21st Century

The factors that contributed to economic globalization during the twentieth century was the agreements and institutions that strongly emerged after WWII, like World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. These institutions were basically responsible to promote and "imposed such free-market and pro-business conditions on many poor countries if they were to qualify for much needed loans"(1135). 

Caserolazo in Argentina www.eldiario.ec

In South America Argentina followed the recipe given from these international institutes and had bad economic consequences like "El Corralito" which was a measure taken by the government of Fernando de La Rua with the intention that money from banks will not go outside the borders of Argentina. So every citizen could not take from the bank more than 250 pesos (around $30) a week. In addition people who had money in savings accounts had lost their savings or could not access that money. The working class was primary affected not the corporations because they were not in Argentina. All this because World Bank did not understand the reality of the people in Argentina and tough that giving an economic recipe will work for every country in South America.

Another area that contributed to the globalization was and is technology, like "containerized shipping, huge oil tankers, and air express services dramatically lowered transportation costs, while fiber-optic cables and later the Internet provided the communication infrastructure for global economic interaction"(1135).

The mobility of goods and money made globalization easy. Like when a big company wants to reduce production cost opens a factory in South America, to "take advantage of cheap labor, tax breaks, and looser environmental regulations in the
developing countries"(1136). This generated a movement of capital from country to country  with the purchasing of foreign currencies. These huge business are known as Transnational Corporations (TNCs), and as Strayer defined it are corporations "which produce goods or deliver services simultaneously in many countries"(1137)

This new way of making business was, this Economic globalization "has generated inequalities not only at the global level and among developing countries but also within individual nations, rich and poor alike"(1141). While people are migrating from their countries to the north looking for opportunities and some of them leaving because the economic, political and cultural tensions and instability. With this action are providing "an inexpensive source of labor for their adopted countries"(1137). Other people in United States are also affected by this inequality, because companies are moving their manufacturing overseas. "This left many relatively unskilled American workers in the lurch, forcing them to work in the low-wage service sector, even as other Americans were growing prosperous in emerging high-tech industries"(1141). In addition this new way to do business is "the instability of this emerging world economy"(1138). The the unequal distribution of wealth that created this gap between rich and poor people and the reductions of the middle class. Strayer quoted George Soros, a billionaire who said, “The global capitalist system has produced a very uneven playing field.The gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider.”

How is this statement affected by a regular person like us? The different income between what we need to earn to pay our bills and what we are earning right now. Something basic like medical care for some of us is still a dream, more employment opportunities for everybody, access to a good education, and now what is getting cut little by little is access to internet equally. Because now internet is information and if the price of access to internet will be according to the speed, this is going to affect us. The poor get slow speed or none and the rich ones the faster speed. One of the quote that shake my head is from Subcomandante Marcos, referred to globalization as a “process to eliminate that multitude of people who are not useful to the powerful”(1141). Like the natural selection of Darwin and the survival of the best suited.

Source: Strayer, Robert W. Ways of the World: A Brief Global History. Bedford Bks St Martin'S, 2014.

The 20th Century

The emergence of capitalism created a largely urban middle class committed to expanding markets. As the members of the middle class gain more wealth, their influence over government leaders increased and the growth of commerce gave motive to voyages of trade and discovery. The need for the colonies were acquired to supply raw materials (resources) and serve as new markets. So more products and goods created the need of new markets. This move from self-sufficient society to a dependent society which is what we still live right now.

The significance of the industrial Revolution open the door for economic growth from agricultural society to an industrial society. This created a variety of jobs that did not exist before.  Leading  people to migrate to the cities or urban areas. In this urban areas people started to change the way of living and members of a family would have different role than they had before. The role of women change according of the class they belong. Middle class women stay home and take care of the domestic activities and the kids, but if is working class will be working in the factories. It created a new social class, middle and working class.  With the emergence of new inventions and technology  also started the Environmental issues like Global warming and pollution and working exploitation like  Child labor. We can also observe increasing trade between nation.     

Then when everything looks good in 1920 we have the Great Depression. Which basically was because Unites States economy growth was dependent of a war, the WWI and when this was over, everything when down for over production. Why? because this "wartime demand had greatly stimulated agricultural and industrial capacity. By the end of the 1920s, its farms and factories were producing more goods than could be sold because a highly unequal distribution of income meant that many people could not afford to buy the products that American factories were churning out"(986). 

