Chapters 14, 15, 16

Ch. 14 The Early Modern Word

One of the key topics that got my interest this chapter is what the author called “the great dying”.  The correlation between European settlers and the death of Native Americans is astounding. The Western world was well populated, perhaps up to 80 million, before the European acquisition.  The Western Hemisphere was free from major disease and of course animal born disease.  Once Europeans made their appearance whole populations were devastated by disease and hunger.  I was appalled to learn that only 50 years after Columbus’ arrival, the people of the Caribbean islands disappeared.  Although the text talks about death of populations from disease it didn’t really talk about the slaughter of Native peoples.  About six years ago, I had a Native American family in my preschool program.  Every November, I would typically do some sort of Thanksgiving craft and activity.  Luckily for me, the parent of my student asked if she could bring in books about Native Americans and come in to share their culture with us.  She also gave me some adult reading about Native American’s views on Columbus, pilgrims, and Thanksgiving.  I hate to admit that I was so naïve but I really had little understanding about the devastation that Native Americans suffered after Columbus arrived.  I was never taught in grade school that Columbus “destroyed lives” and that pilgrims in fact enslaved the Native Americans and often exploited them.  I have a very different opinion now and also a better understanding of history thanks to that mother.  I hope as my children learn world history the books they use will tell the whole story and not just the Europeans’ story.

Ch. 15 Global Commerce

After further reading in chapter 15, I was pleased to find that Stayer properly acknowledged the exploitation of Native Americans by Europeans.  Due to European demands for fur, Native Americans engaged in animal massacre in order to obtain specialty items in return.  Because of the fur trade, some species of animals were completely wiped out.  Europeans were able to essentially bribe Native Americans with rewards such as alcohol, guns, and a false sense of dependence.  All of these factors combined ultimately led to the decimation of Native American societies.  The slave trade from Africa was also hard to read about.  The text brought up the topic of slavery and racism.  Scholars believe that because slaves from Africa were “black” it was easier for Europeans to disassociate themselves from them as being human beings.  In fact it is suggested that Africans were seen as not even human (pg. 452).  I can only imagine the pain, fear, and humility of Africans who were ripped out of their homeland to live out their lives under the harsh hand of a slave owner.  Awful.

Ch. 16 Religion and Science

The scientific revolution really stirred things up for Christians.  The discovery that the earth was a planet that revolved on its axis just as other planets was surprising and disturbing at best.  To accept that the “sun was at the middle of all things” (pg.480) went against what Christians had always known to be true.  The idea that earth was no longer the center of the universe was initially seen as an opposition to the church’s foundation.  I found it interesting however that none of the scientists rejected Christianity.  In fact Galileo said that science and faith were compatible and that one could not exist without the other.