Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Colonial Ruling
Colonial ruling changed a lot the way people work because of
all of the power that they had. They had the power to tax, seize land for European
enterprises, compel labor, and build railroads, airports, and roads. Colonial
states demanded required and unpaid working on public projects, like building
railroads and looking for rubber vines to make tires for bikes and cars. Along
with colonial rule also came the high demand for exported goods, which
diminished subsistence farming, meaning that presents were required to
cultivate 20 percent of their land in cash crops. This later resulted in a lot
of people going into debt and forming the massive rebellion in 1905. One of the
few good things that came out of colonial ruling was the booming population
that helped out local, small farmers because they were able to own land , build
substantial houses, and buy imported goods, but I still believe that colonial
ruling did more good then bad.
European Advantages
European empires was lucky enough to have many advantages over other empires. Some of these advantages were mapmaking, navigation, sailing techniques and advanced ship designs. Their mapmaking made trade easier going throughout the region, so they did not get lost en route. Contributing to that, navigational skills also improved travel, including nautical voyages, like Christopher Columbus to North America in 1492. Sailing was a hugely beneficial to European trade, so without advanced ship designs, boats like Columbus' would have not been sea worthy enough to make it across oceans and other bodies of water, allowing transportation of goods and other trades possible. Europe also had some advanced weaponry, including gun powder weaponry that was better than others had. With all of these various advantages, Europe was dominant over other empires during its peak.
European advantages
I thought that reading was very chaotic. The reading seemed to jump from even to event too quickly so that before the events importance was explained the next event was presented. While there was a lot of information presented in the reading it was not connected enough for me. While reading the passage the sensation of watching popcorn was extremely apparent to me. Once you learned one thing a complete other unrelated thing would be in the next sentence. Because of this the reading was very incoherent for me.
European Advantages
The European Advantages in conquering the America’s are commonly know. They are things such as their location, their advanced ship building and navigation skills, their motivation to spread Christianity and the fact that they brought disease into the places that they conquered killing many native people without them having to do anything. These are things I have known for a long time but I never thought of them as advantages the Europeans had. It is odd to say that an advantage is the fact that they are bringing disease to place because it isn’t something that they had to work to make happen. I didn’t view the European Advantages as advantages until this text told me they were advantages. I was always taught that there was motivation and opportunity. I also never thought about why Asia didn’t conquer the America’s and what made Europe more able and motivated to conquer the America’s until now. It is interesting to know that Asia had a more stable economy and larger territory and wasn’t motivated to conquer or expand their civilizations in the America’s because unlike Europe they didn’t need to expand at the time.
Monday, September 28, 2015
Political Transformations
In the world there are different leaders, empires, governments and ways
to rule but they are always changing. Throughout history many empires have come
and gone. The Soviet Union was one of those empires that collapsed. The book
says that there were only a few spectators in Moscow’s central square where
people watched and witnessed their empire die. I do not understand why the
people of the Soviet Union did not try to stop the crash of their empire and do
everything in their power to prevent it. In general these few pages talk a lot about
the rise and crash of the different empires and how they got to that pint. The
Europeans had a huge advantage over others in many ways. One of the reasons why
they could easily conquer the Americas before others was their location.
Europeans were much closer then for example the Chinese. When the Europeans did
arrive in the Americas they could easily wipe out Native American populations
without even trying because others were not immune like them and their bodies couldn’t
fight the diseases.
European Advantages
Europe had many things working in their favor, helping them begin to build their empires in the Americas. Europeans were advanced in techniques such as, "mapmaking, navigation, sailing techniques, and ship design", which helped them in their attempts to start their empires in the Americas. Also, Europe was advanced in their seafaring technology, which helped them in transporting people and goods far distances easily across the Atlantic Ocean. They also had advanced gunpowder weapons and ironworking technology, which they brought to the Americas. Another advantage that significantly helped Europeans was their diseases that they brought to the Americas. Since the Native Americans had no immunity to the foreign diseases brought over by the Europeans, many of them were killed, which benefitted the Europeans by helping them outnumber the Native Americans. These European advantages are what helped the Europeans begin to build their empires in the Americas.
Political Transformations
Many empires have come and gone throughout history including the Soviet Union, the european empires and many, many more. The Soviet Union collapsed along with many other empires around the world after World War II, but before all that the European empires were very significant during the 1400’s to the 1700’s. Why though, why were the Europeans so highly significant and important during that time? They brought together Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans for the first time ever, and help with globalization at that time. China also helped with globalization along with other countries bringing new religions, people, and territory into their empire. The Western Europeans expanded even more into the Americas stretching across the coasts of most of current day North and South America. They allied with the locals that they could and with the help of diseases and famine they were able to conquer the land around them. Why did the Europeans come to America rather than Asian countries? Not only did the Europeans have better maritime technology and weapons, but they also were better located. The Europeans could easily come across the Atlantic Ocean and they needed the land more than the Asian countries. The Europeans had just gone through the plague and needed a way to expand their economy and their only solution was to expand their territory.
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