World History

  It was interesting to learn that although China and Ottoman Empires were really centered of what their outcomes, neither of them was able to create industrial economies or strong states to defend themselves over the European intrusion. China and Ottoman were able to rise new nationalist conceptions of society which were important for their future. China’s imperial system collapse in 1912 followed by the revolutionary upheaval. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire following World War I led to the existence of Turkey which was placed in the old empire where Arab and European lost their provinces. It was heart breaking to read that when the Great War started most Europeans believed that he men would be back home for Christmas, but did not happen because war was on for more than four years. Extended battles were happening for many months creating a whole lot of destruction and tragic. The war seemed to mimic the enlightenment values of progress, tolerance, and...

It was interesting to learn about the Portuguese Empire of Commerce, where the learned that the merchandise ships through the Indian Ocean were not heavily armed and lacked support of weapons and security, which the Portuguese ships had. This gave them the opportunity to take advantage of no power dominating the seas to outmaneuver naval forces since their cannons would crush coastal fortifications. The Portuguese created the “trading post empire” in the Indian Ocean, leading them to ask merchants for a pass to pay duties of up to ten percent, blocking the Red Sea route to the Mediterranean. Although they thought they were going to conquer most of the trade like in the European, they never succeeded in controlling them. Reading about the Atlantic Slave trade was very informative, where slaves were being transported all over the country just as merchandise or products. Slave trade definitely enriched Europeans and Euro American. Something that interested me w...

Something that caught my attention was the plague that spread all over in the early fourteenth century. The plague, also known as as the pestilence, and later know as the Black death killed many people. It was spread along the trade routes of the Mongol Empire, which was transmitted by flees to humans. In 1409 it eventually reached East Africa, likely by the Chinese maritime expedition. The Black Death was quite an epidemic that started from one place and began spreading all over the continents. Survival rates were low and I begin to wonder how far along their science was at the time, that there were unable to find a cure for this disease or at least helped stop the amount of people infected by it. Was it that there were no doctors at the time and all the medication given where remedies from home? The deaths of these people must have had a great impact on the trade as I assume that people infected by it must have been exposed to the transportation or someone exposed to it. ...