end of chapter 24

This last part of the chapter is about the worlds environment and the globalization of environmentalism. The three main factors that magnified human impact was the population increase, use of fossil fuels, and economic growth. I was shocked to read that the population quadrupled. That is a lot to increase in the twentieth century. These three spread all over the world which led to the globalization. The map on page 748 was pretty interesting. It showed the distribution of the increase of population. Global warming became the concensous in 2000 from the burned fossil fuels that are thinning the ozone layer. Im really not too sure what this actually means. But in the ninteeth century environmentalist emerged. It began in the west with rachel carson. I have heard of the green party before but I never knew it corelated to the environmentalist so I thought that was pretty cool to find that out. Environmentalism became a global concern and still is today. The picture on 751 was really interesting. It showed the environmentalist portest in korea. Their masks were kind of scary, but i didnt really get the point of wearing the masks. I was really shocked to see that the US alone contributes 30% to global warming.

women in politics and chapter 24

The section from chapter 24 in the book was about the religion and modernity around the world. We had to go and find information about the women in politics because we were talking abou feminism. Women in politics is a huge step right now because there is chance that there could be a women for president in the near future. Two articles i found were:

http://cawomenlead.org/you-have-what-it-takes-to-run/#top

http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/elections/candidates_2012.php

The first one is about why women should run for political office for the 2012 election. It gave stats such as education, the workforce, etc all favoring women. This explained the opportunities for women in the future. The second one was straight facts. It listed all the women and the position of office they are running for in this upcoming election. I had no idea so many women were already in office regardless of their position in office. There were a lot of running for representatives for their state. I noticed that majority of them were democrat. I dont really now what that has to do with anything for the blog but it was just an observation. These were two articles about the election which got me thinking that i should probably register myself so i can vote this year. And i should probably start looking up information so I know what exactly im voting on lol. 

rest of chapter 24 and arab spring

The rest of the chapter was about feminism movements, religion, and how the global environment has transformed. They talking about feminist movements that occurred all over the world. One that is going on right now is the women of the Arab Spring. I had no idea what this was until we had to look it up. I found many articles about it but I was still pretty unsure of what it really was. I looked it up and the Arab spring is an uprising that has spread across the Arab world in 2011. Conflict started in Tunisian and quickly spread to many parts of egypt, seria, saudi arabia, ets. The two sources I found information on was ..

1). http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Arab_Spring

and 

2). http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/03/opinion/pelosi-women-africa-democracy/index.html

The first one listed is a website that just tells what the women of arab spring is and how it is progoressing. The second is an actual news article about the conflict. In the first one, i was shocked to read how this all started. It is insane that it started from a man that lit himself on fire in tunisia in fornt of a municipal office all because earlier that day govnt official confiscated his cart and beat him because he didnt have a permit. This basically started an uproar that has now branched out and expanded into a larger conflict. People of these places are frustrated with the government, "...over living standards, police violence, rampant unemployment, and a lack of human rights." Women have become a huge part of this uprising against the government. It has become an issue of human and equality rights between men and women. Women are fighting for equality. 

chapter 24 pt 1

The very beginning of this chapter was very interesting and definitely caught my attention. It began about barbie and ken and the two dolls made Sara and Dara that described a completely differnet message that barbie and ken did. Sara and Dara were twins that wat were looking for their parents and helping eachother solve problems. It was weird to see the history book start this chapter off this way, it was something i was not expecting. These dolls were used to describe the growing integration of world economies and cultures which is predominitely what this chapter is about; Accelerating Global Interaction. Interactions between nations came to be inevitable around 1950s. Many people and countries viewed the world as a single market which was referred to as neoliberalism.  Reglobalization occurred after ww2. The chart on 728 was pretty cool becuase it showed some of the indicators of reglobalization. Some included telephone lines, mobile phones, internet, etc. The map on the next page looked pretty interesting but I was kinda unsure of what it really was showing. What is per capital income? The main purpose of the map was to show global inequality. I was shocked to read that there was a movement against globalization that started in 1990s. I like learning about more recent history. I was a baby during this time and I had no idea about the reglobalization period.

