6 March - 12 March
March 6/8: European Colonialism in the Western Hemisphere
CA pp. 53-59, 242-49
• P.53 - Question 2.2: why are some societies more industrially advanced than
others?
• P.54
• Prior to the beginnings of the industrial revolution in Europe, the world was
significantly different in its distribution of wealth
th th
• Chinas was richest country in 16 and 17 century as gold and silver taken from
the mines of south america by spanish and portuguese was funnelled into china to
pay for skills, spices, teas and luxury goods; india was developing a thriving cotton
textile industry as Indian calicoes flooded in Europe
• England had long enjoyed a thriving trade in textile goods, most notably raw wool
and inexpensive wool textiles
• Textile production was largely a handicraft industry, and most steps in the
production of wool cloth, form cutting and degreasing the wool to dying an spinning
the thread, to weaving the cloth, were in the hands of rural families
• The finished cloth or wool product might be sold at a local market or fair, or more
often was sold to urban based merchants or trader for resale at fairs or shipment
overseas
• “putting out” system, in which merchants suppled weavers with materials and
required them to produce cloth of the desired type
• The merchants delivered the supplies and tools and picked up the finished
product, generally paying the producers for reach piece produced
• This system gave them more control over the production process, it produced a
source of cheap labour as it brought women and children into the production
process and if demand for their products slacked, the merchant could easily
control how much was produced by limited the materials they put out
• P.55
• Transform the putting out system into a factory system by bringing the spinners,
weavers ad other together in one location to produce the cloth
Removing people from the home based family to urban based factories required
•
new mechanisms of disciplining and control, a fact that explains why early
factories were modelled on prisons
• The entrepreneur who preciously could halt putting out when demand slackened,
now had to keep his factories busy to pay for his investment in buildings and
technology and consequently had to create demands for his products
The only thing that made manufacturing investments attractive were various kinds
•
of government subsidies or laws that ensured the flow of cheap labour
• Child workers
• Government played a major role in creating and defending overseas markets, as
well as sources of raw materials such as cotton
• Textile industry fuelled the growth of cities and spurred the development of
technology • The growth of the textile industry obviously produced great wealth and employed
millions of workers
• It transformed england into the wealthiest country in the world
P.56
•
• Trade and manufacture of iron and the agricultural production of food commodities
further increased the wealth of the growing british empire
• Increase ff. Technology and production created two problems: where was the
market for all these textile products to be found and where was the raw materials
(cotton) to come from?
Competition for selling of textiles for England with Europe and west
•
• The british in india
• India was a major trading country and centuries old trade networks linked india to
the rest of Europe, the islamic world and china
• The british east india company soon had some 150 posts trading in india for fine
skills, cotton sugar, rice, saltpetre, indigo and opium
British military take over of india
•
• Prior to the british military takeover, indian produced cloth that was cheaper and
better than english textiles; in fact indian cotton and calicoes were the craze of
Europe
• India was required to admit english manufactures free of tariffs
• England recreated indian textiles and traded and destroyed what had been a
thriving indian textile industry
• India was still a major producer of raw cotton, although it was not a variety
favoured by english or america manufactures instead it was produced for export to
china; although it was primarily opium that ld the trade to china
• P.57
• The british and western european nations in general, had a problem with trade into
china; Chinese products, notably tea where in high demand by there was little
produced in England or the rest of Europe for that matter that the Chinese wanted
or needed
• The British demanded and received additional raiding rights into china, further
opening a market, not only for opium but for textiles as well
• The british led opium trade from india to china had three results
First it reversed the flow of money between china and the rest of the world
• th
• It is estimated that by the end of the 19 century one out of every 10 Chinese
was addicted to opium
• The amount of textile exports from england to india and china had increased
from 6% of total british exports in 1815 to more than 50% in 1873
• Cotton, slavery and cherokee removal
Cotton production in the americas was labour intensive and to be profitable
•
required slave labour th
• Slave trade grew from 15-19 century in response to the economic expansion and
demand of european trade including spanish demands for labour in sliver mines,
spanish, portuguese, british and french demands for cane cutters and millers for
Th.e sugar plantations of brazil and caribbean and demands for workers on the
cotton plantations of georgia, alabama, Louisiana, texas and Mississippi • P.58
• The production of cotton with slave labour might be said to have fuelled the
industrial revolution in the united states
Between 1815 and 1860 raw cotton constituted half the value of domestic exports
•
from the US
• To be competitive, cotton production required cheap labour and slave labour cost
half the price of wage labour
