Intro to Part 4 (pp. 610-615) + Chapter 13 (pp. 617-649)

Into to Part 4

 The introduction to Part 4 gives a light overview of what is to be expected from chapters 13-15. The introduction briefly discusses the early signs of the modern world. Theses signs were globalization, "elements of distinctly modern societies", and increasing European presences in the world. Under globalization, the introduction specifically mentioned European explorers, conquests, and colonial settlements, the Atlantic slave trade, the Colombian Exchange, which is the transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and people to areas which they are not indigenous, and the appearance of "modernity" through the Scientific Revolution. A last point that the introduction makes is that the chapters in this part deal with the blending of the old and new traditions to create what became the modern world.

Ch. 13 (pg. 617-649)

While this chapter covered several topics such as the Great Dying, the Colombian Exchange, the Aztecs and Incas, and the Russian Empire, there were two topics that really piqued my interest. The first was from the section on the Great Dying and it was the fact that over 90% of the Native American population died. While this is not necessarily a surprise, it is always a shock to see the percentage of this culture that was forever lost. I was also interesting to learn that the reason the Native died was from not only the plagues brought by the Europeans but also that a large amount of them died from hunger. The quote in this section said that those who were ill could not leave their beds to search for food and the others where too sick to take care of them, so they starved to death. Generally when you think about the Great Dying, you immediately label the plague as the reason but I never knew that so many of them starved to death. The second thing that caught my attention was discussed in the section about the Colombian Exchange. As a result of the Great Dying, the Europeans experience a labor shortage which increased the need for the Atlantic Slave Trade. Along with the plague and people, the Europeans also brought with them horses, pigs, cattle, goats, and sheep, all of which flourished due to the lack of natural predators. As a result of the introduction of horses, Native Americans went left their fields and began to hunt by horseback. This caused a significant shift in dynamics, women no longer became the main food producers and Native society grew more male-dominated and developed a stronger warrior culture. This is interesting because it is known that while Native Americans have this warrior culture, they still view women in incredibly strong and respected positions and this is a reason for it.