A leaderless France could not halt the united German advance and the capital, Paris, was taken over by a socialist-inspired Commune. The French agreed to territorial losses as they formed a Third Republic to replace Napoleon III.
I would really like to know more about the commune that formed in Paris, and how it was replaced by the Third Republic.
Tsar Alexander II declared an end to serfdom in 1861, shortly before President Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, during the United States Civil War. Both countries were among the last in their respective regions to formally end forced labor obligations and like the newly-“freed” in the U.S., the liberty of many former Russian serfs existed only on paper.
I didn't know that the Russian Empire ended serfdom 2 years before the United States's Emancipation Proclamation. The paragraph does mention that serfdom was not slavery, which makes it even more obvious how late the United States was in abolishing slavery, that is was even later than the Russian Empire, which had a lot of "social backwardness".
The Ottoman Empire declined very slowly during the 19th century—when it was called “the Sick Man of Europe”—but it was able to persist until World War I.
I did not know that the Ottoman Empire was still considered part of Europe in the 19th century, especially because it did not have many territories in what we would consider Europe. I wonder if any other countries were considered part of Europe at the time that we may not view as being in the European continent.
These empires usually left their citizens more or less alone to speak their own languages, practice their own religions, and observe their own cultural traditions. Occasionally they took captives from conquered lands, like the janissaries of the Ottoman Empire.
It is interesting that many people in the same empire did not speak the same language, even in areas that were close in proximity to each other. Its seems very different from today where many people learn at least two languages.
In 1839, the emperor sent one of China’s most distinguished officials, Lin Zexu, to the trading settlement of Canton to stamp out the opium trade. Lin blockaded the European trading district, raided and searched the foreigners’ warehouses, confiscated 20,000 chests containing 1200 tons of opium, and dumped it all into the ocean.
Lin Zexu actually went and challenged the opium trade, and the British punished China greatly, as shown in the next paragraph.
Even so, by the time of Marx’s death, his ideas and other forms of socialism were motivating labor organizers to form unions in which workers could negotiate for better wages and working conditions with owners, under threat of striking—stopping work at a factory and preventing others from replacing them at the machines.
I find this interesting, as labor unions still operate under these principles to this day. They bring together the workers and form a united force that they then use to bargain with the employers. This is a strong strategy to secure better conditions for workers, and heavily inspired by Marx.
Governments were quick to crack down on Luddites – a couple of executions quickly took the wind out of their sails.
Many Luddites were put out of work by the the industrialization of their job. They than went and sabotaged the machinery, and were executed for it. It feels like to me many of these workers whose jobs disappeared were put in a very bad position, and I understand why tried to destroy the new factories.
Statewide, the German pluralities range from 11% in Florida to 43% in North Dakota, which explains why the capital is named after Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.
I didn't know that about Bismarck, and it makes sense considering the amount of German migration that happened to the United States. I wonder what other places were named by Germans?
The Spanish did not want to physically eliminate the indigenous, but they did advocate a cultural genocide of sorts, which was never complete due to native resistance. But this was, in the long run, less successful than the destruction of native culture in North America because despite the Columbian Exchange there were more natives left.
It makes sense that the cultural destruction of the native people in South America was not as successful as North America. The tactis used in North America seem much more brutal than the ones used in South America.
Many natives felt part of colonial society, and confidently challenged Spanish landowners in court.
Most of the colonies did not treat the native people well, and so it is surprising that at least in a few instances, the judges ruled fairly in favor of the native people.
Although the colonists found these taxes oppressive and obnoxious, to a great extent they were luxury taxes or excises on trade rather than direct taxes on personal income. Still, imposing new taxes on the colonists was a miscalculation by Parliament, because the merchants and the wealthy most affected by the taxes had the means and the motivation to organize a resistance movement.
The merchants and colonists in the colonies both have aligned interests against the British at this point. The merchants had a lot of motivation to revolt against the British because of the taxes, while the colonists viewed the British as tyrannical.
Conditions were so harsh on sugar plantations that slaves generally died within about three years after their arrival.
This is important to remember when considering the number of slaves who died, especially because sugar plantations represented a large amount of the slavery in the colonies.
In many of these countries, the ideas of divine monarchy and hereditary nobility had given way to a sharing of constitutional power between rulers and their subjects. Merchants gained influence and slowly acquired legislative powers in bodies like Britain’s House of Commons.
Its interesting that the massive influence of merchants led the rulers of these European countries to basically share power with them.
Those that arrived at these Islands from the remotest parts of Spain, and who pride themselves in the Name of Christians, steered Two courses principally, in order to the Extirpation, and Exterminating of this People from the face of the Earth.
Las Casas is saying that the Spaniards are committing massacres and exterminating people in the name of Christianity.
