Negotiation and Decision Making: A Professional and Personal View Essay

Negotiation and decision-making offers you a powerful new perspective, a specialized language and a set of tools that you can use to address the most stubborn problems in your everyday life and work. Negotiation and decision-making is a way of understanding reality that emphasizes the relationships among a system's parts, rather than the parts themselves. This is based on a field of study known as system dynamics. Negotiation and decision-making has been defined as an approach to problem solving, by viewing problems as part of an overall system, rather than reacting to specific parts, outcomes or events and potentially contributing to further development of unintended consequences. The rationale behind negotiation and decision-making is critical to an organizational survival. Why is Negotiation and decision-making critical? It can assist you in designing smart and enduring solutions to problems. In its simplest sense, negotiation and decision-making gives you a more accurate picture of reality, so that you can work with a system's natural forces in order to achieve the results you desire. It also encourages you to think about problems and solutions with an eye toward the long view. For example, how might a particular solution you're considering play out over the long run? What unintended consequences might it have? Negotiation and decision-making is founded on some basic universal principles that you will begin to detect in all areas of life once you learn to recognize your emergent issues. