Adam Smith's Theory of the Invisible Hand

 Adam Smith came out with an analysis of market trends of production and consumption. He concluded that the markets have an inherent potential of becoming efficient. It is as if there was an invisible hand that guides the market to a level that is good for society. His theory has remained throughout all of economics, even after two hundred years. That in a free and unregulated market, where anybody can become a producer or a consumer, people's demand of different goods and their production of the same good will be equal, and the allocation of their resources for production and consumption of different goods will be optimal for the welfare of the society. Demand refers to the willingness of people to pay a price for a particular good. when the demand is more, the market price of a good rises, thereby making it attractive for more producers to start producing. The entry of new producers increases the supply, and in turn reduces the prices.

Chapter 18 Revolutions of Industrialization (pg. 541-556)

The Industrial Revolution spread to continental Western Europe and by the end of the 19th century, it made its way to the United States, Russia, and Japan. New technologies and sources of energy generated vast increases in production and spawned an unprecedented urbanization as well. Different histories, cultures, and societies ensured that the Industrial Revolution unfolded variously in the diverse countries in which it became established. Differences in the pace and timing of industrialization, the size and shape of major industries, the role of state, the political expression of social conflict, and many other factors have made this process rich in comparative possibilities. American industrialization began in the textile industry of New England which had a growing domestic market, and its relative political stability combined to make the United States the world's leading industrial power. The United States also pioneered techniques of mass production, using interchangeable parts, the assembly line, and "scientific management" to produce for a mass market.
A difference between Russia and the United States lay in the source of social and economic change. The United States changed from the society as farmers, workers, and businessmen sought new opportunities and operated in a political system that gave them varying degrees of expression. By 1809, the Russian Industrial Revolution was launched and growing rapidly. It focused on railroads and heavy industry and was fueled by a substantial amount of foreign investment.

Chapter 18 Revolutions of Industrialization (pg. 527-541)

"Industrialization is, I am afraid, going to be a curse for mankind..." Ghandi, the famous Indian nationalist and spiritual leader said this. I think by this statement he means that the people of his culture were treated unfairly. Once different countries adapted to industrialization, small-scale, village-based, handicraft manufacturing ways of modern industry were abandoned. Ghandi tried to prevent this from happening but was unsuccessful.
The Industrial Revolution reached a great acceleration in the rate of technological innovation, leading to an enormously increased output of goods and services. New sources of energy were used, such as coal fired steam engines and later on petroleum-fueled engines. Early signs of the technological creativity that spawned the Industrial Revolution appeared in the eighteenth century Britain, where a variety of innovations transformed cotton textile production. The biggest breakthrough was the steam engine, because it provided an inanimate and almost limitless source of power beyond that of wind, water, or muscle and could be used to drive any number of machines as well as locomotives and oceangoing ships. Eventually the Industrial Revolution spread beyond the textile industry to iron and steel production, railroads and steamships, food processing, construction, chemicals, electricity, the telegraph and telephone, rubber, pottery, printing, and much more.

Chapter 17 Atlantic Revolutions and Their Echoes (pg. 507-524)

The Haitian Revolution was a period of conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which culminated in the elimination of slavery there and the founding of the Haitian republic.The revolution was one of the two successful attempts, along with the American Revolution, to achieve permanent independence from a European colonial power for an American state before the 19th century. Furthermore, it is generally considered the most successful slave rebellion ever to have occurred in the Americas and as a defining moment in the history of Africans in the New World.
The Spanish–American Revolution was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence. Revolts against Spanish rule had been endemic for decades in Cuba and were closely watched by Americans; there had been war scares before. 

Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery. In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. The Dominican priest who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first European law abolishing colonial slavery in 1542, but was forced to weaken these laws by 1545. 

Chapter 17 Atlantic Revolutions and Their Echoes (pg. 504-507)

In 1789, Act Two in the drama of the Atlantic revolutions took place in France. It was closely connected to Act One in North America. It consisted of representatives of three "estates", or legal orders, of pre-revolutionary France: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners. Representatives of the Third Estate soon organized themselves as the National Assembly, with the sole authority to make laws for the country. That revolution was quite different from its North American predecessor. Members of the titles nobility-privileged, prestigious, and wealthy-resented and resisted the monarchy's efforts to subject them to new taxes. Ordinary urban residents, many of whose incomes had declined for a generation, were particularly hard hit in the late 1780s by the rapidly rising price of bread and widespread unemployment. More radical revolutionary leaders deliberately sought to convey a sense of new beginnings. The Cathedral of Notre Dame was temporarily turned into the Temple of Reason, while a "Hymn to Liberty" combined traditional church music with the explicit message of Enlightenment.

