Blog #17

I believe that the Pope's over the years have come up with some very radical ideas even though the church has been known to be conservative. The idea that not every completely owns property is against everything capitalism stands for. The idea that if a person has so much land that they should give some away to the needy is crazy. I believe that this is not a realistic expectation and that the Pope's are crazy to think that this would ever happen. To me, a lot of the things that are said in this are wishful thinking because realistically many of them would never actually happen.
I agree with many of the ideas that the Pope brings up about labor. I feel that every worker deserves to get enough pay to support themselves and if needed their families. I think that business owners have become too greedy and need to take a step back so that they can look into the eyes of their workers. I also feel that the hours should be good hours at good times of the day. Many of these things do not need to be worried about in the US because we have agencies that regulate these things. In the rest of the world the same thing can't always be said. What the pope has to say can be directed to places such as China where kids work in sweat shops and have incredibly long hours with very little pay.

Blog #19

It was interesting to read about how the middle east was attempting to copy the ideals of the West and how they failed miserably. I am curious as to why the countries of the middle east were not able to use the same ideals that have flourished in places like Britain and the US. I feel that the complete failure in installing the western ideals in these countries is why there is such a strong hatred towards the West in this area. If the countries would have been more successful they obviously would be a lot friendlier towards the west. The start of this hatred began in 1928 with the Muslim Brotherhood. This is where a lot of terrorist groups can originally be tied to.
I believe that after the failure of the Middle East to copy western ideals shows that not every country can use the same system as a template. Each country has to be able to find its own way to success. The Middle East attempted this with the islamic renewal and by re-adopting many of the islamic ideals that had disappeared during this time. I believe that the Middle East has lost its way as many countries have become hostile and radicalized.
I do not see the Middle East's hatred towards the US or the west ending anytime soon. I believe that the reason for this is that we fundamentally don't match. I am appalled that there are still some places in the Middle East that do not allow women to be educated, drive, or even wear normal clothing.

Blog #18

I found that the author made very good points when he pointed out how the fall of the European Empires was due to contradictions in their beliefs and actions. Once people realized that the European actions were a counter to their ideals of enlightenment and equality, they knew that they could revolt. This quickly led to the European Empire's crumbling because the countries could not keep suppressing revolutions. People in colonial states did not understand why the European states could be so democratic yet their colonies had a very dictatorship type government. Many countries under colonial rule also wanted to be able to show their national character and individualism. 

The main reason that so many countries were able to get their independence at this time was because the World Wars had wreaked havoc on many countries and severely weakened them. This left them vulnerable to revolutions in various areas of the world. 

In India, Britain made numerous mistakes with how it handled its colony in India. One of the major mistakes was the way that Britain didn't try to assimilate into Indian society. Britain's racism towards their colonies, and their lack of understanding of the Indian culture left a lot of bitter hatred towards Britain. This hatred led to the Indian community forming a national identity as they realized the many differences between British and Indian societies.

Post #16

I could not imagine the way that people felt during the cold war. People lived under constant threat from the Soviet Union. At any moment the US could be blown up by the nuclear weapons that the Soviet Union possessed. I also think that it is funny to look back at all of the drills that the schools and many offices practiced in case of a nuclear attack. One drill was to get under your desk because it would help protect you. We now know that this isn't going to do anything if a nuclear bomb is even remotely near you. It is also strange to me that the huge build up of military might between the Soviet Union and the US did not lead to war. There was so much division in the world between communist and non-communist that I felt a war would have been inevitable. There were also many reasons to go to war such as the Cuban Nuclear Crisis, or the B2 bomber incident.
We can still see the impact of the Cold War in the world today. A prime example is with NATO. This organization was formed as a counter to the Warsaw pact which was a group of communist countries forming an alliance. The thought behind NATO was that it would deter the Warsaw countries from attacking and could combat communism.
I find the two different revolutions between the Soviet Union and China to be very interesting. I believe that these two countries used the marxist beliefs to gain power for themselves. At first it seemed as if communism was better than capitalism as it had immediate success in a lot of countries. In the long run it was clearly not the best choice because it caused countries to collapse and millions of people to suffer. I like how in Russia the soviet revolution only took one year while in China the revolution was a struggle that lasted many years.
It is very interesting that it was communism that brought about many feminist reforms that were later adopted in the West. In Russia many women enjoyed full legal and political equality while women in the West still had a few years to go before they ever got any rights.

