Chapter 15

This chapter mainly focuses on the different trade routes that were being used throughout the world by different continents, trading their resources from one country to another. Commerce came along for the empires and became a big movement for globalization. Commerce between countries allowed new relationships to occur among the people, enriched some, disrupted old patterns empires had, and some countries even enslaved people. Vasco de Gama and his Portugese successors sailed the arena of Indian Ocean commerce, the portuguese believed that trading would be peaceful and valuable between other countries but the reality was that the European trade goods were raw and unattractive in Asian markets. As we can see Vasco de Gama and his followers didn't care the situation they were going to put themselves while looking for the right trade routes,  as long as they were in search of trading what they had that's all they would care about especially because for them it was an experience going on a journey and were brave enough to do it.  The most important trading source that became very significant was trading silver especially because it gave birth to a global network of exchange. Spanish america produced about 85% of the world's silver during the modern era, I found this very interesting. Overall, the idea of this chapter is how commerce worked within the countries during the time.

Chapter Four: Sugar and Origins of the Modern World

As empires were expanding the world became more and more industrialized. The main focus in order to for these empires to expand to different parts of the world was to take what they thought was valuable and useful. Many people aren't aware that this world is all about commodities. Everything we use have been produced by those who are far away from us. Even if we dont realize it, there is a connection to the global market especially from what we consume everyday in our lives. Empires in Western Europe would find resources and export them back to their country. Exchanging goods became very popular for these empires, it led people to start trading without the need of money. 

Sugar became a very important commodity. Sugar became a symbol of luxury. The Greeks who were conquering across India came across this resource which became very significant. Sugar was a resource that wasn't known for being wealthy but once the Europeans founded sugar and became more accustomed to it. Overall, we are able to see how the littles resources made a difference for everyone especially because it was known as an important resource which was seen as gold. What really caught my attention was that sugar today in America isn't really seen as something worth so big like it was back then. 

Empires and Encounters

Throughout this chapter we learn about the expansion of both the Russian and Asian empires while expanding in the Americas as well. In the beginning of the chapter it is said that the European empires in the Americas were not alone. The Russians were known as an empire that constructed the world's largest territorial empire, which made Russia an Asian and gaining European power. The Quin dynasty went deep into Inner Asia, while it helped the country double its size. Meanwhile, millions of non-Chinese people were being brought into China practicing religion throughout the country such as Islam, Buddhism, and animistic religions. On the other hand the Mughal empire brought the Hindus and Muslims to a closer relationship than what they had before even though there were good and bad issues between the two. The Ottomon empire put together the political unity of Islam and gave them the opportunity to obtain military and religious threats. Overall, throughout this chapter we are able to see the European expansion, although everything wasn't as smooth as it could have been for the Europeans and empires.