Economic Transformations, Strayer 14

8/1/2018

Bingham

8/1/2018 09:05:34

Sorry for the delay on the forum! Here's a little help to make it up to you.

What lasting legacies of early modern globalization are evident in the early twenty-first century? Pay particular attention to the legacies of the slave trade.

The Atlantic trading network
The Pacific trading network between the Americas and East Asia
The influence of European civilizations, especially in the Americas and the Philippines
The engagement of even remote peoples, such as those of Siberia, in world trade networks
The large populations in the Americas of peoples of African and European origins
African cultural influences in the Americas
Ideas of race, particularly of “blackness”
The demographic and economic legacy of the slave trade in West Africa

Chloe Shupe

8/1/2018 12:56:55

1. What drove European involvement in the world of Asian commerce?
- The desire for tropical spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and pepper)
- The demand for other products of the East, such as Chinese silk, Indian cottons, rhubarb for medicinal purposes, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires
- General recovery of European civilization from the Black Death
- Population growth
- Monarchies (Spain, Portugal, England, and France) were learning how to tax their subjects more effectively and build strong militaries with gunpowder weapons
- Cities were growing and becoming centers of international commerce, giving birth to economies based on market exchange, private ownership, and the accumulation of capital for further investment
- Circumventing monopolies of Venetian and Muslim intermediaries
- Desire to join the mythical kingdom of Prester John to continue the Crusades and combat a common Islamic enemy

Are there any points I should add to this answer?

Izze Chavez

8/1/2018 19:36:24

We basically got all of the same answers, but here's what I have anyways:
1. Desire for tropical spices, Chinese silk, and other eastern products such as Indian cottons, rhubarb for medicinal purposes, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires.
2. A general recovery of European civilization following the Black Death facilitated a growing interest in the Asian market.
3. cities were becoming centers of international commerce, giving birth to economies based on trade, private ownership, and accumulation of capitol used in further investments.
4. they resented the fact that Mediterranean trade was in the hands of Muslims.
5. They also disliked the monopoly Venetians had over Asian goods, which was established due to Venice being an intermediary between the Mediterranean and European who wanted the Asian goods.
6. In order to avoid both Venetian and Muslim monopolies, the Portuguese planned excursions of their own.
7. Portuguese voyages also aimed to unite with Prester John, a christian monarch rumored to reside in either Asia or Africa, because he too combated the common enemy known as Islam.
8. Mexico and Africa had goldfields which were incentive enough in order for the Portuguese to secure currency with real value in order to obtain Asian goods.

Bingham

8/1/2018 20:07:43

I like the clear organization of this answer. This is a key skill we all need to write effective essays in a timed situation. Pay attention!

Josie Nunn

8/1/2018 18:46:42

MQ7 How did the North American and Siberian fur trades differ from each other? What did they have in common?

Differences
- In North America, many European nations competed for furs and often got them through commercial negotiations with Native societies. Their was no competition that came with Russian expansion.
- Russian authorities imposed a tax on Siberian males between 18 and 50, payable in furs. -> Authorities took hostages with death as an outcome if the tax was not paid.
- Russian hunters competed directly with Siberian counterparts.

Similarities
- Disease spread through both societies.
- Indigenous people became dependent on other nations' goods.
- Many fur-bearing animals became depleted.

Add anything I missed! Also could somebody answer MQs 2 and 3? I'm confused by the questions.

Izze Chavez

8/1/2018 19:41:47

MQ2: To what extent did the Portuguese realize their own goals in the Indian Ocean?
1. The Portuguese had the goal of creating a "trading post empire" which aimed to control commerce, not large territories or populations, and to do so by force rather than by competition which was only partially realized.
2. They never succeeded in controlling more than half the spice trade to Europe and by 1600 the Portuguese "trading post empire" was in steep recline.

Bingham

8/1/2018 20:10:41

Good answer. As so often in history, and business, it isn't the first guys that succeed, but the next group that sees all the pitfalls the first guys encountered. In this case the key was a product the Indian ocean trading network wanted. Spoiler alert: silver!

Izze Chavez

8/1/2018 20:00:12

MQ3: How did the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and British initiatives in Asian differ from one another?
Hold your horses, this is a hefty question!
PORTUGUESE:
1. The Portuguese created a "trading post empire" which was based on controlling commerce, not territory nor population, through force rather than competition.
SPANISH:
2. The Spanish, through small-scale operations, gun-powdered weapons, local alliances, etc. were able to take over the Philippine islands. Here, they drew on their earlier experiences in America, ruling directly and allowing large landed estates to form. These were owned by Spanish settlers, Catholic religious, and prominent Filipinos.
THE DUTCH AND BRITISH
3. The Dutch and British organized their Indian Ocean ventures through private trading companies, which were able to raise money and share risks with many merchant investors. Bother received charters from their respective governments which allowed them trading monopolies, the ability to make war, and the act of governance over conquered peoples.
4. They established their own parallel competing trading post empires. The Dutch controlled the spice islands and the British inhabited India where the made negotiations/permitted trades because of the already powerful Mughal empire residing there.

