Chapter 17,18 and 20

Chapters 17 18 and 20 are some of the only chapters I have read so far that are covering material I remember covering in the past.

Chapter 17 is about the all the different atlantic revloutions. The chapter compares the North American Revolution, The French revolution, The Haitian revolution and the Spanish revolution. At the end of these revolutions three movements were taking place. The abolitionists sought the end of slavery; Nationalists hoped to do away with disunity and foreign rule; and feminists tried to end or at least mitigate, male dominance. What I found most intriguing to read about in this chapter was the feminist movement. This was the third "echo" from the Atlantic revolutions. We have come along way in terms of women being equal to men, but it is still a thriving issue in some parts of the world. It was interesting to read about the start of the feminist movement, and how the French purposed new ways to possibly re-create human societies on new foundations, thus striking women's attention and becoming active in these events insisting that the revolutionary ideals must include women. To this day we are still fighting to have some rights as equal to men. Some examples we still fight are companies that hire based on gender and salary. Now we know technically there are laws that are supposed to prevent this but it doesn't matter more often times then not if the company is old fashioned they will hire the male over the female. On the flip side we have come along way, we now have men who stay at home with our youth while the woman is the one working providing for the family. I think this is awesome that our society has come this far in to make this acceptable.

Also what I found interesting to read about in chapter 17 was the argument John Locke proposed " a social contract between ruler and ruled should last only as long as it served the people well." To me, this statement can create endless conversation and debate.  I personally would have to agree with this statement because why should anyone rule if they are no longer serving people well. The book also talks about "popular sovereignty" which means the authority to govern derived from the people and not from god. It seems that most of the revolutionists ideas derived from the European Enlightenment by being shared across the world in newspapers, books, and pamphlets. Because of this people took it into their own hands that political and social arrangements could be improved by human action. This is where the ideas where expressed through revolution.

Chapters 14,15,16 reflection

Chapters 14, 15 & 16

Chapter 14 starts off talking about the European Empires in the Americas, talking about how western Europeans were marked by maritime expansion. This included the Spaniards in Caribbean, the British, French, and Dutch colonies in North America. The Europeans controlled most of the Americas by the nineteenth century. Chapter 14 touched on the packet that we read to write our analysis paper about the maritime voyages and the technology used by the Europeans. I really enjoyed reading about the Colombian exchange and how a wide variety of people created new societies in the Americas. It was interesting to read about how they replaced the previous societies that existed before 1942. It was mostly the Europeans and Africans that were bringing their people,diseases, and resources with them. I thought it was cool how much of an impact the animals they introduced to the Americas at the time had on the country. I never knew horses, pigs, cattle etc. came from Europe and Africa. I guess it makes sense!

Talked about in Chapter 15 was the spice trade. I never realized how important spices were in our history, and how important they were to the Portuguese. In the early 1500s The Portuguese created a "trading post empire" which was to try to control commerce, not large territories or  populations. They did this by force of arms not by economic competition. They controlled half of the spice trade into Europe. Spices were a big trade item for thousands of years in the Indian Ocean. Spain was the first to challenge the Portuguese's control of Asian trade. Spain then took over between 1565 - 1650.

Slavery is something most of us know about and have learned about throughout our time spent in school. I've always found slavery interesting.  I remember watching movies and videos on how they transported the slaves here from Africa and I still can't believe that took place in our history. After reading about the history of slaves, I never realized how most human societies had slaves, also Africans had been selling slaves for centuries. Reading about all the different forms of slaves and how the Islamic world preferred  female slaves, the Atlantic slave trade preferred males, how some even had political status was really interesting I have never really thought about slavery in other countries, just here in America and how it was by race.

Interview Ideas

I have decided to Interview three sisters who immigrated at different times from El Salvador into the United States during the El Salvadorian Civil War.

1. What do I want to know about the History of the event, era, situation or injustice? Well honestly I know nothing about this war. So I want to know and have an understanding of the time period and what was happening to the country at the time regarding immigration/fleeing the country. Necessities. I also want to know the back round on the war and what lead up to it, what happened etc.
2. What can I find out before meeting for the interview? The time period of the war, and a brief back round to help me understand the stories that will be told. I also want to learn about the huge gap between the rich and poor in El Salvador at the time.
3. What resources will you consult before meeting with the person? I plan to use the internet and the library.
4. What can you find out by only experiencing the person's face to face presence? You can experience the hardships and pain the person went through and see how hard it was for them to deal with what they went through. How hard it is to still deal with it. The impact it has had on them as an individual.
5. Where,When and with whom will your interview be conducted? My interview will take place at my friend Vickie's parents house in Oakland as I am interviewing her mother and two sisters. Their names are; Maria Vilma Merino, Maria Victoria Casillas and Evelia Lopez. The three sister immigrated all at different times, one right when the war was beginning another right in the middle of the war and the other right at the end. It was interesting to hear the contrast and the different reasons for leaving.
6. I recorded this interview with my Phone. 
7. What special challenges do I foresee? One big challenge will be the language barrier, my friend Vickie will translate a lot of it for me. There is also going to be an accent barrier.Also not knowing a lot on the history of the war and the time it took place.

