chapter 16

Back then, religion was very big. Christianity was the most well known back then. It was spread out through out europe. Back in the modern times they thought christianity was the only way to heaven. What i also found interesting was that Strayer said that science was almost like a "new religion". Another thing that was interesting was how much christianity had an effect on people. At times people were forced to pick between religions. At this point in time everyone for the most part believed in some thing.

There was a lot of forces the were big in this time period like empires and commerce  between 1450 and 1750. The slave trade was a big part of this also. There was very big commerce in the indian ocean because you could travel almost any were you wanted. This made some people very rich and wealthy.  Something I found very interesting was the African Americans were not the first slaves. It was slavic people who were first. Back then slavery was as bad as owning a pet which for some can be pretty bad depending on the owner. 

This chapter talks about trading different things between different countries like sugar, spices, silver and fur. America got there spices from India, they also go silver and fur and england wanted there sugar from America. Russians got there fur from siberia. The big part was all the trading companies. The Dutch company controlled shipping and the making of cloves, mace and cinnamon. They also talked about be careful about japan so there was a rise in mercenaries.  So with trading also the militaries were brought in to protect all the goods.

Sweet Nexus, Sugar and The Origins of the Modern World

While empires expanded the world became more industrialized. While they expanded they only took what was valuable and useful. Also back then sugar was a very big thing. There wasn't that much of it because it took a lot of labor to produce it. The Europeans didn't have that much of it. Also the big thing was slaves. Black people having to work for white people doing the things they didn't want to do like all the labor. this bothers me. things today have change and now everyone is equal.

In the end they talk about the russian and asians empires. The russians had the largest state and Moscow was it center. This is were the Mongol rule started. What I found interesting was that every time they conquer an area they forced everyone to change religions and learn there new language. Sometimes they were also forced to give money and any goods they had. But compare to taking over there land and even making them slaves thats not to bad.

Chapter 14 Part 1

The Europeans had a lot of advantages to help them become one of the most successful empires out there. some of which are there location and all the land around them that was unclaimed by any one. Empires were made up of more than just there culture and what they had around them but also by the most important part their religion and what they believed in. it helped them sat standers in various ways.   There big expansion was moving to the americas but when they did so they not only brought there population but they also brought there diseases and sickness to america which before hadn't existed. This was not good for the indians, some got sick and died because of it. Bt the end of everything was starting to be one of the most developed countries at the time.