chapter 23

This chapter is about the colonization of the third world countries also called the developing countries. We talked a lot about it in class but i was still confused about the actual distinction between the difference of first world and third world. In the map it said that the first world were know as industrialized so obviously they are more advanced. By what else sets these two differences in countries apart? In the beginning of the chapter they tell some of the counties that gained independence. There were a lot that i was pretty shocked about and it was considered sort of recent happening later than the 1950's. In additio many empires collapsed. India and Africa broke free of british rule. India created the INC and Africa created the ANC. The two main influential people of these two places were Ghandi and Mandella. Ghandi was the leader of INC and fought against racial segregation using a nonviolent approach. Mandella was the same type of leader in Africa and was also the president.
       Two quotes I found were:

"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory." Ghandi

"It always seems impossible until its done." Mandella


I chose these two quotes because they are related and they share a good message to everyone . Everything  seems so hard to do before its done but after its an accomplishment. And the final product can be a reward depending if you gave it your all. If you didnt, you wont be very satisfied with your result let alone finish it. I got these two quotes off line and I found mandellas first and then found one from ghandi that could relate to it. I really like mandellas quote because I was tlaking about it today when i was working out. It can relate to the simplest things as well as the most important like a persons dreams.

rest of chapter 22

The cold war was like the first war that the US was actually a part of. The two groups NATO and warsaw pact separated the rival countries. These were also divided by the iron curtain. The major conflict during this war was nuclear threat. This is besides the point but I like the picture on page 677. I like the pretty orange. But this is a picture of hydrogen bomb, Something that isnt very good. No bombs were used except for later on hiroshima and nagasaki but the threat of the boms were even stronger. Countries began to set forth their efforts to making these destructive bombs in order to have a lead in any encounter at war. During this chapter, communism began to expand but the US didnt allow it to expand to them. The USSR became a threat in the nuclear war but The US still lead the super power. Its weird to think who leads the nuclear threat now? so many countries have nuclear weapons and the US alone has enough to blow up the entire world. why do we need so many? is it just to say we have more and to be ahead of everyone? And would we really use a nuclear bomb on any other country? Theres a lot of questions that I start thinking about when we talk about the wars and nuclear threat. The cuban missle crisis was familiar to me only because Ive learned about it before. Alot of this stuf in this was a repeat of learning but I enjoy learning about this stuff because it is familiar and and it is a sort of recent time period.

seciton 5 and 6

Section five and six were about provate property and the work force including labor unions. The first section that i read about private property and the social catholic teaching was pretty confusing. There were lots of connections between the common good and the ability to own private property. Individual ownership allows the incentive for people "to be productive and to care for the goods God has created". But those who hold a great deal of private property has the ability to hurt the poor. These two main ponts were pretty confusing to me. In they reading they made it clear that socialization and socialism are two completley different things and I thought of them as pretty similar. so Im glad I got that cleared up. Socialization is the greater accountability and social responsibility so someone would have to exercise a responsible use of property. The second section was a lot more interesting because it was about the labor work force and how social catholic teaching is always putting forth their efforts to helping the conditions of the work force. Conditions included wages, benefits, hours, etc. I was a little confused when they started talking about labor unions because I wasnt to sure of what it really was. The social catholic believe that "labor unions are crucial elements in the overall balacne of power in the economy..playing a constructive role in the pursuit of economic justice."I agree with the ending part that work is a good thing like how it gives opportunity for the community, and displays skills of people, and allows them to interact with people with the same interests. The work force is a good thing.

chapter 21 to page 674

The 20th century marked a big turn for the world because of all the wars, deaths, and spiraling economy. This chapter is about the rise and the fall of communism. I thought it was interesting that socialism and communism were related. The idea of communism was a idea by Karl Marx. The USSR and china were the biggest countires based on communism. The russian revolution broke out pretty quick and te Bolshevicks came into power. I know a little bit about the Bolshevicks from previous classes but not nearly enough. It was a 3 year civil war with the Bolshevicks against many groups of enemies I thought it was really weird how for 25 years ussr was the only communist country. It ended up spreading but why did it take so long? China then became communism. Chinas communist party was fighting agianst the nationalist party. I kinda thought this section was a little boring. I didnt quite understand some of it. Both in russia and china built socialist societies. The women section however did catch my interest because the ideas of divorce, abortion, womens work, and leave were starting to become encouraged. women were being considered more and actively engaging more in society.

