Chapter 24 (pg. 747-755)

In 2000, global warming was a big concern due to a lot of the burning of fossil oils and loss of trees. The earths population has quadrupled in the 20th century. I could definitely agree with that with all the babies popping out now a days. Asia's population was the biggest part of that increase. Global environmental issues have overshadowed a lot of things. Germany, environmentalists entered politics as the Green Party. In the 1970's-1980's the environmental concerns in developing countries involved the lower class, focusing on saving threatened people, rather than plants and animals and concerned with food security, health, and survival. I believe in the developing countries those are things to be focused on. Going "green" is a positive thing for the environment. I see numerous hybrid cars, trucks and buses around the area. The whole "no more plastic bags" measure that passed in san jose and starting next week will be in san mateo county is positive thing for the environment. Global environmentalism focuses on sustainability and restraint. As the years pass, I do see more people going green and caring more about the environment. Especially if bills are passed to get us to break out of our habits that negatively effect the environment.

Globalization

Globalization is the international economic transactions and increased after world war 2.  The Bretton Woods system promoted relatively free trade, stable currencies linked to the U.S. dollar, high levels of capital investment. It also established the world bank and international monetary fund. There are easier ways to communicate with other people around the world. The use of technology which definitely has helped globalization because you can do pretty much anything on the internet or on a smart phone. From depositing and transferring money to bank accounts to applying to employment and education. Unfortunately, globalization does not have benefits to everyone. In other countries, it has only deepened the poor and wealthy class gap. 

Putin's Challenge

I can't help but sympathize for the circassians and be extremely upset with Putin for how he displayed no remorse when he placed his bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. The circassians are trying to save what is left of their culture and Russia is just wrong for ignoring the history of these individuals. Not only did millions of them die fighting for their land, others were ran completely out of it. Sochi should not host the Olympics there and should show respect to the buried individuals and allow those circassians who are still in other areas to come back and live there without any issues. Why didn't the US jump into this issue and stop Putin from placing his bid? Why is it acceptable to act like circassians never existed at all. Turkey has acted as if they never existed when a lot of them fled there for help. Putin has been in office for years and has a vision for a better russia but he's not acting upon what his vision for russia is by hosting the olympics. I agree with those individuals who are protesting the Olympics. The SND hallmarks are:

• We proclaim by our lives and even more by our words that God is good. 
• We honor the dignity and sacredness of each person
• We educate for and act on behalf of justice and peace in the world
• We commit ourselves to community service
• We embrace the gift of diversity
• We create a community among those with whom we work and with those whom we service. 
• Develop hollistic learning communities which educate for life

Feminism

The feminist movement may have caused a lot of attention in the 1960's but I believe the same issues that a lot of women around the world fought for are still existent today. Women still do not get equal pay as men in the work force, men still believe a woman's role is in the house, even the right to have a choice to have an abortion or not. While woman have been granted the right to vote and to receive the same education as men. In other parts of the world, the feminist movement wasn't solely about gender. People believed that feminism undermined the family life. The "women's rights are human rights" slogan was very true.

Dolores Huerta

It was a pleasure to go see Dolores Huerta last month when she came to visit campus. It was surprising to see so many people fill the theater. Prior to attending the event, I did not know who Dolores was and how much of an impact she made on civil rights. While I did not enjoy having to stand up the whole event, it was very cute to see the children who came to dance for Dolores and the speech given prior to her speech. Dolores worked very closely with Cesar Chavez and co-founded the National Farm Workers Association which was later named the United Farm Workers. In her speech, she talked about the struggles Cesar and she went through and how they used non violent ways to achieve justice. She pointed out how many prisons are being built verses universities and the constant struggle for equality  between men and women. She has been honored by so many associations and powerful people that it was truly an honor to hear her speak.

