Too Much Sharing? Too Much Caring? Too Many Sultans?

 The period of global interdependence was, to say the least, a double-edged sword. Although exploring and finding sea routes and improved methods of trade between societies during this time opened up a world of economic opportunities for some societies, it destroyed others. Africa, for example, was ravished by the slave trade, which was largely supported by the availability of trans-Atlantic transportation and the need for cheap labor to work American plantations. At the same time, the development of capitalism in Europe lead to the development of joint-stock companies, which fueled economic growth and international trade out of Europe, although in the end would lead to bad news for American Native Americans. China saw a return to native rule and was then controlled by Manchus, with native Chinese culture intact, even preserved through struck laws and tightly regulated trade. It really must be seen as the time period that lay much of the history which we use to sculpt many of our modern laws and decisions, but also laid the foundations of wrongdoings that would resonate through to our recent history and in some sense even today. Overall, I think the time period of the origins of global interdependence was detrimental to society. During this period countries were torn apart, the slave trade accelerated out of control, dependancies on American foods were developed overseas (which lead to the continued slave trade), and population crisis began to form. Some these problems we still have to fix today. Trade is good and can bring prosperity, but I think in this time period it went horribly wrong and a dominant society that parasitized other societies formed and ran out of control.

A Little Too Much for One Chapter?

Although the logic between grouping the Safavids, Mughals and Ottomans together in the book is not to difficult to discern, it still struck me as a cumbersome way to present the information in those two chapters. Perhaps it was logical to group Islamic empires which arose during this time period, which is the reason (I believe) that these societies are presented together. Indeed it does seem to make sense when they begin drawing comparisons between the empires, but in initially getting the information across it made reading the chapter slightly confusing. Especially since some topics are addressed when talking about one empire, but then never again addressed when discussing another empire. Also, occasionally I found myself looking back to make sure I was still thinking about the right empire while reading, since the book would mash together the empires, or at least draw thin lines between them. Certainly when talking about topics such as religion and trade having them all in the same chapter made it easy to follow, it still left room for confusion. In all, I wasn't a huge fan, and I think that it was a bad decision, they could have grouped them together too, if they had set up the chapter in a different layout.