Blog #5 Religion

I find religion very interesting, and the different values they have. It was really interesting how religion had begun to spread through many different countries and how they affected each of those countries. In history and now they always seems to be a fight with religion. I was really surprised the history of the Catholics in Mexico, how the bishop there was proud to say  he “destroyed 500 shrine and 20,000 idols” (Strayer, 729). That’s not something to be proud of. Strong believers of the church tend to follow the church’s actions, and I don’t think they were being good leaders. What happened to peace?  I like reading the part of Neo-Confucianism, I found their values to be interesting especially the part “intuitive moral knowledge exists in people…even robbers know that they should not rob” (Strayer, 737). This religion seems more morally and valued based, like what is right and wrong. I think Confucianism is much more peaceful than the Christianity and Catholic Churches.  Confucianism to me seems like finding your inner self and seeing what is right and wrong in your eyes, I think it is more rewarding to one, and understanding yourself more, in addition gives you strong morals and ethics. As in Christianity and Catholic it is like you have to follow their guidelines in order to be accepted by God, and they give morals and values. I think you can become a stronger person when you can find in your inner-self your own morals and values, it easier to sticks by because it is what you believe in, rather than forced to. Over all I think religion is a good part to be in everyone life, it does not matter which religion. I think religion gives you a good foundation, gives you strength, hope, and enlighten. It is always good to believe in something. While reading this chapter I felt like there was a lot going on all over the world as if religion was a wild fire. As if religion was the “trend” in that time. There were so many different religions being established and being converted it got me a little overwhelmed. I would feel like I don’t know what religion to pick or follow. Then again the religion in the area you lived in it seems like you had to be that religion or the church would punish you. Religion back then and now have become extremely different, although they still follow the same belief, but the way people express their religion is different. Take for example the Christians they worship through constantly singing songs as if they were sang on the radio with a band. I think Catholic worshiping style has not changed. Religion was a big deal everyone had a certain religion, and if you did not you were consider bad, but over time religion seem to escape people’s lives, or just worshiping method. Religion has truly evolved and tends to not have as much power as it did before, but religion will never go away.

Blog #4- Slavery

Imagine a world where slavery did not take place. If slavery never took place I believe we as a world would have been even closer to world peace. Without the practice of slavery never taking place it would limit a large amount of racism, and stereotyping. I was interesting to read how the African were very depend on by a variety of countries, since they were so dependent it on, they were necessary the dominant racism. All the other races such as Native Americans and Europeans died off quickly. The Africans cleaned up everyone’s mess and did everyone’s labor, they were a necessity, a vital part for countries to survive and strive. As much help as the Africans gave they were not treat fair but instead treated poorly. You should never treat someone who helped you with so much by treating terribly, it is just not right. Without the Africans, every country would not be where they are at today without their help and labor. It was just sad to read how the Africans were imported too many countries as if they were objects, and treated badly within every country.  I found myself getting mad when reading document 14.2 by Thomas Phillips, he described the slave as objects basically his inventory for his business. It seemed like he forgot that slaves are human beings, not object, the sad part about it is that people treated their pets better than they treated their slaves. I found it really disturbing how he describes how he marks his slaves with a hot iron; he describes it as little pain. I am pretty sure being branded with a hot iron does not cause little pain, it causes a tremendous amount of pain, he is burning someone’s skin it leave a mark. When they are getting branded they are at risk of infections due to the skin being damaged and it is more at risk towards bacteria. I wonder how many slaves died to being branded that lead to infection. The way Phillips talks about marking the slaves he acts like the slaves have no emotions, and felt no pain. It was just really sad to read how these slaves were treated as inventory for a business and were not showed any compassion. Not all slave owners did not treat slaves so terribly as spoke about in Olaudah Equiano narrative; it was once pleasing to read how slaves were treated with respect, and love. For instance, when one of Equiano’s owners got her all perfumed up and she ate dinner with the mistress and her son. I cannot imagine, when feeling comfortable in a new setting and felt like everything was going good, and then being kidnapped, then being exposed to a new disturbing lifestyle. I bet it was exhausting for Equiano to be constantly being bought and never being able to settle down, how do you live life being forced to live somewhere else every other day. It is like you will never have a home or what do you call home.

