Chapter 15 Part 2: The Slave Trade In Context

When it comes to slavery the first race/group that comes to everyone's mind is the African Americans.  But what caught me off guard was that African Americans were not the 1st slaves, which is what I always thought.  It was the Slavic people who were the first slaves.  Another interesting thing was that the word Slave came form "Slav' referring to the Slavic people.  It amazed me that during the 15th century, the practice of slavery was just like owning a pet, it was widely accepted.  Trade between the Europeans and Africans all took place in the Mediterranean World. Europeans provided products like sugar, honey, and fruits while Africa provided a variety of slaves.  There were charts on pg 454 that caught my attention, which rightfully should.  The first chart explained the rise and decline of slavery, where slavery started off slowly until the 1600's where it increased dramatically.  During the years of 1751-1775 was when slavery was at it's peak where over 60 thousand slaves where imported to the US.  In 1870 slavery was abolished.  The second chart talks about the location of slavery where the America's had the lowest.  British North America and US only had 348,000 slaves combined, but Brazil and the Caribbean combined had over 5,000,000 slaves between 1450-1750.  It is amazing how slavery was widely accepted in those times.

Chapter 15: Global Commerce

This chapter talks about the different trade routes where goods were being traded.  The main key to success in order to be wealthy was the idea of Commerce, which drove globalization.  The Europeans wanted to be part of the trade in order to obtain spices from places like India. The Europeans wanted a commercial connection with the Asians since they were in demand of spices.  At the same time Spain and Portugal both wanted to take control of the Asian trade.  If you take over the Asian trade who were in demand with spices from place like India, then they gain the supplies and can sale it in order to gain profit.  Both Vasco da Gama and Columbus wanted routes to Asia because their main object they desired were spices.  In time the silver trade came into play after the spice trade.  85% of silver was located in Spanish America, and due to the discovery of silver in Spanish America they became luxurious because of it.  Then came the hut for fur, which was in high demand at the time and there were intense competitions over animals fur, but the supply was slightly decreasing.  There were a ton of countries that demanded fur, but rather than hunting for the fur themselves, they relied too much on trade.  At the end of the day it was all about getting the product and exporting it for a high price.  As the expression goes:  money and power make the world go round. 

DGP Chapter 4: Sweet Nexus: Sugar And The Origins Of The Modern World

If you ever watch a mob movie like: Goodfellas or Scarface you notice that the men in those movies made a living by exporting goods.  It was their source of wealth and power.  At the same time it lead to war.  Empires in Western Europe had many resources that they exported to other countries.  One important resource at the time was sugar, which was seen as luxury.  It was their source of power.  The discovery of sugar at the time was sort of like importing and selling high class drugs, except it was legal and it did not kill you.  At the same time the discovery of sugar lead to a war for the product between nations like the French and British since it was seen that only people of royalty could have sugar.  Plus people  became slaves who were ordered to grow commodities.  Like the native people of the Americas for instance.  Who worked for no wage and long hours and treated as only objects that can be replaceable.  The discovery of sugar and the results it can bring to a person or an empire like wealth, is what inspires modern American.  To be on top of the world selling goods, only now its about a different type of sugar.

Chapter 14: Empires And Encounters Part 2

The remaining pages of Chapter 14 mostly revolves around the Russian and Asian Empires.  The Russian Empire at that time became the world's largest state.  It was centered in Moscow where it emerged form Mongol rule.  As we learned last semester, the Mongol's conquered by force where they completely wiped out villages and cities.  Through the use of organization and modern weapons, the Russian Empire grew fast.  The Russian empire was diverse and lasted for a long time until it's fall 1991, which was when the Soviet Union collapsed.  It lasted for a long time.  The Asian Empires on the other hand were more regional than global.  The interesting thing was that the Asian Empire did not deal with any diseases like other empires since they were expanding to new places. 

Chapter 14: Empires And Encounters

his chapter talks about the expansion of European empires.  Mainly due to the advantages they had.   For instance when it comes to the location, they were closer to unclaimed territory of the Americas then Asian countries.  The nation of Spain is well known for conquering ancient Mexico and the Aztecs when Hernan Cortes lead an expedition to the ancient city of Teotiachuan and caused the fall of the ancient civilization.  The Spanish mainly focused on Central America and the majority parts of Southern America.  While the English conquered the northern part of America and the East Coast.  The French gained the central part of modern day America.  And Portugal conquered what is now known as Brazil.  Most of these colonies farmed for sugar.  Other colonies like the British wanted to spread their religious beliefs and values to other nations, notably the Native Americans.  An interesting fact that many people don't know was that before Columbus, the Chinese sailed the seas and discovered America.  Not to mention that the Native Americans have lived there for most of their lives, Columbus was just a guy who found America dead last.