Chapter 22

The berlin wall was built in 1961 to separate East Berlin and West Berlin. During the time, Communism was a promise of liberation. Communist regimes had transformed their societies

The communism period provided a major political/ideological threat to the Western world like the cold war, scrambling for influence in the third world between the United States and the USSR then it collapsed. Communism was inspired by Karl Marx, who believed Communism was the final stage of historical development, with full development of social equality and collective living. The peak of the communism era was in the 1970's with 1/3 of the world's population governed by it. Communist revolutions drew on the mystique of the French Revolution by getting rid of landed aristocracies and the old ruling classes,  involving peasant upheavals in the countryside; educated leadership in the cities. The French, Russian, and Chinese revolutions all looked to a modernizing future. Communist revolutions were made by highly organized parties guided by a Marxist ideology and the middle classes were among the victims of communist upheavals, where the middle classes were chief beneficiaries of French Revolution. The revolution of Russia occurred in 1917. In October of 1917, Bolsheviks seized power and began a three year civil war. During the war, the Bolsheviks strengthened their tendency toward authoritarianism and regulated the economy. In 1921, the Chinese Communist Party was founded and grew immensely and transformed its strategy under Mao Zedong. The Chinese Communist Party's People’s Liberation Army waged vigorous war against Japanese invaders using guerrilla warfare tactics. Joseph Stalin built a socialist society in the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s. Mao Zedong did the same in China in the 1950s and 1960s by using modernization and industrialization and attacked gender and social inequalities. The USSR declared full legal and political equality for women where divorce, abortion, pregnancy leave, women’s work were all enabled or encouraged. In 1919, the USSR’s Communist Party set up Zhenotdel which pushed a feminist agenda, which of course male communist officials and ordinary people often opposed it and Stalin abolished it in 1930. In China, the Marriage Law of 1950 ordered free choice in marriage, easier divorce, the end of concubinage and child marriage, and equal property rights for women. The Great Purges in the USSR resulted in a million people were executed between 1936 and 1941. The Cultural Revolution occurred from 1966–1969 and escaped control of communist leadership. Western Europe was  considered the american sphere was voluntary and the Eastern Europe was imposed to the creation of rival military alliances of the NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The spread of communism in China caused North Korea to invade South Korea in 1950. The communist era ended rapidly and peacefully between the late 1970s and 1991, In China when Mao died in 1979, in Europe when movements overthrew it in 1989. Both showed the economic and moral failure of communism. China grew into a “strange and troubled hybrid” that combines nationalism, consumerism, and new respect for ancient traditions while the Soviet Union broke up. 

Chapter 21

With Europeans in control of most parts of the world, the balance of power in Europe was split between two rival alliances: Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria, Italy) and Triple Entente (Russia, France, Britain) when a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, a heir to the Austrian throne. Austria was determined to destroy the nationalism movement and Serbia had Russia along with Russia’s allies behind it. A war broke out by August of 1914. Causes of the war were industrialized militarism, Europe’s colonial empires, popular nationalism which resulted in over ten million deaths and twenty million people wounded. Germany was defeated in 1918. The women began working in factories to replace the men, labor unions were sacrificed, questioning of Enlightenment values and the superiority of the West and its science. The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 resulted in Germany losing its colonial empire and 15 percent of its European territory, required to pay heavy reparations, suffered restriction of its military forces, accept sole responsibility for the outbreak of the war and resented the treaty immensely. During this time, Woodrow Wilson’s ideas Fourteen Points and League of Nations became popular by the Europeans. Wilson's vision largely failed, and the U.S. Senate refused to join the league. In 1929, the great depression happened. The great depression when contracting stock prices wiped out paper fortunes, and many lost their life’s savings. The world trade dropped 62 percent within a few years businesses contracted and unemployment soared; reached 30 percent in Germany and the United States in 1932. The causes of the the great depression were factories and farms produced more goods than could be sold, Europe was impoverished by WWI and didn’t purchase many American products and started producing more of its own goods. Capitalist governments had thought that the economy would regulate itself, some states turned to “democratic socialism,” with greater regulation of the economy and more equal distribution of wealth. President Franklin Roosevelt came up with the New Deal. The New Deal idea of public spending programs permanently changed the relationship between government, the private economy, and individual citizens which efforts to “prime the pump” of the economy, Social Security, minimum wage, and welfare as an economic safety net for the poor, creation of permanent agribusiness through farm subsidies and a vast array of new government agencies to supervise the economy. As far as democracy goes, fascism was big in Europe, the Nazi power ruled Germany and Authoritarianism was important in Japan. In 1931, Japanese military units seized control of Manchuria. In 1937, an attack started WWII and the Japanese felt threated. The United States imposed an oil embargo on Japan and the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred in December 1941. The results of WWII were 60 million people died in WWII, 40% of those deaths were from the USSR, the holocaust where Nazi's killed millions and left the United States the only country not impacted by WWII. 

