Chapter 24 (3/4): Accelerating Global Interaction

Fundamentalism on a Global Scale

            Fundamentalism is a militant piety-defensive, assertive, and exclusive- that took shape to some extent in every major religious tradition. This took shape, to an extent, on every major religion.

            With the bringing of the scientific revolution not far behind these events, scientific and secular focus of global modernity directly challenged the sole beliefs of religions, which were called to be superstitious. “Social upheavals connected with capitalism, industrialization, and globalization thoroughly upset customary class, family, and gender relationships that had been long sanctified by religious tradition.” (741) All of these ideas, and these “disruptions” came from foreigners, who were usually westerners. They came in the form of military defeat, colonial ruling, economic dependency, and cultural intrusion. As a response, fundamentalism was represented to be religious. However they used modern technology to communicate as there rejection of modernity was selective. Fundamentalist would use extensive education along with propaganda, political mobilization, social welfare programs, and sometimes violence.

            This term of fundamentalism came from the U.S. and where its religious conservatives were angered by critical and “scientific” approaches to the bible and the ideals of Darwinism. They wanted a return to the fundamental, which included the scriptures, the virgin birth and the physically resurrection of Jesus as well as miracles. At first fundamentalist separated themselves from the secular worked in their own schools an churches but decided to enter into the political realm so that they could bring America back to a “godly path.”

            In India, this idea of fundamentalism was very different and in a different setting. The fundamentalist movement in independent India was known as Hindutva or Hindu nationalism. It represented a politicization of religion within a democratic text. India had always been, and still was an essentially Hindu country even in the midst of Muslim invaders, and British Christians coming in. Muslims in particular were defined as outsiders. This movement took a political change in form of a political party known as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Much of the support came from urban middle-caste and upper caste people who resented the State’s interest and efforts to cater to Muslims, Sikhs and the lower castes. This party became very popular and the major political force in India. It won a number of elections and promoted a Hindu identity in education, culture, and religion. 

Chapter 24 (2/4) Accelerating Global Interactions:

The Globalization of Liberation: Comparing Feminist Movements

This section of the reading talks about Feminism in the West, the global south and internationally, comparing how it came about and ideals each held and what they thought of one another in comparison.  

There were many other ideas and issues that were running around during this time period and the ideology of liberation being the main one. “No expression of the global culture of liberation held a more profound potential for change than feminism....represented a rethinking of the most fundamental and personal of all human relationships. Feminism began in the nineteenth century with a focus on suffrage. Once receiving it, feminism died down a little until later on in the twentieth century where it came back stronger and with more ideas. The ideas brought up were however different and varies between the West and the global south.

In the west, feminism had lost motive when most countries had achieved universal suffrage. It was revived again in the 1960s. In France, for example, a book was published on discussion of how women have been historically referred to as “others” or derived from the male species. French women dramatized their concerns publically with different protest. One was an anti-mother’s day parade where they said, “Celebrated one day; exploited all year.” They also had women sign a published manifesto which stated that they had undergone abortions, which was illegal in France. Feminism also had a very strong point on employment and education for women. American feminism was very radical, and they demanded direct action. They challenged the Miss America pageant, using stink bombs and crowning a sheep as Miss America. They also got rid of tweezers, girdles, bras, high-heels and other “instruments of oppression”.  There was also a branch of feminism for women of color. Many women of African descent established their own organizations, with a focus on racism and poverty.

In the Global south, they had very different focuses that they wanted to address that did not directly relate to gender. They felt that what women were fighting for in the west were too individualistic, too focused on sexuality, and insufficiently concerned with issues of motherhood, marriage and poverty.  Women in Kenya took on projects such as building water cisterns, schools, and dispensaries. In Morocco they targeted the country’s Family Law Code which still referred to women as being minors. They changed this and had it recognize women to be equal to their husbands, and allowed them to initiate divorce, and to claim child custody.  

There were many other direct calls to action in the global south as well. “Thus feminism was global as the twenty-first century dawned, but it was very diverse and much contested.”

