Chapter 15

I thought it was interesting that the Europeans wanted to be involved in Asian commerce because of their desire for tropical spices, pepper, condiments, and preservatives. They were also interested in silk, Indian cotton, rhubarb, emeralds, rubies, sapphires.

I thought it was interesting that the Portuguese could outgun and out number the competing naval forces. Furthermore, it was fascinating to read how the Spanish went into the Philippine's but they had their own society established each person was able to do their own and as he pleased. The Spanish was encouraged to control the islands. 

The Dutch was a lot more powerful than the British when it came to trading companies. The Dutch took control by shipping and producing cloves, cinnamon, nut meg, and mace. They also seized control of small spices. Additionally, they forced smaller islands to sell their goods. The dutch also gained power by killing people on the islands and implemented slave labor, selling goods for 14%-17% more than the actual price.

In comparison to the Dutch, the British was less financed and less sophisticated. The British ended up depending on India because the dutch took over the rich spices island. British took over Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras. The British also bribed the Mughal authorities with admission to Indian market because they were not capable of "trade by warfare". Both the British and Dutch were able to purchase Asian goods without using silver and gold to pay for the traded goods.

Chapter 14

There were several interesting points that were brought up in the chapter 14 reading. I thought it was really interesting that the modern era is described as an age of empire and empires within the same borders mixed and mingled allowing diversity to come about.

I thought it was intriguing to read about how the Europeans were so much more motivated to explore the different areas compared to other groups of people like the Chinese or Indians for example. The motives that encouraged people to explore was another interesting factor. For example, people were interested in starting a new life, people wanted to gain wealth, and noble people wanted to gain status in new areas.

Furthermore, the influences for development were the lands of the Aztects and Incas, the colonies of sugar, and settler colonies in North America. I thought it fascinating to read how sugar had such a large impact during this time period. It was an essential need for people to have sugar therefore resulting in the production being high and costly.