In respond to this crisis President Franklin Roosevelt "through immediate programs of public spending (for dams, highways, bridges, and parks), the New Deal sought to prime the pump of the economy and thus reduce unemployment." (1006). Roosevelt was following what John Maynard Keynes, a prominent British economist said "government actions and spending programs could moderate the recessions and depressions to which capitalist economies were prone"(1006). Capitalism is not perfect and nobody said it was but nobody want to ear why is not perfect either.  

Still this knowledge did not stop the 2008 recession in the United Sated again. It was not like 1920 but still show uncertainties on the economic system. One of the philosopher that come back to life was Karl Mark. Marx’s prediction was based in a scientific analysis of repeating patterns of facts throughout history. One point of analysis of how close Marx  was in his prediction, we saw it in the 2008 economic crisis. He talks about the danger of accumulation of wealth in a few people. This will end up being the accumulation of misery in a lot of people. All in the name to have more profit which will lead to an overproduction. United State companies are shipping their factory to other countries because they want to reduce the cost of production with the goal of having more profit. This leads to overproduction and no much demand to buy this production. The demand that has the money to buy this products. Today, the economy of the entire capitalist world is dominated by a handful of giant transnational monopolies such as Walmart. In Walmart you can buy a product cheaper than everywhere else but the cost is people getting pay less than they should and little business that cannot compete with Walmart price. This lead small business to close. Small business that are the real job creators in this economy. The great recession of 2008 was based on the easy credit that people was getting from Banks. This easy credit allowed poor households to enjoy a more affluent lifestyle. They were expecting that the housing price will raised but it did not happened.The housing price crash and all the sudden people ended up owing more than the house was worth.

Source: Strayer, Robert W. Ways of the World: A Brief Global History. Bedford Bks St Martin'S, 2014.

Echoes of Atlantic Revolutions

Beginning in Florence, Italy and spreading throughout Europe this movement marked the transition from the medieval to the modern world, renaissance means “re-birth” like a renewed cultural movement from Europe. Started on the commercial cities of Italy between 1350 and 1500, and reflected the belief of the wealthy elite. This movement from a world of strong religious believe to knowledge base or inspired on ancient Greece and Rome culture. They literally were returning to the sources. Their purpose was to use them as a cultural standard to imitate and then to pass it. One artists from this era was Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael, whose paintings and sculptures were looking for more natural forms of the human body. 

Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix

The Enlightenment was a group of thinkers that share the belief in the power of knowledge to transform human society. They opposed superstition, ignorance, and corruption of stablished religion. They were also opposed to the idea of the divine right of kings to government people and the aristocratic privileges of European society. John Locke believed that all men were created equal and born with unalienable rights of property and liberty. They believe in human equality and human dignity. The time of the Enlightenment led to many revolutionary ideas surrounding government and human rights that are still the framework of our governments today.  This idea of progress could change humans society and not for divine intervention but for humans action guided by reason. 

At the time of the enlightenment thinkers did not see how far progress and the industrial revolution will take humanity and the new challenges humanity will face. One of the consequence of progress after the industrial revolution, is the deterioration of the environment and thus the deterioration of quality of life for people. While some people could avoid this buying a house in an area where is least polluted other cannot and end up raising their children in what they call red zones (marginalization). This issue violate what the enlightenment thinker believe which is equality and human dignity. The enlightenment thinkers saw hope for a world of peace without the need of an oppressive world and the human desire and capability for ruling themselves. But they forgot that as humans we are imperfect and greedy.

The Echoes of Atlantic Revolutions expressed ideas of republicanism, greater social equality, and national liberation from foreign rule. It was led by military officers who had been influenced by ideals of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution while campaigning in Europe against Napoleon. Three movements arose to challenge continuing patterns of oppression or exclusion. 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. According to Strayer "Nationalism, perhaps the most potent ideology of the modern era, was nurtured in the Atlantic revolutions" (780).

The Atlantic Revolutions are still in the 21st century with movements such as :Occupy Wall street, Arab Spring, Popular Sovereignty (the ruler) means the people are the head of the government and have the authority. After the French Revolution those people were citizens and not servants. Today we use the term, public servant for people who work for the government.