Chapter 20

The period 1750–1900 was a second phase of European colonial conquest which focused on Asia and Africa. Germany, Italy, Belgium, U.S., Japan were also in apart of this.

The second wave was not demographically catastrophic like the first wave, it was affected by the Industrial Revolution. Europeans preferred informal control. The original European military advantage lay in organization, drill, and command structure. There were numerous wars and the westerns always won them. The Europeans developed an enormous firepower advantage with repeating rifles and machine gun. India and Indonesia grew from interaction with European trading firms by assisted by existence of many small and rival states. In most of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific islands deliberate conquest. “The scramble for Africa” was based on inter-European rivalry over only about 25 years (1875–1900) In Australia and New Zealand were more like the colonization of North America with massive European settlement and diseases killing off most of the native population. In Taiwan and Korea, the Japanese takeover was done European-style while United States and Russia continued to expand and Liberia was settled by freed U.S. slaves. Colonial rule had a deep impact on people’s ways of working.

The world economy increasingly demanded Asian and African raw materials; subsistence farming diminished the need to sell goods for money to pay taxes and desire to buy new products. Asian and African merchants were squeezed out by Europeans. Many colonial states demanded unpaid labor on public projects. The worst abuses were in the Congo Free State

personally governed by Leopold II of Belgium. The reign of terror killed millions with labor demands and forced labor caused widespread starvation, as people couldn’t grow their own crops. Belgium finally stepped in and took control of the Congo to stop abuses. In precolonial Africa, women were usually active farmers and had some economic autonomy. Women and mens roles were different: men tended to dominate the lucrative export crops, while women were left with almost all of the subsistence work and a large numbers of men migrated to work elsewhere while women were left home to cope, including supplying food to men in the cities. The colonial economy also provided some opportunities to women especially small trade and marketing, sometimes women’s crops came to have greater cash value, some women escaped the patriarchy of husbands or fathers which led to greater fear of witchcraft and efforts to restrict female travel and sexuality. By getting a Western education created a new identity for many people, the almost magical power of literacy, escape from obligations like forced labor, gave access to better jobs and social mobility and elite status. The widespread conversion to Christianity in New Zealand, the Pacific islands, and non-Muslim Africa. Around 10,000 missionaries had gone to Africa by 1910 and by the 1960s, some 50 million Africans were Christian. Christianity was associated with modern education, spread through native africans and gave opportunities to the young, the poor, and many women.

Chapter 18

Chapter 18 starts out talking about Mahatma Gandhi and how he criticized industrialization as economic exploitation. The Industrial Revolution was one of the most significant elements of Europe’s modern transformation that happened from 1750–1900. The industrial revolution was similar to the Scientific Revolution and transformed European society. The industrial revolution was the most fundamental revolution since the Agricultural. The Revolution pushed Europe into a position of global dominance. At the heart of the Industrial Revolution lay a great acceleration in the rate of technological innovation, leading to enormous increases in the output of goods and services. use of new energy sources like steam engines in Britain, output increased some fifty fold in the period 1750–1900 based on a “culture of innovation”. Prior to 1800, the major Eurasian civilizations were about equal technologically. The revolution's greatest breakthrough was the steam engine which soon spread from the textile industry to many other types of production and agriculture was transformed. The revolution spread from Britain to Western Europe, then to the United States, Russia, and Japan and became global in the twentieth century.  The middle classes had the most obvious gains from industrialization. The upper middle class became extremely wealthy, and middle class women were mothers, homemakers and wives. I felt like they could have done more than just be wives, mothers and homemakers but clearly the woman's evolution did not start at this time. The lower middle class was 20% of Britain's population and they were clerks, secretaries and other occupations. 70% of Britain's population were working class citizens who benefited least from industrialization. industrial factories offered a very different work environment which included long hours, low wages, and child labor were typical for the poor workers. Trade unions were legalized in 1824

and saw a growing numbers of factory workers joined them. The unions fought for better wages and working conditions and the upper class people were terrified of them. During this time, a great Philosopher and socialist by the name of Karl Marx, spoke about argued that capitalism can never end poverty

                                  

Chapter 17

The Atlantic revolution consisted of the french invasions of Egypt, Poland and Russia and helped abolish slavery and give women the rights we deserve. The equality principles helped socialism and communism. The revolutions of North America, Europe, Haiti, and Latin America influenced one another by getting out of the European Enlightenment, popular sovereignty, 

The North American Revolution lasted from 1775 to 1787. The revolution was a conservative political movement that aimed to preserve colonial liberties, rather than get new ones, for most of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the British North American colonies had much local autonomy. A few colonies thought about breaking away from Britain before 1750.

