Unit 1 Notes

The Silk Road Early Globalization: One’s desire to acquire natural resources that aren't native to their region was motivations for developing trading networks. This desire led trade between different regions or areas of the world. The exchange of raw materials and manufactured goods.Desire for products from around the world → trade220- 206 BCE → Xiongnu sent Xhang to find allies. Main goal: Political ties (allies) Trade (as we know it) didn’t exist Trade happened in the form of gifts (marriage alliances) Notes on silk road: rough terrain Started to use boats as it began to become dangerous Camels were used to carry silk 5 KEY POINTS: Weight (light) to value (heavy) Trade route → people pass a long →price goes up → disconnect (mysterious) Goods couldn’t be produced in Europe The worlds 1st international trading route Big exchange of different goods Known as Internet of Antiquity → other than goods being exchanged- Knowledge, inventions, religious, beliefs, artistic styles, languages and social customs were also exchanged.New Ideas, Technologies, and Historical Globalization Large square sails = ability to use boats = quicker and more efficient way to trade New navigational tools = magnetic compass Gunpowder = power over developing world's (indigenous people) Slavery When one human being, and often their descendants are owned by anotherChattel: a possessionTheir freedom is restricted and they are forced to do work against their will, Often inhuman conditionsSlaves were solution for cheap laborers for new land → Ships sent to Africa to get necessary workers (idea of ethnocentrism/ allowed to happen - Social Darwinism)Slavery → economic benefitsJustified by → ethnocentrism, Social Darwinism, Eurocentrism, and the thought of the indigenous/africans being “not people” Age of Imperialism → created large demand for slaves and (economic motivations for imperialism Poor living conditions of slaves (dungeons and ships) → starvation and disease Ethnocentrism/ Eurocentrism/ Social Darwinism → Little value for lives of slaves → Dehumanization → Derogatory language-New names for slaves- meant they had a new identity (forgetting their past identity- they were owned now)-Slaves were branded- could be returned to owner (emphasizes dehumanization) A primary source is something left behind from a particular point in history that tells a story (diaries, photos, drawings, artifacts, posters, letters)-Demand for went up during the age of imperialism since more land was owned (more resources and land to manage for profit) The Scramble for Africa Britain won the Scramble for AfricaMotivations for the Scramble for Africa: land for raw materials = mercantilism(sell them back to mother country = new markets) exploration power for ports and trade routes to Asia The Results of Borders placed on Africa: Civil war (war within a country) Groups separated/ groups brought together (or not) Assimilation, Genocide Country’s self determination (own culture/language) Nationalism:A nation felt that gaining colonies was a measure of greatness and could lead to increased, social, and political motivations3 ways Europe was able to dominate Africa: Social motivation - The thought of Europe being better than Africa fueled the determination to rule and control Africa Technologies - Guns and gun powder and machine guns. Ruled by violence Missionaries - “a social motivation” and it was a European thought that they could end slavery if they converted the Africans to Christianity so they could be more “human” The “wants” of the countries in the Scramble for Africa Great Britain - Suez Canal and surrounding territory for shipping routes, and holdings on southern tip. Germany - Coastal Southern and Western religions and South Eastern Africa France- Colonial outposts along the west coast of Africa Portugal - oldest colonial outposts in Africa The White Man’s Burden an idea by the Europeans, a poem by Rudyard Kipling Summary of each stanza(7) (1) Send the best White Men to help the devil and childlike people (2) The people are stupid so you must speak in plain language to communicate with them (3) End hunger and disease of the savages, but don’t get too close so you don’t catch it (4) Work hard like men and mark posts and roads with the dead (the ones who were too weak) (5) The savages will blame the white men for bringing light and civilization to them (6) The white man must not show his fatigue, the savages are always watching (7) The white man must help the savages, it is not pretty, but they must do it. There is no rewards and no one will recognize what you did, but you must help the savages and that’s why it’s a burden Overall Message: From an euroenteic point of view, help the indigenous people find humanity and culture King Leopold the Ⅱ He was the greedy king of Belgium who came up with the idea exploring Africa for Belgium and hired a man named Henry Morton Stanley to explore the congos. When Henry was in the Congo, he convinced the residence that he was a god with the technology that the African's have never seen before, i.e guns. Henry established the “Congo Free State” which sounds positive, but the truth behind the name is not as pleasant as it sounds. King Leopold’s interest in the Congo made him the richest man in the world because he developed a new and more efficient ways of slavery, realized that rubber flourished in the Congo and covers his actions by saying that he is “saving” the people of Congo from the Arab slavers (even though he was the slaver) and was opening the heart of Africa to Christian missionaries and Western Capitalists for business. King Leopold’s new idea of slavery was that “Why waste time and money by shipping slaves back to Europe and risk most of them dying while we can just enslave them in the Congo and work on their home land?” Legacy of Imperialism Ever since Globalization and the arrival for foreign countries to new lands, most countries that were affected by slavery, poverty, debt, disease, assimilation (loss of language and culture), exploitation of resources, and civil war never recovered from the devastating state they were left in during the age of Imperialism and The scramble for Africa. For the people living in the affected areas, they could be born into slavery and poverty and live that way for the rest of their lives as well as their children and their childrens’ children all with a history of violence that put them in their current situation.