Chapter Twenty: Colonial Encounters

For many people in Africa and Asia colonial rule by Europe was a major part of their history and a new element of their experience during the nineteenth century. This was seen as the second wave of European Conquest as this followed Europe’s conquest of the America’s. It was now focused mainly on Asian and Africa.

            This conquest was conditioned by the Industrial Revolution, and their motives and actions were shaped by the military capacity and the economic power that also coincided with the Industrial Revolution. Generally, most Europeans preferred informal control, as it was cheaper and less likely to provoke wars, though this did now remain the case. Because more European countries wanted to take over different parts or local authorities refused to cooperate with the powers, Europeans had no problem with taking the expenses and moving to direct colonial rule. This involved the use of military forces and or the threat of using them. This was available for them to use because the Industrial Revolution has also made arms much stronger, and they were overwhelmingly advanced with firepower and machine guns. Though it took a long time, European power prevailed virtually everywhere across Africa and Asia. Many of those countries that were overtaken lost the political sovereignty and freedom of action.

            For countries such as India and Indonesia, colonial rule was something that had developed from earlier interaction with European trading bases. The absence of any sense of cultural and political unity was an open invitation to Europeans and allowed them to seize and take over. It evolved very slowly, but surely.

            This method was not the same in Africa, mainland South Asia, and the Pacific Islands, as colonial rule was more abrupt and deliberate. This was because of the “scramble for Africa” as many European parties fought against one another for land. This process was nowhere near peaceful, and was an idea of who owned what, as it used bloody military action. As for the land and conquest of Australia and New Zealand, it was similar to the conquest and colonization of North America. Europeans brought settlement and diseases. These areas became colonies, “neo-European” societies.

            In many places and for many these colonial rule and European incorporation was a traumatic experience. Although all this violence existed, there were many people who were willing to cooperate for their own advantages. This was available because colonial rulers relied heavily on a range of local intermediaries. Also, both colonial governments and private missionary organizations promoted a measure of European education. This led Europeans to increasingly depend on the Western-educated class at the expense of the more traditional elites.

            Even so colonial rule provoked the bitter opposition of many others. There were periodic rebellions, large and small in size, where one of the more famous ones was the Indian Rebellion.  This rebellion was triggered by military forces smearing a new cartridge in the fat from cows and pigs. This offended both Hindus and Muslims. A mutiny among Indian troops in Bengal triggered this rebellion, which then began to spread to other regions of the colony. Though it was destroyed the rebellion had greatly divided the races in colonial India. “It made the British more conservative and cautious about deliberately trying to change Indian society for fear of provoking another rebellion. Moreover, it convinced the British government to assume direct control over India…”

Chapter Eighteen: Revolutions of Industrialization

What is the Industrial Revolution and why did it start in Europe? And to further this as to why it started in Britain. A similar question was tackled on in an earlier chapter to what the Scientific Revolution was and as to why it started in Europe.

The Industrial Revolution was a time of massive acceleration of technological innovation.  Not only had it brought ways to mass produce goods, bring in more riches, and make services faster, it had also brought new  sources of energy. The spark in the eighteenth century in England was with the variety of systems transforming the cotton textile production. It was not quite until the nineteenth century that Europe hit the full on mass amount of different technologies that would change life back then. Europe’s big breakthrough was the steam engine. Soon this began to attack different aspects, and different ways for people to make life easier, and better what they were already doing at the time. Not only was normal life affected, but the agriculture was as well. The creation of mechanical reapers, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and refrigeration changed the way agriculture was and transformed the ancient ways that they had been using.

These entire different and mass amount of ideas brings up how quick these ideas and creations sparked up across Europe. It also brings to question how did this happen and why did it happen when it did, at the speed that it did? It was completely unimaginable and unplanned to happen, especially in Europe. It was however not only in Europe this was happening but across many other countries such as China, India, and the Islamic world as a whole.  There has been argument in whether to insist why Europe is considered the spark off of the Industrial revolution, Historians from present time arguing with those who simply played it off and Europe’s over power and intelligence form other nations.  However, we have now been able to explain and theorize as to exactly the rapid spread of this Industrial Revolution started in and across Europe. One reason is in looking at Europe’s pattern of internal development and how many small and large states were competitive. What also is said to have sparked it off was all these new countries and states need of taxes and money in their vicinity. 

