1. What were the strengths of the Indian Ocean economy around 1500, and what were its most significant weaknesses?
Largely because of the strange weather patterns and increase in maritime trade, the Indian Ocean economy during the 1500s was a unique one. It created a sense of community among formerly-foreign towns and peoples, and fostered cooperation in a field that could be hostile and harsh. The way trade was conducted morphed due to the monsoon season and bizarre wind sequences. Traders and port cities were forced to plan around the seasons in order to make a living.
The monsoons were the obvious weakness of the Indian Ocean economy. Traders in this region were slaves to the weather, sailing from one side to the other only to discover …show more content…
What were the key elements in Britain’s rise as the first industrial economy?
Britain became the world’s first to undergo an industrial revolution, despite having been relatively unimportant throughout history as far as the general world trade network is considered. This unprecedented ascent to technological advancement would not have been conceivable without the presence of a few crucial, immaculately-timed factors. The whole business comes down to one word: excess.
The first excess in question is that of food. When farmers began to explore new options to create higher crop yields, such as the invention of the seed drill or the enclosure technique, etc, food production finally kept pace with population growth (this isn’t an excess per se, although in comparison to the seemingly constant shortage prior, it is definitely more than they were accustomed to at the time).
Because farmers didn’t need to charge exorbitant prices for their easily-cultivated food, people were no longer required to spend all their money on survival alone. Thus, people have more money to spend on other luxuries. Not to mention, Britain at the time was also experiencing an influx of cash from their involvement in the Americas, and the plantations of sugar, cotton, and tobacco. This involvement in the Americas is also part of the reason for the excess of resources they have access to, in addition to large coal deposits naturally occurring in the …show more content…
How did Jefferson and Robespierre represent the contradictions in their respective revolutions?
The main contradiction in both the American and French revolutions was that, at the end of everything, neither were particularly revolutionary. Where Thomas Jefferson claimed all men were created equal and meanwhile held slaves his entire life, he created nothing new but a piece of paper literally declaring independence and freedom for white property-owning males...essentially the same rights they held beforehand. Where the French were inspired by the American Revolution and wanted to break away from monarchy, they were treated to Robespierre’s worse “republic” alternative—and ultimately fell back into a monarchy.
The American Revolution was focused, more than anything, on freedom from the British king: “some of the rebel colonists likened themselves to ‘slaves’ lacking individual freedom, drawing a parallel—even though Declaration author Thomas Jefferson was himself a slave owner—with slave rebels across the western world (Smith, pg. 768).” Jefferson appears to be clever enough to understand this contradiction, yet continues to view the owning of another person as a necessary evil to found the United States. He remains too far in debt to consider freeing his slaves, even though his own freedom was the exact thing he sought for in the
Largely because of the strange weather patterns and increase in maritime trade, the Indian Ocean economy during the 1500s was a unique one. It created a sense of community among formerly-foreign towns and peoples, and fostered cooperation in a field that could be hostile and harsh. The way trade was conducted morphed due to the monsoon season and bizarre wind sequences. Traders and port cities were forced to plan around the seasons in order to make a living.
The monsoons were the obvious weakness of the Indian Ocean economy. Traders in this region were slaves to the weather, sailing from one side to the other only to discover …show more content…
What were the key elements in Britain’s rise as the first industrial economy?
Britain became the world’s first to undergo an industrial revolution, despite having been relatively unimportant throughout history as far as the general world trade network is considered. This unprecedented ascent to technological advancement would not have been conceivable without the presence of a few crucial, immaculately-timed factors. The whole business comes down to one word: excess.
The first excess in question is that of food. When farmers began to explore new options to create higher crop yields, such as the invention of the seed drill or the enclosure technique, etc, food production finally kept pace with population growth (this isn’t an excess per se, although in comparison to the seemingly constant shortage prior, it is definitely more than they were accustomed to at the time).
Because farmers didn’t need to charge exorbitant prices for their easily-cultivated food, people were no longer required to spend all their money on survival alone. Thus, people have more money to spend on other luxuries. Not to mention, Britain at the time was also experiencing an influx of cash from their involvement in the Americas, and the plantations of sugar, cotton, and tobacco. This involvement in the Americas is also part of the reason for the excess of resources they have access to, in addition to large coal deposits naturally occurring in the …show more content…
How did Jefferson and Robespierre represent the contradictions in their respective revolutions?
The main contradiction in both the American and French revolutions was that, at the end of everything, neither were particularly revolutionary. Where Thomas Jefferson claimed all men were created equal and meanwhile held slaves his entire life, he created nothing new but a piece of paper literally declaring independence and freedom for white property-owning males...essentially the same rights they held beforehand. Where the French were inspired by the American Revolution and wanted to break away from monarchy, they were treated to Robespierre’s worse “republic” alternative—and ultimately fell back into a monarchy.
The American Revolution was focused, more than anything, on freedom from the British king: “some of the rebel colonists likened themselves to ‘slaves’ lacking individual freedom, drawing a parallel—even though Declaration author Thomas Jefferson was himself a slave owner—with slave rebels across the western world (Smith, pg. 768).” Jefferson appears to be clever enough to understand this contradiction, yet continues to view the owning of another person as a necessary evil to found the United States. He remains too far in debt to consider freeing his slaves, even though his own freedom was the exact thing he sought for in the