Jared Diamond

This chapter covered the harmful effects that humans are placing upon mother earth. It covers the resources that we have been using too frequently and are now being sacred and there is no way to replace what we have taken away from the earth. This really goes back to our current situation of global warming. Since we haven't seen any "major damages" in our personal,everyday life, there is no need to change our daily habits. But the earth is slowly being effected, our ozone layer is thinning at a rate that is going to leave us unprotected, giving us harsh summers and an overflow of oceans. We are not being aware of what can happen to us in the future, because we are living on a day to day basis without knowledge of what our actions may be doing to the earth.

Chapter 24: Accelerating Global Interaction

In the beginning of the article, it starts off talking about the topic of Barbie and Ken. Barbie is meant to be the image of the perfect female body and Ken, the perfect male partner. Yet, they are both unmarried and set an odd example of what a couple should be like to the Muslim community. Compared to Americanized visions of what children should play with at a young age, Iranians have their own vision of Barbie and Ken, Sara and Dara. They are both eight year old twins who seek guidance from their parents in times of need and help finding love. This message is very different from the one that Barbie and Ken tend to express. Sara and Dara reflect the cultural values of the Muslim community, while Barbie and Ken tend to come into play with the Western culture media.

There have been factors have come into play when it comes to global interaction. There are four major processes that helped countries that were beginning to rise: world economy, global feminism, religions with modernity, humankind's enormous impact on the environment. After the World Wars, Cold War, and Great Depression occurred in the world, the economical stand point was at an all time low. Systems such as "Bretton Woods system" helped promote relatively free trade, technology helped the economy by products being produced and sold, this helped decrease the employment rate all over the world. Migrating laborers provided an inexpensive source of labor for their adopted countries. With the United States and Britain coming a halt in power, it gave Asian and African countries a time to catch up. Asian countries such as China and Japan, helped a lot with producing technology, toys, and transportation, they in partnership with the United States were also able to upstage them in their own game.

People started to take resources like fossil fuels and coal in the nineteenth century and oil in the twentieth. These new sources of energy made it possible for modern science and technology increased the production of goods and services. The growth of the population normally didn't change the environment on a large scale level, but since the growing number of the poor and the growing number of the rich consuming resources was creating a dent in the environment around them. The human remaking of the environment also greatly increased the population of cattle, pigs, chickens, rats, and dandelions. The major set back in this was the act that air pollution was starting to become a problem. The release of chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons thinned the ozone layer, which protects the earth from excessive ultraviolet radiation. This reminds me of what we are currently going through in terms of global warming.

Putin's Challenge

The article goes over the genocide of Circassians, mostly Muslim people who self-identity as Adygn (19th century) and currently settle in New Jersey. They are people that were fighting for their rights all through out history. I am surprised that I haven't heard about them in history class before. Much like the Holocaust many Circassians lost their life during various conquests by other countries. Circassians were once world-famous, the most dominant force and fountainhead of Caucasian culture. They believe in "khabza"which stands for honor, hospitality, respect for elders, egalitarianism and liberty. The Circassians had a whole culture, life style, and history about them, yet all of it was slowly getting away and being taken away from them. They were loaded onto ships and cast away to Turkey. Once settled, men were given orders and women rather commit suicide than go through with the work that they had waiting for them. This article helps you open your eyes to the world around us, that genocide and massive killings still happen. That powerful cultures can take over other cultures and delete them. It's something that happens on daily basis and continues to happen in present time.

Chapter 23:Independence and Development in the Global South

This chapter touches bases upon why the colonial empires collapsed. Theories such as: racism, exploitation  and poverty. Social and economic issues generated the human raw material for anti-colonial movements, and then there is simply because groups of people deliberately brought down the colonial system. Other topics such as India and the African community gaining independence from British control, were explained in detail. Leaders such as Gandhi and Mandela. were brought to the scene and how they are currently important to us today. The differences between the independence of India and South Africa are discussed, along with the ending of the South African apartheid.

There are times in history where I wonder why I must learn the same events every year, like the Holocaust, Civil War, Declaration of Independence, various activists,etc. I think the reason why we must learn about these things each year is to one, get a better understanding of them, two, to relate them back to modern days, and three, if we were to just learn about such events like the holocaust in 6th grade, you would only have the understanding of the Holocaust as a 6th grader. Relearning about independent events and leaders help a community grow, especially a troubled one. Looking back at all the trouble that people had to go through just to reach the amount of rights that we have today is insane.

