T&R: Origins of the Modern World

Thoughts and Reflections on: Origins of the Modern World

The author in this article is discussing the different views on how the modern world came to be. First he starts with the Eurocentric view of how the modern world came to be. The Europeans thought pre-french and american revolutions that the reason they were able to progress the world so much was because they were more culturally sophisticated and that they were the "chosen people" so to speak. They went and conquered many other places which lead to the Spanish conquistadors spreading absolutely devastating diseases to south america and eventually wiped out ninety percent of the population. They did this because they believed they were more culturally advanced. When the enlightenment happened their view switched, they believed that it was because of their ancient Greek origins and the fact that that they had democracy and others didn't.  They thought that they were inherently special and different from everybody else and that's why the world is the way it is today. However the author also discusses that the non-eurocentric version of this story takes place in chin a and parts of India where the agriculture made population and rare spices expensive for the Europeans. This in turned caused Christopher Columbus to try to seek out a new way to get to India when he accidentally discovered america. After that the slave trade started to become a major trade commodity. Another piece of the puzzle with industrialization lies in random coal deposits. Places like Britain were sitting on large amounts of coal, while China's coal deposits were unavailable to them. This is when china failed to keep up with the world and eventually fell behind, what once was an economic power-house was now left behind. However once China started becoming an industrialized nation they are now back as an economic power-house. Where the stories differ is the amount of abuse and exploitation by the Europeans against other countries who were not able to keep up with the industrialization. Most of the native american population was killed because of Europe's attempt to make it to India. 

         
Here is a picture of Christopher Columbus "discovering" America.
Christopher Columbus Discovering America. Digital image. Florida Museum of Natural History. Florida Museum of Natural History, 7 July 1991. Web. 14 Sept. 2016. <https://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/caribarch/columbus.htm>.