• Needing about 50-200 slaves per plantation
• Cotton forced migration of slaves and native indians to alabama,Mississippi, texas,
georgia and Oklahoma
• Cherokees were civilized tribes --modernization plan constructing plantations, held
Slavs and their own newspaper, school and alphabet
• P.59
• Andrew jackson took thousands of additional acres of what had been indian land
were taken over or converted to contemn production by white farmers using black
slaves
• Thus, much of the future wealth of the young country was creaed by white farmers
using naive american land and african labour o produce cotton the english and us
textile industry
• In sum, the growth of the textile industry in england produced great wealth for
some people but, int he process, destroyed textile manufacturing in india, led to
the colonization of india and chine extended slavery in the united states while it
drained africa of productive labour and enhanced the wealth of the united stated
while leading to the forced removal of indigenous people from their land
• The mass production of textiles in England and elsewhere in Europe also
destroyed textile manufacture by artisas in areas of et world where british textiles
were sold; since women were often the main textile producers in many societies,
we might also speculate that the textile trade my have led to a decline in the status
of women in these societies
• The new demands for sugar, cocoa, palm oil, tobacco and coffee also led to the
conversion of millions of acres of land around the world from subsistence farm to
cash crops, further turning self sufficient peasant farmers into dependent wage
labourers or unemployed poor
The so called nonindustrial nations are due less to their own shortcoming than to
•
the exploitative actives of others
• P.242 - Question 7.2 why do societies construct social hierarchies?
• The construction of a social hierarchy is not a necessary feature of all human
societies
• Groups such as du/‘hoansi or inuit are not totally egalitarian; instead propel go out
of their way not to appear better than others
• No universal inclination to rank people by one criterion or another, in some
societies skin colour makes a difference and in others it doesnt
• Some societies men are accorded far greater status than women; in other there is
little if any difference in gender rank
• Even the use of age asa criterion of rank varies from society to society • As societies become more complex and populous, their propensity for social
stratification increases
• Integrative and exploitative theories of social hierarchy
Social stratification emerged with the origin of private property; others claim it was
•
created to satisfy the organizational needs of war
• Integrative theory of social stratification- based on the assumption that social
hierarchy is necessary for the smooth functioning of modern society
• Exploitative theory of social stratification - which presumes that hierarchy exists
because of one group of individuals seek to take advantage of another group for
economic purposes
• Proponents of the integrative theory of social stratification assume that as societies
for and there are more people to feed, house and clothe, more labour efficient or
technologically sophisticated means are required to produce enough food another
necessities and to erect the necessary infrastructure
• The results in a division of labour that requires greater coordinative of tasks, more
efficient management and more complex leadership systems, all of which
inevitably lead to some form of social stratification
• As societies become more complex, they need to organize systems of defence
against other groups who may attack them, and the development of a military
organization requires the centralization of power which again leads to the
emergence of an elite group
The integrative theory of social stratification is based on the assumption that
•
society’s need for greater integration, along with the need to assert greater
controls on individual behaviour, necessitates some form of centralized authority
that offers its citizen security, protection, means of settling disputes, defence
against other groups and sustenance
• P.243
All these are offered in exchange for the peoples acceptance of and loyalty to state
•
authorities and officials
• In the integrative theory, society is likened tao living organism whos parts must be
regulated by a controlling device if they are to function efficiently for the survival of
the whole
• Complex societies, like complex living organisms, exhibit greater differentiation as
they evolve
• With greater differentiation there follows a greater degree of interrelation among
parts, which in turn requires greater control by government, magnet and the
military
• Without control, society, like a living organism would cease to exist
• NA military to illustrate necessity for stratification
Industry as another illustration of the need for hierarchy
•
• The reason ju/‘hoansi require no hierarchy, is because each person or family is
self sufficient and there is no need for the coordination or control of activities
• Societies become more complex and the division of labour increases, greater
control is necessary
• Those who assume the responsibility of control are given greater rewards is simply
a way of assuring the survival of the society as a whole • Others agree that in complex societies it is necessary for integration to occur, but
they disagree that social hierarchy is required for integration
• Proponents of the exploitative theory of social stratification claim that stratification
arises when one group seeks to exploit the resources or labour of others
• Karl marx and the origin of class
• Theories of social stratification of karl marx and friedr
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