Britain was in a need for money for its global war with France so they imposed a number of two taxes and tariffs on the colonies. British North America was revolutionary for the society that had already emerged and had no significant social transformation came with independence from Britain. The revolution accelerated democratic tendencies that were already established, political power remained in the hands of existing elites and property requirements for voting were lowered and property rights stayed intact. 

During this time the U.S. Constitution came into place and helped put the enlightenment political ideas into practice. The french revolution happened between 1789 to 1815. During this time, the french government was facing bankruptcy because of their tax system. King Louis XVI called the estates general to raise taxes. In French Revolution was fired up by social conflicts such as the middle classes resentment to aristocratic privileges, peasants oppressed and inflation and unemployment. This revolution was violent, the king and queen were executed in 1793, the terror killed tens of thousand of people. France ended up being divided into 83 territorial departments and created a massive army with all adult males being required to fight. The haitian Revolution happened from 1791 to 1804. Majority of the population were slaves. The revolution resulted in the slaves getting the power and was a success.It ended with equality for al races and plantations being divided between small farmers. The spanish american revolution lasted from 1810 to 1825. During this time, leaders of independence movements appealed to the lower classes in terms of nativism and all free people born in the Americas were Americanos. American and French revolutions focused attention on slaves’  lack of liberty and equality. Brazil was the last latin american country to abolish slavery in 1888. 

Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

As a Christian, it was insightful to read about the spread of Christianity. In 1500, Christianity was mostly limited to Europe. It was apart of small communities in Egypt, Ethiopia, southern India, and Central Asia. Christianity were on the defensive against Islam due to the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 as well as the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1529.

Imperialism made the globalization of Christianity possible because the settlers and traders brought their religion with them. The Portuguese missionaries led in Africa and Asia, while the russian orthodox missionaries worked in siberia and the spanish and french missionaries were in the americas. The European missionary success encouraged belief that the old gods had been defeated and the missionaries were successful the most in spanish america and the philippines. Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Confucians resisted Christianity more. 

                                                

Christianity reached China in the powerful, prosperous Ming and Qing dynasties and needed government assistance to operate a missionary strategy. Jesuits targeted the official Chinese elite and appreciated astronomical, cartographical, technological and mathematical skills. In early eighteenth century,papacy and other missionary orders opposed Jesuit accommodation policy was regarded as an affront to Chinese culture and the emperor’s authority.

African types of Christianity came to the Americas with the slaves. Some of their syncretic religions (Vodou, Santeria, Candomble, Macumba) were also around. Wahhabism was an Islamic movement founded by Abd al-Wahhab who was a theologian. Wahhabism was based on the restoration of absolute monotheism, end veneration of saints and strict adherence to the sharia. During this time, the state was "purified" where women were expected to subject themselves to husbands, taxes were abolished, tobacco, hashish, and musical instruments were banned and idols were destroyed. I don't agree with the treatment of women in Wahhabism but given the time, I know that it's expected.

In the early modern period, the ming and qing dynasty China still operated within a Confucian framework. Kaozheng helped the Chinese elite with an emphasized the need for analysis, instead of unsupported speculation, led to new works on agriculture, medicine, etc., critical analysis of ancient historical documents and a scientific approach to knowledge. The Bhakti movement came from India which helped bring the hindus and muslim together. Bhakti appealed to women, set aside caste distinctions, effort to achieve union with the divine through songs, prayers, dances, poetry, and rituals.

