Globalization

When reading the final chapters of the book, I was thinking about the good and bad of Globalization. When you look at the numbers it shows that Nation-States that are open to individualism and global free trade seem to raise all levels of their citizens. It also shows that those nations that are able to raise their GDP because of their policies regarding global trade have as a side effect a larger gap between the socioeconomic upper class and the lower class. It is true that even the lower class is better off than they were before but they are not as enriched as the upper class of people who seem to be better situated to take advantage of the situation. This widening gap is what has caused all of the protests from the anti-globalists that recently have been protesting, sometimes violently, at the global organizations meetings. I have had different discussions with people coming from different sides of the argument. I come from a supply side economic theory which says that a rising tide raises all boats. I also look at it that there definitely needs to be a good amount of checks that should be adhered to and enforced so that businesses and people do not do anything that is unethical. One of the big problems is that even though there are international groups that are in place to make sure that everything with regards to the globalization is done correctly, they are also part of the problem as they can be influenced into doing the wrong thing for the wrong reason also. I do believe that the people do have some power regarding when they see businesses performing improperly and that is the new power of the internet and the power of financially hurting the business. It is now much easier to organize people to boycott businesses if they are found to be doing something unethical and the government or the global organizations will not do anything about it. People have the power it is just a matter of how they get organized and are able to use it.   

Two world wars and one great depression during the last 100 years

The most recent century shaped the world in many different ways. The world has undergone two world wars and one worldwide depression. The first war was designated as the Great War and was supposed to be the war to end all wars. After the war a worldwide depression set in during the 1920’s leading up to the next Great War, World War 2. After World War 1 and the Russian revolution in 1917, communism rose to become a political and social system favored by some countries. The countries did not believe that free market capitalism was the way for them to get out of the depression so they looked to socialism and communism as the collective to raise them up. Some countries put their trust with charismatic leaders who were able to gain absolute power over the nation at that time. Two countries that bought into the Nationalist Fascism movement were Italy and Germany. Germany and Italy along with Japan signed a tripartite pact in September 1940 which came to form the Axis powers. It was these three nations that went to war with the rest of the world. During this war the nature of who was targeted changed from those directly involved in the war to every citizen of the country. During the war there were large amounts of indiscriminate bombing that took place over cities and not military targets. Great Britain along with the United States and Russia formed the Allied forces that fought the Axis powers assault on the world. The end of the war happened as Russia and the United States were able to defeat Germany and the United States dropped the first atomic bomb used during warfare. Post World War 2 a cold war formed between the western world of democracies and the communist countries which centered on Russia.  

Atlantic Revolutions that layed the building blocks of current modern societies

The Atlantic Revolutions were the building blocks of modern society as we know it today. It was in these revolutions where the ideas of liberty, equality of all (with regards to white males) and religious freedoms began to take shape and stick in society. These ideas were far from the aristocracies of the past in where the upper class of citizenry ruled and were the only group allowed in the shaping of society through the political process. During the North American revolution, the 13 colonies fought back against the British rulers in order to break away and created their own government that was created to give power to the local people and take it away from the British Government. The revolution was about maintaining their independence that they were already accustomed to and make it official that they were an independent nation without British Rule. They were assisted in gaining their independence by the French who helped fight together with the colonists to create the nation that has become the United States of America. Some of the current ideas of freedom were written in the declaration of independence and the constitution of the United States of America. The French revolution followed the American Revolution but was of a different flavor due to the nature of how it came about. Where the colonists fought against a distant power that was a sea away, the French revolution was against the current ruling class that was oppressing the lower classes of people. The lower classes of people rose up in a violent fashion and eventually killed off the ruling monarchy and turned into chaos for a while. This was the direct result of the ideas of freedom of individuals from oppression and the freedom of representation within the government. During this revolution, the equality of gender roles were raised as there were some women that were given political authority which did not happen during the previous North American Revolution. This gender equality idea was eventually to be raised by the feminist movement in which women were to be seen as equals to men. The Haitian revolution was significant as being the first revolution where the oppressed people gained total control after the end of the revolution. It was the only revolt in which the Slave fought and gained their independence along with becoming the ruling party of the area.       

