w. 37

Friday, 11 September

We worked with material from sections 1 & 2 in chapter 27. This included material on the Congo and King Leopold II of Belgium; the role of the Maxim gun in helping Europeans to subdue Africans; the Berlin Conference of 1884-85; different forms of government/control used by imperialists to control other lands.

One of the things I tried to stress was the fact that current European prosperity is primarily the product of the exploitation of other lands during and the various forms of economic and political control exerted over them.

We went outside for the last third of the class, to reflect on the material from the day, and to enjoy the sunny weather. Remember: spend time without your phone, without constant distractions. Allow yourself time to think.

Tuesday, 8 September

We started with a little further discussion about racism.

There was also a discussion about the role of Christianity and the slave trade. I explained that Europeans found passages in the Bible that they felt legitimized the subordination of blacks to whites. This included, but was not limited to, the Old Testament passage that spoke of Ham, one of Noah's sons, who was disgraced. The people of Africa were interpreted to be Ham's descendents and thus deserving of a lower position in society as a result of Ham's disgrace.

I can say that human history is full of examples where people are happy to cling on to an argument that provides an explanation for why they should have a privileged position over another group. All situations aren't as heinous as that of the slave trade, but it is still quite common that people come up with rationalizations for why one group should be favored at the expense of another. And religious scripture (of various religions) is often at the root of these arguments.

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I then had you do a basic outline of the historical periods we've worked with in Hi1b, with a particular focus on the Renaissance foward. You need to understand the logical underpinnings of this outline in order to make sense of other information.

We then looked at chapter 27 - The Age of Imperialism.

We discussed some of the causes -- or issues that led to imperialism in the 19th century. These included
- Industrialization, in particular the drive for resources and new markets where industrial products could be sold
- nationalism - the desire to build up empires, the desire of states to compete with other states.
- religion - the belief that Christianity should be spread.
- a sense of cultural superiority - a belief that the mores (look it up -- it's not "more") of the West would be beneficial to all peoples.

We will continue on Friday. For Friday you were to read sections 1 & 2 in chpt. 27.



Here's a little teaser for Tuesday's class: