Chapter 15 Religions and Science 1450-1750

I learned that in the early modern era of world history there was the birth of tow different cultural trends that would be very influential in the twenty-first century. The first major event was the spread of Christianity to Asians, Africans, and Native Americans who seemed to be returning a favor. The second major event even was an emergence of a modern scientific outlooks that challenged Western Christianity even as began to become global. During this time of new empires and new patterns of commerce, there was a connection between distant peoples from the novel of cultural transformations. Christianity was at first a tradition that was limited to Europe in 1500 but slowly become a world religion, being established in the Americans and the Philippines; then slowly spreading to Siberia, China, and Japan. At the same time, there was the rise of a cultural encounter that was between science and religion due to a new approach to knowledge that was taking shape among European thinkers of the Scientific Revolution. Science was a new way for people to think about life and became almost something of a new religion. Science quickly gained a worldwide acceptance that was far bigger then that of Christianity or any other religion. The cultural interactions during the early modern era, was not something small but very extreme and occurred in many ways. European political and economic expansion benefitted from the motivation from Christianity. Both Catholic Spain and the Portuguese viewed movement overseas as a continuation of a long crusading tradition. Columbus and Vasco de Gama's both hoped that the people of the land they discovered would convert to Christianity. Neither man felt like there was contradiction or hypocrisy though the blending of religious and material concerns. On page 726-727 we se a map that shows the globalization of Christianity, of growing Christian presence in Asia, Africa, and the America. Christianity, combined with older enters of that faith, all helped in giving the religion of Jesus a global dimension during the early modern era. Faith of different types was spread to other countries by colonial settlers and traders who hoped to replicate their beliefs in newly conquered homelands. This comes to show that colonial settlers and traders helped in spreading new beliefs and faiths to other countries.

Chapter 19 Documents Consider the Evidence: Changing China pp. 958-971

Today I learned about Gender, reform, and revolution from document 19.3. Like in many other countries, the question of women's role in society arose in China. A well-known advocate for women was Qiu Jin who lived from 1875 till 1907. Jin would do something in 1903 which was absurd to for a chines woman which was a leaving her husband and children to gain an education in Japan. Jin would begin a women's magazine and would become active in revolutionary circles when she returned in 1906. In 1907, Jin was arrested and beheaded for her role in trying to overthrow the Qing dynasty. A famous appeal of Jin's that is still seen today is An Address to Two Hundred Million Fellow Countrywomen. Jin begins her appeal by talking about how a young girl may be lucky if she has a good father but if her father is ill-tempered and unreasonable man, then he may make her life miserable. Then Jin goes on talking about how after a few years of growing up, her father will bind his daughter's feet with white cloth to stop them from growing; however, he does not know about the discomfort and pain that he puts his daughter through. Jin continues talking about how when it is time for a girl to get married, her future is not decided by her but by shameless matchmakers and a family that seeks rich and powerful in-laws. Here we see that there is no choice for a girl to choose a life that she wants for herself, but instead it is decided for her. Then after a girl is married she awaits either a life with a man that does her no harm meaning she should thank heaven for good fortune or the man is bad meaning she some sin in her previous life. Jin speaks out saying, "When Heaven created people it never intended such injustice because if the world is without women, how can men be born? Why is there no justice for women?" (Strayer 963). Which is a very honest argument saying that men should be more thankful for women and that women should be treated as equally as any other person. Jin speaks about how wojmen need to leave behind their former selves and must look forward to a new beginning. One in which women can make their own decisions and decide freely on how they want their life to be. If women continue to wait, then the time may never come to make a change because by then it will be far to late. If women don't unite and change, then Jin ends her address by saying that it will be too late for China will be destroyed. This is a very strong and meaningful address that opens the readers eyes.

