Documents in Chapter 18

As I was reading the documents in chapter 18, they all mostly seemed to be in favor of the Europeans except for document 18.4. This image stood out to me more than the others because it depicted a  realistic image of what was going on to the people being taken over in the Imperialist fashion. Among those involved in the second wave of European conquests there was Britain and France, like in the picture standing over many skeletons and even though they were not in such perfect agreement, they would not have time to fight each other since they were too busy conquering and killing natives of places like Denshway or Morocco. Document 18.5 also stood out to me since at the time, most of Africa was taken over by Europeans, but Ethiopians remained strong together under their emperor. Sadly, the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik also used his power to join the scramble for African land and used brutal force.

Chapter 18

It really got my attention in this reading how the industrial Revolution really impacted trade between Europe and Asia since before the revolution, they had nothing to offer Asia. Europe was now able to trade with all countries and invest money in them. I find it also very interesting on the fact that it seems the Europeans came up with a new way to discriminate. They no longer had slaves, but still considered all else as second-class citizens and the Aryan race to be the supreme ones. What's worse is that they twisted real scientist's words, like Charles Darwin, into making it seem biology was also involved in them being the higher and better race. They were the ones who wanted to make it seem slavery was bad but never got over the idea of superiority and it only got worse with Nationalism. They felt pride in what their countries were doing by having colonies in different parts of the world.

It's interesting to see that before, in the first wave of European conquests, the Spanish and Portuguese had a big role but in the second only minor ones. It was now Germany, Italy, Belgium, the U.S., and Japan. It's very unfair hat the Europeans could not be stopped since they had machine guns. India seemed to had it over too easily to the British since they had already been trading through the British East India Company.

Lower Class of the Industrial Revolution

It is very sad to think of all the suffering the lower class had to go through in England during the Industrial Revolution when there was so much money to go around. Reading through Elizabeth Bentley and her experience, what stood out to me was the obviously horrid working conditions and he fact that she had been working at that mill since the age of 6. She had to sometimes work from 13 to 16 hours a day depending on how busy they were. She got punished by the overseer for being late by being "strapped" and if she was late, she got taken away some of the money she could possibly earn, which was not much. Even if she was not late and worked especially hard, there would be no point since during her measly 40 minutes of break time she could not eat and her food was taken from her and given to pigs to feed. There was no reimbursement from that stolen food from the overseer. The document called Thrift mentioned that even parliament didn't try to help these people. Where was the ideas of Enlightenment now? In Thrift, it mentions women were practically treated as animals. It was very unfair that in those times so one tried much to do anything about the unfair treatment of women and children especially. Thank God for the countries finally having laws and regulations for their workers and how sad that this is still going on today in other parts of the world.

Martin Luther

After reading the document in Strayer's book about what Martin Luther said in his published work, Table Talks, I can understand why Protestants really needed to branch out. I almost agree with most of the things he ha to say about the Catholic Church at that time. The pope only cared really about having power, as did bishops and meanwhile, common people were dying of hunger. I can see why he would allow Protestants to marry. The pope today even has been heard saying it would make for a better Church, but then again, our pope today has many radical ideas. Now, don't get me wrong, I think it would be wonderful if priests everywhere were allowed to marry and raise families, I'm just saying it's very radical for the Catholic Church. Martin Luther took verses in the bible very seriously and said, "Christ with one sentence confutes all their arguments: God created them man and female... Now eating, drinking, marrying, etc, are all of God's making, therefore they are good..." (755). This only makes me think more that women should have a higher role in the church and perhaps all priests of all religions should be allowed that marrying option. I definitely do not agree on his views that women can learn but only serve their families though. Even today women are not allowed an active role in the Catholic Church and I think that reflects a lot on how little society has changed in its respect to women.

Sweet Nexus, Putting a Not So Sweet Price on a Human Being

 

So, I really liked reading Sweet Nexus: Sugar and the Origins of the Modern World. What really made me think a lot was the advertisement for sugar that the East India Co. had  made to sell sugar for the British. As a person with a major in business, it makes perfect sense for the East India Co. to try and use that angle for marketing. It made me happy though that they saw a need to do that. I was glad that British women were no longer buying sugar from places that used slaves because people were starting to care about the products they bought. The little side note on the bottom stated, "A family that uses 5lb. of Sugar per week , will, by using East India instead of West India, for 21 months, prevent the slavery, or murder of one fellow creature. Eight such families in 19.5 years, will prevent the slavery, or murder of 100!". This really made me think that, after reading all the other articles, that it might even be a bigger number. It made me think that it was even worse though that they could put a value on a persons life. Compare the life of a human being to that of sugar. This really did get the ball rolling though on abolitionist movement thankfully.

YAY! All Done!