ch 21

Before even reading, I think this chapter will be interesting because it is about the first world war. The times are becoming more recent which make it more interesting to me. The triple alliance and the triple entente were created which shifted the balance of power in Europe and war broke out in 1914. Factors that contributed to the outbreak of war was nationalism, militarism, and the colonial empires. The maps was pretty cool to see the distribution of power at the time and the two alliances that formed to start this war. There were many casualties and trench warfare left it messy. The women were actually allowed to go out into the work force and got more rights, such as the right to vote, because all of the men going to war, so i guess that was a positive thing. After the world war, the economy hit hard with the great depression and it makes me think of our community right now. The depression hit in 1929 when the stock market crashed. Iv always been curious about the stock market, i dont really understand how it works. The American economy began to boom a few years later. What can we do now to get our economy back up? On the other hand, italy, germany, and japan created an alliance and made the axis pact. In europe facsism evolved firt in italy and appealed to many people who were dissatisfied. When i got to the section of the nazis, my heart sank. It is unbelievable what hitler did to all those innocent jewish people. I learned a lot about it in a few other classes and in just blows my mind how that could happen. Same like whats going on in sudan. it all makes me sick to my stomach.

Catholic social teaching

I was absent the day this was due so Im doing it now. I commented on a few blogs to get the gist of it but reading it definietly gave me abetter hold of the concepts displayed. We only had to read thin introduction and social teachings 1 and 7. These covered the topics of human rights and colonialism relating to the economy. The human rights and dignity section reminds me of the notre dame hallmarks because one of the hallmarks, number 2 i think, is very similar. They value the dignity of each person and relate their existence to god because he was the one that created the first human. people in the world-"deserve to be reated with inalienable respect as children of god". The part about the pro life choice is pretty controversy especially over topics like abortions, capital punishment, human rights, etc. These have to do with the catholic moral teaching. I really like talking about the human rights and the dignity of each person because I agree with a lot of it, every person should be treated with worth and value. There have been many events throughout history that have gone against human dignity. The second section was all about the economy and the division between classes and what the catholic social teaching does in order to stop it and their stances on the topics. The section goes against the human rights and dignitiy because the main goal of that section is to teach equality. Overtime, society has become far from equal. There is a major differences in classes and it is only getting worse. The catholic social teaching develoes two ways to help the issue which i agree with but a single individual cant fix the problem on their own. It is going to take cooperation and the entire society to fix the distiction between rich and poor. I always wonder, is that ever going to go away? How would the society be with out the class distinctions?

607-614

I was really happy to start reading this section because the last section made me really mad about the slave labor and the conditions. I was happy to read this part about the education because Western education finally was an option for the people. It gave them a chance to escape the slave labor system and to create a new identity. I was glad because it saved a lot of people and children from the slave labor industry. The rest of  this section was about religion and how christianity spread and the defining of tribes and race. Tribes and ethnicity had a new sense of belonging.  This in a way still is almost segregation in some way or at least thats what makes me think about when I read this section. I was sort of unsure about what it meant.

589-606

This section is about the colonies and the colonial experience. In the very beginning two pages of the section I enjoyed looking at the different territories that were taken over by variety of countries. Europeans used military force in order to conquer. Becoming a colony was based on conquering territories. There was much conflict after Europe expanded because some people werent cooperating with their new ruler, Europe. There were many rebellions that broke out but that didnt shock me because it is expected for there to be some people to disagree. Much of the labor was forced unpaid labor which upset many people. It's weird to think these colonies were like dictatorships. A lot of land and money was taken from the citezens. What got me made was the issue in the Neatherlands East Indies. Peasants had to devote more that 20% of their land to pay taxes. Thats not fair, but then again what is? The picture on page 600 was really disturbing to be because it showed the results of the forced labor. These two boys were forced to do labor in the congo. The suffered severe body damages because of what they were forced to do. It breaks my heart to see these boys because the society just wasnt fair. They didnt care about the people or the children. Imagine all the people that were injured worse and even died. Working under European rule seemed brutal.

Links

The information on the information from the links were pretty interesting. There was one about the Invisible Hand by Adam Smith and the other was by Carl Marx and it was called the Manifesto. Both readings were about the economy and how it works. Talking about it in class definitely helped me understand the actual meaning of both readings. Invisible Hand was how the market economy pretty much regulates itself. He talks a lot about supply and demand which can relate to our society now. A lot of our economy is about supply and demand. The manifesto was about capitalism and the struggle between social classes. Supply and demand really reminds me of the gas issue we have. Gas prices are absolutely insane. Prices have gone up 60 cents within the last week. There is no sign of these prices going down either. What is causing this? simple answer is supply and demand. Supply comes from the people making the product and the demand is the people buying the product. As more people use gas, the prices go up because it is harder for it to be supplied. What can we do to lower these prices? Supply more obviously but how? These readings really made me think of our society and how it applies to our market.