Chapter 16 Atlantic Revolution, Global Echoes 1750-1914 (pp. 781-797)

I learned that the Haitian Revolution was the beginning to a large change that would begin to occur around the world from 1775 till 1825. Both the North American and French Revolutions would inspire the Haitians to be successful in overthrowing the the French rule and would help shape Latin America independence struggles. The Atlantic Revolution was entirely different from one country to another. This form of revolution was caused by different circumstances, that expressed different social and political tensions, and had different outcomes. One of the outstanding revolutions was the North American Revolution that occurred from 1775-1787. As we all learn in school growing up, the American Revolution was the struggle for independence from the oppressive rule of the British. Our struggle here in America began with the Declaration of Independence in 1776, that would lead to a military victory by 1781 and then a federal constitution being created in 1787 that joined the thirteen separated colonies into one new nation. This was one major change of the Atlantic world and would lead to a change in history with a new nation arising. From gaining its independence, the American Revolution would be a conservative movement for it origination revolved around preserving the existing liberties of the previous thirteen colonies that had unified and saved the time from creating new liberties. Differences were seen between Englishmen in England compared to Englishmen that were in the North American colonies. There still excisted a small class of wealthy men which consisted of Adamses, Washingtons, Jeffersons, and Hancocks. This small class of wealthy men would all wear wigs, trying to imitate the style in Europe and stood out in the political life. With the banishment of the Native Americans, and the lack of people, and since there was no nobility like in Europe meant that social life was far more open. White women as well as excluded slaves were not given the same status under the law as were all free men. Due to these conditions there was less poverty, more economic opportunity, fewer social differences, and easier relationship between the classes unlike life in Europe. By the creation of the new U.S. Constitution that included the Bill of Rights, checks and balances, separation of church and state, and federalism were all efforts that put the ideas of the Enlightenment into practice. This document still exist to this very day, the ideas that were accepted still echoed in the following centuries and would lead to far more changes to help the nation move forward.

Chapter 16 Echoes of Revolution 1750-1914 and Chapter 16 Documents

I learned from the Echoes of Revolution that many different changes would begin which were the abolition of slavery, nations and nationalism, and feminist beginnings. As we know the abolitions strived for the end of slavery; nationalist aimed for foster unity and independence from foreign rule; and feminists challenged male dominance. All of these movements may have begun in Europe and the americas, but each of these movements were key during the Atlantic revolutions, and would have a global significance for the centuries that would occur after. The abolition of slavery would occur after a little longer then a century, from 1780 to 1890, finally slavery had lost its legitimacy and was ended in many countries. For enlightenment thinkers in Europe during the eighteenth-century they saw slavery as a violation of natural rights of every person. The American and French revolutions both made public announcements of liberty and equality and was the focus of attention of these principles. Many different religious voices began to speak for antislavery, first were the Quakers and then Protestant evangelicals in Britain an the United States. Slavery to these two different groups was seen as offensive to their religion and was a crime in the eyes of God. These beliefs began to be accepted because people began to realize that slavery was not as important as they thought for economic progression. Many slaves began to push for the end of slavery thorough successful moments such as the Haitian Revolution that was followed by three other major rebellions in British West Indies. These rebellions demonstrated that slaves were not happy the way they were being treated and these revolts led to fear in the British public opinions. Many people of the British public began to thing in a manner of slavery being, "not only morally wrong and economically inefficient, but also politically unwise" (Strayer 799). These various forms of thinking came from secular, economic, and political that came together in abolitionist movements, that were most powerful in Britain; pushing the government to close down slave trade and eventually ban slavery altogether. As we see on page 799 there is a picture of an antislavery medallion that was created by English Quakers in the late eighteenth century. The Quakers were some of the earliest participants of the abolitionist movement and saw slavey as taking a person's natural rights away. Slavery should have ended far before this but in order for there to be change many people need to get together to speak out against what is happening. This is exactly what we saw during the Atlantic Revolution.