Britain was one of Europe’s largest countries and many of its landlords had ‘enclosed’ much agricultural land. This led to the series of agricultural innovations such as crop rotation, selective breeding, etc. Tribal and the very beginnings of the transformation to technological innovations. British political life was encouraging commercialization and economic innovation as well. What else took this off and on a roll was the side by side help and “installation” of the Scientific Revolution which fostered Great Britain’s technological innovation. 

Chapter Seventeen: Atlantic Revolutions and Their Echoes

In the beginning of this chapter we are comparing four different revolutions. Those revolutions being: The North American Revolution, The French Revolution, The Haitian Revolution, and the Spanish American Revolutions.  In European History, the French Revolution was the most significant. The French Revolution had followed after the American Revolution. The American Revolution had led to the establishment of the United States, or the beginning establishment. The Haitian Revolution was the first successful slave revolt, and we are followed to the Spanish American Revolution which was the end of the Spanish and Portuguese colonial rule leading to the establishment of Latin America. There of course were many other Revolutions that followed these, but the Revolutions above were like the first gun shot fired, leading to other’s inspirations and want to fight for rights.

These revolutions were not separate. More so that they obviously inspired each other in a chain. Thomas Jefferson, who was the American Revolutionary leader, was the U.S. ambassador to France in the midst of the French Revolution and gave advice and encouraging words to the reformers and the revolutionaries.  The leader of the Spanish American Revolution, Simon Bolivar, had visited Haiti twice, where he had received military aid. Not only did these revolutions have direct influence on one another, but they all shared common ideas and central thoughts that pushed them to fight. Among the list of ideas were the fight for, “…equality, free trade, religious tolerance, republicanism, and human rationality…” (500) These ideas did not just come from out of nowhere in these countries, but spread from the ideas of Enlightenment in Europe and across the Atlantic.

In political terms, “popular sovereignty” was among it all and a central idea. It means that “…the authority to govern derived from the people rather than from God or from established tradition.” (500) Other than Haiti, there has been arguing case in that the Revolutions only got any sort of gain from the Revolutions, whereas women, slaves, Native Americans, and men who had little to no property did not gain much. However the ideas that it did accomplish could give them hope and insight for the future. T

These Atlantic Revolutions have also been known to be referred to as, “democratic revolutions.” This is because of its fight on political rights had been the point across along with the other central ideas that they fought for.

But it is important to lastly note that through all these similarities, they were substantially different from each other. They were sparked by different events, different circumstances, difference in social and political distresses, and each varied in their outcomes and what they were able to accomplish and bring about.  The book notes that, “‘Digesting Liberty’ occurred in quite distinct ways in the various sites of the Atlantic Revolutions.” 

Chapter Sixteen: Religion and Science

Chapter Sixteen addressed the topics of the expansion of Christianity, as well as other religions and branches, and Science’s role during the same time. Even today there is a line that some people wish not to cross in bringing Science and Religion together in comparison, and back then the Church was more against it, also having to deal with different sects branching off.

Christianity had been established well in America and in the Philippines. Throughout the rest of the world, it was practiced by some, or adapted into by others. Islam however was the dominating religion at the time everywhere else. Not only did these religions spread fast, but Science was also beginning to spread along as well to a religion as some.

