Chapters 16-18

The industrial revolution marked the beginning of society as we know it today. While it was an amazing time of technological advancement, it was also a time of conquest and exploitation of the rich against the poor. By exploiting new technology and abusing the working class, wealthy industry moguls were able to produce products at crazy new rate. Being a computer science major and trying to pursue a career in innovation, I definitely support technological advancement however, unchecked innovation for the sole purpose of hoarding wealth (especially at the great expense of others,) seems to really miss the mark for me. I get that then they were just figuring things out and trying anything and everything but, in my opinion the role of technology should improve peoples life and make things easier. Sure factories created jobs, but workers were basically exploited to the degree that slaves were. So did the general population really benefit? The people who owned the factories definitely benefited, but weren’t they in most situations already doing pretty well?

I found it outrageous to read that one major reason for Britain’s colonial practices was that they were producing too many goods for its population and needed to flood foreign markets to justify their output. I don’t remember reading anything about a ‘Great Cotton Shortage’… The book says that they (and most European and white ethnic majorities) developed a notion of racial superiority, which they justified with science (i.e. they probably paid a scientist to publish a study,) but I think that was just propaganda for the masses to keep everyone in their place. I don’t think anyone could profit like the wealthy minority did from exploitation of other people across the globe without knowing exactly what they were doing. If white people are the superior race, why ban colonized people from education or restrict areas of study? They don’t (sorry didn’t) want people to know what they were up to, which basically looks like worldwide economic domination. I severely doubt that even most of the people of Britain directly profited from these conquests. Sure they got access to more ‘stuff,’ but they had to buy this stuff from the wealthy minority. I’m sure if you looked at the amount of things the average person could consume before and after the industrial revolution it would be astonishing. Creating this capitalist consumerism symbiosis makes the individual feel included in whats going on but in reality its just wool over the eyes as the real people profiting shape the world in their image--one where they stay wealthy.

Chapters 13 -15

A little late on last weeks journal, but oh well here ya go!

I found it interesting to read that the amount of slaves that were sent to South American plantations was way WAY higher than that that of North America. The book tells us that a big reason for this was a direct effect of the sugar industry, but it only briefly mentions that the reason was because of how difficult the work was so I thought i’d go into the sugar production practices of the time and try and describe why it was so much more intense than other slave-driven manufacturing processes of the era.

One major difference in the cultivation of sugar that differed from industries like cotton was that industries like cotton typically just grew the raw material and shipped it out to another manufacturer who refined the product into a usable material. Sugarcane is different in that once it is harvested it will spoil quickly and consequently must be processed quickly into its final crystalized form. Because of this, sugarcane plantations also had to handle the responsibilities of refining the raw product into the crystalized form that people could directly use in addition to the planting and harvesting of the plant.

Virtually every aspect of the planting and harvesting of sugarcane is intense, back breaking work. To plant sugarcane, workers had to dig a square roughly five feet wide down around 8 inches and were expected to do at least 60 of these a day. So these plantations must have been massive considering the amount of slaves they had working for them. Because these places were usually in tropical areas, weeds and rodents would attack growing plants thus requiring an entire portion of slaves to be dedicated to pest extermination and weed removal. The plants grew taller than the average human by harvest and because of that were difficult to chop as the plant needed to be cut at basically the base. The stalks were taken to factories where wind powered crushers would crush the juice that would be sent to the boilers to boil and refine into crystalized sugar. I’m sure its not surprising that many people lost limbs in the machinery during this process.

After reading up on this process i’m not surprised now by the number of slaves required for the sugar industry. Sugar really isn’t necessary for any human diet; its basically a drug and the europeans were hooked (and willing to exploit anyone to get their fix.) Its not surprising that slave labor was used, but at the scale at which this was happening it is surprising to me how long this went on before revolution occurred. I suppose humans will take a lot of abuse to maintain routine in their lives and I cant say I’m exempt from this assumption.

Chapters 10,11 and 12

So I didn't realize that chapters were switched from last week and this week. Last week I commented a bunch on Islam because I thought we were supposed to read that one and not the Christendom chapter. Reading about Christendom was quite interesting. I never really knew how the split between the western Christianity and Eastern Orthodox happened. The Byzantine Empire is super interesting and I didn't know that it essentially was the Roman Empire 2.0. I had always assumed that the Roman Empire ended when the fall of Rome and that it was no more. How surprised was I to learn that it continued on in a new form for almost a thousand years. It was cool to learn that latin and greek and roman teachings continued on in the east while the west was in total rural disarray. It is also a little silly to me that this split in Christianity occurred when it was the western Christians that put that capital in Constantinople in the first place. Wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that they were continuing on in the faith's best interest?

Another thing I found fascinating was the expansion of the Mongol empire under Genghis Khan. It is amazing to me that they were able to conquer so much in such a short time and with so few people. They were truly a military machine with every facet of the society contributing in some way to the war effort. I wasn't surprised to learn how short lived the empire was. With your entire economy depending on the conquering and assimilating of new areas, cultures and resources, its not surprising that they would eventually 'burn out' and run out of things to plunder. Still an amazing feat that will probably never be matched again in our history (unless nuclear apocalypse happens then someone will probably try and be lord of the ashes.)