Chapter 19 Empires in Collision Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia 1800-1914

I learned that the Opium War is a memories of a that remains as a central element of China's education for the young, is a warning against the admiration of the West, and is a provided rejoinder to any Western criticism of China. An aggressive and industrializing West while having formal independence was how countries like China were dealing with the change. Other countries that were going through the same thing were Japan, the Ottoman Empire, Persia (currently Iran), Ethiopia, and Siam (currently Thailand). Latin America would also join these countries. Within these countries the governments would able to avoid the incorporation into European colonial empires, having the ability to resist the european aggression and were able to reform or transform their own societies. There were four dimension of the European moment in world history that these countries had to learn to deal with. The first is that had to face the military power and political ambitions of rival European states who wanted control. Second, the countries became involved with the networks of trade, investment, and sometimes migration that began form and industrializing and capitalist Europe that generates a new world economy. The third is that many aspects of traditional European culture influenced their own for some people would learn the French, English, or German language; some people changed religion by converting to Christianity; or began to study European literature and philosophy. The final thing is the engagement wit cult of modernity which was scientific rationalism; and its idea of nationalism, socialism, feminism, and individualism. When the countries encountered these epics, they would either resist, some would accommodate, and almost always adapt what came from the West. All of these countries were participants in the global drama of the nineteenth-century world history, and were not just passive victims or beneficiaries. Within this chapter the focus is primarily on China, the Ottoman Empire, and Japan. All of these countries including Latin America, provide a range of experiences, responses, and outcomes and opportunities for comparison. As we see from a photo in the book there would be modernization in Japan as well. Just like in Europe, in Japan railroads became popular as well and became a popular symbol of the modernization in the country. This modernization would help propel the country forward and lead to more advancements within the civilization of the people. Then we see from the map on pg. 955 that Japan modernized after the Meiji restoration, it would launch a empire-building program for further expansion in the 1930s and during world war II. This has come to show that Japan being one of many countries would move forward like many other countries were doing around the world.

Chapter 17 Documents pp. 862-877

From document 17.1 I learned about the experience of an english factory worker. There may have been a technological breakthrough during the Industrial Revolution but there was also a transformation in the organization of work that was demonstrated in the factory. What was different form an artisan's workshop was that the factory concentrated human labor to a single place and would separate workers from final products since they would assign workers specialized and repetitive tasks. The owners and managers would impose strict discipline in their factories and regulated workers lives according to clock time they said for efficiency and productivity. A worker was dependent on modest and uncertain income for economic survival since they were wage earners.  A person who was this type of worker was Elizabeth Bently who was a twenty three year old woman. Bentley would testify in 1831 mills. She would testify against William Harter who was a mill owner. Due to this occurring the result of the investigation, would cause the legislation in 1833 to limit the hours of employment for both women and children. Within the Testimony lot Elizabeth Bentley who was a factory worker we read about the harsh hours that she was given which was form five in the morning till nine at night. She had to endure these hard hours for around half a year. The punishment for Bentley if she was late or slacked a little was that she got strapped. Both boys and girls were given the same punishment of being strapped severely. The result of being strapped was that girls would have black marks on their skin and the parents could not speak out against the factory owner because they were afraid of losing their own job. Bentley couldn't even eat her food in the factory for she did not have much to eat and was always covered in dust. Bentley talks about how the factory workers were not allowed to go home for dinner and would dine in the mill. Many people lived far from the mill, like Bentley who lived two miles away. Bentley talks about how the girls were never beaten for being late; however there was a punishment for the boys. Bentley also talks about at the end of her testimony how she would be up at 2 o'clock in the morning waiting for the mill to open even when it was streaming down with rain. The harsh conditions that women and children had to endure was very painful and many suffered until finally there was change. Even with harsh conditions the women and children could not complain in fear of loosing their job which meant they could not make any money to take home. Although the industrial revolution brought about advancements in life not everyone was given equal treatment and people learned that they needed to speak out for what was right.

