1) What was The Great Dying? Cite examples and details from the historical record in your response. Could this be considered genocide? Why/ why not?
The Great Dying killed around 90% of Native Americans. This phenomenon was caused by diseases brought over by the Europeans. “Before the smallpox broke out amongst them, they were ten times as numerous…their population had been melted down by this disease” (Strayer, p,559-560). It could be considered genocide because Europeans brought diseases, multitudes died and starvation killed many more. “ To Governor Bradford of Plymouth colony…such conditions represented the “good hand of God” at work, ‘sweeping away great multitudes of the natives…that he might make room for us’” (Strayer, p.560). The preceding quotes inferred that the mass death of natives was welcomed and that little was done to help them, hence, it can be considered a genocide.
2) What did native Siberians and native Americans have in common in terms of their experiences with Europeans during the early Modern period?
The Russian Empire was being transformed by the massive influx of Russian settlers, “whose numbers by the end of the eighteenth century had overwhelmed native peoples, giving their lands a distinctively Russian character.” (Strayer, p. 575). As well the native Americans were overwhelmed by the influx of Europeans taking much of their land. Disease brought by outsiders also struck native Siberians like native Americans.
3) Discuss the history and impact of the Indian Ocean trade network (the Sea Roads) from the Classical to Modern periods.
The Indian Ocean trade routes connected Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and East Africa. During the classical era, major empires involved in the Indian Ocean trade—Achaemenid Empire, Mauryan Empire, Han Dynasty, Roman Empire. Many goods and religious thoughts were spread through the Ocean trade network.
During the medieval era, trade flourished in the Indian Ocean basin. The rise of Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates on the Arabian Peninsula provided a powerful western node for the trade routes. The Tang and Song dynasties in China emphasized trade—encouraged maritime trade. Moreover, Between the Arabs and the Chinese, several major empires blossomed based largely on maritime trade—Cholla Empire, Srivijaya empire, and Angkor civilization.
In 1498 Portuguese sailors under Vasco da Gama entered the scene. However they did not enter as traders, they entered as pirates. The Portuguese pirates seized port cities —Calicut on India’s west coast and Macau, in southern China. They robbed and extorted local producers and foreign merchant ships.
In 1602 a ruthless European power—the Dutch East India Company (VOC). They south total monopoly on lucrative spices like nutmeg and mace. In 1680, the British joined in with their British East India Company—established political control over important parts of Asia as a result Indonesia, India, Malaya, and much of Southeast Asia reciprocal trade dissolved. Goods began to move to Europe while the Asian trading empires grew poorer—the two-thousand-year-old Indian Ocean trade network was crippled.
4) Look at the pie chart titled “The Destinations of Slaves” on page 627 of our textbook. What might people find surprising about the percentages of slaves who disembarked in different parts of the Americas? What factors explain why the percentages were this way?
People might find surprising the number of slaves that wound up in Brazil and the Caribbean. In Brazil and the Caribbean, the labor demands of the plantation economy were most intense. “Smaller numbers found themselves in North America and mainland Spanish America. Their journey across the Atlantic was horrendous, with Middle Passage having an overall mortality rate of more than 14 percent” (Strayer, p. 626). Those who were able to escape joined free communities of formers slave—maroon societies which were founded in remote regions such as South America and the Caribbean—largest settlement was Palmares in Brazil, housing more than 10,000 or more people mostly of African descent but also included Native Americans, mestizos, and renegade whites.
5) What does Strayer mean by the “echoes of Atlantic Revolutions”? Cite examples and details from the historical record in your response. Are the Atlantic Revolutions still echoing in the 21st Century?
The Atlantic revolutions in North American, France, Haiti, and Latin America took place within a larger framework compared to the various other upheavals. There were many expensive wars, weakening states, and the destabilizing process of commercialization. Moreover, the costly wars strained European imperial states. Also, the various Atlantic revolutionaries shared common ideas—derived from the European Enlightenment and were shared across the ocean in newspapers, books, land pamphlets. The main idea was the radical notion that human political and social arrangement could be engineered, and improved, by human action—liberty, equality, free trade, religious tolerance, republicanism, and human rationality were in the air. The ideals that animated these Atlantic revolutions inspired efforts in many countries to abolish slavery, to extend the right to vote, develop constitutions, and to secure greater equality for women. “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, echoed and amplified those principals while providing the basis for a number of subsequent protest against oppression tyranny, and deprivation” (Strayer, p. 700).
Yes, the Atlantic Revolutions are still echoing in the 21st century —in 2011, the Middle Eastern uprisings known as the Arab Spring initially prompted numerous comparisons with the French Revolution.
6) What did feminists and abolitionists have in common? How and why did they sometimes work together?
The feminist and abolitionist both had a common goal—to grant members of their particular groups a free and ultimately better life. The Abolition movement focused on granting slaves their freedom, in addition, to end social discrimination and segregation between people of white and black color. The Women’s Rights movement fought to provide women the right to vote. It also protested the lack of educational and economic opportunities for women. In both of these movements, their primary concern was to grant the people the right to freedom. Women were not physically enslaved, but socially they were. Towards the beginning of the Women’s Rights movement, they did not have the right to divorce, own land, vote, etc. The Women’s Rights movement and the Abolition movement provided men and women alike, the opportunity to join together and fight for their basic human rights.
8) What was the Industrial Revolution? Where and when did it begin? Discuss its long-term significance to people, cities, and the planet.
The Industrial Revolution marked the period of development in the latter half of the 18th century. The Industrial Revolution began in Britain (1780s) and spread to the rest of the world, including the United States by the 1830s-40s. The Industrial Revolution wrought a mounting impact on the environment —nonrenewable raw materials: coal, iron ore, petroleum, guano…altered the landscape in many places. Moreover, waste from sewers emptied into rivers turning them poisonous, smoke from coal-fired industries polluted the air which contributed to respiratory illnesses. Small groups voiced their concerns and urged for the return to the “green and pleasant land” of an earlier time. “For many historians, the Industrial Revolution marked a new era in both human history and the history of the planet that scientists increasingly call the Anthropocene or the ‘age of man’. More and more human industrial activity left a mark not only on human society but also on the ecological, atmospheric, and geological history of the earth” (Strayer, p. 740). On the other hand, access to new sources of energy gave rise to an enormously increased output of goods and services—>wealth. Many goods were more accessible to people.
9) Chapter 18 contains some powerful images. Why do you suppose Strayer chose to include these specific images? How do they illustrate concepts introduced in this chapter? Choose one image and a) describe it, b) explain how it illustrates a concept from the chapter, and c) give your general thoughts about the image, as you might do in the context of a small in-class discussion group. The images you can choose from are (your version of the textbook may use different titles and page numbers):
An American View of British Imperialism (p.790)
“An American View of British Imperialism.” This picture is an American cartoon from 1882. The British empire imitates an octopus “whose tentacles are attached to many countries.” It also shows how is ready to take possession of Egypt—to grasp ye another colony.
This chapter is about industry and empire. This picture depicts the importance of imperialism—in Europe imperialism became very popular during the last quarter of the nineteenth century—the growth of mass nationalism. “Colonies and spheres of influence abroad became symbols of the “Great Power” status of a nation…” (Strayer, p.790). With the industrial age came new was of thinking for the Europeans. They developed a “secular arrogance that fused with or in some cases replaced their notions of religious superiority…they unlocked the secrets of nature, created a society of unprecedented wealth, and used both to produce unsurpassed military power.
This picture clearly defines imperialism—more power for the wealthy, powerful politics. The ambition grows once one has tasted victory, one is left wanting more with no end in sight.
