Worksheet for Module 7 (1-9)

1) What was The Great Dying? Cite examples and details from the historical record in your response. Could this be considered a genocide? Why/ why not?

  The great dying was when the European acquisition entered the Americas. Due to their arrival " Native Americans peoples came into contact with these European and African diseases, they died in appalling numbers, in many cases losing up to 90 percent of the population" (p. 558). A native Nahuatl stated "A great many died from this plague, and many others died of hunger. They could not get up to search for food, and everyone else was too sick to care for them, so they starved to death in their beds" (p.559).  A similar situation happened with the Dutch and British territories. The Native Americans stated that "their population had been melted down by this disease, whereof nine-tenths of them have died" (p. 560). However the newcomers, Governor Bradford stated "the good hand of God..at work, sweeping away great multitudes of the natives...that he might make room for us" (p.560).  In my opinion, I do see this as Genocide. The Europeans came to an already established area and made it their own  doing whatever was necessary to claim it theirs. They came with foreign disease and instead of trying to assist the Native Americans they let them die and saw it as the "work of God." This was a massive elimination of Native Americans and it took them years to recuperate. 

2) What did native Siberians and native Americans have in common in terms of their experiences with Europeans during the early Modern period?

 Native Siberians and Native Americans have a common experience with the Europeans. It states "particularly in more remote regions of Siberia, where local people had little immunity to smallpox or measles. Also accompanying conquest was an intermittent pressure to convert to Christianity"(p.574). Just like the Native Americans the Europeans brought new diseases and left them to basically die. They brought in their own ideologies and tried to place it on them. They experienced the same hardships that the Native Americans did. 

3) Discuss the history and impact of the Indian Ocean trade network (the Sea Roads) from the Classical to Modern periods.

The sea roads "could eventually carry more bulk goods and products destined for a mass market--textiles, pepper, timber, rice, sugar, wheat--whereas the Silk Roads were limited largely to luxury good for the few" (p.292). We see that with the trading system it linked "ties of commerce and culture around the planet, certainly has roots in much earlier pattern" (p.310). It "linked distant peoples both economically and culturally, prompted the emergence of new states, and sustained elite  privileges in many ancient civilizations. In those ways, they resembled the globalized world of modern times" (p.310). 

                                                                      

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?

 Based off the pie chart we see that many slaves were shipped to Brazil and the Caribbeans.  This was due because "labor demands of the plantation economy were most intense" (p.626). It also states that " Smaller numbers found themselves in North America, mainland Spanish America, or in Europe itself" (p.626). With the high demand of slaves needed in Brazil and the Caribbean's due to the sugar plantations it involved many slaves, they would experience horrendous conditions during their labor and during their trips. They would often die in large numbers and need more slaves. With that being said, while large amounts entered Brazil and the Caribbean's many were eventually set free by their own masters. This pie chart may be shocking to most because there is this thought that many slaves were sent to the America's to help White men with their plantations such as cotton or farming. While reading the book we see that many were sent to Brazil and the Caribbean's which is shocking. 

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 21^stCentury?

    Strayer states that the "repercussions of the Atlantic revolutions reverberated far beyond their places of origin and persisted long after those upheavals had been concluded" (p.714). He gives examples such as "Britain's loss of its North American colonies..fueled its growing interest and interventions in Asia, contributing to British colonial rule in India and the Opium Wars in China" (p.714). He also states "smaller revolutionary eruptions occurred in 1830, more widely in 1848, and in Paris in 1870. They reflected the ideas of republicanism, greater social equality, and national liberation from foreign rule" (p.714). Beyond these "echoes of Atlantic revolutions, three major movements arose to challenge continuing patterns of oppression or exclusion"(p.714).The following were the abolishment of slavery, nationalist wanting unity and independence from foreign rule, and "feminists challenged male dominance" (p.715). 

6) What did feminists and abolitionists have in common? How and why did they sometimes work together?

Abolitionists had many Enlightenment thinkers, with that being said, many Enlightenment thinkers wanted to abolish slavery stating they had become "increasingly critical of slavery as a violation of the natural rights of every person, and the public pronouncement of the American and French revolutions about liberty and equality likewise focused attention on this obvious breach of those principles" (p.715). Enlightenment thinkers also "challenged many ancient traditions, including on occasion that of women's intrinsic inferiority" (p.723). Condorcet states " the complete destruction of those prejudices that have established an inequality of rights between the sexes" (p.723). With that being said any women would participate in these events stating that " the revolutionary ideals of liberty and equality must include women" (p.723). Women started to take part in abolitionism and other movements.  

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 "marks a human response to that dilemma as nonrenewable energy sources of wind, water, wood, and the muscle power of people and animals. It was a breakthrough of unprecedented proportions that made available for human use, at least temporarily, immensely greater quantities of energy"(p.738). It also states that the "Industrial Revolution marked a new era in both human history and the history of the planet that scientists increasingly call the Anthropocence, or the age of man" (p.740). The second Industrial Revolution focused on " chemicals, electricity, precision machinery, the telegraph, and telephone, rubber, printing, and much more" (p.740).  The long term significance is the "continuous emergence of new techniques of production, together with the massive economic growth they made possible and the environmental impact they generated, marks the past 250 years as a distinct phase of human history" (p.740). 

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), In the photo we see the British Empire portrayed as an octopus whose tentacles are attached to different countries, while other tentacles are about to grab another colony.  From the photo and from the reading we see that Europe played a major role during the Industrial Revolution.  It states that "Britain was exporting 60 percent of its cotton-cloth production, annually sending 200 million yards to Europe, 300 million to Latin America, and 145 Million yards to India" (p. 788). Britain was also sending about half of it's savings overseas. "It had some 3.7 billion pounds sterling invested abroad, about equally divided between Europe, North America, and Australia on the one hand and Asia, Africa, and Latin America on the other" (p.789). With that being said the British Empire had their hands in each country, making them very successful.