Ways of the World

My Final Blog Post (Sources:  https://www.quora.com/Why-do-so-many-people-on-Quora-end-their-answers-with-That-s-all-folks) Chapter 23: Capitalism and Culture The Acceleration of Globalization since 1945   1061 pages of world history conclude with some thoughts on capitalism, global feminism, the rebirth of religion and the second wave of environmentalism.  A lot to ponder to be sure, but I seek the "red thread" - the synthesis of all this data into a coherent point that permeates our reading up until now.  Change.  We can't stop it, in fact we demand it.  As nations emerge from empires, and more governments with more individual agendas arise, the free market takes shape - and with it, the concept of capitalism.  One way or another mankind has always been capitalistic.  Nothing is new here, but the benefits and consequenses of our pursuits are unequal in their effect.  Like Shelly concludes - "The rich have become richer...

The Economist - Africa Rising (Source: https://www.economist.com/leaders/2011/12/03/africa-rising) Chapter 22: The End of Empire The Global South on the Global Stage 1914 - Present After decades of imperical rule, the Western European powers losen their grip on the colonies, offering them independence.  But at what cost?  Freedom and the ability to govern yourself in the way your see fit certainly sound great.  But self governance sometimes isn't all it's cracked up to be when the economy is tied directly to your legitimacy as a government.  In those years when the European powers exploited the labor and resources from the colonies, often times reorganizing a country's economy to suit production needs of Europe, to the point of creating a country that is no longer self sufficient without importing basic goods.  I believe Europe granted these countries their independence largely because they had drained them of everything useful, leaving t...

SCPL News & Announcements Glimpses of World History with Robert W. Strayer Glimpses of World History with Robert W. Strayer Series of illustrated talks dealing with various themes, topics and periods of time in world history. These talks will be held the 3rd Saturday of the month 1:00-2:30pm at the La Selva Beach Library (316 Estrella Ave.) Robert W . Strayer (Ph.D., University of W isconsin) brings wide experience in world history to the writing of Ways of the World. His teaching career began in Ethiopia where he taught high school world history for two years as part of the Peace Corps. At the university level, he taught African, Soviet, and world history for many years at the State University of New Y ork- College at Brockport, where he received Chancellor's A wards for Excellence in Teaching and for Excellence in Scholarship. In 1998 he was visiting professor of world and Soviet history at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. Since moving ...

Fidel Castro (Source: History.com) Chapter 21: Revolution, Socialism and Global Conflict The Rise and Fall of World Communism 1917-present Although communism may have started as a good idea, an more popular alternative to the inequitable capitalist model of economics, in practice, it still grants power to a few that make decisions for many.  John Dalberg-Acton may have said it best in a letter to the clergy as far back as 1887, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" (https://acton.org/research/lord-acton-quote-archive.)  He was right then, and he is right today. The echoes of the French Revolution still reverberated in Russia and China when revolutionaries ousted those in power in favor of a Marxist ideology.   Russia did it in a single year (1917) and things went rather badly for the Romanov family.  China's revolution was much more gradual, and wasn't fully realized until 1949.  Both were ultimately to end up with...

Naval Enlistment Poster (Source: https://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/ohio-in-ww1-home-page.html) Chapter 20: Collapse at the Center 1914 - 1970's Nationalism trumps all in the twentieth century when Europe forgets everything it once stood for after the enlightenment.  The echoes of the Atlantic Revolutions for social justice were long forgotten and replaced with blind nationalistic rhetoric from power hungry dictators.  Had Europe forgotten everything it believed with respect to the rights of man?  Of popular sovereignty and the ability of a nation to be governed by its own people - those that know best?  Hidden economic agendas, scientific rascism, and new imperial thrusts by countries that felt destined to expand all added to the complexity of a century that played host to two world wars, upwards of 70 million lost lives - military and civilians alike, a great depression, and a realignment of political boundaries resulting in new nat...