Source: Strayer, Robert W.Ways of the World: A Brief Global History. Bedford Bks St Martin'S, 2014. 

The Americas

The year 1492 was significant because Columbus' minuscule fleet of three ships La Niña, La Pinta and La Santa Maria landed on the new world. This would transform the world bringing the people of two worlds the old and the new together or at least they were connected. This will bring good and bad things for them, like the near eradication of the native population of the Americas, the Atlantic slave trade, the massive growth of world population, and the Industrial Revolution in Europe.

Christopher Columbus by Everett

But what enabled Europeans to carve out huge empires an ocean away from their homelands? 

Strayer quoted one Spanish conquistador that will give us the first answer “We came here to serve God and the King, and also to get rich”(628).

Firstly, the geographic location facilitated their exploration and explotation of the Americas. They were closer to the Americas, than their Asian  competitor(626). Also, the Chinese, Indian, and Muslim were not motivated because of their geographic location. The Indian Ocean was enough at that time for them or at least provide them rich markets. Another variable that helped encourage to explore other areas, was the merchant class. They were looking access to Asia and India more directly and avoid " Muslim intermediaries that they found so distasteful"(628). Religion also played a role because according to Strayer "Missionaries and others were inspired by crusading zeal to enlarge the realm of Christendom"(628).  Strayer also mentioned "Persecuted minorities were in search of a new start in life"(628). There is a theory that mentions that Christopher Columbus expedition group were mostly Jews. They were running away from the persecution of Catholic Kings of Spain. With all the information provided from Strayer about the colonization of the Aztec and Incas, it seems that the conquest of the Indians was smooth and without any fights, which I do not agree with. The Spanish came to America with the mentality to kill people, but the indigenous people in the Americas did not have that mentality. How you are going to start to fight or kill somebody without reason? I believe that they were impressed with all the attire the Spanish had. Of course we cannot forget the horse that Spanish people brought with them. Beside all this "their ironworking technology, gunpowder weapons had no parallel in the Americas" (629).

And before the indigenous could react against the Spanish, the indigenous people of America got sick. This was actually the secret weapon of the European that gave them the advance over the indigenous people to "which Native Americans had no immunities"(629). Strayer said that once they came in contact "with these European and African diseases,

Native American peoples died in appalling numbers, in many cases up to 90 percent of the population"(629). So we did not have a chance. 

Although we can also talk about the contribution in the agriculture diversity in the Americas, and Europe, with the transfer of plants and animals from both sides of the world new and old. This exchange did not just change the life and economy in Europe, also changed the way of leaving of the indigenous people in the Americas. 

Finally, thanks to the gold and silver from Mexico and Peru a new way of thinking started to emerge called "the Scientific Revolution"(631). The industrial revolution of Europe was made from the resources from the Americas as Strayer said, "Europe would have remained inferior, as ever, in wealth and power, to the great civilizations of Asia” (631)

Source: Strayer, Robert W. Ways of the World: A Brief Global History. Bedford Bks St Martin'S, 2014.

The Mongols

One of the pastoral societies that took my attention on the readings was the Mongols. They were nomadic people and my first assumption was without central bureaucracy and zero organization, but the Mongols prove this assumption wrong. 

http://www.figuren-modellbau.de/mittelalter/dba-army-154-mongols.jpg

Once the Mongols got together and realized that being united would work better for them than just fighting each other, they made the biggest empire in history even bigger than the Roman Empire. But how they could do this? As Strayer put it 
" [The Mongols] lacked the wealth needed to pay for the professional armies and bureaucracies that everywhere sustained the states and empires of agricultural civilizations"(525). 

First, they got a charismatic leader called Chinggis Khan, who was a visionary who was looking to unite the whole world. This sounds crazy but that was his vision. So he united the Mongols and started to expand the Mongol territory. Chinggis Khan "reorganized the entire social structure of the Mongols into military units...that allowed for effective command and control"(533). With discipline and loyalty to their leaders, so if you were a good soldier it does not matter if you were from humble origins you could move to higher positions. Khan wrote “I eat the same food and am dressed in the same rags as my humble herdsmen,” and “I am always in the forefront, and in battle I am never at the rear"(534). This tells us what kind of leader he was. He was a leader of actions and discipline and bravery started from him.

