Chapter 23
Even though I was young I remember hearing a lot about Nelson Mandela and the reason he was in jail. I was not interested in the news at that age but my parents always watched it so it was on a lot of the times so I ususally just watched what they watched. That is how I heard about him. T^his is also saw on the news when he was released from jail. It was interesting to me that only four years after he was released from jail South Africa had its first election were both blacks and whites were able to vote. It still amazes me that some countries are just recently albe to vote where others gained the right to vote awhile ago. The other thing that I found interesting was the fact that Both India and South Africa won their freedom. The also were both divided but for different reasons. India was divided because of religious reasons where as South Africa was divided by "race, ethnicity, and ideaology that generated disension." It was also sometimes violent. India and Africa used two different stlyes of democracy. Idia used a western style democracy where as African did not. In the western style there were regular elections held and lots of parties and civil liberties with peacefulchanges in government pretty much continuouly since their independence. These are only some of the diffences that they between the different stlyes of democracy. Only in the 1980's did africa start to have multiparty elections. This only in recent years. Before this time Africa did not adopt this stlye of democracy. it took a lot for Africa to adopt the Western Style democracy. This is the thing that interested me because of the fact that it took so long for the other countries to get their freedom as far as voting and other rights that the rest of the countries had already. The development of Economics was also another thing that was difficult to get because it only came to those who were divede by race or gender and things like that. I feel that this was not a fair way to deal withthe problem but I guess during that time it was they only way things were done.
Chapter 24
The thing that amazed me about this chapter is that in the Iranian culture. Strayer says it is because the toy maker states that barbies clothes are to reveling and her body is to shapely and the fact that her close relationship to ken with out being married is forign to that culture and is a bad influence in general. This is a culture that sticks to the rules right up to being married in order the kind of relationship that barbie and ken have. It is interesting to me that they look at toys as being a bad influence in the sense that the relationship that the toys have. The see that as setting the wrong example for their kids even though it is not a real thing. This chapter covered a lot of what has happened from the early 1990 to mid 1990. It was still a little difficult for me to read some of it. Strayer tended to talk a lot about feminism during not just this chapter but also earlier chapters in this book. I think he was really trying to drive home that women are equal to men even though other did not think so. For awhile in the west it had lost its momentum but only for a short time because in the 1960's it came bace with a new agenda. It never completely died but did slow only to improve when it got back on track. Strayer also talks about being green and global. This was not something that just only started but has been around since the nineteenth century. Then in the 1990's is when the second wave began. Global Warming was another concern of the world. Strayer is not the only person who believes this. In taking other classes like environmental biology I learned we will run out of our resources if we are not careful. Like stayer says overpopulation can also cause this problem. Some examples of these resources are the fossil fuels and other gases. Even our polar ice caps are in trouble. This chapter towards the end got my attention because it related to a lot of what I learned in my biology class.

