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.