Research Paper Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPH2TmdU4Oo&feature=youtu.be

7/9 blog

This week’s blog posting will be about a combination of material from the reading and from the lecture.  I have read and heard about communism before, but I could never really figure out what it was.  I tried to look up what the word meant in the dictionary, but I guess it didn’t register in my brain.  I always knew that it wasn’t a good thing, but I didn’t know how bad it could be.  The lecture and chapter opened my eyes and I finally get it now.  The idea of everyone getting something and making an attempt to create an equal world doesn’t sound too bad.  However that is not realistic, having a central planning system and trying to manage who gets what has to be stressful.  What if some people don’t like what they get and or need more? It actually creates a shortage and wide spread resentment of the entire process.  The people become deprived and the rich stay rich.  One of my old coworkers was from South Vietnam and he spoke of communism and how the North Vietnamese were bad people because they wanted to enforce these rules on them.  He fought in the war along side the US to preserve freedom for the south and not be forced into a communist society. 

South Africa was a country were the minority white British settlers controlled.  It’s interesting to know that no black Africans had any political rights.  South Africa was controlled by apartheid, which attempted to separate blacks for whites in every conceivable way.  “Pass laws” were placed to monitor the movements of Africans who entered the cities and enforced social segregation.  In the 1950’s Nelson Mandela organized non-violent civil disobedience.  They had boycotts, strikes and demonstrations.  Mandela was arrested because of this; Gandhi inspired these tactics and movements.  Africa acquired its political freedom as an intact and unified state. 

I couldn’t imagine dealing with these forms of hardships.  Throughout history people have had to survive, adapt, live and migrate to preserve life.  Many have died along the way, but their history is what we learn about today.  They are the ones who have paved this road that we walk.  

7/3 blog

This weeks blog topic was a combinations of thoughts based on the readings.  I remember asking my grandmother about the great depression a few years ago.  She mentioned that it was a very hard time and she was forced to work and help out her family.  That was a very trying time for Americans and as a result of the great depression some people committed suicide.  When the stock market crashed 11 Wall Street bankers killed themselves.  Banks closed and a lot of people lost their life savings.  Investments dried up and businesses were unable to sell their products.  The loss of work was very hard for most Americans.  Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was what was going to make the great depression end.  The New Deal was complex tangle of reforms intended to restore pre- Depression prosperity and to prevent future calamities.

Hitler was a very charismatic person who made people fall in love with him.  He was able to convince a nation that one race was superior to all others.  Eradicating the Jewish race the way he did was so foul and completely insane.  He had a way of making people believe that what he is doing was okay.  Some folks had no sense of what was going on even though they were living during that time.  I had a thought and I wondered if there could possibly be another Hitler type person in this world that could influence and rule a certain people on a global level.  With all the media and knowledge of the past I often wonder if we could experience a repeat.  I doubt that, but I am sure that this could happen on a small scale.  I don’t think that would last long because people would revolt and not become subject to such a thing.

I remember reading about Hiroshima and the atom bomb as a little kid.  I always thought that was crazy and the older I got I became really ashamed.  All things happen for a reason and I know that war is a terrible, but necessary thing so I sort of understand.  The atomic bomb was a result of an attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.  I think that it was important for the United States to send a message to the world, but interestingly enough japan sent their own message to pearl harbor.  This action by the United States showed the world to not mess with the US.  Now other nations make threats and try to gain an upper hand with nuclear power plants.  It seems that history has a way of repeating itself, so hopefully the most recent century doesn’t come back the way it happened then.

06/25 blog

After reading through these chapters I came across the section about the Haitian Revolution.  I wanted to start my blog discussing that section.  I did not realize that so many other counties were affected by slavery, honestly I only though it was the US because I have only learned about the slavery in the United States. I recently watched the movie Django and the movie is about slaves and one in particularly who becomes a bounty hunter.  The movie is actually pretty awesome and when I read the chapter I thought about the movie.  So the Haitians had the single most greatest and successful slave revolution in history.  That is some empowering information to know what slaves went through and the history they have, it is amazing to know that they did this.  To me I draw the comparison of a lion in a circus, the more the lion tamer or trainer pushes the animal the more the animal gets upset.  Well keep poking at a lion and I bet that lion is going to eat you.  The Haitian Revolution was great for slaves; it gave them a sense of pride.  It inspired other slaves to rebel and gave a “boost to the dawning abolitionist movement.”(Strayer, 510) I could imagine how good slaves felt when they heard of this happening and how afraid the slave owners became.  I am sure that with the news passing security became tight and slave owners drew worse.  Either way that is a big thumb up for slaves.

