As we move into the early Modern Era, our reading begins to
focus on the American continents, and the effect of European colonists in the
1400s. It seems that much of the Native
American population was wiped out by diseases brought by the earliest groups of
colonists from Europe, who carried influenza, smallpox, measles, malaria, and
other diseases not previously known in North and South America. However, the Europeans also brought
vegetables and fruits, wheat, rice and sugarcane. They also brought sheep, pigs, horses, cattle
and goats, which made possible an agricultural type of lifestyle that had not
been an option before. The Spanish took
over the Aztec and Inca empires of South America and brought Christianity with
them, as well as Spanish culture which mixed in with the cultures of the Aztecs
and Incas as the groups mixed together.
The British sent colonists to North America and began to settle along
the eastern coast, but did not mix much with the native peoples, who died in
great numbers from the new diseases introduced by the colonists.
During
this same time, a Russian empire was being built out of territory formerly
inhabited by the Mongols. In Siberia,
the Russians found a source for the furs that were highly popular with traders. Soon the Russian Empire stretched across
Siberia and the government was requiring large payments of furs by the Siberian
people, which they used for building wealth in the Empire. Russia became quite powerful within Europe,
and the empire covered a large span of territory.
Our
next chapter takes us into the global trading that happened over the next few
centuries. The desire for spices, silks,
cotton, and jewels prompted increased international trading. The East India
Companies, both British and Dutch branches, received government charters
granting them exclusive trading rights in the Indian Ocean area. The Dutch were able to make huge profits on spices
that they resold in Europe for many times the price that they had paid in
Indonesia. Silver mined in Bolivia was
sent to the Philippines, where it was traded for silk and other items from
China. The Chinese embraced silver as
the base for their economy and dedicated themselves to making goods that they
could sell to world traders for silver. (Interestingly,
the book comments here on how the Chinese were able to make their good fairly
well, and for less money than in other countries. The domination of the market for cheaply-made
products started much earlier than I thought!)
We then
move on to the slave trade that was ramping up in Africa. While we have all heard about slavery in the
United States, I have heard much less about what was happening during this time
in the Caribbean and the West Indies. The
sugar plantations were labor-intensive fields with dangerous processing
techniques that were tended by slaves brought over from Africa. Over half of the slaves in the 18th
century were sent to the Caribbean, and almost a third to Brazil, for the
tobacco plantations. A much smaller
percentage, about 6 percent, was sent to the United States. The amount of humans sold into slavery during
the 18th century numbered around a staggering 6 million.
As we
move into our final chapter for this week, we examine some of the newer
scientific thinking of this early modern era, and how it relates to the
religion and government of the time.
Scientists begin to discover that the sun is the actual center of the
universe, that gravity makes things fall to the ground, and that the heart
pumps blood throughout the body. There
are great strides made in mathematics and medicine, and people begin seeking
knowledge for the sake of knowledge itself.
Old church practices are challenged by those who see corruption and
inconsistencies, and we have the birth of the Protestant faith, which is further
subdivided again and again into many smaller groups. I thought this chapter was very interesting
because it seemed like everybody started having huge ideas and discoveries, and
the world really changed because of it.
Of course, in real life it took more than just a few pages for this to
happen, it took a couple of centuries!
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