chapter 14 (part 2): commerce in people

The Atlantic Slave Trade was the trading of African people among the countries, specifically in the Americas. I thought it was interesting how cassava was a source of diet for the African slaves to keep them a bit healthy, but people didn't care about that. People wanted more African slaves and not agricultural products. Males were traded more than women slaves as it provided slave owners more power and wealth. Women slaves would often marry men from different cultures where they would become wealthy and employ a number of female slaves. When reading this section, I'm just reminded of modern slavery in our world today which is human trafficking. Children, women, and men are trafficked and profit for forced labor, sex slavery, and debt bondage. I think men have equally affected as women when it comes to the Atlantic slave trade because families were being brought to different countries and were being separated. The average life span of slaves was 7 years, which is such a short amount of time to live!

Chapter 14: economic transformation

As there is trading happening during this era, fur and alcohol were among the fewest precious imports from the Europeans. Natives usually did the hunting in order to get the fur and traded with the Europeans. They traded ur for guns, blankets, metals, tools, rum, and brandy. The reason why Europeans wanted furs or skins so much was because of the cold climates. The alcohol that was in high demand was whiskey, a grain based alcohol. Alcohol was another key factor of ruining native culture besides diseases. “Binge drinking, violence among young men, promiscuity, and addiction followed in many places.” When reading this, I think it was the start of alcohol consuming and high death rates by alcohol poisoning. This just remind me of today’s society, especially in fraternities, where people are forced to drink excessive amount of alcohol without experience. Many inappropriate acts can happen when being intoxicated like being unnecessarily aggressive, sexual assaults, and passing out. I can tell a lot of women were affected by this and women are still affected by this today.

chapter 13: political transformations

Political Transformations 1450-1750

• European Empires in the Americas 
• Europeans innovated mapmaking, navigation, sailing techniques, and ship design where they got their ideas from earlier models from various regions. I think these innovations continued to progress for better trade and marketing among countries. This also created competing states for wealth and opportunities. In addition to opportunities, Christendom wanted to expand as well, according to a Spanish conquistador. Their technology was advancing by being able to cross oceans without a problem and trading many supplies. Technology in ironworking was also advancing due to gunpowder weapons, where it was a high demand from people in the Americas. What I find the most significant in European advantages were the number of diseases spread to Native Americans, which eventually killed them. Climate change seems to be a big deal throughout this time where many people died due to weather changes in different parts of the world. As the Little Ice Age was a devastation for many people, it also made room for immigrants coming into the Americas. Other newcomers were plants and animals that helped people in their daily life. One example would be that domesticated animals made ranching possible for economies to grow. The transportation of domesticated animals also made survival easier in their life where they can eventually reproduce and can be used for food, hunting, and other benefits. On the other hand, tobacco and chocolate were also becoming popular in the Americas. There was also the spreading of teas and coffees. I personally find this section fascinating because I love drinking coffee! All the trading and production reshaped the economy to where it is today. 
• Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas
• As the Spanish conquistadors conquered lands, many of the Spanish married and raped Native American and African women. The Spanish settlers were very politically and economically dominant. Spanish women were seen as weak and in need of male protection. As these were earlier times, I still find it incredible that many would look down on women, even though they produced one's child. The Spanish did find this to be important among women but they believed in pure Spanish blood. They believed that the problem with women was that there were very few of them and the fact that they didn't want them to have a mixed-race population. 

intro to part 4

The Early Modern World 1450-1750

• An early modern era? 
• In this section, it talks about the globalization in European journeys and colonization of the Americas, the Atlantic slave trade, and ancient Asian trade routes. There were transfers of diseases, people, plants, and precious metals known as the Columbian exchange where there were routes across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Christianity also reached out to other parts of the world like the Philippines, Russia, the Americas, and more. The Scientific Revolution was one of the most modern cultural development where many people had different views of the world, gained more knowledge, and had a different understanding of religions like Christianity. As the world population was massively increasing, there were more economies developing in cities and housing inhabitants. Businesses and markets were producing for other markets far away than their local community, I guess for better profit. Military in various countries changed their weapons to more gunpowder and guns as they were more beneficial. This affected farming and ranching for farmers where the majority of the land was confiscated for military use. 
• A late agrarian era? 
• In the eighteenth century, China and Japan controlled European missionaries and merchants, and the African authorities controlled the slave trade. Besides Christianity being the largest religion to spread around the world, Islam eventually became the largest spreading faith in various countries. Social groups were a way to categorize people due to their work or community. There were lower, middle, and high class that organized groups of people. Gender equality was still an issue at this time, as well as mass poverty. In China, many people practiced Confucian values and social structures. Indians practiced Hinduism and Islam was maintained in the Eastern Hemisphere. 

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