Chapter 15

Since I'm catching up on my blog entries, I'll write my reaction to the whole Chapter of our assigned readings.
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During this period, the world seems to be coming of age... like a "teenager" if you will: slave trade; globalization (commerce and imperialism). Going into "adulthood!" I mean, if you consider the time now adulthood.

Dr. Ferdowsi talked about how the Middle East was the "center" of the world and it became a very diverse place exposed to many cultures from Europe and Asia. Since his viewpoint understands more of the Middle Eastern cultures, this reading is probably more Eurocentric than his.

Europe was recovering from the Black Plague and its societies were rising. Since the continent was well again, Europe was able to pursue whatever it wanted. The motivation for the Europeans trading with the Asians were spices? I could understand that since food would be so tasteless without it. Meat I'm guessing these societies were less meat based than we are now and had more vegetable consumption. I'm not sure if eating meat versus eating vegetables have any difference in seasoning (I don't eat meat). Even life without paprika would be so difficult for me. Okay, I definitely can understand the European's desire for spices.

In Indian Ocean commerce, the Portuguese were pirates? I imagine them like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland... except those pirates were Spanish and English (I think). I want to go to Disneyland instead of writing this journal. Disneyland is the best. Sorry. Anyway, the Portugese created a "trading post empire" which means their goal was to control commerce instead of people or territories. They used force to control their empire instead of money. At its height, the Portugese trading post empire controlled half of Europe's commerce of spices. Their decline was in the 1600s.

I love learning about Filipino history. I'm half, but I don't really know much about my heritage. My grandfather's mother was Spanish so that makes me like 1/8 Spanish. My Filipino side is very Americanized so we don't celebrate any Filipino traditions outside of the religious, Catholic ones. That's the part of the culture I know well and it's from the Spanish! Also, my mother's maiden name is Reyes. Clear Spanish indicators. Although, how the Spanish "modernized" the native Filipinos is disheartening to hear. I suppose it's slightly easier to imagine the Spanish taking over the Philippines since I know my ancestors suffered that fate.

So there was the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company. Either of them could've tried thinking of more creative names; the way they're named now makes them sound affiliated. Maybe that's just my 21st century thinking since we have corporations/chain companies and they probably didn't back then.

"Between the mid-fifteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 11 million people from Africa to the Americas." The image I have in my mind is a large city, like Hong Kong, with that same population as the number of estimated slaves brought from Africa to the Americas. That's an ENORMOUS amount of people to be in one place unwillingly. The success of the business between the Europeans and the Africans turned out to be highly detrimental to African societies.

I like the phrase, "transregional linkages".