As to the firm land, we are certainly satisfied, and assured, that the Spaniards by their barbarous and execrable Actions have absolutely depopulated Ten Kingdoms, of greater extent than all Spain
This claim of the Spaniards destroying ten kingdoms, that combined were greater then Spain, must've been Las Casas's way to explain the scale of the destruciton committed by the Spaniards to the rest of Europe.
The Spaniards first assaulted the innocent Sheep, so qualified by the Almighty, like most cruel tigers, wolves, and lions, hunger-starved, studying nothing, for the space of Forty Years, after their first landing
He refers to the Natives as "innocent Sheep, so qualified by the Almighty". I believe this was an appeal to the majority Christian population of Europe at the time.
The dancers and singers were completely unarmed. They brought only their embroidered cloaks, their turquoises, their lip plugs, their necklaces, their clusters of heron feathers, their trinkets made of deer hooves. Those who played the drums, the old men, had brought their gourds of snuff and their timbrels.The Spaniards attacked the musicians first, slashing a
The description of the items the Aztecs brought makes me imagine that they were probably quite valuable. Maybe the Spaniards killed them to steal these items? I would like to figure out if they took treasures after the massacre.
The Spaniards hanged a chief from Acolhuacan named Nezahualquentzin. They also murdered the king of Nauhtla, Cohualpopocatzin, by wounding him with arrows and then burning him alive.
The Spaniards seem incredibly quick to execute anybody they wanted to. Also, why would they kill these people? What kinds of reasons did they have?
Then the Spaniards burst into the rooms of the temple to kill the others: those who were carrying water, or bringing fodder for the horses, or grinding meal, or sweeping, or standing watch over this work.
This massacre seemed incredibly brutal and shows the crimes committed by the Spanish against the Aztecs.
Karlsefni caused trees to be felled and to be hewed into timbers wherewith to load his ship, and the wood was placed upon a cliff to dry. They gathered somewhat of all of the valuable products of the land: grapes, and all kinds of game and fish, and other good things.
It seems like the vikings were having a lot of success early on. I wonder how it all went wrong, and what exact events made them leave.
yet were they so anxious to go ashore that they could not wait until the tide should rise under their ship, but hastened to the land, where a certain river flows out from a lake.
It makes sense that the crew of the voyage were excited to get back on land. I probably would've felt the same.
The country thereabouts seemed to be possessed of such good qualities that cattle would need no fodder there during the winters. There was no frost there in the winters, and the grass withered but little.
They had been looking for a land that was livable, and it made sense to stop their voyage here. It seemed like a much more bountiful land than Greenland.
Sailing became increasingly dangerous and the Greenland colony was abandoned in the early 1400s. Without a base in Greenland the Vikings were unable to sustain a North American colony. They also faced strenuous opposition from natives they called Skraelings, who according to the Viking sagas were fierce warriors.
It makes sense, the colony wasn't "worth it" from the vikings' perspectives. They were very far away from Scandinavia, and the settlers were probably more interested in farming than fighting the natives.
Mayan religious beliefs included scraping down and redecorating their temples every sixty years.
I didn't know this. It's interesting to consider that even though these temples were only meant to last sixty years, the ones that didn't get torn down are still standing. I think it shows they had a lot of proficiency in temple construction.
By this time, the Catholic Church had prohibited the enslavement of Indians, but not of Africans.
I didn't know the Catholic Church did this, and it feels odd. Why would they outlaw slavery of Indians but allow the enslavement of Africans? I would like to learn their reasoning behind this.
The fisheries were originally a closely-guarded trade secret, but by the time Columbus made his famous journey they were well-known. And since cod was usually salted and dried on racks onshore before being carried back to Europe, Columbus and his crew were almost certainly not the first Europeans to make landfall in the Americas after the Viking settlements had been abandoned.
This anecdote is interesting, and something I had not heard of before. I wonder how many different societies could have potentially traveled to the Americas, and simply not have any written record.
and so great, Sir, is the corruption and licentiousness that our country is being completely depopulated, and Your Highness should not agree with this nor accept it as in your service.
This is a major part of King Afonso I's plea to King João to stop the slave trade in the Kongo, citing its corruption and licentiousness as well as, I believe, trying to appeal to King João's morals.
Because the pope crowns the emperor, it does not follow that the pope is superior to the emperor. Samuel, who crowned Saul and David, was not above these kings, nor Nathan above Solomon, whom he consecrated . . . Let the emperor then be a veritable emperor and no longer allow himself to be stripped of his sword or of his scepter!
Luther calls on the emperor to defy the pope and says that the Pope is stripping the emperor of his sword or scepter. This is interesting because it doesn't explicitly call for any action, just telling the emperor to stand up for himself.
