropical spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and pepper which were widely used as condiments and preservatives. Underlying this growing interest in Asia was the more general recovery of European civilization. European's population was growing again and it national monarchies were learning how to tax their subjects more effectively and to build substantial military forces equipped with gunpowder weapons. Eastern goods had trickled into the Mediterranean through the Middle East from the Indian Ocean commercial network. The source of supply for these desired goods were in the hands of the Muslim. Muslim Egypt was the primary point of transfer into the Mediterranean basin and its European customers. The Italian commercial monopolized the European trade in Eastern goods. A further problem for Europeans lay in paying for Eastern goods. Because of an economical less developed Europe was attractive in Eastern markets, Europeans were required to pay cash, gold or silver, for Asian spices or textiles. The Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch, and British collectively contributed much to the new regime of globalized trade.

Blog #2

A small Russian sate conquered a number of neighboring Russian-speaking cities and incorporated them into its expanding territory. Over the next three centuries, this small Russian state extended Russian domination over the vast tundra, forests, and grasslands of northern Asia and all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Because of the Russian expansion, it brought numerous Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, Belorussians, and Baltic peoples into the Russian Empire. Russian attention was drawn to the grasslands south and east of the Russian heartland, an area long inhabited by various nomadic pastoral people, and people who were organized into feuding tribes and clans to the recent disappearance of the Mongol Empire. The Russian Empire took shape in three centuries. A line of wooden forts offered protection to frontier towns and trading centers as well as to mounting numbers of Russian farmers. Political leaders and educated Russian frontiers defined the empire in grander terms by defending the Russian frontiers, enhancing the power of the Russian state, and bringing Christianity.
The Russian military brought both the steppes and Siberia under Russian control. Russian authorities demanded an oath by which native peoples swore the monarch of the Russian Empire. They also demanded a tribute paid in cash or in kind. This meant enormous quantities of furs that are extremely valuable. The most transforming feature of the Russian Empire was the Russian settlers because their numbers over-whelmed native peoples giving their lands a distinctive Russian character. The loss of hunting grounds and pasturelands to Russian agricultural settlers and local people became dependent on Russian market for grain, sugar, tea, tobacco, and alcohol. Required fees and permission to cross agricultural lands occurred if pressures encouraged pastoralists to abandon their nomadic ways.
With a multiethnic empire, Russians diminished as a proportion of the overall population and remained politically dominant. Non-Russians such as Ukrainians and Belorussians were predominated and vast territories of Siberia and the steppes had small populations. Because Russia was one of the great powers of Europe, it was the wealth of the empire, rich agricultural lands, valuable furs, and mineral deposits that made Russia dominant. The Russians created an empire similar to the Western Europe in terms of conquest, settlement, explotation, religious conversion and feelings of superiority.
The Chinese pushed deep into central Eurasia and the Turko-Mongol invaders from Central Asia created the Mughal Empre bringing Hindi South Asia within a single Muslim ruled political system. The Ottoman Empire brought Muslim rule to a large Christian population in southeastern Europe and Turkish rule to largely Arab populations in North Africa and the Middle East. Therefore, the expanding of Asian empires reflected the energies and vitality of their respective civilizations and gave rise to profoundly important cross- cultural encounters.

January 20, 2015 Blog #1

Intro to part four:

An Early Modern Era?
In the "early modern era" the most obvious expression of globalization was in the oceanic journeys of European explorers and the European conquest and colonial settlement of the Americas. The Atlantic slave trade linked Africa to the Western Hemisphere, while the global silver trade allowed the Europeans to use the New World's metals to purchase their way into the ancient Asian trade routes (Strayer 611). This exposed the diseases, people, animals, and plants causing it to be known as the Columbian exchange. This created a network of interaction across the Pacific and Atlantic ocean with global implications. Christianity was then carried by the missionaries all throughout Europe making it become the world religion (Strayer 611).

In later generations the thought of "modernity" appeared in multiple places around the world. The most obvious modern sign was the cultural development that took place in Europe where the Scientific Revolution transformed. Europe was not the only one that experienced modern growth, China, Japan, and India experienced it as well.They experienced the population growth when Eurasia recovered from the Black Death and Mongol wars and as the American food provided nutrition (Strayer 611-12).

A Late Agrarian Era?
Many Europeans ruled the Americas and took control of the sea routes. The Europeans were soon to be taking over the planet. Human economies was powered by animal and human muscles, wind, and water. None of this new technology like factory based production or steam power were displaced for them(Strayer 612-13). No matter where they were leadership was provided and so was privileges. There was no parties that controlled the govern, there were Kings and nobles that did that. Now, some people want to live like it was in the earlier ways such as following traditional principles rather than having to deal with what is new.

Chapter 13: Political Transformations
 Europeans hold a significant geographical advantage over the rest of the world particularly Asia due to its location. It is closer to the Americas as suppose to the potential Asian competitors furthermore the fixed winds of the Atlantic blew steadily in the same direction. Therefore allowing mastering of navigation and air currents to the American continents. Furthermore due to the flourishing markets of the Indian ocean and its rich natural resources there was no incentive for Asians and Middle-Eastern peoples to venture across their borders.
Due to European superiority having conquered Africa and some parts of Asia the colonists were exposed and have developed immunity towards foreign diseases. Upon to their arrival Americas, the Native Americans were long isolated from the Afro-Eurasian and Asiatic endemics causing a great population decline as they were incapable of combating disease (90% of the population was lost), thus giving the Europeans a great advantage in conquering the American peoples.
Hence, due to the severe loss of Native Americans, there was an acute labor shortage. However, this allowed for the importation of slaves from Africa, and the colonists to flow into the American continents. Along with the influx of inhabitants, trade was administered between all colonies, bringing in a variety of plants, livestock and peoples; transforming the landscape to adhere the European way of life.

Hooray! I completed my first post.