541-556

         The rest of this chapter was about the industrial revolution in Unites states, Russia, and Latin America. I thought the pictures in the section was pretty interesting to look at to look at the variety of products in demand during that time. It was cool to learn that the United States were once the worlds leading industrial power by making 36 % of manufactured goods. The United States had techniques for mass production using the assembly line. This was familiar to me because I learned about it last year. The picture on page 543 really caught my attention because most of the silver and gold was being mined on the west side of the country and on the east side depended on iron and coal mining. Apart from that, Henry Ford made the first model T car using the assembly line which made cars more affordable.
         In the Russian Revolution it shocked me to see that only 5% of their population were a part of the working class. Most of the population was made up of peasants. Russia focused on roads and heavy industry. They had harsh conditions and there were many worker strikes especially after the defeat in war by Japan. In the Latin American Industrial Revolution, the picture on 551 interested me because I was able to see the products that they needed and where they were being produced. I didnt even now what some of  the products were such as the cacao, guano, and the yerba mate.
     

527-541

This chapter is about the industrial revolution. Industrial revolution began because of the such large increase in population as well as the use of fossil fuels. What exactly are fossil fuels? Why is it that Europe experiences everything first?  Is it a coincidence or is it because it had a large impact or power on everyone else? it was weird that I asked these questions. As I continued reading there is a whole section of how and why it started in Europe. Other areas of the world were experiencing advances but Europe was not. Europe had internal development that favored innovation and the merchant class was more involved. It is also the center of the exchange network. The Industrial revolution started in Britain. I thought it was cool that as the Industrial revolution came it lead to a lot of other new thinks such as railroads, mining, more manufacturing, etc. I liked how it boosted the middle class by a lot. It opened up opportunities for them. It makes me think of the things we can considering doing today to boost up the middle and lower classes. From this, protesters started which led to the spread of socialism.

rest of ch 17

The rest of chapter was about the haitian revolution and other revolutions that happened in various areas. The haitian revolution was significant because of the successful slave revolt that went on. It was crazy to read that it was the only successful one in world history. the number of slaves dominated the population. We played the game today in class which was quite interesting. I just wish we could have relayed answers to you before the game ended so the girls team would get points. the game was fun though but a tad unfair but I guess that was the point trying to be made. Im glad we finally figured it out because we were at least able to break even with zero compared to the 15 negative points we started out with. But the game was fun and i liked that it was a good way to study the material that would be on the midterm. Are we going to play it again before the midterm with questions from the beginning chapters? I think it would be a good idea. Anyway the chapter was also about the feminist movement. Females began to get a bigger role in societies. They started getting jobs. I thought it was interesting how they were scared that their reproductive systems would get damaged. Its something we dont think about very rarely in todays society. This chapter was overall very interesting and I really enjoy the game.

504-507

This reading was very short as well. It was all about the French Revolution. I thought it was really cool that the french helped north america undermine the british in the north american revolution. but why didnt north america help with the french financial problem. I didnt get the other reading because I wasnt in class because of a softball tournament. but im going comment on others blogs! We are in vegas right now for our first tournament this year. We won our first two games in extra innings yesterday.There were very exciting games. And today we had two more games. We lost the first on but won the second. We have one more tomorrow then we come back to school. My family is here so I will get to spend some time with them as well which is good because there is a lot of family here that I dont get to see very much. I was able to go out to dinner with them and spend some time with them after the games today.

chapter 17 first part

This was a short reading of chapter 17 which we are beginning to learn about the different atlantic revolutions such as North America, France, Haiti, and Latin America. It was a place of exchange of good and ideas. It was crazy that all the revolutions of the Atlantic were from derived from the European Enlightenment. These ideas of the enlightenment were shared across the atlantic by books, pamphlets, and newspapers. Its shocking to see how much of an impact it had on the rest of the world as it spread. Im  excited to  see how each of the revolutions differed from the same central ideas. The North Atlantic revolution was all about getting away from the british rule which was launched by the declaration of independence. Learning about this reminds me of the Washington DC trip I took in 8th grade. We went to particular monuments to learn about the history of America. It was a really fun yet informative trip. I was very thankful to get that opportunity.

