Industrialization continued. Chapter 18 pp. 541-556

Industrialization quickly spread to continental Western Europe. By the 1900's it was established in the US, Russia, and Japan. The outcomes were very similar in each country it became established in.American industrialization began with New England textiles but began to explode after the Civil War. By 1914, the United States was the world's leading industrial power. Serious social divisions rose out of industrialization. The growing gap between rich and poor grew larger, there was constant labor of the working class, slums arose, and socialism was labeled as "un-American." In Russian, the Industrial Revolution was launched by the 1890s. Russia's Revolution focused on railroads and there was fewer but larger factories than in Western Europe. The Russian Revolution broke out in 1917. This brought the most radical socialist groups to power, led by Vladimir Lenin. Russia was the only country in which the industrialization led to social revolution. The Industrial Revolution was definitely an unexpected outcome of circumstances. It has been found that Europeans have used their development of industrialization to claim superiority over all other countries. Overall, industrialization was a huge break though in World History that has ultimately changed everything and determines how we live our lives today. (:

Industrial Revolution: Chapter 18 pp.527-541

This section is about The Industrial Revolution. This revolution was ultimately one if the most significant elements of Europe's modern transformation. It transformed European society, pushed Europe into a position of global dominance and also drew on the Scientific revolution. How did the Industrial Revolution come about? It lies in an increase in numbers of people and also the utilization of fossil fuels which generated large portions of energy which became available to for human use. The greatest invention in the Revolution was the steam engine. The Industrial Revolution had different impacts on different kinds of people, but ultimately it was an amazing breakthrough in our world.

Echoes of Revolutions Ch. 17 pp.507-524

The French Revolution sparked violence and massive slave revolt began in 1791. The power gradually began shifting to the slaves who were led by former slave, Toussaint Louverture. This Haitian Revolution is looked upon as the only completely successful slave revolt in history. It renamed the country Haiti, declared equality among all races, divided up plantations for farmers. This revolution also sparked horror among whites, and increased slavery in other places. This also sparked Latin American revolutions in the Spanish colonies. In 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain and portugal which forced most of the Latin Americans to take action. By 1826, most all Latin America was independent. After it all, Latin American countries became increasingly impoverished and underdeveloped, whereas the United States grew more wealthy and stable. All of these outbreaks of revolutions caused many smaller outbreaks in Europe and Russia. But after it all, slavery was largely ended in the world between 1780 and 1890. By 1914, universal male suffrage was commonly seen in many places around the world. Feminist Beginnings were developing in places especially in Europe and North America. So do you think all these Revolutions have more pros or cons in the end? I would have to say pros because look where we are now compared to then, things would only seen to gradually get better over time....or so we can pray that they do.

French Revolution. Chapter 17 pp504-507

This section is about the French Revolution. The French government was facing bankruptcy because the government had attempted many times to modernize the tax system and make it more fair for the lower classes, but it was opposed by the more privileged classes. King Louis XVI made an effort to raise taxes by calling the Estates General. In 1789, third estate representatives broke loose and declared themselves the National Assembly. This assembly drew up the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and launched the French Revolution. This revolution was driven by social conflicts. Nobility resisted monarchic efforts to tax them, middle class resented aristocratic privileges, poor suffered from inflation and unemployment, and the peasants were oppressed. The Enlightenment ideas gave people a leeway to  articulate grievances but the Revolution was far more violent than the American Revolution. Effects of this revolution included slavery being abolished for a while, the ending of hereditary privileges, the king and queen being executed, and the Terror which killed thousands and thousands of people.

North American Revolution Chapter 17 pp. 499-504

This section on the Atlantic Revolutions and their Echoes focuses specifically on the North American Revolution. The American revolution was a conservative political movement which aimed to preserve, rather than gain new colonial liberties. There were few who thought about breaking away from Britain before 1750. Onto the 60's, Britain made a new drive to control the colonies and get more revenue, since they needed money for global war on France. No significant social transformations came with Britain's independence. Many americans thought that they were creating a new world order and the US Constitution was one of the first lasting efforts to put Enlightenment political ideas into practice.

Intro to Part 5 pp. 491-497

This introduction passage starts off by telling us the themes that have been discussed in previous chapters and themes that are going to be explored in the following chapters.. These themes include the creation of a new kind of human society, or "modern" society, which was the outgrowth of the Scientific, French, and Industrial revolutions. And how these societies generated many of the ideas that have influenced human behavior over the past centuries. The second theme is about how these societies show enormous power over mankind. This introduction talked about how Europe has been a centralized part of history since almost forever, and especially since the 19th century and the "European movement." This passage says that 'some scholars have suggested that events of 20th and 21st centuries have marked the end of European centrism. It goes on to talk more about other countries and how Europe isn't the only one who deserves recognition and study.

What is Enlightenment? Immanuel Kant

I agree with many others when saying that this reading was difficult, but most of Kant's readings are difficult to understand. You have to take the time to read and re-read most of his passages. After going over the packet in class, I began to understand and deeply think about what some of the main points of this passage were. I was assigned to read and write about the passage that says,
          "An age cannot bind itself and ordain to put the succeeding one into such a condition that it cannot      extend its knowledge, purify itself of errors, and progress in general enlightenment."
What I think this passage means is that every era or age should be able to experience and decipher things for themselves. The age before them cannot set anything for sure because each person needs to be able to develop their own methods or knowledge, and be able to make its own errors in order to be enlightened.