Blog #15

The world wars are the most interesting parts of history to me. I find it interesting the way that they started and how they were able to escalate so quickly. Looking back at the wars can help us today because we can try to prevent making the same mistakes that the countries made back then. One of the biggest mistakes made during this time was the treaty that was made after the first world war. The harsh reparations that were placed on Germany created a bitter hatred for the West that allowed Hitler to get into power. If the countries had done as they did after the second world war then maybe there would have only been one war in the first place. The Allies had turned Germany into nothing. They took away all the pride that the Germans had, made them poor, and took away all of its colonies. I think that the time period also gives us some interesting leaders. People such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin Roosevelt were all prominent leaders that were able to rally their countries to support their own causes. Hitler was the most interesting of all the leaders during this era. I am amazed at the way that he was able to revive his country and prepare for war in such a small time. Many of his writings, such as Mein Kampf give us a glimpse of his rhetoric and how he was able to sway many of the citizens of his country. 

Hopefully the world learned from many of the atrocities and mistakes that were made during this time. I believe that the reason nobody has used any nuclear bombs since this time is that the world has realized that nuclear warfare has no place in the world. Now that everyone has seen the immediate destruction along with the long term affects, nobody wants to have a repeat of that. Another lesson that has been learned is turning your enemies into your allies by helping them get back on their feet. In World War I, Germany was being kicked while it was already down, but after World War II, the allies had learned their lesson and helped Germany along with the other countries get back on its feet.

Post #14

The Taiping Revolution was very interesting to me in this reading. One of the things that stood out to me was that the revolution cost the lives of almost 30 million people, yet nobody really knows about it. I thought that the ideas of the Taiping were strangely revolutionary for this time period. It reminded me a little of Communism. The belief that there should be no private property and the redistribution of land are both pillars of communism. The rebels also had some ideas that the world would later see such as marriage based off of mutual attraction, and the idea of idea of health insurance. I was very surprised to see how long the revolution lasted considering the rebels did not actually change much.
I think that the Opium War was the major shift in world power away from Asia and towards Europe. The Europeans were able to defeat the Chinese in the Opium war with their mighty military power. This is something that had always been the other way around. Once the Europeans had won the war they were able to create favorable terms towards themselves, such as the opening of the major chinese ports to the Europeans. This helped European countries get their goods into the Chinese markets. By doing this they were able to get more Opium into the country and cause more addicts. All of this combined led to the downfall of chinese authority and power over many European countries. I believe that the Chinese lack of an industrial revolution at this time led to the country not being able to keep up with the Europeans.
After reading this I believe that European greed is one reason why their is so much distrust of Western Culture. If the Europeans had not taken advantage of China and many other Asian countries then the Chinese nationalism that hates Western Cultured would have never been born. The actions of the greedy Europeans during this time still has an affect on us today.