Some Questions I am going to ask:

How old were you?
What were your reasons for fleeing your country?
What was the hardest part to deal with?
How long was each part of your journey?
Did you get caught or were you close to ever being caught when you crossed the boarder?
What was the scariest thing you had to deal with?
How did your family take you leaving?

Reflection Week 3

In the readings the chapter that stood out to me the most was Chapter 8 because it talked about the process of globalization. It also talks about why trade was significant. Trade was huge in our history. I found it interesting to read about why trade was so significant in our past. It was interesting to read about how disease was passed through trade routes and how religious ideas we also passed through trade route. Silk was monopolized and became high in demand, explains why it still is and people top dollar for it. I never knew this. Exchange in Eurasia turned in to what we call "Silk roads" Strayer explains how silk roads came to be, these networks did best when large states provided security for trade. Most goods that traveled on the "silk roads" were for the elite they were luxury goods. It is so interesting to me how important silk actually was back then and how it was considered a symbol of high status and how that has carried out into today's society. Who would have thought something as simple as silk would have kept such an elite status thousands of years later. I found it also interesting that culture was more important than goods when in transit. Buddism became really big.  

Week 2 Journal

In Chapter four Strayer discusses all of the different empires and how they came to be. The Eurasian Empires Strayer talks about are the Persian Empire, Greek Empire of Alexander the great, The Roman Empire, The Chinese Empire, and India. Strayer gives his opinion on why he thinks Empires have always been fascinating. A few reasons he states are, because size was imposing, satisfaction in witnessing the fall of the mighty when the empire collapses, and just how important the empires were because of how humans before the twentieth century all lived in Empires. To be honest I haven't learned much about all the different Empires so it was interesting to read and learn a little bit about each one. It was interesting to me that a lot of our cultures and values present today, started within these empires. It gives us insight on how certain cultures came to be today. The most interesting part to me was reading about the differences in the Roman and Chinese Empires and how they were not really connected but had a lot of similarities. They both started off so small and then ended up becoming huge and controlling almost half the world's population. I feel like this is still true to this day.   

Chapter five discusses the Eurasian Cultural Traditions. Some of the big religions Strayer talks about are Judaism, hinduism, Confucianism, buddhism, Daoism, and Christianity. I don't know much about religion. I have never been very religious so anytime I get the chance to even learn a little bit about the different religions in the world I find it intriguing. I like how in the book Strayer gives a little chart of all the different religion and then a basic idea of what that religion is.

Chapter Six basically outlines the Eurasian social hierarchies. Strayer starts off by telling us about the Chinese society, then the class and Caste in India, then he goes on to talk about Slavery. It is interesting to me that slavery goes back this far in our history. All of these civilizations Strayer talks about had some form of slavery, the reasons for it were interesting to me. Because slavery has been apart of our society for this long I don't think it will ever really go away completely.

Chapter 7 is about Africa and the Americas in the Classical Era. Strayer tells us a little bit about how Classical Era civilizations are not just European, they consist of The Americas and Africa. The Americas were known as the Maya and Moche. Africa was known as Meroe, Axum, Niger river valley. As Strayer goes into more detail on these civilizations it is fascinating to compare them to the European ones he already spoke about. I found the African cultures very interesting.

Journal Reflection 1

I have not taken a History course in maybe 5 or so years and even then it was US history. The last time I studied world history was in High School. This course is definitely going to be somewhat of a challenge but a great way to refresh my memory! Like most classes in the beginning  reading the syllabus was very overwhelming. I really did not know what to expect - I do like how the class seems like it will be more hands on then most classes I've taken in the past two years.
The first three chapters were interesting because I don't know very much about early world history. 
Chapter 1 (The Paleolitic era)  focused on the beginning of the "Homo Sapien" which is the and how they emerged over 200,000 years ago. It was interesting to read about how the Hazda of Tanzania are one of the last "gathering and hunting" societies on earth and how they are likely to vanish sometime in the near future. It is crazy to me that when that happens it will mark the end of what was "Universal human existence." Strayer talks about how it is wrong to ignore the first 200,000 years of human existence, I would have to agree. In some ways I feel I am one of these individuals who have chosen to "ignore" the first 200,000 years. I hope to change this because this is how we came to be today. Strayer tells us in chapter one how much archaeology tells us about the people who lived back then. He also explains to us how they settled and created our first human societies.
Chapter 2 talks about what we call the Neolithic era also known as the "Agricultural revolution." I have family who are farmers in England and this chapter reminds me of how important agricultural really is to our society. It is sad to me that only 5 percent of Americans still live on farms, and these statistics are from 12 years ago, makes me wonder what it would be now in 2012.
In Chapter 3 Strayer talks about "The Emergence of Civilizations" Strayer tells us how civilization came to be and how it was a global phenomenon. The chapter talks about the 6 major civilizations and explains how our civilization got here today. I found this chapter pretty interesting because it touches on many of societies issues that we have today, such as gender equality. It is interesting to learn that back then women were more or less equal to men. Chapter 3 gave great insight to what more is to learn in this class.

Hello!