Christianity, though having started in the Middle East, was the dominant religion of Europe, and only so there. At the time Christianity was internally dived by the Roman Catholic Church and the Easter Orthodox church. On the outside they on showed a front to Islam and its rapid spread. However, in the early sixteenth century the Protestant Reformation changed the unity the Protestant’s had left with the Roman Catholic Christianity. This reformation was started by Martin Luther and his posting of, what he called, his Ninety-five Theses. He argued that one did not need God and all of these priests, but one simply needed faith alone to get by and reach the gates of heaven. They simply needed the bible and their own interpretations of it. For many common people, these new ideas were amazing and much relatable. These new ideas served as a way to express their opposition to the social order of the church. Many women were also interested and attracted to Protestantism, even though just as the Catholic Church, it did not offer women a greater role. It did allow women education and literacy, as it gave way for people to read and interpret the bible for themselves, but it also heavily emphasized women as mothers and wives under their husband’s supervision. This was not the only new found religious ideas floating around, there were many others that continued to branch off one another. Eventually this led to the Thirty Year’s War, which was a Catholic and Protestant struggle, later ending with the Peace of Westphalia.

While some Europeans were set on spreading Christianity to the rural ends of the Earth and everywhere as they went along there were many other Europeans who were wanting and beginning to understand science and the things that were very much against what the church had been teaching at the time. All of these repeating questioning and exploring led to the Scientific Revolution. Men would no longer need to base everything solely on the scriptures or ideas and prophecies of ancient philosophers. Instead they could now begin to make close observations, create general formulas and explore and delve into mathematics. All of these ideas and practices were against everything the church taught and wanted, but that did not stop the Europeans. Along hand with the Scientific Revolution led to what is known as the Industrial Revolution. 

Chapter Fifteen: Global Commerce

Europe in comparison to Asian Commerce was very behind in the game, but came in with strong force to own the game. The game in speak is trade and the trade routes within the Indian Ocean and the areas surrounding. Many European countries began to trickle in this system, seeing how much money it could bring about, yet not having anything worth trading for. This lead them to have to pay using silver or gold for goods, such as Chinese silk, Indian cotton, and a multitude of different spices. Europe has just recovered from the Black Plague and their population was growing. Each country made their ways differently into the trade route, treated the people in different ways, but they all contributed to this new regime of globalized trade.

The first of European countries to attempt trade started with the Portuguese. This new diverse area was different than what the Portuguese knew but they quickly took charge as best they could. Had they attempted to participate peacefully the could have done so, but the fact of the matter is, is that they had nothing precious or worthy to offer up, as whatever goods they could muster up were seen as unattractive in Asian markets. What else fueled them in not being peaceful, is taking in note of how Indian Ocean merchant ships were mostly un-armed and they also strongly lacked in canons on their ships as the Portuguese had.  They used their military advantage and quickly set bases for themselves. The Portuguese claimed these bases forcibly and without mercy, causing much bloodshed. Their actions are what led to the term, and what set up other countries to do the same, known as “trading post Empire.” Because the Portuguese were one of the first Europeans to come along they attempted to enforce other trading ships to purchase a pass and to pay duties of 6 to 10% of others cargoes. However, the Portuguese began to revert to their ancient ways, as they still had nothing to offer up in trade, and they were completely outnumbered by Asian traders.

After the Portuguese came the Spaniards and their conquest of what they named the Philippine Islands. It was easy for Spain to take over the Philippine Islands as they had very small and weak military societies; there was neither king nor anyone who ruled people. The Spaniards also took this opportunity because of the close proximity to China and that it was a spice island. There take over, unlike the Portuguese was often bloodless and relatively easy. Later on however there would Chinese revolts that would lead to massacres by the Spaniards.

After the Spaniards the Dutch and the English joined in on the trading. Both these countries were stronger militarily and economically than Portugal. They organized their own Indian Ocean ventures through private trading companies unlike the Portuguese. The Dutch focused on Indonesia while England focused on India. The Dutch were harsh with their rule over Indonesia forcing the people to sell only to them, and if they refused they would burn the crops. The British East India Company worked differently than that of the Dutch.  They established three major trading settlements, and instead of forcing themselves onto the land they secured their trading bases with permission of Mughal authorities or local rulers, later becoming heavily involved with trading with Asia.  However, both England and the Dutch’s trading post began to evolve into a more conventional form of colonial domination. This is something that happened in the beginning with that of the Portuguese and with what we see with Spain. The idea to rule may not be the first thought as trade bases are set up but as opportunities open, the European countries take it the moment it is laid out in the open for them.