Chapters 21 and 22

Chapter 21
The thing that was interesting to me about the Great Depression was that when the stock market crashed was the sameday that "eleven of their financers committed suicide." I did not know this but what I did know just from news and talk was that people had lost all their money as well as jobs behinde this. The reason why people had lost all of their money was because the banks had closed due to the depression. I did not relize so much went into keep the coutry running without financil problems. The reduction of unemployment meet the start of a new life and a new start in the economic world. When Mussolini came to power he broke his promise for "social programs and focused on the state power" which then led to the fascists movement. Under this movement were considered to be housewives and nothing but. They were not considered to be equal to men under this movement. I don't think I could live like this unless this all that I knew and nothing else. Hitlers popularity grew because he ended the depression for Germany. Even the Jews liked him.. When he came into power he ended up turning on the jews by basically taking their rights away such as banning them from "universities, restricted their life styles". He even banned them from "professional organizations and civil employment." Soon he enacted a law that said they could not have any sexual relations or marry other Germans. They even had to "identify themselves as a Jew to the public." It was amazing how the Nazi had such controll over the Jews. Their shops were looted by these people and that their were killed in the masses all because they were Jews and Hitler did not like Jews and wanted to get rid of all Jews. The German race soon became the race that dominated in Germany under Hitlers rule because Jews were ostricised there. The lose of so many lives in WWII was very devestating. The numbers killed because of this war was a lot. The women in so many cases in this chapter were basically portrayed as sex slaves. The Jewish women in hitlers time were often raped just because they were Jews. The Chinese women were sexually assaulted during WWII. The women in the japanese cultural during this time strayer says as comfort women to the Japanese soldiers. They often had to satisfy many men in one day. This is not unlike a what we call prostitutes today. The only difference is that back then it was not done for many and they were forced where as to day they get paid for what they do. This was a very violent time during our history. Many lives were taken and there was a lot of blood shed. The end of WWII only ended up in a lot of blood shed as well. Two major cities were bombed killing even women and children living in those towns.
Chapter 23
I have heard of the cold war before but was surprised by the date the it ended. That is probably due to my age. I was still only in my sophomore year in high school when it ended. I always wondered why when two countries don't agree on something they always have to go to war. We are an example in that we (United States) and the USSR did not get along it scared children to the point hey were getting under tables during the drills. We were able to end our rivalry peacefully. What I did not know that back before the 1900's women had to take the surnames of their husbands when they got married and that their were not allowed the to take leave when they got pregnant. I cant imagine the working conditions that they had to endure while pregnant, that is if they worked at all. I am proud that we had the Feminist movement that spread to allow us to have the privileges that we have today. Around this time in the 1900's during the feminist movement more and more things were starting to involve and cater to women where as before it did not. More and more women were being trained to do the jobs that men typically had. This is all in the Communist Feminism. The Zhenotdel organization was soon "abolished by Stalin. He was not happy that women were able to have a voice and have the same rights of men. He felt that the women should still be in the domesticated roles and the Zhenotdel organization was too aggressive in the way they did things so they needed to be stopped. After they were abolished the Women's Federation came about to give women those same rights and put them in leadership roles. This Federation was less aggressive then the Zhenotdel organization. The women got what they wanted with limits. With US being one of the only threatening countries to have nuclear weapons the Soviet Union soon became scared and started to seek to get their own nuclear weapons and soon succeeded in 1949. This was an interesting chapter to read because so much of what happened carried over into the late 1900's. I may have been young doing this time but I still remember hearing some of these things on the news. It is amazing what we take for granted no and days when people back then even up to now have so little.

Sugar, Intro and Chapter Seventeen

The piece on sugar was interesting because of the different ways sugar was moved around. It was made one way but exported many ways. They used slaves to do must of the work which is similar to how many other items are made or taken care of and then shipped all over the world. This article also had many different views on sugar. Some looked at sugar as something that is good for you regardless of the labor that went into it. Most of the rest looked at the all the labor that went into the making of sugar but in different ways. It also talked about the movement of sugar and slave trade related to sugar. found this interesting because I never fully knew all that went into the making of sugar. I am also sad that they used people to harvest and make sugar in the conditions that they had to make them.
Part Five Intro
The idea of Eurocentrism I found not as interesting as chapter seventeen. This was a little hard to read. What I did find interesting was how the different parts of africa were in war with other parts of the world and how it came out. Those different areas were either conquered by a different country or they defeated another country.
Chapter seventeen
I found this chapter to be the most interesting because of its connection to sugar and all of the different revolutions that went on during that time. I think the author did a good job comparing the revolutions and how they differed from each other. I also liked how he explained how those nations became independent. He explained very well the diffenecies between the differet classes by their names. The higher class people usually wore the "powdered wigs"(strayer pg.503)to look important. Anybody in the lower classes would say go see so and so because he knows more and can help you more then I can. The other thing that I found interesting was the Haitian Revolution. This is because it folloowed in the foot steps of the French Revoluton in a lot of ways. They were both violent coutries in their killing of the people who where sentenced to death. The other thing that I found intresting during this peroid of time was that the white class of people were divided into the "well to do" and the "poor whites."(stayer pg.507) This is something that I had never heard of before. I also was very interested in this chapter because of the "Abolition of Slavery" section. It was neat to read how slavery ended in some areas. Some countries found slavery to be moraly wrong. Even though the resons for their disguted differed they all agreed that it was wrong. Some dilikedc it for the reason of how the slaves were treated and others dis liked it because the slaves were sold all over for different resons. Some even say the slaves themselves helped to end slavery. Last but not least I enjoyed reading about the feminist movement began. It was interesting to read how women were able to start going to schhol, learn to read and most impotantly be able to vote. Some of these women went to extra lenghts to get these rights for theselves as well as other women as a whole. A lot of the women died for the right to be able to go to school or even to vote. They were that passionate about having the same rights as men. They did not want to be considered just housewifes that onlny did work at home. They wanted to be able to go out and get a job a still prove they can do the same things a man can do and still take care of their family.