Chapter 17 Revolutions of Industrialization 1750-1914

The idea of industrialization since its beginning in Great Britain in late eighteenth century has been embraced by many types of societies because it generated lots of wealth and the power it conveyed. The industrial revolution would influence economy, social structures, and environment. The Industrial Revolution began independently in only one place, Western Europe, and to be exact in Great Britain. The previous breakthrough was the Agricultural Revolution that had occurred around 12,000 years before the industrial revolution and also altered the human way of life. Currently we don't know if the history of industrialization has ended and is still an unfinished story. We don't know if we are at  the beginning of a movement that leads to worldwide industrialization, in the middle of a world where there is division between the rich and poor countries, or approaching an end of an environmentally unsustainable industrial era. The Industrial Revolution was such a large movement that it could not be confined to Britain. It began to spread to continental Western Europe, then by the end of the nineteenth century it spread to countries like United States, Russia, and Japan. Now there was a globalization of industrialization that had begun. Wherever the industrialization was spreading to there was a range of similar outcomes for the countries. With the industrialization came new technologies and sources of energy that would increase production and unprecedented urbanization. There was a dramatic change in class structures for the middle classes and a factory working class grew in numbers as well as prominence while aristocrats, artisans, and peasants declined as classes. Women were not treated equally as men for they were given lower wages than males, had difficulty joining unions that formed, and were accused of taking jobs form men. Trade unions and socialist movements were formed due to working-calss frustration and anger, which became a new social conflict in industrial societies. The Industrial Revolution did not occur in the same manner and unfolded differently in diverse countries where it became based. Pace and timing of industrialization, the size and shape of major industries, the role of the state, the political expression of social conflict, and many other factors that made the process rich in possibilities were all differences of the industrialization in different countries. Some differences we saw was that in France industrialization was lower than in Britain. Then in Germany iron, steel, and coal was where the focus was on for heavy industry while in Britain the textile industry was most important. However the variations of the industrializing process was not more noticeable then in two countries that lay on the periphery of Europe which were the United States and Russia. The United States was a nation that was young, vigorous, democratic, expanding country, populated by people of European decent, along with a large number of slaves of African origin. As for Russia its Eastern Orthodox Christianity, an autocratic tsar, a huge population of serfs, and had an empire that stretched across all of the northern Asia. A French observer Alexis de Tocqueville commented on these two emerging giants in his book Democracy in America, "...Their starting-pint is different and their courses are not the same; yet each of them seems marked out by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe." Tocqueville was not wrong because the industrial revolution would turn both the United States and Russia into major global powers.

Chapter 18 Colonial Encounters in Asia and Africa 1750-1950

The colonial rule in Asia and Africa would occur in the nineteenth century from 1750-1914. Colonial Rule was controlled by mainly Europeans which were the British, French, Germans, Italians, Belgians, Portuguese, Russians, or Americans.  This European imperialism would involve not only colonizers, but colonized people as well who all would get caught up in the flood of change. Once countries became under European rule during the nineteenth century it was not easy for many people and places to incorporate themselves into a European colony where life would no longer be the same. The people affected most during the European colonial empires were small-scale societies for there was a loss of life, homes, cattle, crops, and land which greatly calamitous. Men like Nguyen Khuyen who was a senior Vietnamese official, would leave everything behind to live back in his ancestral village where he would farm and write poetry after the French conquest. Within his poems there is expressed is anguish of how much the way of living had changed and no longer there was any enjoyment to life because of the European colonialism. Many people began to do the same as Nguyen Khuyen where they would withdraw into a private life and fake an illness so that they would not have to serve in a public office under the French. The oppression of the French rule caused many people to suffer from seeing their people no longer ruling themselves and being told what to do. It is sad how people began to lose all hope in themselves and felt like there was nothing they could do. The people forgot that if they stayed together unified they were stronger in speaking out for their own right to rule themselves then trying to individually make a difference. Due to european rule many individuals began to willingly cooperate with colonial authorities to their own advantage. By joining European-led armed forces men would find themselves employed, have status, and security. Colonial rulers had to rely on local intermediaries because there was a shortage and expense of European administrators. So this made it difficult to communicating across cultural boundaries. People who benefited from this situation were Indian princes, Muslim emirs, and African rulers, elite or governing families, who were able to keep their status and privileges at the same time gaining wealth by exercising the authority they held. European education was promoted by both colonial governments and private missionary organizations. Due to this occurring there would be a small Western-educated class, whose members would serve in the colonial state, European business, and Christian missions as teachers, clerks, translators, and lower-level administrators. The Western-educated class began to be more depended on by the Europeans as colonial governments and business enterprises became more sophisticated and the more traditional elites began to be left out. This shows that even though the colonial rule was not great for the people there were some benefits of the Western-educated class getting a proper education and being able to begin to gain some control by being depended on more by europeans.

Yay- I'm done!