According to Strayer the Mongols and "their ability to extract wealth, through raiding, trading, or extortion, from agricultural civilizations such as China, Persia, and Byzantium"(525). The Mongols became like the middle men that many surrounding civilization has to pass through if they want to trade with other cities. I imagine as nomadic people they had to learn to deal and trade with agriculture societies in a way that nomadic people can get what they need like  "foodstuffs, manufactured goods, and luxury items available from the urban workshops" (524). So one of the way that Mongols interacted with agricultural societies was economically as we mentioned before. That is why the Mongols value, merchant people. The Mongols "consistently promoted international commerce" (542) so they can tax and get benefit from it. 

Another way was militarily "they could draw upon the horseback-riding and hunting skills of virtually the entire male population and some women as well"(525). This is why transferring this skill to battlefield was a natural transition for them. The Mongols were trained to ride horses and hunt from early ages. The Mongols also interacted culturally with other societies because they started to know and deal with people from other cultures like Jews and Christians. 

Strayer said that the most fundamental contribution to history was "their mastery of environments unsuitable for agriculture.Through the creative use of their animals..." in environment that was un-productive for agriculture societies. Also they brought new technology like "complex horse harnesses, saddles with iron stirrups, a small compound bow that could be fired from horseback, various forms of armor, and new kinds of swords" on the thirteenth-century. One remarkable action from the Mongols is the rapid communication across the empire, through horse ridings.  

Even though they were an empire that lasted a short period, their contribution to the Eurasian world was by protecting the commercialization of goods between the civilization that were under Mongols conquest. 

Source: Strayer, Robert W. Ways of the World: A Brief Global History. Bedford Bks St Martin'S, 2014.

Commerce and Roads

In Strayer and the role of commerce in the spreading of cultures, languages, and disease to other parts of the world is a very important part of human development in history. As Strayer said "The exchange of goods among communities occupying different ecological zones has long been a prominent feature of human history"(334). This interaction between cultures trough trading besides of accumulation of wealth private or public, connects each continent and makes each of them more powerful than others because of their capacity to trade. At the same time trading made cities more dependent on other big cities. 

Strayer explained this part very subtly "Trade, in short, diminished the economic self-sufficiency of local societies"(334). Not just diminished, it also changed the way of thinking. This change of attitude brought dependent cities similar what is right now, countries depending from other countries resources. What will the United States do when the oil coming from the middle east is over? Are we going to invent another war somewhere else? Or we are just going to increase fracking all over United States until we make of United States a big hole? 

The Silk Road by HongNian Zhang

With the development of the trade roads developed the infrastructure to create specific trade routes like the sand, silk and, sea roads. The sand road was from Northern Africa to the Mediterranean Sea. This was a trip trough the desert by using camels. The goods were gold, salt, ivory and slaves. The next road is the Silk road which ran through China and India they used carts, animals, and they walked. The goods were silk, gold, spices, ivory, clothing, and jewelry. And the last trade route was the Sea roads in the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, and traveled from Africa to India to China. This trade between countries and regions with the use of huge boats and ships. The goods they traded along the Sea Roads were, spices, ivory, and minerals.

Besides  serving for the exchange of goods the roads also as Strayer described "...became the vehicle for the spreading of religious ideas, technological innovations, disease-bearing germs, and plants and animals to regions far from their places of origin"(335). Also the trade roads created a new society of professions like the merchant, who does not produce anything but has the money and skill to buy and sale, "traders often became a distinct social group, viewed with suspicion by others because of their impulse to accumulate wealth without actually producing anything themselves"(335). This is very interesting in our actual society, we have the ones that produce, transform ,and commercialize products. And the ones that make all the money is the one that commercialize the product. 

Another interesting point is the exchange of disease, like "bubonic plague, anthrax, or a package of epidemic disease from China to Europe" (340) called the Black Death. With progress comes new challenges to face and this disease killed about one third o the population in Europe between 1346 and 1350 according to Strayer. But this also make Europeans develop immunity over time and this helped them to conquer the Inca, Aztec and Mayas in the Americas. 

