Spanish America

As many different nations were conquered the religion of Christianity was introduced to the people. In some cases the religion seemed to be a great introduction to many nations such as the Spanish Americas. In other cases Christianity was not really well liked by the people for example in China. Although some nations seemed to get involved and others rejected it shows that throughout time as conquests occurred new customs were introduced to new places.

            In the area in which the Europeans had a great deal of success in the introduction of their religion was in the Spanish Americas. They were able to use their military and political power to take over the new lands. This made it a lot easier to introduce the new religion to the people. The Europeans saw this as an opportunity to teach the people their customs and show them new things. The native people were introduced to new gods and customs such as baptism. Although these new settlers introduced the natives to new customs, in the older days conquers had no interest in doing this instead they just wanted to get the land.         

            In some areas there were times were they had issues introducing the new religion. In some cases people had rebellions that tried to overcome the new imposed religion using their own ideas of religion. For example in Peru people often would say that there Gods would overcome this new idea and try to scare the Europeans. Not only were people trying to avoid Christianity, some people had the idea of combining religious traditions. This was not successful due to the power of the colonial authorities. Out of all of this Mexican Christianity became very similar to the Spanish version of Christianity.

Ch 15

As I began reading chapter 15, I came across so many fascinating concepts of history. I had a lot of topics that I could blog about. Something that I did not really know a lot about before reading this chapter was the “World Hunt” for fur. The production and trade of fur played a major role in these early societies. In elementary school kids learn the basics of fur, that it was used to keep people warm in colder parts of the world. The textbook goes into a lot more detail, providing a lot more insight on the subject. For example, how the population of certain animals greatly diminished. Animals such as beaver, rabbits, sable, marten and deer were reduced in very large amounts. However, people needed these furs to stay warm and survive in what was known as the Little Ice Age. If humans were killing these poor, innocent animals for no reason what so ever then I think that would be cruel, but since in many cases fur was a necessity, it was logical to use the fur of the animals. The coldness people experiences drove prices of fur sky rocketing, which then lead to high demand in trapping these animals. This industry like many others at the time was very competitive. However, most left the trapping and hunting of the animals to the Indians. What incentive did the Native Americans have to hunting and trapping these animals of their beloved land? Well, they in return received a variety of goods, for example, guns, blankets, metal tools, rum, and brandy. Since the Indians did not ask for much, they were a cheap way of acquiring the fur. Some people may argue that the Indians may have been taken advantage of, but others argue that they were content on this way of trade. I believe that they were in fact happy to hunt and trap these animals, because this had always been their way of life, and they were getting goods out of this business also. 

As I began reading Somaly Mam's book, The Road of Lost Innocence it dawned on me how privileged American's are. We live in a society where some times people over look the security and protection that we are entitled to. In some countries, like Cambodia people do not have the same freedoms that we take advantage of everyday. After reading the first three chapters I realized that I should be more appreciative of the everyday simplicities of life. For example, the ability to go to school and having the transportation to go and learn. It is a sad thought to think that people do not have the same educational opportunities as others. If the girls were able to educate themselves, then maybe they would not be tricked into Human Trafficking. The fact that people will trap other human beings into this form of slavery is inhumane. Thoughts like that could not even cross my mind, and to think that so many people are involved in this "business" is such a sickening thought. Somaly Mam grew up in a strained environment. Being a forced servant for her grandfather, she was raised without an education, and instead lived a childhood filled with hard labor . Then after being sold into prostitution, her life changed forever. Luckily, Somaly is one of the few that made it out of the terrible industry.