Chapter 24

I thought it was interesting how the chapter starts with "I think every Barbie doll is more harmful than an American missile"...and the article goes on to explain how Barbie and Ken images are depicted in America compared to the images of similar dolls Sara and Dara in Iran. Growing up, I never realized that Barbie and Ken were never actually married and the image of their relationships is based on materialistic things. Additionally, I thought it was intriguing that the author connected the two concept of dolls by stating that both dolls were made in China.

What factors contributed to economic globalization during the 20th century?
Technology contributed to economic globalization. Shipping in containers, huge oil tankers, and air express services were all part of an upgrade in technology. Population growth also contributed to globalization. It created modern independence while entering the world economy.

What ways has economic globalization linked the worlds peoples more closely together?
Department stores and supermarkets were stocking their shelves with goods from all over the world. Additionally, foreign direct investment, money motion, and capital movement linked economic globalization of world peoples closely together. Foreign investment allowed countries like the United States to open factories in China and Mexico and take advantage of cheap labor, tax breaks, and looser environmental regulations.

What new or sharper division has economic globalization generated?
Globalization has generated economic growth in world history. Life expectancies increased, infant mortality declined and literacy increased as well. Additionally, poverty has fallen, and availability for foreign aid has increased and representation in international economic organization.

chapter 23

What was distinctive about the end of Europe's African and Asian empires compared to other cases of imperial disintegration?

It was distinctive because "never before had an empire been so associated with the mobilization of masses around a nationalist ideology" (p.692). Additionally the new nations claimed status that was equivalent to that of their former rulers. African and Asians wanted political independence but also the bases of their cultures in mind. Furthermore, the European colonies threw off British, French, Spanish and Portuguese rule during the late eighteenth century.

What was the role of Gandhi in India's struggle for independence?
Ghandi quickly rose within the leadership ranks of the INC. He applied his approach in periodic mass campaigns that drew a widespread of Indians. He had a simple lifestyle. He rejected modern industrialization. He did not call for social revolution but moral transformation. He wanted to see India as "...self-sufficent villages drawing on ancient Indian principles of duty and morality" (p.698).

What conflicts and differences divided India's nationalist movement?
The country was divided by Muslims and Hindus. All-India Muslim League contradicted the congress party's claim to speak for all Indians. Muslims were afraid they would not be heard due to the large Hindu population. The leader of the Muslim League argued that the Muslim minority should have a separate political status.

intro paragraph

Imagine living in a country where poverty and corruption exist within the government and the rulers have unlimited power. The voice and the opinion of the citizens do not make a difference towards gaining equality. Envision helpless people who want to live in a city where voices are not oppressed and the government provides support for the citizens. The cities in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula perhaps learned from the small and local occurrence in Tunisia and felt the same pain that the man in Tunisia felt. The anger and frustration that was caused by living in a city with corrupt government officials and high poverty levels resulted in civilians in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula to rebel against their government. The revolutions echo one another demonstrating the fight for equality, abolishment of oppression and economic and political reform. 

Islamic feminism

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/11/2010111813029420433.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2011/03/2011318326616845.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2011/02/201121472514918558.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2011/02/201122852528240117.html

chapter 21

Europe history contributed to the First world war:
Italy and Germany joined territories into two major new powers
Germany and France war
Germany wanting to become industrialized became a new political problem in Europe


New Departures in the history of the 20th century
women supported their countries war efforts
war mocked the enlightenment values of progress, tolerance, and rationality
New states were formed in Central Europe and based upon the concept of "national self-determination"
In Russia, a revolution upheaval brought Bolsheviks to power and took Russia out of the war
World communism was launched and played a large role in the 20th century
War echoed to Asian and African men
United states was brought to the center of global power

The great depression was a global phenomenon
unemployment soared everywhere
Germany and the United States reached 30 percent or more
vacant factories, soup kitchens, bread lines, shantyowns, and beggars came to symbolize the human reality of this economic diaster
Germany and Austria borrowed extensive money from the U.S.
Britain and France were also indebted to the US
Brazil destroyed enough coffee crops
colonial southeast Asia supplied rubber and experienced a large export drop

Facism challenges the ideas and practices of European liberalism and democracy
violence against enemies was condoned and action was exalted rather than thought and reflection
individualism, Liberalism, feminism, parliamentary, democracy and communism were condoned which all divided the nation

Chapter 20-colonial encounters

It was interesting to read the different ways the colonial takeover of Asia and Africa occurred. Europeans preferred informal social control because it was cheaper and less likely to provoke a war. Although, when needed the Europeans did take the risk of conquest and outright the colonial rule. The motives for Europeans were shaped by the military and economic power that came with the Industrial Revolution.

India and Indonesia grew out of earlier interaction with European trading firms. The Mughal Empire lacked united to begin with leading the Europeans to a successful colonization.

Furthermore, it was also interesting to read the how people benefited from the colonial regime. For example, many men found employment, their status in society changed, and they had security in European-led armed forces. European education was promoted. A few were able to return back home as doctors, lawyers, doctors, engineers, or journalists. Additionally, there was also cons that came along with the colonial regime. The Muslims and Hindus did not want to convert to Christianity. Also, local rulers lost power, landlords were deprived of their estates or their rents, and peasants overtaxed and exploited by urban moneylenders.

Moreover, it was fascinating to read how the power of the colonial states transformed the economic lives of colonial subjects by not paying people for labor on public projects, such as building railroads, constructing government buildings, and transporting goods.

Segments of Slavery

The Impact of the Slave Trade in Africa p. 455
Western African economies were increasingly connected to the European world
African population was decreasing
Africans who benefited most from the traffic  were not investing in the productive capacities of African societies
African authorities sought to take advantage new commercial opportunities and manage the slave trade in to their own interests
Benin exported fewer than 1.000 slaves a year, uniqueness lay in its relatively successful efforts to avoid deep involvement in slave trade
Dahomey on the other hand, became chief business of the state until the 19th century

The Atlantic Slave Trade p.449
Children could inherit the slave status of their parents
Males were favored 2 to 1 to female slaves
some slaves in the Islamic world acquired prominent military or political status 
Although most slaves worked in their owners households, farms, shops, laboring in large-scale agricultural industrial enterprises
slaves were treated as dehumanized property
Ancient Greece  took into consideration affirming values of human freedom and equality
Atlantic slavery came to be identified with Africa and "blackness""
Sugar was an essential factor leading to slavery
""Slav"became "slave"in European language
Africans were cheap slaves and skilled farmers as well as had a strong immunity to both tropical and European diseases, they were not Christians, close at hand, readily available