Source: Strayer, Robert W. Ways of the World: A Brief Global History. Bedford Bks St Martin'S, 2014.

Empire, States, Culture, and Religion

The start of civilization has agricultural revolution roots. Once people could have more than enough to eat and produce surplus, hierarchies started to emerge.
This created competitive attitude in the population and changes are the result of it.  The author argues that “was a fundamental motor of change, and especially in
areas where rich agricultural land was limited.” In this we can see how societies according where they live would change based on their experiences. The limitation of land and their geographical location creates innovation, that would differentiate communities from each other. These differences created advantages for each community, some of them were considered winners and others losers. In a war we have winners and losers (personally I think there are not winners), so the community that loses will migrate to other are or stay in their territory but will become the lower class. An the leaders of the winner side would become “ Successful leaders of the winning side emerged as an elite.” This is a very interesting concept because even now we have the same perception in our society between rich and poor people. We think that because they are poor people, they are losers and the rich people are winners. 

Odysseus and Penelope by Francesco Primaticcio (1563)

Another thing that got my attention was the difference between Persian Empire and Greek States. While the Persian centered on to have a literally “Great king” or “cult of kingship.” Where you could not even direct to the king as equal because he was unapproachable, and it did not matter if he was wrong what ever the King said was law.  In the other  hand we have the Greek (more relaxed society) their organization was different and was basically “City-States” each of them were independent and competitive to each other. Of course this type of organization created more fighting between neighbors but nothing that they could not handle. The Greek were the ones that used for the first time the word “citizenship” base on participation and freedom to be part of “governments affair.” 

In China, the organization of the society started with the problem of “disorder in the house” to make thinkers to find way to resolve this problem. One was Confucian that believe society base on morality is the solution, to have a “social harmony.” This would start in the family and the hierarchies between the components of it. So if you have a good family, you will have good morals and this will make good citizen. No need of law and punishment. In India we have the caste system, which is based according of how “good your karma” is, this will give you a hierarchy in the society. So whatever you did in your past life will reflected in this life. If you were bad your life will be miserable in the future.

There is one more thing that got my attention and is this quote  from a greek write talking about women “Teaching a women to read and write? What a terrible thing to do! like feeding a vile snake on more poison.” So you are not teaching women to do this because you do not trust them, but you have kids with her and is the one in charge of your house and take care of you, when you are defenseless. So is not worth to educate them but they obviously are the most important part of your life. This just does not make sense.

Sources:

Strayer, Robert W. Ways of the World: A Brief Global History. Bedford Bks St Martin'S, 2014.

First People

Before Egypt, China, Mesopotamia, and elsewhere there was a civilization that according to the narrative of the book that was living happy until the arrival of agriculture in humanity.

In the beginning there was a civilization that was primary nomad almost like the community mentioned in the book called “Hadza people on Tanzania” (11). One sentence  that could describe this first civilization is from the perspective of a Hadza people and they said  “We do not want cattle, just wild animals to hunt and water that we can drink” (11). This is very primitive people but we a simple life. 

Before all the complication of human inventions in this time and the ones that are not known for the society. Anyway this was a way of life that sustained humanity for a long period of time. It is interesting that even though Africa does not show any archeological evidence of advanced civilization that the evolution of humanity happened here. 

http://imgadvisor.com/pages/p/paleolithic-age.html

This started to change with the migration of humanity and the expansion of civilization started to emerge. Societies started to look different one to another because they started to have different history, language, culture and every social aspect of life. All according with the experiences they were having from time to time and in different environment. 

The women and men in this society were more equal than any society. Even though the contribution of women in the family diet was seventy percent and the men thirty percent hunting animals. It is interesting that in this society the women decide if the relationship with the men will be polygamy or monogamy. In one section of the lecture said that “women strongly resisted sharing a husband with another wife ” (21). This part got my attention because people in the Paleolithic actually were more equal than actual society. Women were gathers and men were hunters that was it. 


With the culture of agriculture instead of help humanity, started to give them more hard work. Consequently humanity started to have health problems and because they were staying in one place because of agriculture activities, sickness started to spread faster than when they were nomad.

Source: Strayer, Robert W. Ways of the World: A Brief Global History. Bedford Bks St Martin'S, 2014.