Ch. 20 P.1

What I found interesting in the first part of the reading for chapter 20 is that there were two waves of European conquests.  I did not know that the European expansion could be perceived in two trends or waves but I found that it made sense since the initial expansion dealt with the Americas mostly.  Being the second wave the one that dealt with Asia and Africa is also quite interesting.  What I wonder is why didn’t the Europeans first deal with the conquest in Asia and Africa being that they are much closer or at least easier to get to than the Americas which are across an entire ocean? 

Theory of Invisible Hand

Adam Smith’s Theory of Invisible Hand may be a great way to operate an economy.  In part I believe it can be a great way in which an economy can run because it is completely dependent on consumers.  Because the market would depend on consumers and their demand of supplies, it is going to vary from time to time as opposed to leaving some products on being produced even though they are not being successfully sold.  On the other hand, it can lead an economy to a shipwreck because due to its dependency on consumers, there will be many more producers on certain highly attractive products therefore making that product over a period of time inefficient for profit making the economy take another shift which is similar to what has happened currently in the housing market. 

Ch. 18 P.2

In this reading what didn’t cease to amaze me is how cruel the human race can be at times.  I was surprised that in every single country that the industrial revolution hit, there were cases of inhumanity.  The ones who were poor only seemed to be getting poorer and poorer while the wealthy landowners and company owners had all the money.  Not only did they make enormous amounts of money, but they controlled the government.  Just the thought of having wealthy homes in a city and knowing that only a few blocks away were people living like rats in tenements with lack of sewer, sanitary control, and building codes that made for hazardous living conditions is degrading to the human race.  This to me is simply lack of morals from human beings to human beings.  

Ch. 18 P. 1

What I find most interesting in this reading of chapter 18 is how industrialization dramatically altered the world in only a few centuries.  Industrialization changed the entire world in less than 250 years and more than the entire recorded history of the world.  No other period has brought upon such quick change to the entire globe.  I simply find it amazing because within 250 years we have gone from an agrarian society to an industrialized society that uses all sorts of technological applications in our daily life.  We feel as if we could not live without our mobile devices, electricity, gas, and even our cars, but to think that life was entirely possible in this manner only a few centuries ago is astonishing for me. 

Ch. 17 Pg. 507-524

In this reading what really surprised me was to find out that Haiti was one of the first American countries to come about.  I never really stopped and asked myself about which countries were some of the first to gain independence but I don’t think that I would have guessed Haiti to be one.  I think what assists me in thinking that is that Haiti was so engulfed in slavery and oppressed that I wouldn’t have guessed they were one of the first to gain independence from France. 

Ch. 17 (pg. 504-7)

What surprised me from reading this section was that the French Revolution was mainly fueled by the nobility and the middle class groups.  I would have thought that it would be mainly fueled by the lower class because they are the ones typically oppressed.  This can be similar to what is occurring here in the U.S. in the present day.  The economy suffering is mainly striking the middle class and really creating a huge gap between the lower and upper class dissipating the middle class.  As we have seen this creates a much larger problem that can be expected because the upper class is comprised of a very small percent of people which means that there are more and more people falling to lower class daily.

Ch. 17 pg 499-504

What I find most interesting of this reading is that a major part of the Atlantic all of a sudden came to fight for independence in such a short period of time.  I feel that this is sort of similar to the domino effect that many democratic countries fear against communism.  I think that this theory can be similarly applied to democracy and freedom from heavily governing countries.  As this short reading has proved, many countries such as the U.S., Haiti, and Mexico fought for their independence within a fifty year span and achieved what many colonies had been trying to do but couldn’t because they didn’t have the initiative to do so.