Bingham

8/1/2018 21:13:59

Nice work. I would point out that the Dutch and the British didn't go the trading Post empire route; they took a different, more direct involment approach.

Izze Chavez

8/1/2018 20:17:50

MQ4: To what extent did the British and Dutch trading companies change the societies they encountered in Asia?
1. The Dutch acted to control the production of cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace.
2. Through much bloodshed, the Dutch seized control of a number of small spice producing islands.
3. On the Banda island, known for nutmeg, the Dutch either killed, enslaved, or left to starve the entire population, replacing them with Dutch planters, using slave labor.
4. While the Dutch profits skyrocketed, their endeavors left a harsh impact on the environment of the spice islands as well as damaged their economies, leaving them impoverished.
5. The Dutch, in response to Taiwanese disobedience, allowed for a large-scale assimilation of Chinese peoples, which left Taiwan ethnically Chinese.
6. The British established three major trading settlements: Bombay (Mumbai), Calcutta, and Madras on the east coast.
7. Because British merchants came to focus on Indian cotton textiles, hundreds of villages in the interior of Southern India became specialized producers for this British market.

Bingham

10/1/2018 15:16:17

Great answer, well organized.

Izze Chavez

8/1/2018 20:31:35

MQ5: What was the world historical importance of the silver trade?
1. The trade was the first direct contact and sustained link between the Americas and Asia, and it initiated a web of Pacific commerce that grew steadily over the centuries.
2. Silver transformed Spain:
-Because of wealth accumulated by Spanish silver-trade, Spain was able to pursue military and political ambitions.
-This trade monopoly also made Spain the European envy in the 16th century.
3. Silver transformed Japan:
- Used silver-generated profits to defeat hundreds of rival feudal lords and to unify the country.
- Allied with the countries merchant class to develop a market based economy and to invest in agricultural and industrial enterprises.
4. Silver transformed China:
-Silver deepened the already substantial commercialized economy.
- the Chinese economy became more regionally specialized because everyone needed to pay their silver taxes to the Chinese government, which meant they needed to trade what they could; this facilitated a growing importance of taking advantage of regional environments, in order to have something to trade.
5. Silver fueled global commerce, vastly increased the quantity of goods exchanged and the geographic range of the world trade. It also allowed Europeans the opportunity to trade something of real value in the world markets: silver.

Lia Stallmann

8/1/2018 21:02:24

MQ6: Describe the impact of the fur trade on Native American societies.

Positives:
1. (initially) introduced to Western technology and goods
2. authority of leaders and chiefs were enhanced by distribution of goods to their followers
3. (initially) Natives could negotiate reasonable prices for their goods
4. protected by the trade from mistreatment (extermination, enslavement, displacement) from the Europeans

Negatives:
1. introduced to European disease, causing a dramatic decrease in population
2. generated competition and warfare
3. loss of some cultural tradition and growing dependence on European goods
4. overhunting depleted resources
5. alcohol and violence became more prominent
6. a gender role shift (though women recieved opportunity to control trade of other goods, the fur trade itself caused somewhat of a male-dominant shift)

Julissa Ramirez

10/1/2018 18:29:35

I also put down that some Native Americans would die in European conflicts

Izze Chavez

9/1/2018 11:56:58

MQ7: How did the North American and Siberian fir trades differ from one another? What did they have in common?
1. Both trades were driven by demands of the world market
2. Both had profound impacts on the indigenous they traded with because they introduced the natives to foreign diseases, allowed for natives to become dependent on the goods they were trading, and took land from the indigenous to form settler frontiers.
3. In America, competition stemmed from the desire for the commodity, fur, which was usually spread through commercial negotiations. In Siberia, the furs were spread through the taxation of furs placed on every able bodied man from ages 18-50.
4. There was competition between private Russian hunters and traders, while in America the competition lay between the competing native societies.

Sebastian Covington

9/1/2018 13:28:00

Would adding that Russian authorities also imposed a tax or tribute from the native Siberians from able-bodied Siberian men with the resistance consequence of capture and death?

9/1/2018 13:45:18

Nevermind I saw it.

Sebastian Covington

9/1/2018 13:44:58

Feel very free to correct. Thanks!
MQ9: What explains the rise of the Atlantic Slave Trade?
- African "modern" industry of plantations and agricultural skills were readily available and accessible to Europeans
- The difficulty and danger of work on plantations and farms to Europeans wasn't worth it
- The limitations of serfdom and absence of wage workers opened the opportunity for slavery.
- Religious legitimacy given by the pope allowed the accumulation of slaves and goods from non-Christian and Muslim peoples.
- Africans were skilled farmers and had resistance from tropical and Europeans diseases.
- Racist ideas, either transferred from the Muslim's slave labor systems or developed and transferred from Irish stereotypes, allowed another point of legitimacy for slavery.