491-497

This is an introduction to chapters 17 and 18 which are within the time periods of 1750-1914. They call this period the long nineteenth century. The themes that will be explained during this time period is the new kind of society called modernism and the exercise of more power. Why was this period called the long nineteenth century? And why and how is Europe always the center? This section was pretty short and I dont really know what to write about. I really like the pictures and the timeline. I like how it is getting more present day history. It makes it more interesting for me to learn.

Kant reading

When I started reading this, I had no idea what it was saying or what it was trying to say. It was pretty confusing but after going over it and dissecting bits and pieces of it in class it makes a little more sense. To understand this packet you must first understand what enlightenment means and its still a little hazy to me. He said the word tutelage a lot which means protection of or authority over something. Enlightenment would mean like being introduced to something knew such as knowledge. This packet was pretty confusing but I did like the section I had to go over in class. It was about the differences between public use of reason and private use of reason and how it relates to enlightenment. Kant believes that public use of reason is a promoter of enlightenment and private use can restrict it. I agree with him but there can be exceptions to where private use would be better. The use of public reason is for the reason to be free, or known to the public. It is not held inside and individual or a small grou of people. Public use would be a promoter of enlightenment because everyone would have that new knowledge or idea. Private use could be known to restrict enlightenment because not everyone would be introduced to it. I think it could go both ways because what if the public use of reason is false or not relevant, It wouldnt promote enlightenment.

end ch 16

I was amazed to read at the beginning of this reading assignment that the scientific revolution also started in Europe. It said that the Islamic world was most scientifically advanced so why didnt the scientific revolution start there? Europe allowed colleges and institutes of higher learning and countries of the islamic world didnt. That made me mad because why didnt China for example allow that. That is ridiculous especially because they knew they were the most scientifically advanced. The Europeans view of the world derived mainly from Aristotle and Ptolemy. Catholic church opposed the new thinking. I think they felt threatened by the new ideas. They didnt have all the authority anymore. Science became widely desired. By then end of this section, it got into the nineteenth century. I am getting more excited because I am more interested in more recent history so I look forward to the upcoming chapters.

p 461-477

Chap. 16

This chapter focuses on the Religion and Science that was dominant during the 1450-1750's. Christianity was limited to Europe in the beginning of the 1500's and was divided between Roman Catholics of western and Central Europe and the Easter oOrthodox of Easter Europe and Russia. This sounds familiar because I remember learning about the two during last semester. This chapter goes a lt more in debt than what I learned in the previous course. I really liked the chart on page 464 because it lays out the significant differences in beliefs between the catholic and protestant. Reading this, it really got me thinking about my church experience. I just went to mass on campus for the first time last sunday at 7. I enjoyed going considering I havent been to church in a long time. I think the last time I went was when I was about 8, so I dont remember much. But last sunday, there was a lot spoken about Jesus and his authority with his words. It got me thinking about how much different I can change my language and how I can speak to others. I am christian so I was pretty nervous of how different it would be because it is a Catholic church. Church was a different experience for me and I would definitely go again.

end of chapter 15

            Within the first paragraph of the reading I was completely surprised to see that they took 11 million Africans out of their families and forced to the americas as slaves. This is ridiculous how man people were used as slaves. This makes me think of the movie The Help. Its all about the slavery and how they were working for white families. Its crazy how they interacted with their owners and their children. That was an amazing movie. I enjoyed it because it was very informative and it was sad. The help in the movie are considered slaves. They were treated terribly and I cant even imagine how the slaves were treated in the very beginning. Being involved in the Atlantic Slave trade would be unbearable. This whole section was about the Atlantic Slave trade and about the slaves. The slaves were used for many different purposes depending on the the region and the owner. There were also children slaves. It confused me how some parts of the world favored different slaves. For example the islamic world preferred women and Atlantic slave trade favored men. Many died just in the journey over to where they will be sold and bought. And Im sure even more died doing the harsh labor. Slavery is a tough topic to read about because it makes me mad that our society used to be centered around it.

