Chapter 16 Religion and Science

I find it appalling that religious groups acted through force rather than peace in the early modern world. When I think of religion I don't think of war and persuasion, I think of peace within yourself and your faith in God. The religious groups like the Catholic church seemed to have more hierarchy than most rulers. The church had more influence in state matters than it ever should have had. A church is somewhere a person can go to connect with God and find guidance in their life. It should not be another form of government. The Catholic and Christian churches seemed to force their beliefs upon other people whom have unique cultures and beliefs of there own. It sends off the message that religion is an all or nothing deal. You either believe in our God or you are a sinner kind of thing. This is ridiculous. Every person is unique and therefore should be able to practice his or her's personal beliefs in God. I think that as long as a person is content within themselves and their spirituality it does not matter what religion they are for they are striving to be a better person just like everyone else who believes in God. The churches should simply keep their doors open to new comers instead of imposing themselves upon other cultures. Even though religion and science are opposites I believe religion should be more like the practices of enlightenment, people should be able to see the world through their own knowledge and beliefs.

Chapter 15 Global Commerce

In today's world we take a lot of things for granted because we are all accustomed to these things being an ordinary part of our lives. Things like spices and sugar are a normal part of people's kitchens. Around the 1500's this was not the case. Simple things like nutmeg and sugar were luxuries that were perceived to be important enough to kill thousands of people to obtain it. Commodities such as sugar and fur led to the corruption of the cultures of many people and enslaved millions. The Portuguese were not as interested in the actual products as they were in power. The Portuguese wished to control the trade empire in the Indian Ocean. They did not have anything to offer in return so instead they took it by force. The Portuguese would destroy cities leaving only enough people alive to warn other cities of their treachery. The Spanish looked to control the people more than trade. They wanted to spread their religious beliefs and gain control over the communities as well as the products they produce. The Philippines were named after the Spanish king Phillip II for this very reason. The Dutch were mainly pirates in their actions because they were private companies as opposed to groups sent by the government. The Dutch companies killed 15,000 people for nutmeg. I would rather go my entire life without tasting nutmeg than to hurt another person. Although the situation was different back then. Many European countries did not have any sort of spices to flavor or preserve their food with. I'm guessing their very bland culinary life is what lead to their obsession for spices. The Brittish were much more peaceful in their trade with India for tea. They would actually work with the native government t a certain extent to minimize bloodshed. The Europeans did not stop at spices, they also wanted fur, for it was a great luxery. The Europeans would trade with Native Americans for furs because the Native Americans were experts in hunting. The Europeans ended up corrupting the Native American culture by influencing them to kill more and more animals and by introducing them to alcohol, which lead to innapropriate behavior. Not only did commodities during this time in history corrupt cultures, it enslaved millions of people. The Europeans would take African people and force them into slavery to produce the much wanted commodities. It is incredible to look around our kitchens today and think of how many people were killed for each of the spices in our cabbinets.

Chapter 4 Sugar

First of all I apologize if this isn't very long. I had written this all out last night but when
I went to post my blog the website stopped working and erased all of my work except for the first sentence.
No matter how many stories I read about slavery it is always hard for me to believe that such an atrocious act could have been committed by humans. I would think that people would instantly know that it is wrong to enslave another person. Then again people debased the Africans to justify their actions of enslaving them. The slave owners actually proved themselves to be more inhumane than the enslaved themselves. It is hard to believe that the majority of people allowed slavery to continue and that slavery continues to ruin lives of people today.
I was shocked to see how much of the chapter was about slavery compared to the amount of material on sugar itself. The chapter was about the production of sugar and I was expecting it to go into much more detail about the line of production. I felt that the chapter should have spent more time on the places sugar traveled to and its effects on the people who encountered it. It is good that the chapter spent time talking about the slavery that produced the sugar because the enslaved people were the reason the world was able to experience sugar. I just wish that the chapter had gone through the effects sugar had in more detail.
It was interesting that one of the pieces of evidence was about the slave platers. It spoke sympathetically about the sugar plantation owners and their troubles as if the owners were the ones doing the hard labor, not the slaves. Overall I felt that this chapter was very informative and shocking.