Chapter 14- 16

Chapter 14
Like in most History books Coloumbus was said to have been a slave trader, a theif, a pirate and most certainly not a hero. He was even siad to be a perpetrator of genocide. I do not believe this to be true. Even though there was a lot of blood shed I still think that this was done to make us a better world. Chapter 14vwas also interesting because I found out that Mexico's population dropped fast because of the small pox pandemic that was around. This was not the only thing that killed them there was also wide spread hunger that killed them off as well. There was no medical available during that time so if you got sick you either toughed it out or died. Another thing that I found interesting was the part about the Mestizos. They grew so fast that they became the majority of the population in Mexico. Even though they were largely Hispanic the Spaniards considered them illegitimate. The fact that the sugar market was dominated by Portuguese Planters along the northeast coast of Brazil. Of all the African Americans that were "transported across the sea 80 percent or more of them ended up in Brazil and the Caribbean." This was something new that I learned. I was not aware that this was going on. It was amazing to me how many numbers things are transported by land and sea considering this was the first means of travel. Now it is Christianity's turn to have people to convert. They offered tax breaks exemptions from paying tributes and other incentives if you converted to Christianity. Another thing that interested me was the practices that were cut under Akbar. For example music and dance were no longer aloud in court. After some Hindu temples were destroyed the Jizya was reimposed. What was so amazing to me was that Jerusalem was then part of the turkish lands. But the prestige of protecting them was the Ottomans Empires responsibility. Of the Christians that welcomed this change the taxes were lighter them.
Chapter 15
This chapter was fun to read because I learned a lot about the different Commerce's. There was the Asian Commerce,Silver and Global Commerce, Fur in Commerce and people in Commerce. The slave trade was very prominent in Europe. People of African culture were the ones generally sold into slavery for many reasons. Looking at the chart in the book the number of slaves that were imported to americas per year was the highest in the years 1726-1750. It was amazing to me to see the number of slaves that were transported over the number of years fluctuate.
Chapter 16
Over some time Christianity spread all over and was known all over even in those areas that did not necessarily practice it. I was looking at the areas on the map int the book and I was surprised at what countries that were dominated by what religion. Places like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Scotland and England are all Protestant dominate. This was one of the most interesting chapters to read. There was so munch information in this chapter.

Chapter 11-13

Chapter eleven
I found chapter 11 to be the most interesting of all the three chapters. It talked of how Christianity was the most widely growing religion in China. It was also mentioned how the Arabs are moving more and more to Judaism. I found this to be interesting because I actually thought that Judaism was more widely known then Christianity. I also thought that the way that Christendom transformed and where it took root was fascinating. It took root in three major areas of the world. Those being India, Central Asia and Southeast Asia. All of this while being transformed by African cultures. It was fascinating to learn that we as a people had something to do with the transforming of Christendom. The one thing that I do not agree with even though maybe in that time it was true is the fact that Allah was the one and only true good. The book was denouncing the idea of the trinity. They basically were telling the Christians that Allah was the only way. I believe that this is not true. I do not think that it was fair for the Christians to have to denounce the trinity and believe only in Allah. The book referred to this type of conversion as "Social Conversion". In my mind it is stilled a forced conversion because it only benefited one belief and said that all other beliefs are wrong. Even though some converted easily to avoid the tax I think that I would have stuck with what I believe.
Chapter Twelve
This chapter was a little harder to capture but after rereading it I caught on to it a little more. I found the Mongol Empire to be very interesting in of itself. I found the fact that it was divided after the death of Chinggis Khan kind of surprising because I thought that this was a strong Empire and could handle anything. This empire left a big imprint on society. It seemed that everybody feared the Mongols because they were big and powerful Empire. It seemed like they could conquer anybody and any country they wanted. When the Mongols first took over China they wanted to exterminate everyone in Northern China but this idea did not go over well. They then decided to use China's rules of taxation to their advantage. The Mongols conquered two more countries after China. I believe this is why they were feared so much. Persia was attacked twice by the Mongols and it was way more destructive then that of China's take over. The Mongols then took over Russia. The Mongol take over of Russia was the worst of all of the take overs.
Chapter Thirteen
This is were I first learned about the Ottoman Empire and the ares that it encompassed. The one thing that I learned was that the Ottoman Empire had "control over much of the Middle East, costal North Africa, the lands surrounding the Black Sea and even further into Eastern Europe." The Ottoman Empire was a lot bigger then I thought.

