Chapter 20

Chapter 20 was all about colonial encounters. The century and a half between 1750 and 1900 was a second  round of European conquests. Germany, Italy, Belgium, the US, Japan, were new players in this scene of conquests. Europeans constantly had to fight long and hard to make their new Empires. The peoples of India and Indoensia colonial conquest grew out of early interaction with European trading firms.  There were lots of endless but peaceful negotiations among the Great Powers who were competing about "who got what" and there was lots of military action, sometimes lasting decades. Being under European rule was difficult for many people. Small scale societies crashed, there was a loss of life, and homes cattle, crops, and lands were devastated. Many men found employment, status, and security in European led armed forces. The shortage and expense of European administrators and the difficulties of communicating across cultural boundaries made it necessary for colonial rulers to rely heavily on a range of local intermediaries.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858 was triggered by the introduction into the colony's military forces of a new cartridge smeared with animal fat from cows and pigs.

In some respects, European colonial empires were but the latest in a long line of imperial creations, all that had enlisted cooperation and experienced resistance from their subject peoples. European racism really affected those Whose western education and aspirations threatened the racial divide. Not only were Europeans foreign rulers, but they also led the way to a new life, which grew out of their own modern transformation. Just as in Europe, artisans suffered so much when cheaper machine manufactured merchandise displaced their own handmade goods.

Religion dramatically changed during the colonization. There was widespread conversion to Christianity and it took place in places like New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, and especially non Muslim Africa. As in the Americas, military defeat shook confidence in the old gods and local practices, fostering openness to new sources of supernatural power that could operate in the wider world now impinging on their societies.

"Collapse"

So recently in my history class, we read an excerpt from a book called "Collapse" written by Jared Diamond. In class, we talked about what kind of issue we would like to focus on that Diamond mentions in his book. I chose to write about protecting wildlife and conserving it. I feel like this is an extremely crucial point to talk about, and although it may be trite, I am going to talk about it more. The Earth has limited resources and every day we are taking more and more of it away. People wonder why we are running out of things and running out of land... the answer is simple, we are using it and abusing it. Also, something we talked about in class but I didn't actually get to speak about is the use of solar panels. Although a great technology, we really have to think about also , the materials that are used to make those. How much fossil fuel and raw materials are we using to make those? Are we doing more damage by making the panels than we are by using them to save electricity? We are trying to find so many alternate ways of saving energy or converting it, that we may actually be hurting the environment more by doing this. I have so many opinions about a lot of this that it would be hard to express it all in one blog, but truthfully, I feel that we only have one Earth, we need to respect it.

Feminism Debate

In class today, we had a debate about the pros and cons of the feminist movement. I found the arguments interesting and some of the points that I wanted to bring up, but didn't get a chance to, I thought I would bring them up now. There is this belief that men get paid more than women. In my macroeconomics class, we saw that technically, this is not true. The reason for this belief is that women, on average, have to take more time off, more days off,etc... to be home with the kids or to take care of the house issues. If a kid is sick , it is typically the mother that has to take off work and stay home, while the father stays at work. So on average, a mans paycheck will be larger than a woman's because she has to take more time off. Also, if it were not for women getting equal rights, men would not be constantly competing in the workforce for jobs, women provide an edge and a place for competition in the workplace, and this provides a setting for more quality work to come out of it, rather than men just being complacent with what they are doing. Men feel so entitled to coming home to a home cooked meal, the clothes being clean, dishes washed, house perfect, and for so long, women were responsible for all of this, but times have changed. Men are now being forced to either do some of that on their own, all on their own, or hiring someone else to do it. A good point was also brought up in class, that, since women have entered the workforce, wages for men have gone down, also college acceptance rates for men have decreased. This debate was very interesting,and I am sure, if given more time would have been more hashed out.