Call To Action

My lacrosse team and I decided to volunteer at the Catholic Social House. When we first arrived there we that a lot of people were just leaving. We later found out that the reason that all those people were there was that the Catholic Social House has a community breakfast every Wednesday and Thursday for those in need. At the breakfast they give out pancakes, eggs, toast, fresh orange juice and many other typical breakfast foods.
Our task for the day was to help with their garden. The garden was dormant during the winter but has become ready for planting now that the whether has warmed up. The only problem with that was the hundreds of weeds that covered the landscape. Our job was to pick all of those weeds and to help create planter beds to plant the new crops. The House was planning on planting some strawberries, carrots, onions, and many other types of vegetables.
My team is 27 people strong and we got to work quickly. We were able to quickly pull up all of the weeds with the help of shovels and hoes. One of the hardest parts of the the job was having to turn over the hard dirt so that it could be softened for planting. Usually a rototiller would have gotten the job done in a few minutes, but unfortunately for us the group did not own one. I was covered in all the dirt that was getting tossed around from turning over the dirt. This was not my first time having to work in a garden or deal with a lot of shoveling so I was used to all the manual labor, but many of my teammates have not spent much time in dirt or near gardens and did not appreciate how dirty they were getting. Often times some of my teammates had to be showed how to use a hoe or the proper way to shovel so that they did not break the tools.
It was a humbling experience and I also think that my team had some team bonding. It was humbling because many of the families that the organization works with relies on the produce that comes from  the crops we were helping to plant. We indirectly had a huge impact on their lives. It was also good for our team because we still had to communicate with each other so that we could make sure we were pulling the right plants or doing the right jobs. It felt good to give back to the community and it was nice how much work we had gotten done. One of the volunteers had taken a before picture to show how many weeds and how bad the garden looked and then took an after picture to show the nice, newly formed planter beds and the weedless pathways. Gardening has always been a favorite of mine which is why I enjoyed our Call to Action day. I also appreciated how we got it out of the way early in the day by starting at 9am and ending by noon. Our large numbers helped us to get the job done much faster than was expected.

Blog #13

I agreed with many of the churches teachings to improve the standards of living in the world and decrease poverty. I think that the church is on the right path by declaring the specific needs that need to be addressed in order to achieve these goals. One thing that I think that the Church needs to do a better job of is implementing its ideas on a smaller scale. The ideas need to be implemented on a local scale. It would be much easier for poverty to drop if the Church was able to get the small communities more engaged in its ideas. I know that this is not as easy as it seems but if everybody was to get on board I believe that we could see an immediate impact. I like how the Church has built upon its goals over the years. The Church started off with broader ideas but has now narrowed them down.
One thing that I did not appreciate in the text was when the text talked about the history of the church and colonization. The text said that many natives were enslaved and often forced into baptism at gun point. The text also stated that the priests were complicit with these activities along with many of the other activities that were done during the colonial area. I believe that the text is trying to soften and sugar coat how the church and its priests actually treated the natives. This is so that the church can protect its image as a caring and loving organization, when in reality not to long ago it was responsible for the enslaving of millions and the deaths of thousands more.

Blog #12

This section of reading was very interesting to me. I found it ironic that many countries in Europe at the time were becoming increasingly democratic while the countries were creating vast empires around the world. The empires that they were creating around the world were dictatorships that suppressed many of the native people. I believe that the main reason that this happened was because of the European greed. The Aristocratic Europeans found a way to make more money and took advantage. I don't know if the common european knew about how the natives of other countries were treated but I am sure that if they had seen or knew about the conditions then many of the inequalities that took place would not have happened.
It took me by surprise that the European nations were able to divide the continent of Africa in less than 20 years. Did the Europeans travel all of that land? Did they discover all of it then claim it for themselves or did all the countries come together and decided who got what? I want to know how the countries divided up the land and how they were able to conquer it so quickly. I am also surprised that the Europeans were able to make so many colonies in Asia. I thought that Asia was supposed to be strong and powerful. I also assumed that because there were large populations of people in the Asian countries that they would be harder to conquer.
The first visual source, the board game, is suggesting that European life in Africa was not bad. The board game is suggesting that the European life consisted of shooting at Africans, fishing, and making sure that Africans were doing their work. The board game also is portraying the land as exotic because of the different types of animals such as lions, giraffes, and zebra. I believe the board game is meant to lure more Europeans to Africa by trying to make it seem more attractive.

Blog #11

What I found interesting in this reading was the section that questioned why Western Europe was the area that the industrial revolution started in. I had never questioned why the industrial revolution happened in Western Europe until the book got me thinking about it. It makes sense that the industrial revolution occurred in Western Europe because all of the small independent states led to a highly competitive industry. This competition would lead to each state trying to find ways to get an advantage over the other states. The innovation helped lead to new inventions and ideas that all eventually culminated in the industrial revolution.