Chapter 14

Chapter 14 is titled Empires and Encounters. The chapter begins with how Uighurs sought independence from China and Native Americans protesting against the 500th anniversay of Columbus discovery of America. I found the president of Indigenous Women's Network quote to be interesting because it's not very frequent that you hear someone speak negatively of Columbus. Russians constructed a major empire, the Qing dynasty China doubled in size, Mughal Empire of India pulled together the Hindus and Muslims. Western European empires dealt with maritime expansion. The portuguese established themselves in Brazil, the spaniards focused on the caribbean, aztec and inca empires, British, French and Dutch in North America while the Europeans were in most of the americas by the mid-nineteenth century. The Europeans had an advantage due to the geography, need of chinese and indians rich markets, rivalry with intersate

The collapse of native american societies happened pre-columbian western hemisphere once had  the population of 60 to 80 million who had no immunity to old world diseases that the Europeans brought and killed 90% of the population. Due to all of these moralities, there was a labor shortage which helped Europeans and African slaves create new societies in the americas along with their plants and animals. Wheat, rice, sugarcane, grapes and other vegetables and fruits became popular during this time. Corn, potatoes and cassava spread through the eastern hemisphere. Corn and potatoes helped the population in Europe go from 60 million to 390 million in 500 years. The exchange of plants and animals helped the biological environment of the planet. Due to communication, migration, trade, transfer of plants and animals became known as "the Columbian exchange" The atlantic connected four continents. Europeans benefited the most out of this exchange. 

Europeans also created new societies that were shaped by mercantilism and believed in closed markets for other country's manufactured goods. The spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires  gave Spain the most wealthy, urbanized, and populous regions of the Western Hemisphere as well as established major cities, universities, and a religious and bureaucratic infrastructure. The mestizo population became majority of the mexican population by the nineteenth century. Indian women had a desire to the security of a spanish household where children would not be subject to abuse and harsh demands mades on native people. Spaniards looked down on the mestizos. 

Sugar was in high demand in Europe where they used as a medicine, spice, sweetener, preservative and in sculptured forms as a decoration that indicated high status. Arabs had a large-scale sugar production into the Mediterranean. Europeans learned it and transferred it to Atlantic islands and Americas. Portuguese on Brazilian coast dominated the world sugar market 1570–1670 until the British, French and Dutch in the Caribbean became highly productive sugar producing colonies and broke the portuguese and brazillian monopoly. Sugar's production in Brazil and the Caribbean had production labor intensive, called first modern industry and was produced with massive slave labor.

British colonist tried to escape elements of European society. By 1750, the british outnumbered spaniards in New World 5 to 1. England was protestant who didnt proselytize like the catholics. Russian 

Chapter 15

The slave trade was a part of the international trading network that shaped the world between 1450 and 1750. Even to this day, slavery is a big deal to a lot of people. I personally wanted to see the Django film over winter break but my grandmother refused when she heard it was about slavery. I know and accept where my ancestors have came from but hate the ignorance people have today when it comes to african americans and slaves. 

Columbus and Vasco da Gama both sought a route to Asia because they both wanted spices. During this time, the europeans were recovering from the black death. Also during this time, there were issues in the old trade systems from the Indian Ocean network such as Muslims controlled supply, Venice was chief intermediary for trade with Alexandria; other states resented it and the desire to find Prester John and enlist his support in the Crusades. Spain was the first to challenge Portugal’s control of Asian trade by establishing a Spanish base in the Philippines. The spaniards full colonial rule takeover happened during  1565-1650. The Philippines remained a Spanish colonial territory until 1898, when the United States assumed control. Spaniards introduced forced relocation, tribute, taxes, unpaid labor where there were large estates for Spanish settlers, religious orders, and Filipino elite and sadly the women’s ritual and healing roles were attacked. I didn't agree with how the women's roles during this time were attacked when they were doing positive things for people, but men are going to do what they want to do even if that belittles the women they are surrounded by. In the early seventeenth century, the dutch and english were competing with each other when they displaced the Portuguese and entered Indian Ocean commerce. Dutch and British East India companies were chartered by their respective governments both had power to make war and govern conquered peoples.They both established their own colonies. Dutch empire was focused on Indonesia while the English empire was focused on India.

The silver trade was even more important than the spice trade in creating a global exchange network. The enormous silver deposits were discovered in Bolivia and Japan in the mid-sixteenth century. In the early modern period, Spanish America produced around 85 percent of the world’s silver. The Philippines were the critical link between Spanish America and Asian markets. The Chinese government consolidated taxes into a single tax  to be paid in silver

and the value of silver skyrocketed. Foreigners with silver could purchase more Chinese products than prior times.

Yay I'm done!