They even imagine that a priest can never be anything but a priest--that is, he can never become a layman. All this is nothing but mere talk and a figment of human invention.
The idea in these sentences is that the Catholic Church says that once a man becomes a priest, he cannot revert to a laymen, an idea that Luther points out is a human invention and not supported by Scripture.
There has been a fiction by which the Pope, bishops, priests, and monks are called the 'spiritual estate'; princes, lords, artisans, and peasants are the 'temporal estate.' This is an artful lie and hypocritical invention
Luther's idea is that the Catholic's distintion between the "spiritual estate" and "temporal estate" is a fundamentally anti-Christian idea because it seperates laymen and priests into different catagories.
Feudal lords squeezed their peasants for crops and labor, and states raised taxes. Several million died during the famine, and then about half of Europe’s population disappeared between the plague’s arrival in 1347 and 1353.
The extra work and taxes required by the Feudal lords was their strategy for making up the revenue they lost because of the massive amount of their peasants dying. It also seems like it could've been an attempt to show the peasant class that the lords were still in control.
Russia became the largest kingdom in the world, stretching from the Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean, but much of it was unoccupied and primitive. Peter I (Peter the Great, r. 1672-1725) visited Europe in disguise for 18 months to study shipbuilding and new administrative techniques that he used to modernize his realm and establish the Russian Empire.
Peter the Great going to Europe in disguise is a testament to how little his kingdom had developed at that point. The fact that the Tsar had to go undercover just to study modern shipbuilding and learn to be a ruler shows that Russia had very little to work with.
Istanbul quickly became the largest Eurasian city outside China. Under Sultans like Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520-1566), the Ottomans expanded into Europe and nearly captured Vienna in 1529 and again in 1683.
The mention of Ottoman battles against the Europeans are very interesting, and I'd like to know exactly why and how these battles happened.
“If you make a mistake and do not correct it, this is called a mistake.”
The idea that you make a mistake and do not work to correct it and better youself in order to not make the same mistake again is also a mistake. I think that this is important and I also think it is great advice for everybody.
“By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.”
This quote is stating that most people have similar natures, and they learn and pratice the habits that seperate them into different personailities and behaviors.
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
This quote is an explanation of subjective beauty. Everyone finds different things beautiful. I like this quote and how simple it is to read and understand.
“The journey with a thousand miles begins with one step.”
I believe this quote is saying in order to make the great strides, to achieve your goals, you first have to take that beginning step towards what you want to achieve. I think that this is a good mindset in order to work towards your big goals.
The alarmed Chinese turned their full attention to their border defenses and rebuilt the crumbling Long Walls into a 1,550-mile long fortification with hundreds of guard towers. The Long Walls had existed since the beginning of the Chinese Empire, but had failed to hold off Mongol invaders.
The walls being ignored and the fact that they had begun to deteriorate was a little surprising. I thought that the empire would've maintained the walls, but it seems that they were preoccupied with diplomacy and that this attack by the Mongols made them reconsider their priorities.
Zheng He’s first expedition left China in July 1405 with 62 large ships, over 200 smaller ships, and 28,000 soldiers. The largest ships were 425 feet long, over six times the length of the 65-foot caravels the Spanish and Portuguese would use on their explorations nearly a century later.
It is interesting to me while I read through this chapter that in many ways, the history of China is physically larger than the history of most of the rest of the world, especially Europe. While the European explorers sailed on small ships with relatively small crews, the Chinese explorers sailed with thousands of soldiers on massive vessels.
Hume left this essay out of the first edition of his book, An Enquiry into Human Understanding, to avoid antagonizing the faithful.
I wonder if he left out the essay not only because he was not trying to antagonize believers, but also because of he saw how religious authorities persecuted scholars like Galileo.
Keep the immense population of China and the gravity exerted by its economy in mind as we move on to discuss events like the creation of a Spanish colonial empire in the Americas. Spanish-American mines produced the silver that accidentally became the world’s currency, filling not only the treasuries Europe, but also that of China in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
China being by far the largest population of any empire is extremely important, and explains why it is important to explore history with the context of the Chinese Empire in mind. The example of the silver becoming a worldwide currency is interesting, because for China, that meant that 125 million people were made to adopt a new currency.
Among the places Zheng visited were Bangkok, Java, Melaka, Burma, the east and west coasts of India, Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, Jedda on the Red Sea, and Mogadishu and Mombasa on the east coast of Africa
Zheng's voyages feel to me surprisingly long and went to many different places I didn't expect. I didn't know, for example, that Zheng had sailed to Africa. Sailing all the way from China to Mombasa is very impressive, especially in 1422 as the map above says.