History Adventures with Jovanna

         Chapter 19 was about the Empires in Collision in Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia. I am going to just recap a few notes below with facts that really jumped out at me.                   - China became a semi-colonial society after the Opium War.          - Japan, Ottoman Empire, Persia, Ethiopia and Latin America avoided to fall under European colonial empires.          - Atlantic slave trade vanished throughout the 19th century.         - Slaves were viewed and treated like merchandise.          - British people move south from Egypt.          - Change in power caused the west to be in control of China trade and its demand and supply.         - By the 20th century its economic growth.          - Anglo-Japanese Treaty of 1902:...

    Strayer supplies some interesting information in Chapter 16 that caught my attention about the feminist movement in the nineteenth century, especially in Europe and North America. I have written down a few things that I found particular important throughout the reading.   - In French Revolution, some women argued that liberty and equality must include women.   - The middle-class women found more educational opportunities and less household drudgery.   - Women increasingly joined temperance movements, charities, abolitionist movements, missionary work, etc.  - Maternal feminism argued for women’s distinctive role as mothers.   - The first organized expression of feminism took place at a women’s rights conference in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848.   - The feminist movement was transatlantic from the beginning.   - 1870s, movements focused above all on suffrage:  a. Movements included the middle-c...

    Strayer has some more interesting facts and knowledge and I was able to get a better understanding about the Atlantic Slave Trade mentioned in Chapter 14.       The slave trade was responsible for the forced migration of between 12 - 15 million people from Africa to the Western Hemisphere from the middle of the 15th century to the end of the 19th century. The trafficking of Africans by the major European countries happened at this time.     The slave trade not only led to the violent transportation overseas of millions of Africans but also to the deaths of many millions more. Many died during slave raiding and wars in Africa, during transportation and imprisonment from Africa to the Americas.     The kidnapping of Africans occurred mainly in the region that now stretches from Senegal to Angola. However, in the 19th century some enslaved Africans were also transported across the Atlantic from parts of e...

    Another week another read and blog! This week I am going to focus on the way that men and women were viewed in “Early Islam” according to Strayer in Chapter 9. According to the religious views in the Quran men and women are treated equally. Within the Quran it speaks of both men and women having equality using the word “believer, both men and women (Strayer, p.380)”. However, in the social views with the Quran there was a twist, women were not viewed equally. This was especially seen within a marriage, “Men have authority over women because Allah has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient (Strayer, p. 380)”. I do not like this part very much and would fail immensely to follow these rules. I feel a lot of this inequality is still present today and I can see many trying to make a change. I hope my daughter will be able to grow older and be treated equally within society, we need to keep working...

     Out of the three chapters we had to read this week the chapter that struck my interest the most was Chapter 7. Strayer talks about the “Silk Roads, Exchange across Eurasia”. I found it interesting that the Silk Road was a trade route that connected the East and West. Trade was also an important role for the development of China. It was interesting how and what happened through the silk, sea and sand. The Silk Roads; travel was mainly with camels, carts or caravans. They traveled with gold, spices, salt, silk, gems and tea but this was mostly for the wealthy people. All people could travel by sea through boats and ships and carried mainly textile, rice, iron, metal and gunpowder. Also when traveling by sand roads camels were used for mean of transportation. They traveled with salt, slaves, and gold but again mainly the wealthy would have all this stuff and be able too. This review is short and sweet this week, more to come!

     Another day learning some new history facts from “Ways of the World” by Robert W. Strayer that I did not really know much about before. I am going to skip over Chapter 3, Chapter 4 and Chapter 6 and go into Chapter 5 “Society and Inequality in Eurasia/North Africa” by Strayer. I was particularly drawn to the the way that society was divided in China in the ancient world and what mainly led to this was through the society of the people/state. According to Strayer, “its rulers required each province to send men of promise to the capital, where they were examined and chosen for official positions on the basis of their performance (pg.193).” However, this then lead to a new system in which people were ranked one above the other according to their status, authority. This system was broken into three social classes; the Landlord class, Peasants, and Merchants. When I think of Landlord class I think of someone who has property and or manages such property. In Chin...