Dan Ma says...11/12/09

Today in class, we had reviewed a variety of topics such as European conquest and the Ming Dynasty. At the beginning of class we quickly went over how the Dutch had conquered the people of Indonesia and that the Dutch had no desire to spread Christianity or any other religion like the Spanish wanted. What they really wanted was economic gain by trading and conquering. We also saw that the Dutch did not form a direct rule on the Indonesians and instead let them govern themselves which is different than the other instances of conquest we have seen.

After Mrs. Separ had checked that most of us (99%) had did our homework, we began to look over it. This assignment was about the conflicts and rivalries between many countries in Europe that eventually led to The Seven Years War (1756-1763). These conflicts between the European countries included fighting over controlling the spice trade from India, fights over the Caribbean sugar islands, contest for territory in North America, and pirates that stole goods from rival ships. This war took place on many fronts such as Europe, India, Caribbean, and North America. An example of rivalries include the British and French battling for leadership and power in the Indian ocean. We also saw that Britian is eventually put in position of dominant world trade after they defeat many battles against the French and other countries.

After going over that, we began to start our topic of the Ming Dynasty. Before we got far into this assignment, we had a rather lengthy and unusual conversation about eunuchs, nuff said. We then had to read through the packet that described many main ideas of the Ming and had to pick out which theme belonged to each paragraph. This passage discussed ideas which included how the Ming Dynasty was originally founded by a peasant that rose to power and he was then eventually named the Hongwu Emperor. He had ruled fairly by trying to improve peasant life and by keeping taxes low. He also viewed that trade is unnecessary and self-sustaining communities is the way to go. We can also see that Confucian views were a major part of the Ming Dynasty too where it influenced the ideas about trade and exploration. This reading also talks about how many great novels and stories were written during this time period and how the Ming went through many currency problems due to inflation and counterfeit coins. Last of all we see that the Chinese were very advanced for their time because of their explorations that started way before the Europeans. However, after their last voyage, they never attempted to explore again due to the lack of desire since they had all the goods they needed in their own country. Confucian views also appeared here because its teachings tell the followers not to leave their home and to take care of the elderly which goes against the ideas of exploration. I hope this sums up our lesson in class and the next person to blog due to a unanimous vote is Aron D.