Chapters 8, 9, 10

Chapter 8

I found chapter eight to be quite intersting.  It was fun to learn about how the different countries traded different things.  For example China sold things like "silk and bamboo", India sold things like "cotton and herbal medicains", Middle East sold things like "dates and nuts".  These are just some examples of this.  It was an interesting way how stayer introduced the exchange of goods.  The countries would transport their goods across roads which strayer called "silk roads".  Not only did goods travel along these silk roads but so did cultuers.  One such cultures are Buddhism.  It started at India and went thru China and beyond. 
The Implimentation of the ocean transportation was developed.  I like this idea because the rate of disease was ramped with road travel.  Strayer did  a good job in describing how one thing follows the other across the silk roads.  Sea travel soon became the norm of all the civilizations.Sand travel also became a norm just like Sea and Silk Road travel.  You have to have some form of transportation to move your goods and make money to live.  The people choose the form of trasportation that would best suit them.  Sand roads were used to transport what other countries did not.

Chapter 9 

 In chapter nine was when the women first had some freedom.  Their lives were less strict.  Strayer did a good job in giving examples of how the womens lives were less stict and they were able to do things like ride horses which they were not able to do before the Song Dynasty.  I think that it is true that if you have a strong influnce on someone they will pick up some of your ways and do the same things that you do.  Strayer talked about how China influenced other cultures and also impacted  Eurasia.  Strayer then explains how China becomes a Economic benefeciary.  China untimatly became a strong culture in a lot of ways.

Chapter 10

I had a good time reading this one because I learned at lot.  Espically about the ByZantine State and Christian Divergence.  It was neat to see how similar these churches are run and how they are run today.  Although there are similarities there are also major differences.The cathedral churches were very elaborate in design like now with art designs everywhere from wall to cieling.  I really enjoyed this chapter because i liked looking at the differences of churchs between now and back then.This chapter was probably one of the eaiser ones for me to read over all the rest so far.

How did Rome grow from a single city to the center of a huge Empire?
How did the collaspe of empire play out differently in the Roman world and in China?
Why were centerlized empires so much less prominent in India then in China?

Chapter four talked about the differences in the Eurasian empires. It also talked about how some of those empiers either completly collasped or partly collasped. In some cases on one side collasped while the other stayed in power for a little while longer. This was the case of the Roman empire and the China empire. The Roman empire was the one where only half collapsed right away while the other half stayed in power for a short while longer. The China empire collapsed completely. This chapter also compares the Persian civilization and the Greek civilization based on their values. The chapter also covered the change in the greek governments and how it came to be semidemocratic. It talked about the war between the Greeks and the Persians and their consequences. One thing I thought was interesting was how the chinese empire and the roman empire differed so much but in the end consolidated. This chapter also covered the two major eras that came crashing together. These two eras were the Alexander and the Hellenistic era. They were ruled as two separate eras until Alexander died. When this happened his empire divided into three kingdoms which where eventually ruled by leading Macedonian leaders. This chapter had a lot of information and comparing of empires. It did also cover some connection and changing of those empires.