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.