Chapter 15 433-448

    This chapter is all about the different trade routes throughout the world and the goods that were being traded. Commerce was one of the main forces that drove globalization during this time period. Europeans wanted to become engaged in the trade with Asia because they desired to obtain the spices from these places, mainly in India. Columbus and Vasco De Gama both sought trade routes to Asia. This amazes me how individuals would just go out in search for something with no hesitation of what could happen to them or the journey that they will experience. They had so much courage and bravery to do these long voyages with limited resources. It may sound bad but I thought it was pretty cool that the Portugese didn't really have any goods that were in good competition with the others so they found a different way of getting goods, piracy. The silver trade soon took over the spice trade. The book said that 85% of silver was found in spanish america, I wonder if that is still the case today? Spanish america gained dominance with the new luxurious good of silver. It was hard for me to imagine being able to pay a tax in silver, this is what china used because of the such high demand for the good. Next was the hunt for fur. There was intense competitions for animal furs but the supply was sharply decreasing. A lot of countries were in high demand for fur but they could have done the hunting themselves but instead they relied on trade. Europeans usually traded with the indians. The russians depended on the siberians. Thats what trade became, it was the use of other peoples good in return for yours, the goods you were unable to obtain.
   

Sugar Handout

This handout is about the history and transformation of sugar in the world. In the very beginning of this reading, they stated that sugar once was considered a drug. This jumped out at me because today sugar is probably the farthest thing that would be considered a drug. And I just wonder how it can be considered a drug? The history of sugar started in South Asia when it was encountered by Greeks in India. During the Middle ages sugar became one of the most luxurious goods in the market. But why was it in such high demand if it was considered a drug? Sugar was grown as canes in hot moist places. It's production is very labor intesive and produced on a large scale. It was produced with the use of slaves. When I came across to the charts of slavery importation in order to produce the large sugar amounts struck me because of the such high numbers. Thousands and thousands of black slaves were imported tos different parts of the world to do the large scale production of sugar. Slavery conditions were harsh. Im very thankful for the events that helped fight slavery in previous history.

Pages 417 to 430

     This section was on the second half of Chapter 14. It mainly talked about the Russian Empire and the Asian Empires. It start explaining the Russian Empire and how it became the world's largest state. It was centered on the city of Moscow and emerged from the Mongol rule. Last semester the Mongols were quite interesting to learn about. They conquered by force and completely wiped out villages and cities in order to to take them over. The Russian empire grew quite fast with the use of organization and modern weapons. It became a very diverse empire. It was stunned to see that the Russian empire lasted until 1991 which was when the Soviet Union collapsed.
     The Asian empires were rather regional than global. I found it interesting that the Asian empires didnt have to deal with the devastation of diseases like most empired did because they were expanding into new places. This helped their population thrive. The book focused on the China empire also known as the Qing Dynasty, the Mughal empire which was in India, and the Ottoman Empire. The ottoman empire was known for its Islamic world. But they also had many christians in the empire which I thought was interesting that they were tolerance of having a second religion in the empire. I liked the quote they put in the book that a European ambassador said fearfully talking about the Turkish people, the ottoman empire. It showed the empire was powerful and that others almost admired it.

ch. 14

     Chapter 14 starts around the time of the 1400's, which marks the beginning of the Early Modern World. The 1400's to the late 1700's was also known as the Late Agrarian era. The Early modern era started with the beginning of globalization, elements of distinctly modern societies, and growing European power in the world. Many things contributed to the rise of "modernity." Many things such as religion, people, and goods were expanded by trade. Growth of food was demanding because of the increase in population. Larger cities and stronger government emerged. Overall, it was a time of new global patterns.

     While reading through this chapter many things caught my attention. In the first few pages, I came upon the section The Great Dying. It caught my attention because of the large amount of people it wiped out. It made me think of when I was learning about the black plague and how it spread across the silk road. But in this situation, the diseases came from Europe and Africa which killed numerous Native Americans and other people living in the Americas. The Native American population lost 90% of its people and central mexico population dropped from around 10 million to 1 million. I was shocked looking at these statistics. The second thing that caught my attention was the colonies of sugar. Parts of Brazil and the Caribbean created societies from the surplus of sugar.  Europe was in high demand for sugar and these colonies provided Europe with almost all it needed. I thought it was interesting how it was the first modern industry. It was very large scale and was produced with slave labor. Slavery was a huge part of societies for decades. We just celebrated MLK day for this particular reason.