Chapter 17 Atlantic Revolutions and Their Echoes (pg. 499-504)

I have never heard of the Haitian Revolution and I thought it was interesting that it was the first successful slave revolt in history. Further revolutionary outbreaks shook various European societies. This had an  impact on the Atlantic world. The armies of France invaded Egypt, Poland, and Russia where they brought new ideas for change. These ideas made an effort to abolish slavery and extend the right to vote and to secure equality for women. Various revolutions in North America, France, Haiti, and Latin America separated and influenced one another. The Atlantic basin had become a world of intellectual and cultural exchange as well as one of commercial and biological intercourse. The ideas derived from the Europeans Enlightenment  and were shared across the ocean in newspapers, books, and pamphlets. The heart of these ideas consisted of human politics and social arrangements that could be engineered and improved by human action.

Chapter 16 The European Moment in World History (pg. 491-497)

I thought it was interesting that William O. Swinton wrote the book An Outline of the World's History which is a book for students that discussed the race to which we belong, the Aryan, which has always played the leading part in the drama of world progress. Other civilizations were believed to be static and unchanging. Why was this? Europeans called them "backwards" peoples and regions were headed in the European direction or doomed until distinction. Europeans arrived in the Western world where they brought something unique, special, or superior about them or their culture. This caused everyone else to struggle and overcome their inadequacy to catch up. The 19th century rule was the "European moment" when the Europeans were clearly the most powerful, most innovative, most prosperous, most expansive, and most widely imitated people on the planet. I found this very interesting. How did they come to this power? And why were they feared so much?
An explanation could have been that Europe occurred within an international context. It was the withdrawal of the Chinese naval fleet that allowed Europeans to dominate the Indian Ocean in the 16th century, while Native Americans' lack of immunity to European diseases and their own divisions and conflicts greatly assisted the European takeover.

What is Enlightenment?

Enlightenment is a person's emergence from their self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another.  It is so easy to be immature.Thus, it is difficult for any individual person to work themselves out of the immaturity that has all but become their nature. They have even become fond of this state and for the time being is actually incapable of using their own understanding, for no one has ever allowed them to attempt it. But that the public should enlighten itself is more likely; indeed, if it is only allowed freedom, enlightenment is almost inevitable.Nothing is required for this enlightenment, however, except freedom; and the freedom in question is the least harmful of all, namely, the freedom to use reason publicly in all matters.

Chapter 16: Religion and Science pg. 461-488

I found it interesting that Christianity was forced upon children in school. It was mandatory for them to take it and learn about this religion. I find it unfair and that religious beliefs shouldn’t be forced upon you. You should learn about it because you believe in it, not just because someone is telling you to understand it. Justice was served because the teachers were defeated for teaching mandatory intelligent design.

Europeans were in charge of the globalization of Christianity and the emergence of modern sciences. Asian, African, and Native American peoples determined if Christianity would be accepted, rejected, or transformed as it entered new cultural environments. Islam continued a long pattern of religious expansion and renewal even when Christianity became to compete with it as a world religion.

Christianity was largely limited to Europe at the beginning of the Modern Era. Christianity was divided between the Roman Catholics of Western and Central Europe and the Eastern Orthodox of Eastern Europe and Russia. This was the defensive mechanism against an expansive Islam.

Martin Luther was a German priest who debated about abuses within the Roman Catholic Church by posting the document the “Ninety-five Theses.” It was for the people who were critical of the luxurious life of the popes, the corruption and immorality of clergy. His ideas provoked a schism within the world of Catholic Christendom, for they came to express a variety of political, economic, and social tensions as well as religious differences.

On page 464, there is a chart of the Catholic and Protestant differences in the 16^th century. I found it very helpful to compare and contrast their beliefs with authority, rules, clergy, prayer, and many more. On page 466, there is a map of the reformation of Europe in the 16^th century. The rise of the Protestantism added another set of religious divisions, both within and between states, to European Christendom, which was already sharply divided between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Some Europeans wanted to spread Christian faith to corners all around the world. Europe’s Scientific Revolution is a vast intellectual and cultural transformation that took place between the mid-sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries. Careful observations, controlled experiments, and the formation of general laws, expressed in mathematical terms, became the standard means of obtaining knowledge and understanding in every domain of life. The Scientific Revolution altered ideas about the place of humankind within cosmos and challenged the teachings of the authority of the church.

Europe’s historical development as a reinvigorated and fragmented civilization arguably gave rise to conditions uniquely favorable to the scientific enterprise. Europeans had evolved a legal system that guaranteed a measure of independence for a variety of institutes. Therefore the Roman Catholic Church achieved some measure of autonomy from secular authorities, making Europe quite different from the Islamic world, where the separation of religious and secular law gained little traction.

On page 480, there is a chart about the major thinkers and achievements of the scientific revolution. I thought it was pretty cool because you get to see who discovered what and how times and achievements have evolved.