The interesting facts about West African Slavery and its effects on African Societies

While reading about the effects of the slave trade in Africa it was interesting to note the outcome of both the West African civilizations and where the slaves ended up. The impact was different depending on which region of the continent that you looked at. It was also noted in the readings that it was the outcasts from the society that ended up becoming victim to the slave trade. The different societies sold into slavery the people who they saw held no value to their societies. In some instances it is noted that the societies that sold their own into slavery also partakes in the ownership of slaves. They look at those that they keep as slaves as the prisoners of war or sometimes they were criminals so it was deemed ok to have them. It was also very interesting that the majority of slaves that were sold from the West African coast did not make it to Spanish America but were sold to Brazil and the Mediterranean for the sugar crop that needed to be harvested. The business of slave trading was looked at a nothing more than that of any other form of trade in the world. It was deemed as a need that the people who were involved in it saw that they were fulfilling for the rest of the world. During the early years of the trade it was deemed as necessary for them to partake in this in order for them to get what goods they desired from the oversea merchants. They saw it as providing a good for a good that was needed by each party involved in the trade. I was also surprised to read that the word slave is derived from earlier Slavic people who were used as slaves for the Mediterranean plantations. It was after the “Slav” slaves were no longer available when the West African slaves became the main source for the people to the world. Overall I believe that we in the western culture of the United States have a certain bias when we talk about slaves and through the reading of the chapter it helped to give a broader understanding of some of the history of slavery in the more modern world.

Pastoral Peoples

In reading about the pastoral peoples it was very interesting how they adapted to the different regions that enveloped the Mongol Empire. Depending on their need and what was available to them by geographical region, they made different choices that changed the way they interacted with the civilization that they were interacting with.

In some instances they maintained their life on the outskirts of the civilization and only interacted when they went to gather what they required and then returned back to the steppes to live. In other instances, the Mongols actually became acclimated in the new civilization that they were conquering and took on their customs and traditions. And yet in other instances they improved the infrastructure of the civilization in order help gather support of the lands that they invaded.

In each instance though, the Mongols conquered the civilizations in a very violent way which sometimes included wiping out everyone that lived in the area they conquered. They demanded their conquered people to serve as slaves and moved the tradesman that they conquered around as they saw fit in order to do jobs that they saw as necessary. If the people did not submit then the Mongols would completely wipe them out and destroy their homes and villages.

One interesting fact was the way that the Mongols treated their females compared to other civilizations. The Mongols put the females on an equal footing and let them socialize freely. They did not seek to control their females as the conquered civilizations sought to do. The treatment of the females among the Mongols was looked at in disdain by all of the civilizations that they conquered.

In each of the different areas of the empire, it seems that the Mongols were not able to maintain their structure without having a strong leader to keep them aligned. When their strong leaders were gone, each of the tribes fell back into warring with each other which eventually ended their rule of the largest land based empire in the history of the world. 

Late Classical Era - Trade routes that fostered the reach of religion

The third wave of civilizations included the time line between 500 – 1500 C. E. This was a time of great trade that both increased the scope of influence of different thoughts regarding both religion and political structure. There were multiple roads that fostered trade between different civilizations and different regions of the globe. The routes included over land and by sea. The land routes were helped along by the different types of animals that were able to assist with the transport of goods for commerce. The people that traveled the routes engaged in commerce trading their goods for different types of goods that they would bring back to their homeland. Sometimes, the travelers would end up staying in the different lands helping to spread their ideas about their type of religion that they practiced and different types of political ways from the area that they traveled from.

Following the trade routes also lead to different diseases spreading to different geological regions. They were particularly devastating in communities that had not built up immunities to the diseases. Some parts of the world lost up to half of their population in a very short amount of time due to the black plague that was spread from rats that carried the plague.

During this time of history, the spread of Islam became larger as Islam actively encouraged trade. Other religions that spread during this time were Buddhism and Christianity. A lot of the materials that were traded were the luxury items that were for the affluent in the different regions of the globe. This trade also helped transfer different technologies from the area of origin to where the materials were used.

The effect of trade during this period of history was a catalyst to the exchange of ideas and the migration of thought that continued the evolutionary process of different civilizations. 

The rise and fall of civilizations - How did it happen?

When looking back at world history, it is sometimes difficult to determine the exact cause of the rise and fall of civilizations. Different civilizations seem to rise at the same time in different geological regions with completely different social and political structures. Even with different social and political structures, most seem to end by the relatively same means. It seems that the civilization grows and is stable for a while but after a certain amount of time, some kind of unrest happens. The unrest may be warring with neighbors, the overthrow of the political leaders by the people who feel that they are oppressed or by becoming physically too large to maintain control of the entire region. I wonder if the “oppression: is a naturally evolving human reaction to when there is a social status that is put in place when people are living in close proximity with each other. You would think that civilizations would learn from the past history to see that in the end, people will revolt against that and it will bring chaos and the end of the current structure.

It also seems that the second wave of civilizations seemed to incorporate the farther reaching religious philosophies no matter what form it becomes. There are multiple different religions that have evolved that seem to try and answer the reasons on why we are here and what it looks like on the other side. In China, different philosophies have also changed in the same region over time. They have moved from Confucius philosophy to Dao philosophy and legalism or some type of hybrid that tries to take into account all three. China has also looked back into the past to try and revive its philosophy on what worked in the past when the current socioeconomic system is in disarray.

Overall it seems that even cultures and civilizations that have a long span of control eventually disappear. The question now is when will it happen again and will it be only regional or will it involve all people?