Blog Number 6# Chapters 16, 17 and 18 Chapter 16 was refreshing to read in that it was for sure a time of change but, the change came from the people looking for something better. I like to see how as the world evolved so did the people meaning that the people became more educated and demanded better conditions for their livelihood. This showed that the indigenous people wanted to maintain their own way of life and their own cultures. This is demonstrated through the American, French and Haitian revolutions. This also helped in the abolition of slavery throughout the world, or at least the movement in that direction. As well this assisted in the beginning stages of the feminist movement in the Americas and Europe. This also seemed to mark the time in Europe where militaries were beginning to act on behalf of their own nations. Chapter 17 was to the most important stage of world history, the industrial revolution helped pave the way for where we are today and without it we would have been in the dark ages for who knows how long. With the rising population it was imperative from a resource perspective that the world need to adjust and be one step ahead of the game which is where science and technology came to the fore front. One thing that I was not aware of was how much the railroads played such an integral part of the industrial revolution within Great Britain, I guess I never really thought about it but with the size of Britain it makes sense. It is also interesting to see during this time how many Europeans began to spread throughout the world. Once again I found it very interesting to see how different these industrial revolutions were from one region to another but how they were all occurring at the same time such as the Russian, European, Latin and Central Americas. It was also interesting to see how much production was coming from the US and Europe and how little was coming from the rest of the world. Chapter 18 is when Europe began to race for supremacy in Africa and Asia with the French British and Germans leading the way. To me this is when true racism began with the stereotypes of the Chinese and African people. I was amazed to see how much of Africa and the south pacific had been colonized by the Europeans, it was one big land grab with the indigenous people not know what hit them. This is also when it was the big businesses taking advantage of the people by enslaving them through cheap labor. It is also interesting to see this global migration from the major population centers to less populated areas. This led to people looking to become more racially segregated and with similar people. This colonial era is one that I personally can do without, it just seemed like a time of snootery and elitism.