Laura's Online Journal

In this series of chapters, what I found most interesting was the comparison of the Chinese, Ottoman, and Japanese Empires.  Europe had a strong influence on the way these Empires conducted business, even to the point of forcing their will upon them.  China was a very good example of that. I find it ironic that China, with all of its technology and intelligence, found itself conquered by the Europeans at that time and never truly recovered from that.  China grew in population, yet was unable to accommodate this influx of people.  Resources were scarce and so were opportunities.  With the economic state in disarray, peasants revolted.  This event caused the necessary use of monies and other resources to defend itself from its own people that in the end, the state had significantly weakened.  This opened the door for outside influences to enter, and that's exactly what they did. The Ottoman Empire was no less fortunate.  It went from being a pow...

I am going to do something quite different this time around.  Instead of blogging about each individual chapter, I think I will blog about the one thing that stuck with me after I read the hundred pages or so of text. So here you have it . . . Atlantic Revolutions.  I never heard this term before.  Every time a battle was mentioned in previous texts, it was always given its own name.  So I thought what exactly is meant by Atlantic Revolutions?  There was a wave of wars that occurred in the Atlantic World during the 18th & 19th centuries.  So, what is meant by the Atlantic World?  Well, these events happened in the Americas, Europe, France, and Haiti. There was much emphasis made about the "echoes" of the Atlantic Revolutions.  This word captured it all and covered much more than these battles that took place within a specified time frame.  After all, many actions in life causes "echoes" as well.  Prior consequences can influence ...

Chapter 13 , " Political Transformations " focused on the early modern era, basically from 1450-1750). The empires in Europe, the Americas, China, and Russia were the focal points in the discussion and how the influence of the Ottoman Empire spread its influence into many of these regions. The Great Dying was a horrific point in time for the Native American peoples.  The isolation they shared from the Afro-Eurasian inhabitants caused them to lack the immunity needed to withstand the diseases that were introduced to them by foreigners.  This was similar to the Black Plague where a substantial amount of the population was wiped out almost overnight.  In this case, up to 90% of the Native American population was annihilated.  Then, add to this the Little Ice Age that produced extremely cold temperatures, in return affecting food production in crops and droughts in other areas. Much suffering was endured by many regions. The "Columbian Exchange" was a network of tra...

Chapter 12 , " The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century " went into many comparisons between different empires, highlighting their struggles and victories accordingly. So in keeping with the goal of this journal, one event in time that actually resonated with me was regarding China.  It baffles me as to the ingenuity that this empire held to be able to become one of the most influential empires in the world and yet it chose to keep to itself, so to speak.  It's like an empire within a bubble, wanting to keep everyone out but functioning just fine on its own.  Not being dependent on outside forces.  After the devastating consequences suffered from their previous Mongolian rule, China rebuilt their nation and became whole once again. This event that I am referring to is the implementation of their immense maritime excursions.   Under Emperor Yongle's reign and for the next 28 years afterwards, there were hundreds of ships on voyages with thousands of crew members a...

Wow, Wow, and Wow!   Chapter 11 focuses on "T he Mongol Moment " and it was mind-altering.  In my younger years, I had heard about Chinggis Khan and had associated him as a ruthless barbarian killer.  Cold-hearted.  After I read about his beginnings, my impression of him changed.  Weird, I know, but true. I thought about the struggles he went through as a young boy with the death of his father and a mother who fought tirelessly to provide for him.  His example of perseverence, however violent his methods eventually became, was one of respect.  To think that this one young man with no schooling or education whatsoever, managed to create, as the text states, "the largest land-based empire in all of human history" is unimaginable. In the past, I have heard people say, "What can one person do?"  Well, this is a prime example of that.  If we really take the time to look, we will find many one-persons in our history.  And usually these in...

"The Worlds of Islam" is the topic for Chapter 9 .  I was a little hesitant to read this chapter at first because there is just so much talk in the media these days about the Islamic influence in the world that it can be a bit overwhelming at times.  So to have an entire chapter on Islam was just too much on top of all of the other commentary I hear on a daily basis.  But nonetheless, I did want to understand exactly what is the core message of Islam, how it came to be, and how it continues to impact the world today. My knowledge was very basic.  I knew that Muhammad was the originator of this religion and that the main message was one of peace and unity with Allah.  As my reading progressed, the expansion of Islam was like the rushing waters across land masses.  It seemed to infiltrate at an increasingly rapid rate.  This seems to be the case even today. I understood from the text how Islam was changed here and there in different regions to fit th...