Strayer, Introduction to Part 5 & Chapter 17 (pp. 491-504)

Countering Eurocentrism has at least five answers to any dilemmas they have.  One, was how brief the Europeans were in history and how long it has been since they have been a part of it.  Two, is that the rise of Europe and an international context.  Three, the rise of Europe to a position of global dominance was not easy to get to and was not an automatic process to the top.  Four, many people all over the world used the Europeans ideas to create their own conditions, which led to new conditions for many other states and countries.  Five, Europe realized that they had made it to the top and went through struggles, but they were not the only ones who wanted the power and knew how to get it.  The American Revolution did not grow out of social tension, Britain's global struggle with France drained its treasury and ran into national debt.

Strayer, Chapter 16 (pp.477-488)

While Europeans were trying to continue to spread christianity, a new take on religion came about, called Europe's Scientific Revolution.  By the twentieth century, science had spread through European culture and became the symbol of global modernity.  Many scholars and people all over the world had questions about why it started in Europe instead of in China where they would have been able to discover such thing.  The reason it started in Europe was because of the vast majority of scholar in Europe, therefore, most of the major figures in Scientific Revolution had been trained and had education.  By spreading the word about Scientific Revolution, a group of scholars made books and printed them in the press.  there is still tension until today about the spread Scientific Revolution and Christianity.

Strayer, Chapter 16 (pp.461-477)

Modern science and some Christian believers within the United States have tension within their beliefs. The relationship between religion and science have had their problems for far too long.  The Reformation began in 1517 when a man named Martian Luther voiced his opinion against the Roman Catholic Church by posting a document called the Ninety-five Theses, on a church door for everyone to see.  When Luther did this, he started a revolution in a way, by showing people its theological basis. the Reformation spread quickly and everyone was talking about it, they also saw the difference and how it can change lives.  Spanish America and China showed the difference between the following or Christian religion and then another group of people who rejected the religion.  The strong, independent, confident China had a different strategy then Europeans to expand their views.  A new way of thinking came about, the birth of science came and religion felt threatened.  In the twentieth century, science lost its name as the European culture and was known as the symbol of global modernity.

Strayer, Chapter 15 (pp.449-458)

The trade of humankind took over two million slaves from Africa and sent them to North and South America.  Why was owning and trading slaves so important to people?  How come the farmers or workers just pay the Slaves so it was not so degrading.  African people became the main source of people to call slaves and take from their land and ship them to other places.  The slave trade made the Americas collapse in population and slowed down the growth in Africa, while the Europeans, Chinese's, and other regions grew.  Finally in the modern era, slave trade was decreasing rapidly and to many it would have come to a surprise that they did not need to practice slavery in order to change the world.  the world would have changed in some way or another for the best and taught people right from wrong later on.

Strayer, Chapter 15 (pp.433-448)

The Atlantic Slave Trade reminds the world of the problems it created and is still talked about now.  Why did we have slaves?  How come the farmers and land owners could not just pay the workers, instead of calling them slaves and hurting them?  Then in the Europeans and Asian Commerce, Asia had a growing intrest and recovery time from the European disaster from the Black Death.  In the fifteetnth century when the Europeans population was growing again and then Spain, Portugal, England, and France were then learning how to tax more efficiently and to build more military forces and better weapons.  the Portuguese then realized that if they took over by outgunning and outmaneuver other forces.  Spain then was the first to challenge the Portuguese, so they made the Philippines which was named after the Spanish king Philip II.  How come fur is so expensive? Why not just make warm clothes instead of skinning animals?

Chapter 4 Sweet Nexus: Sugar and the Origins of the Modern World

In the old days, sugar was considered a drug because everyone wanted it and would do anything to get their hands on some sugar.  It started from South Asia to the Caribbean, but it was better known in China.  then they used enslaved african labor to work in the crops.  Sugar was and still is a big deal in the world, because it is in almost everything we use and eat as like corn.

Strayer, Chapter 14 (pp.417-430)

Experiencing the Russian Empire had many steps, the authorities demanded an oath of allegiances and also demanded a "yasak" which is a paid debt.  The best transformation that happened in the Russian Empire was that there was an overwhelming number of Russian settlers and over ruled the native settlers.  Siberia and steppes were both incorporated in the Russian state and the natives were not thrown out or driven out of their land like the Americans had done with their natives.  Russia then created an empire similar to the Western Europe with taking conquest, settlement, exploit ion, religion, and more.  The Russians took ideas not only from Western Europe, but from many other countries.  Never the less, the Russian Empire acquired their own identity.  The Asian Empire went into making china an empire, muslims and hindus in the mughal empire, muslims, and christians and the Ottoman empire.  Many of the Christians had welcomed Ottoman because they had lighter taxes.  The Ottoman's were okay with the Christians because they post a threat to others.

Strayer, Chapter 14 (pp.403-417)

the colonization of the Americas North and South. The British settled in North America along the east coast while the spanish and Portuguese settled in mesoamerica, the caribbean, and the andean areas. The European advantage was the fact that the winds in the atlantic carried the ships in the general direction of the Americas and the more advanced culture of the europeans. The great dying occurred when the europeans came over and the natives contracted various diseases that killed off most of the indian population. The columbian exchange took place in the caribbean and mexico mostly. The exchange was the food which the settlers brought back, the precious metals they mined, the animals they brought, and the diseases that killed off the majority of the native people.

All the settlements in the Americas differed because of where the people came from. In Mexico the spanish made what were left of the indians mine precious metals for them, like gold and silver, but in order for the Portuguese people in Brazil to have a labor force, they needed to import slaves from Africa. They were there for labor in the sugar fields. These two cultures were the same in the sense that they mixed cultures and the spaniards and portuguese had families with the natives where in the americas, color separated the classes, and mixing races was frowned upon.

done