I liked how the book points out that other parts of the world have had their own types of industrial revolutions at different points in history. For instance China had it's industrial revolution during 700 C.E. I think that the reason we make such a big deal about the industrial revolution in Western Europe is because it is the most recent industrial revolution we have had and it has had the biggest effect on us. There are even problems that started because of that revolution that still bother us today. One of these problems is the need for finding new renewable resources. 

Blog #10

This reading has made it obvious that nationalism cannot be forced. A conquered country cannot be expected to adopt the same patriotism or beliefs as people who are in the conquering nation have. People in conquering nations wanted to be on their own and resisted accepting their "new" country's beliefs. An example of this was when Russia tried to spread the russian language through out it's empire. The only thing that Russia succeeded in doing was pointing out how different the Polish, Ukrainian, and Finnish people were. This same thing happened to many other empires such as the Ottoman empire and the British empire.
I liked all of the arguments that Simon Bolivar brings up in The Jamaica Letter. He gives valid reasons for why the island deserves its autonomy. One is that they have created their own people which is a mix from the homeland and from the indigenous people on the island. The new people has combined the best of the two groups. Another reason is the homeland has changed and has gone from being helpful to being a curse. This puts the people on the island at a disadvantage.

SND Handout

The French of the time seem similar to something that I feel corporate companies and politicians are like today. The part that I would relate to the corporate companies today was when people in French society were trying to reform the tax system in France to make the burden on the poor less. Instead of letting them reform the system the french aristocracy chose to get rid of the guy until they got to somebody who would do what they wanted them to. The part that I would relate to politicians is how politicians make it seem like they are reforming when in reality they are doing the same exact thing that they were doing prior but it is disguised. The french aristocracy did this with the tax reformation. They basically made small changes or changes that they were ok with and told the public that the tax system was reformed, when in reality nothing was changed.
I think that a combination of events helped form Francoise into the religious life. Two main events stand out to me. One is her attending the boarding school Abbey Saint Michael. Her teachers there helped instill in her the first religious ideas that she would ever get. I believe that being at a religious school helps shape the character of the student and this is what happened to Francoise. This combined with her trips with her grandmother to help the poor really had an affect on Francoise point of view on life. She was able to see how the poor lived and suffered.

Blog #7

I found the American and French revolutions very interesting. The American Revolution was a very calm revolution compared to the French Revolution. In my opinion the reason for this was that the American Revolution did not take place on the homeland as the French Revolution did. People in Britain wanted to keep the colonies but not everybody cared because it was not happening right in front of them. This brings to mind the phrase "out of sight, out of mind." I believe that if the revolution would have happened in Britain or near it, then the revolution might have been as bloody as the French Revolution. Also the American Revolution seemed very gradual. The American Colonists had already been on their own for a while when all of a sudden Britain decided that they wanted to retake control over the colonists. The colonists did not like this and fought back. After they had one they already had an idea of how they wanted to govern themselves and what they were going to do about it.
The French and their revolution was much more different. One big difference was that it occurred in France, which meant that everyone was involved. It didn't matter if they wanted to be or not. Another is that all the classes were fighting with each other. The poor wanted to gain wages they were losing, the middle class wanted the respect they deserved, and the upper class wanted to retain their power. Everybody was able to voice their opinion in the revolution which led to a short abolition to slavery and gave women more rights than they ever had before. Both of these were short lived but the fact that they were even considered was huge. I believe the French revolution was more ugly because everybody was fighting to make sure they had their voice heard. Also the revolution was not gradual but more like a bomb that was just dropped.

Blog #6

Blog #6
I see the Enlightenment and all of the scientific ideas that came from it as a way to clean up all of the corruption that was in the world religions at the time. The religions of the world were taking advantage of the ignorance of the common person. They could make people do anything because they said it was God's will or they could explain any bad event as a form of punishment. I think that the Enlightenment grew in popularity because the people realized how corrupt the religions were and they wanted to get to the truth. People saw the enlightenment as a way to better themselves and society. I believe that the world religions were content with the way things were and did not care to see people progress. This is why when all of these new ideas that contradicted religion came out, many religions did not tolerate it and fought hard to keep the ideas from spreading.