Russia, Playing a game of Strategy with Turkey (Source: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/rise-of-the-young-turks) Chapter 19: Empires in Collision 1800-1914 Chapter 19 goes into some detail with respect to relations with the West and China, the Ottman Empire and Japan - and their respective efforts to resist influence.  While I can respect the actions of China and the Ottoman empire doing what they can to stave off Western influence, it is Japan that was probably most successful in staying Japanese and at the same time embracing new advancements in technology.  They borrowed what they felt was worthy and kept their identity.  Strayer is quick to point out that if you define success a different way, then maybe there is merit in what the Ottomans and China did.  Trade is a good thing, and no country can remain self sufficient by shutting itself off from the rest of the world for any length of time.  The Early Chinese traded heavily...

Britania, the Warrior Queen, ruling over the world (Source: http://www.melaskole.no/the-story-of-an-empire.html) Chapter 18: Colonial Encounters in Asia, Africa and Oceania This chapter, probably more than any other, ticked me off.  Since I am a business major, I understand the importance of a free market and how trade can make us all better off.  The colonies of the world powers durring this period certainly fueled the economic engines of modern empires, but the externalities generated by the activities led to local market failures that were never addressed.  Most egregious was the fact that the colonizing power replaced the production of goods and services by a country with the production of resources they wished to exploit or sell abroad.  And they did it with coerced local labor from the colony.  Not only does this ignore the free market position of what should be a soveriegn nation, but it destroys their ability to be self sufficient. ...

Album Cover: Pink Floyd's "Animals" Chapter 17: Revolutions of Industrialization 1750 - 1914 I often find gems of wisdom in Strayer's "Reflections" at the end of each chapter.  In chapter 17, he suggests that historians and students of history often view history in terms of "winners and losers".  It's easy to do, and I find myself sometimes falling into that trap.  When the Agricultural Revolution happened, it happened almost simultaneously accross the globe - but when the Industrial Revolution took place, it happened in a very short time span - in Western Europe - Britain to be precise.  What matters though, is why?  In the case of the Industrial Revolution - Why Europe?  And, for that matter, Why Britain?  He tackles both of these questions without difinitive answers, probably because they are so complex.  In the case of why Europe, he offers a couple of viewpoints I hadn't thought about before.  First of all, when huge influ...

Thomas Paine, Author of "Rights of Man", Thetford, England (Source: https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g315939-d320064-i89641173-The_Thomas_Paine_Hotel-Thetford_Norfolk_East_Anglia_England.html) Chapter 16: Atlantic Revolutions, Global Echoes 1750 - 1914 We are the World In the Prologue to Part 4, Strayer examines the period between 1750 and 1914, calling it "the long 19th century".  This part of the text chronicles the rise to dominance of the European civilization.  At this time Europe was rather full of itself, beieving that it was somehow endowed with superior knowledge, culture and vision.  On the plus side, the concepts of "Popular Soveriegnty", the notion that ability to govern is derived from the people, equality, free trade, and the thought that "human politcal arrangements could be engineered and improved by human action" (699). Of course this led to an uptick in European pomposity and entit...

Father Matteo Ricci and Hsu (Paul) Kuang-Ch'i, From Euclidian Elements ( Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Rites_controversy ) Chapter 15: Cultural Transformations Religion and Science 1450-1750 Again today, I've tried to drink out of Strayer's veritable fire hose of information, a positively mind numbing assault on my beautiful Sunday.  Anyhow, it works best for me at these times to extract nuggets of information that seem to connect to the greater context of what we are trying to learn, rather than pay close attention to the detail.  Sometimes it feels good to whine a little bit.  Just a little. While studying some of the monumental cultural changes durring the period I can see that along with the economic expansion came cultural and religious exchange - to the point of eliminating eons of existing religion and culture.  Most of the succesful expansion of the Christian religion happened in civilizations that had religions which...