Chapter 22: The rise and fall of world communism cont'd

This chapter was about the conflicts that arose from communist leaders and societies. Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, his nationalization of American assets provoked great U.S. hostility. The start of the Cold War is discussed as a war that never really went through on a physical level. There was a nuclear standoff, where both sides courted third world countries just emerging from colonial rule. The U.S. soon rose to power, becoming the new and improved powerhouse. It had a strong army, technology, stable economic system, and a government system. The two political parties left no room for communism to be tolerated in America. In the present, when we think of communism has a negative connotation, when there have been countries founded on communism. There are still various people that I talk to that have a positive view on communism and how America should actually try it out. But there are so many pros and cons when comes to switching the structure of a country, that already has governmental and economic problems.

Chapter 22:The Rise and Fall of World Communism

This chapter goes through how communism became popular in the eastern hemisphere of the world. The original ideas of Karl Marx helped spark the ideas of what communism will look like. Of course various countries (Soviet Union and China) took it upon themselves to make a plan of what communism would look like for their country, what it would do for their country, and how it may help them rise to the top. After the World Wars, they caused a lot of fusion between the winning alliances. During this chapter, we can see a border form between America and the use of the world. They were seen as the ones to get involved with political matters that aren't or weren't their own. Countries like Cuba had leaders such as Fidel Castro stand up to Americanized Cuban government and create a communist movement in order to get rid of the "repressive" ways of the Americans. As we can see in present day Cuba, America won that battle, but what for? This seems to always be the case when it comes to America, always getting involved in political and military matters that aren't our own. We should be known as the "ball-out" nation, because in almost every war that wasn't America's own, the U.S. seemed to have some part in helping the citizens of oppression or was the oppressor. Communism just seemed like another way for countries getting away from the American political norm, capitalism.

Chapter 21:The Collapse and recovery of Europe

This chapter went over what happened during the years of the World Wars. It went over how it affected the countries that were involved in both wars and mainly how Europe lost its power house abilities. The start of World War I, began because of an accidental assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Austrian archduke. The Slavic nationalism and Austrian opposition was the beginning of the war. During the war there were alliances that were: Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria, and Italy, and Triple Entente of Russia, France, and Britain. Europe was ahead of most of the countries when it came to their tools, but not when it came to their military services. 

The wars caused economic damage of the European empire that was once a power house on its own. As men were away from home while fighting the war, women were able to take over the jobs that the men were working before they left. During the other countries were being damaged by the war, Japan were just on the rise of industrialization and economic stability during the 20th century. Since Germany was the blame of  World War I their land was split up into pieces to be shared among the winners of the war, which was established in the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles also listed other: "Germany lost its colonial empire and 15 percent of its European territory, was required to pay heavy reparations to the winners, had its military forces severely restricted, and had to accept sole responsibility for the outbreak of the war." A positive that came from this is that America was the center stage instead Europe, because it was coming up from being colonies into a full nation that had its own military, wars, independence, technology, government,etc. 

Chapter 20:Colonial Encounters

In this chapter, it covered the encounters of European conquests among other countries. Subjects such as education, religion, and race&tribe were among the important points that were made. When it comes to education, western education was a wide spread influence to most countries. The ability to read and write was a powerful skill to do during the 18th century throughout the world. Just how knowledge is equal to power in the present, it helps us get to the goals in life that we thrive for throughout all of our years in schooling. Once we are done with schooling we are able to work in our field and live successfully. It's a long process, but once the hard work is done, we are able to live a stable life that we will most likely enjoy.

When it come religion Christianity was a religion that made its way around the world. Places like New Zealand, Pacific Islands, and non-Muslim Africa, were influenced by the christian religion and soon were converted. Missionaries helped with the spread of Christianity to various countries, especially in Africa. Race and tribe was another topic that was interesting because it focused on European and African differences in each society. Europeans are much like Americans, we are an individual community, whereas Africans are more about the community's well being. It was interesting how the textbook made the differences very clear.