Blog #3- Economic Transformations

It was surprising to read how the import of spices had affect a lot of the dominate countries to want to take to control.  To me it is sort of funny to think that countries are fighting over spices. The fight for spices have token over control of the Indian Ocean. It was sad to read how India was the main producer for spices and they got no profit from it. I could not believe how the Dutch killed 15,000 people, an entire population just so they can have control of spices, which is too extreme. Why couldn't they have token those people and make them work for them instead of killing off a whole population. It seemed like they were desperate to have nutmeg as if nutmeg was a drug to them. I can see why spices were such a big deal and why every country wanted control over them, they were a delicatessen. Spices can make a tremendous difference in the taste of food, it makes food more appetizing. When reading this section about spices it reminded me of the movie A Hundred Foot Journey. It specifically reminded me of a part in the movie where this Indian guy brought over his spices and add them to a French lady about twenty year old recipe, she was mad that he was changing it by adding spices. When he added his spices it made a big difference in her food, then she started to include adding his spices to the food.  It was a really good movie I highly recommend it. Anyways knowing how big spices are used and depended on in today society and I cannot imagine how much of an impact it was back them.  They made many big discoveries that we depend so much on in cooking, such as sugar and the variety of spices. Imagining cooking and not able to have an access to a certain spice or sugar or not having it at all because it was not discovered yet. I wonder if food was really bland before the discoveries of sugar and spices. I figure spices was a big deal to these countries once I read how they were granted to make war in order to be in control of the spices they wanted. I think the Dutch got carried away with having control of the spices; they acted as if the spices were their life. In the end I thought the British was smart to take control of India due to India having a majority of the spices, thus the British would get more profit over the Dutch. The Dutch seemed to limit themselves to just nutmeg and cloves, although they were selling it for four times the price I don’t think they will be much profitable as the British.  It was really interesting how a lot of countries became involved in trade with Asia. It was like Asia had everything, which everyone wanted; I’m surprised that Asia did not capitalize on the trade to make their empire grow. 

Blog #2 Sweet Nexus

Reading the different viewpoints from the Sweet Nexus got my mind really thinking about other texts, about other what views am I missing out on? Reading the different viewpoints affects how you think and take in a subject. When I first read the text of how the owners would treat the slaves. It was very disturbing and I could not wrap my mind how someone can treat another human being in that such manner. How can you live the pain you cause someone or how can you live with the idea that you took someone else’s life. These owners would break the slave’s bone, and cut their legs off so they would not run away. I really do not understand how someone can do that to another human being despite them being inferior. We were always taught when we were younger to take care of our toys and property so they will last longer. The slave owner were not taking care of the slaves they were only abusing them. If they took care of their slaves then they would last longer. Other slave’s owner did take care of their slaves and allowed them to have a life because they saw the slave valuable, in addition helping them continue their business. It was also sad to read the last view point from a slave how it felt to be sold he felt betrayed by his mom he did not know he was going to be sold. If the slave owners took into consideration how the slaves felt and put themselves in their shoes maybe they would treat them more as a human rather than an animal. Then again I can see why these slaves owner did abuse the slaves because to the demand of sugar. If the demand of sugar wasn't needed or increased the owners probably would not abused them. Due to the increase of sugar demand the owner felt like they needed the slaves to work as much as possible to get their income, if the slaves were to revolt or slack off in work the owner would not be making a living for themselves. I can see both side of the argument but, like me and many will argue on the slave’s side due to how horribly treat they emphasize in their story. We only focus on the bad; we don’t necessarily see the big picture of why these slaves are being abused. 

Blog #1- chapter 13

I found it amazing to read how fast the Europeans expanded their empires through different continents. During their expansion they had the biggest empire, and the search for food to support the scattered empire. It was impressive that they did find a way to support all their whole empire that was all in different locations. It was really interesting that the European empire in North America received a variety of foods from other empires, instead of the standard foods that were selectively grown or given. Knowing how big the European empire was, what first came to my mind was how long will Europeans have control of all these scatter empires before one of the empires revolts against them. Controlling the mass area they had must have been hard, knowing that they are scattered and the only way to get to each empire is through ship rather than through land. As well as to lead and control a mass number of people that lived in each empire and to support them as well. I also thought how long did it take for the empires to finally revolt against them. I wonder if any other European empire revolt after the North America Empire did. When expanding an empire I would think it would be easier to conquer lands nearby, so it would be easy to control the empire, and then once the empire was large enough than begin to start empires on other continents. But I can imagine that the Europeans wanted to be the first the start an empire on other continents they probably thought it was free land and they would not have a problem obtaining it. It was really sad to read how Native Americans were treated when empires began to expand. Especially how the Aztec women were given to the men to become their wives, but the men raped and abuse them. I believe the Europeans were not grateful for the aide the Native Americans gave them. They definitely abused their powers over the Native Americans

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