East India Trading Company Logo (Source: http://logodesignfx.com/east-india-trading-company-logo-8/) Chapter 14: Economic Transformations Commerce and Consequence 1450-1750 The competitive nature of our species takes a turn for the worse when dominance, economics and prosperity are on the line.  Although Europe was able to trade with the far East via the Silk Roads, the loss of Byzantium to the Turkic peoples made things more difficult.   The Sea roads were the future.   In an effort to be the first of Europe to control the luractive trade in the Indian Ocean, Spain and Portugal sought to find a way around the African continent.  Portugal travelled down the West coast of Africa, around the cape and back up the East coast, finally arriving at the Indian ocean.  A trading base needed to be established locally to make the commerce worthwhile.  Spain, not to be outdone, financed Columbus' trip West to find a better route.  Columbus r...

Khusrau and Shirin - The Presentation at the Temple - Byzantine Painter ca. 15th Century (Source: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/31.67.8/) Political Transformations Empires and Encounters 1450-1750 Chapter 13 details a more familiar period, chronicling the rise of the empires that still persist until today in one form or another.  What is most fascinating and interesting to me is how (and why) the Europeans were able to kickstart their expansion an entire ocean away - something that had never occured in earlier empires.  While China and the Ottoman empires expanded by establishing dominance in existing and familiar civilizations, the Europeans left their own continents in search of economic prosperity and to spread the Christian faith - or going abroad to "serve God and King, and also to get rich" (557).   After the fall of the Byzantine empire to the Turks, the Silk roads became less of an option for European trade merchants. ...

Mural of Columbus by Luigi Gregori (1882-1884) Covered by the University of Notre Dame in response to Native American Outcry (Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/01/22/university-notre-dame-will-cover-its-murals-christopher-columbus) Chapter 12: The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century Expanding Civiliztions The fifteenth century offers a rich treasury of data on expansion of civilizations westward and elsewhere.  While Columbus' voyage opened up the floodgates for European colonization of the Americas, what I found most interesting was elsewhere.  China actually had a larger fleet of incredibly huge ships that set off but only made it to Africa's East coast - and the exploration was called off after the biggest proponent, the Chinese emperor Yongle, died.  China saw itself as the superior "middle kingdom" needing nothing from outside its borders to thrive, so they saw the expeditions as a waste of money and resource.  They recalled...

Genghis Khan and Three of His Four Sons by Rashid al-Din From:  Jamí al Tawarikh (History of the World) ( Source: https://arth27501sp2017.courses.bucknell.edu/mongols/Jamí al Tawarikh ) Chapter 11: Pastoral Peoples on the Global Stage 1200 C.E. -1500 C.E. Peaceful Nomadic Shepherds?  Maybe not so much... Admittedly, my original definition of pastoral peoples was limited to nomadic communities, tribes losely organized around kinships or ancestral groups that moved their herds from one spot to another as seasons and conditions allowed.  Just how did this group of Mongols end up defeating most of the known empires in the world at the time and expanding their empire from Persia through China without any history of administering permanent settlements?  Part of the answer seems to lie within the mobility of the nomads, but their leader, Chinggis Khan, was the catalyst that led to the creation of the empire in a very short time -- within the lifesp...

Bismillah (Source: https://ya-webdesign.com/explore/bismillah-vector-arabic-writing/) Chapter 9: The Worlds of Islam Afro-Eurasian Connections 600-1500 Strayer spends this chapter discussing the influence of Islam on the growing Arabic Empire.  Indeed, the Islamic religion was the engine that drove the unification of the cultures that comprised the followers of the faith.  None of this was particularly new to me since I've taken three separate classes on Islam, but l'd never spent much thought examining it from the point of nation building and how it was able to unify an entire empire.  Another piece of new information for me was the importance of the Turkic interpretation, and the formation of the Ottoman empire -- the reason for the fall of the last vesitiges of what was left of the Roman Empire, leaving Western Europe as the new hotbed of Christianity, and ultimately,  the crusades. The power of Islam to unite was largely due to the reaso...