Chapter 18: Revolutions of Industrialization

This chapter covers the formation of industrialization, the pros and cons that it has on the working class and middle classes. It goes around the globe explaining how each continent helped create this system of innovations of technology, transportation, and other sources of helping trade being accessible. Ideals of the human nature and behavior was also being discussed among the laboring classes. Marx discussed the human past as a class struggle. He believes that the social classes were seen as a way to oppress the oppressed. As a human race we have always be capable of doing this to one another, whether it be in class or race, we judge one another, we are never good enough for each other. As a human race we have grown together in order to enhance the world that we live in through technology, gaining independence and economic reasoning. After countries gained their independence from Britain, Britain still had an hold on various nations. It was the center of industrialization, everything started at the center of the world, Great Britain. Great Britain, Europe in general, is still an advanced country along with the United States and China. There tends to be a battle for who is going to be able to last on top, everyone assumed that United States would be the one to stay a float, but even though we are the most independent and "rich" country, there are issues that are occurring faster than we can find answers for.

Chapter 17: Atlantic Revolutions and Their Echos part I

Starting with the big picture, the discussion of the amount of power that Europe was attaining was the main topic and it lingered on into the chapter. With textbooks and maps placing Europe directly in the middle, reflecting Europe as being the center of all the countries around it, emphasized the amount of power that Europe was gaining. Other countries compared to Europe were unchanging and static which led to lacking any historical significance. Europe helped other cultures, such as Islamic science, move forward in a direction to expand and become more standard. Even other cultures were under the rule of Europe such as Muslim and Hindu cultures in India, which continued to develop under British colonial rule. When it comes to chapter seventeen,  the French Revolution was the beginning of all the revolutions. It's as if they other countries found the strength to stand up to whatever country that had a hold on them, and revolt against them. There were struggles along the way, such as getting documents established and taken seriously. In the end even though the French had the first recognized revolution, the United States were the ones that gave other countries true "hope." 

Chapter 16: Religion and Science part II

This portion of the chapter focused on how science helped the evolution of societies such as Europe and China. Europe held universities where students could go to further their education and studies. The development of science in the West was the autonomy of its emerging universities. In the Islamic world science was a variety of local authorities but occurred largely outside the formal system of higher education. Chinese education basically focused on their students taking exams that expressed how much they had learned over their academic career. Modern science was more of a "self-critical enterprise," this where people such as Darwin and Marx come with their humanitarian theories of how human beings are and evolve as humans. Darwin claimed that humans were the work of evolution operating through natural selection. Marx claimed that a view of human history emphasized change and struggle. The coming of socialism was in the laws of historical development. Towards the end of it all humans were viewed as systems of biological, economic, and social conflict. European thinkers and theories were an influence on Asian scientific theories and vice versa. 

Chapter 16: Religion and Science part I

This portion of the chapter covered the aspect of how religion changed the atmosphere for the Americas and the Philippines. Christianity was divided by the Roman Catholics of Western and Central Europe and the Eastern Orthodox of Eastern Europe and Russia. Science and church called into question the special position of the clerical hierarchy and mainly the Pope. Even though the battle between whether the church or scientific  theories were the ones to trust, women favored Protestantism and Reformation teachings and practices. Yet, women didn't have much say in Church or religion, men were still the head of power when it came to religion, such as Priests, Bishops, and the Pope. New religious orders provided a bond within the priests which made them committed to the renewal of the Catholic church and its extension abroad. When it came to the spread of religion, missionaries was one source and tactic. Missionaries had their greatest success in Spanish America and in the Philippines. Religion seems to have been a driver of human motivation and the word of God helped many humans understand what they were suppose to do in their daily lives in order to live a "good" life.  But then again what happened to those were unable to understand the word of God even if the text was read to them? Where did they fit in society? People who believed in the Scientific theories were most likely outcasts and/or punished for believing in what they did. Even in modern day Christianity versus science, there is conflict that arises.

Chapter 15: Global Commerce part II

The second part of the chapter was primarily focused on slavery. This is a topic that I have learned over and over again. What was different about the text that I read this time was the fact that there was a clear description of how racism and slavery became a topic that went hand and hand with one another. The slave journey  the Middle Passage wasn't described as in the other text books. I remember it being very disturbing and being gross, but the textbook doesn't touch on the journey, which I believe is the most powerful when it comes to connection between the Europeans and African Americans. Europeans really showed their true colors when it came to the way that they treated the slaves and other servants that they had. Overall this chapter touches the surface of slavery and the population of the Americas and the extended trade of human beings in various countries.