Blog #5 Cultural Transformations
I found Martin Luther's protest ironic because he meant it to help fix the Catholic faith and repair the corruption that was found with the popes and bishops. What actually happened was he started a revolution against the Roman Catholic Church. His argument gave kings and queens the justification they needed to go against the church and recollect many of the lands that the Church had taken for itself.
It is interesting that Catholicism has been able to stay so popular for so long. Islam was spreading quickly and competing with Catholicism. Islamic people were able to get rid of the Catholic parts of the Middle East and the Ottoman Empire was able to take control of Constantinople which was the stronghold for the East Orthodox Church. After all this the Catholic church was still under attack from its own people as more and more people were becoming protestant and turning away from the church.

Blog #4
I was surprised to learn that Africans actively participated in the slave trade. I always presumed that the slaves were captured by Europeans who were raiding the shores. I never thought that Africans were going around enslaving other Africans. I always assumed that Africans were on the same side and were against the Europeans. What shocked me the most was reading about how one European captain mistreated an African King and was physically punished by the king's guards.
Chocolate was a much bigger luxury than I had previously thought. It is amazing how something that we take for granted meant so much only a couple hundred years ago. The affects of drinking the chocolate amazed many of the Elite Europeans, but are common knowledge now. I found the chocolate parties that were held by the Spanish Elite very interesting.
I would relate the coffeehouses of the time to today's bars. At the time drinking coffee and chewing/smoking tobacco were considered vices and were looked down on by most religions. That is very similar to the way that most religions view bars that sell alcohol. Smoking tobacco and drinking coffee were associated with unwholesome and promiscuous behavior. This also sounds a lot like the way that people view others who attend bars.

Blog #3 Economic Transformations
In this section of the reading, the book says that the Atlantic Slave Trade was not the only way the cultures were being mixed in the world. With the silver coming from the Americas, Western Europe was able to buy its way into the Asian trade commerce. Furs from the Americas helped their cause even further.
I am surprised that the Portuguese were able to create a trading post empire in the Indian Ocean. The book says that the Portuguese were able to forcibly create trading posts in areas such as Mombasa in East Africa, Hormuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf and Malacca in Southeast Asia. I do not understand how the merchants in the Indian Ocean did not have a form of protection against pirates or attacking ships. The Portuguese deserved what they got for trying to create a monopoly on the spice trade to Europe. They were being greedy and it backfired on them in a major way. The Portuguese have still not been able to recover.
I found the Spanish brutality on the the Philippines Islands interesting. The spanish had constant hostility towards the Chinese because of the resistance to Catholicism. The Spanish often had to put down revolts and murder Chinese immigrants. What surprises me is that at one point the Spanish killed over 20,000 Chinese, which was almost the whole population on the islands. I feel that an event such as this would be more widely known.

Chapter 13 + Handout
In the textbook the author asks the readers if Russia should be considered an Asian or European country. My personal opinion is that Russia should be considered Asian. My reasoning behind this is Russia is always fighting against the western part of the world. This divides the globe into an east vs. west rivalry. Another reason is the origin of the country. The country started taking over large amounts of land from many different nomadic tribes in Serbia. These nomadic tribes were very different from the people of Russia. I believe that because a lot of these tribes were absorbed into the Russian society, they were able to change the society into an empire that resembled the rest of Asia.
Another topic during the reading was following a single commodity through out history. This method of watching the economy shows how and when commodities were able to spread through out the globe. Sugar was chosen as the commodity that was followed. During the late medieval period sugar was only available to the high class elite in Europe. Sugar had already been in popular use in the Ottoman Empire. Once Europeans had started creating sugar plantations in the Americas, the availability of the drug sky rocketed. The hard manual labor and high death rate of slaves forced an increase in the use of slaves. The huge demand for sugar was one of the reasons for its huge success as a commodity. Once sugar had spread to the middle class during the eighteenth century, the world had gained a sweet tooth that cemented sugar as a necessary commodity.

1st blog

I'm done.