Izze Chavez

9/1/2018 17:43:06

Here's what I got!
1. The immense difficulty and danger of the work, the limitations that came with serf labor, and the absence of wage workers allowed for sugar plantations to acquire slaves.
2. Due to the absence of Slavic-speaking people, the deaths of native Americans, the fact that many marginal Europeans were Christians and indenture servants were expensive called for the need of slaves.
3. Religious justification was given to the practice of slavery, for every Islamic person or pagan was believed to be an unbeliever and
needed to be "eradicated", and slavery served that purpose. It happened that both Islamic people and pagans were concentrated in Africa.
4. Africans had immunity, were closer, were available in substantial numbers, and were subject to European racism, which all made it easier for Europeans to find reason to take advantage of the African population.

Izze Chavez

9/1/2018 17:33:48

MQ8: What was distinctive about the Atlantic slave trade? What did it share with other patterns of slave owning and slave trading?
1. The Islamic world wanted women, but the Atlantic trade wanted men.
2. Immense size of the traffic in slaves and its centrality to the economies of colonial America.
3. Largely based on plantation agriculture and treated slaves as a form of dehumanized property, lacking rights or respect.
4. Rare manumission.
5. Slavery came to be associated by "blackness" and Africa.
So, I'm having trouble seeing similar patterns the Atlantic slave trade had to other slave trades. The only ones i can think of are:
1. In west Africa, because their were so many separate tribes, when Africans would sell other Africans to Europeans on the West Coast, they were not necessarily selling their own people. As it is seen within other trading societies, the slaves used as items of exchange were usually not related to their captors and sellers.
2. The Atlantic slave trade took a specific peoples away from their homeland and forced them to work against their will, as were the Slavic-speaking peoples of earlier times.

Alison Wang

9/1/2018 22:02:08

I would add that slave status was inherited through each generation in the distinctions.

Izze Chavez

9/1/2018 19:01:42

Okay, so I am having trouble with the "Looking Back" Big Picture Question. It seems so broad and it seems that it would take 1000 years to answer. Has anyone answered it yet, or are their any ways to summarize it efficiently and still answer the question?

Bingham

10/1/2018 15:22:48

Let it go. You're right, too broad.

Izze Chavez

9/1/2018 20:13:37

BPQ1:
1. Europeans expanded commerce globally, changing not only its geographic limitations, but also the goods being sold in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. They also created new trading routes within the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
2. They assimilated both fur and silver goods into wider trade networks.
3. They also followed older patterns when they attempted to establish "trading post empires", which aimed to control existing routes and often sell the same things, while monopolizing the trading systems themselves.
This is all I have for this question, so please don't hesitate to give feedback.

Alison Wang

9/1/2018 23:10:40

MQ11: In what different ways did the Atlantic slave trade transform African societies?

- slowed demographic growth in Africa
- stimulated little positive economic change in Africa- Africans who benefited most from the slave trade were not investing in the productive capacities of their society; no tech breakthroughs
- crops such as maize and manioc were introduced from the Americas and added a new source of calories to African diets.
- fostered moral corruption in judicial systems
- movement known as the Lemba cult sought to counter the disruptive impact of the slave trade and to maintain elite privileges in an area that lacked overarching state authority through ritual and ceremony as well as efforts to control markets, arrange elite marriages, and police a widespread trading network.
- labor demands on women increased, unbalanced gender ratios meant that more men could marry multiple women, and the use of female slaves within West Africa increased, as the Atlantic slave trade favored male slaves. Women also got the opportunity to exercise power and accumulate wealth in cross-cultural marriages (signares) to wealthy European fur traders. State-building enterprises also offered opportunities to women- positions on council, integration in royal court, and female rulers
- small-scale societies w/o the protection of a strong state were often disrupted by raids from powerful neighbors- insecurity
- some larger kingdoms slowly disintegrated as firearms allowed outlying regions to establish their independence
- some African authorities sought to take advantage of the new commercial opportunities and to manage the slave trade in their own interests

its a lot but im still probably missing something so pls add if i am

Bingham

10/1/2018 08:54:10

You all owe a debt of gratitude to these people who worked so hard posting to this forum!

Here's present for you, food for thought. This is the prompt for the upcoming DBQ - remember though, this can only help with context and outside information, your argument (answer to the question) must be constructed using the gist in the documents.

To what extent did the global flow of silver have social and economic effects from the mid sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century?

Reviewing the sub-themes for the SPICE themes above would be a good idea.

Chloe Shupe

10/1/2018 13:39:30

10. What roles did Europeans and Africans play in the unfolding of the Atlantic slave trade?
- Europeans demand for slaves for sugar plantations was the chief cause of the Atlantic slave trade
- From the point of sale on the African coast to the massive use of slave labor in the Americas, the entire enterprise was in European hands
- Europeans tried to exploit African rivalries to obtain slaves at the lowest possible cost
- From the point of initial capture to sale on the coast, the entire enterprise was in African hands

Are there any points I missed or should explain in more detail?

Bingham

Welcome class of 2020. Some years students collaborate in this space effectively, some years not so much. One thing I know, collaboration significantly enhances learning. If you want access to my thoughts, this is the collaboration space to use. Most people propose an answer to margin questions, big picture question, or anything else related to managing Strayer. Other people can then comment leading to a stronger answer. I'll keep an eye on these pages, and pop in when I think you need me.

Economic Transformations, Strayer 14

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