Chapter 15: Global Commerce part I

In the chapter of "Global Commerce" the journey of how various countries discovered and navigated the trade routes leads all the way to modern day trade. From the Triangular trade system to the Silk road and the Indian Ocean trade system, were the first trade routes that helped various countries gather what they needed either on a daily basis or just a luxury item. Some countries, such as European didn’t like to rely on other nations to help them gather items that they needed, which lead them to be the power house of trading. European countries were known to contribute much to the new regime of globalized trade. In this chapter you see a different powerful country coming to a rise, other than Europe which is pretty foreign when it comes to world history.

          Portuguese empire was looking its place in trade, which happened to be the spice trade. They never succeeded in controlling much more than half of the spice trade with Europe. Spain and the Philippines were also countries that were beginning to rise because various people fled to Manila, the capital of Philippines which made it a very diverse capital. This most likely lead to other cultures brings foreign items and sharing it among the people that are already citizens of Philippines. This helps Spain and the Philippines gain an upper hand in the trading system during the seventeenth century. The rest of the chapter continues on to other countries such as Asia, which focuses on China and India. 

Sweet Nexus: Sugar and the origins of the modern world

The format of the reading was the most helpful part. The way that the sugar process was described backwards pained a vivid image of what the sugar trade and exporting system looked like when it first began. The beginning starts off with a reflection of items that we consume explaining how consumers consume the items but have a lack of knowledge of where the item might have originated from. "...we are in a profit-based international market in which people produce what they do not consume, and consume what they do not produce." Which is a true statement, especially American consumers. The background of the origins of sugar was a bit dry but was useful when it came to understanding the evidence that was given in the packet. The various documents that were placed in the packet made you ask yourself why each piece of evidence was significant to the timing of sugar productions in Europe, Americas, and Central America. Without reading and understanding the background or previous knowledge of the origins of sugar you may have a harder time understanding the underlined meanings behind the letters, images, and data tables that were placed in the reading. Evidence pieces such as William Blake, "Europe Supported by Africa and America," 1796, was a complex image, yet easier understood given that the title gave away more than the image did. Looking at the image itself, you can see the nooses around both dark figures as the white female is in the middle being supported by both African slaves. I believe that this image seems to be showing the fact that Europeans were so dependent on African slaves for everything to the point that they stopped all together with even trying to do the most simplest things, such as keeping themselves up. Overall, the hard labor to keep a rare crop such as sugar, was something that the Europeans wanted to trade among others, but weren't willing to put in the work for it, so they were able to get another race to the hard work for them.

Chapter 14: part II

 As the Russian Empire begins to rise to a high power the chapter reflects on empires such as Spanish and British maybe the main reasoning for success of the British and Spanish was the independence that they gained. Russia ended up collapsing up until the point the Soviet Union in 1991. Religion becomes a big part of conquering land in Europe, and the Americas. By Europe being centered in both the trading system and world, it made it easier for them to create a major impact on present day America. What conquest was done without suffering of the people that were originally there? I have taken World History since 8th grade and various histories in between that time and each time I learn something different. Whether it be because the teacher teaches history through their point of view or because the text book takes a different approach than one that I have read before. Starting with the uprising of empires and exploring the world around their native homelands sets the tone of greed for power and land, the more land your country acquired made you the most powerful. You were able to climb the hierarchy to the top if you were to gain land and know what to do with it. As the chapters go on it is more likely that the rise, fall, and collapse of each empire will reveal how America will fall and then collapse in the future.

Chapter 14: Empires and Encounters

The amount of exploring and discovering various places, logic, and people helps explain the pros and cons of how the states became what they are today. Europe's power had a high increase and wasn't looking to have it discontinued. The establishment of Empires were at an all time high as was the about of hard labor. There were discoveries that helped people find efficient ways to travel, trade, and get hard labor done without working too hard themselves. Just like any other conquest mission, there was a great amount of blood shed, change of culture, and exporting people from their current location. It is a struggle to created a country without these cons, the pros are creating a new culture, establishing a high power, and economical and political stability. Cultural and religion changes were something that helped people understand the world around them and logic behind human beings. These were also things that helped connect other people from across the sea with one another. These changes helped create the "new world" and continued to help people around the world transform their environments, knowledge, and perspective.

Yay-I'm done!