I feel most of us come from the middle class, working hard to get by and trying to stay unified as a family.  Back in the day in the 18^th century to the early 19^th century women from a middle class family were cast as homemakers, wives and mothers.  They created an emotional haven for their men and a refuge from a heartless and cutthroat capitalist world. (Strayer, 536) Women were also said to be the “moral center,” basically women were in charge of the house while the men worked and provided.  I believe it is important for a family to have this type of dynamic.  I grew up with mom taking care of us and dad was working all the time.  As we got older those things changed, but the concept remained and our family dynamic was great.  The poem “The Princess” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson was quite interesting and I don’t necessarily agree with all of it.  These days’ roles have changed and this way of thinking is different.

fur

Fur huh? Who knew? Well it actually makes a lot of sense.  Fur served as many things but more importantly fur served as a form of trade.  Fur was actually a very important and highly demanded thing.  People needed fur for warmth and used as status.  Fur came from a number of different animals such as beavers, rabbits, sable, marten and deer.  As the weather became colder the demand went up.  As the ice age began fur was at an all time high in value.  The more fur that was used meant that the resources were lowering.  Some animals were nearly hunted to extinction because of it.  The bad conditions pushed the price of fur up, but for France the price quadrupled.  That actually served as strong economic incentive for Europeans to use up the wealth of fur and continue to get more of it from North America.

It was said that only a few Europeans actually trapped and hunted.  They waited for the Indians to bring the furs and skins to the settlements.  Later they set up trading posts that allowed for easier trade.  Europeans paid for furs with goods like guns, metal tools, rum and blankets.  It’s kind of sad but the Europeans used the Indians as a cheap labor force and were able to exploit them.

Many of the items the Europeans sold to the native Indians were of high value to the Indians, the chiefs used them as a status symbol and were able to form trades amongst themselves.  They built relationships with the Europeans that kept them from being enslaved and exterminated.  They used what they had, but although they had gifts and things of value disease still wiped them out.

week 5

Islam in America is not a bad thing, but it scares a lot of people.  Most Americans associate Islamic faith with that of terrorists.  Malcolm X converted to Islam and went from militant black separatism to realizing that race is a barrier that can be broken through the context of Islam.  Well that thought really makes me wonder how a religion that is supposed to be good has such bad people believing in it.  The Islamic religion brought the Afro-Eurasians world into a worldview.  The faith of Islam had spread to the United States where some 1,200 mosques were created and an estimated 8 million Muslims were living. “The broad reach of Islam generated many of the great cultural encounters of this age of accelerating connections, as the civilization challenged and provoked Christendom, penetrated and was transformed by African cultures, and also took root in India, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia.  The spread of Islam continued in the modern era so that by the beginning of the twenty-first century, perhaps 1.2 billion people, or 22 percent of the world’s population, identified as Muslims.” (Strayer, 302) slaves and prisoners of war were amongst the people who converted.  People who converted were able to avoid the jizya, a tax imposed on non-Muslims. Conversion was not an automatic or simple process.  Vigorous resistance delayed the conversions for centuries among the people of North Africa.  In Persia between 750 and 900 about 80 percent of the population had made the transition to a Muslim religion, while still keeping their own ancient language.

Interesting to find out that Arab and Berber forces conquered Spain in the early 8^th century during the first wave of Islamic expansion. Muslim Spain in several centuries following the conquest has been portrayed as a vibrant civilization characterized by harmony and tolerance between Muslim rulers and its Christian and Jewish subjects.  Very interesting and I guess nice to know that at the time it was nice to live.