Marissa's Blog

I thought this reading about  Julie Billiart and Francoise Blin de Bourdon was very interesting. As I was reading this handout I felt like I knew what was going on in their lives as it progressed. One thing that I found interesting with Francoise is that it stated her father considered himself atheist. I kind of found that ironic that she is a sister and he was an atheist. Another thing that I found interesting was food was very important during this time. They considered a great meal to be one of the best things for your body and soul. Something that was odd to me is that she decided to choose the life of virginity. This wasn't the odd part though, the odd part was that she wasn't sure if she even wanted to become a nun. Usually it is associated that if you want to be a virgin then you are usually a nun but in this case Francoise was still unsure.  Julie Billiart was different on the other hand and was part of what was known as the "third estate." This was just known...

In this chapter it states that the early modern era of the world history was birthed by two intersecting cultural trends that even play out now in the 21st century. The first wave was the spread of Christianity to Asians, Africans, and Native Americans. The second wave was more of a scientific outlook which challenged Western Christianity. In the beginning of Christianity was only limited to Europe. It was in the 1500 where it stretched from Spain and England and Russia. Christianity was then split again between Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox.  I found it interesting that in the Spanish America and China societies, Christianity became widely practiced and they largely rejected it. One thing that I found interesting was that the breakthrough of Scientific Revolution occurred in Europe but Islam had most of the advanced science in the world between 800 and 1400.

The chapter fourteen documents start off by talking about the voices that were from the slave trade. It goes on to saying that it was an enormous enterprise and enormously significant in modern world history. This is important because that is what we are going to be talking about in this class. This slave trade took over four continents and spread throughout four centuries! There were millions of people involved. The first document they talk about is the life of Olaudah Equiano who was born in 1745 what is now known as Nigeria. He was taken from his home at the age of 11 and sold into the Atlantic Slave Trade. He was passed around between three different owners and was taught to read, write, travel as a seaman and finally bought his freedom in 1766. He then became a huge voice in the emerging abolitionist movement of the late 18th century. The Business of Slave Trade is a document regarding the horror for kings and merchants of both European and African decent. The Slave Trade and the ...

I want to start this blog off with something I found really interesting in the text. What was said was "This visitor's emotional encounter with the legacy of the Atlantic slave trade reminds us of the enormous significance of this commerce in human beings for the early modern world and of its continuing echoes even in the twenty-first century." After I read this it kind of made me feel a certain way because it is basically saying that the slave trade made a huge impact not only on the world but in human beings and even to this day their is the same kind of things going on. The peak of this Atlantic Slave trade was sometime during the 18th century. Something that really surprised me was the fact that slaves were established way back in 1440s. One thing that we talked about in class was the discovery of the Americas in 1492 by Christopher Columbus. With the Portuguese creation of the "trading post empire" they wanted to control commerce. What they did was force of...

To start off this blog, one quote that I found interesting from President Vladimir Putin regarding the Soviet collapse was, “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the twentieth century…a genuine tragedy.” Usually when there is a collapse you would think that it would be a terrible thing that happened, but President Putin said that it was probably the greatest thing that could have happened. In general, I would assume this would be a negative outcome but then again when something is destroyed it can always be destined to be better than it was before. In the early 17th century there were multiple empires that included the French, Dutch, and British who all established colonial settlements alongside the eastern part of the North Americas.  On the other hand, the Europeans were expanding their colonies to take over most of the Americas. I found it very interesting that the new discovery of the Americas led to the great expansion and the starting point for most of European’...

I found it very interesting how the different slave trades connected certain areas of the world together. For example, the Atlantic Slave trade linked Africa to the Western Hemispheres and the Global Silver trade allowed the Europeans to use the New World metals to buy their way into the Asian trade routes. I just find this interesting because we associate slavery with tearing people apart but here they are using it to connect. I also read that in the early 18th century Japan was the worlds largest city because still in the 21st century China (state) is in East Asia and is the worlds most overpopulated country. I also found it really interesting how Islam was the most rapidly spreading faith during this time period. I find it interesting how it changed from Islam to Christianity in just a matter of centuries. "Female subordination was assumed to be natural almost everywhere." After reading this sentence it made me upset because to this day I feel like there are still some peo...

All done setting up my blog!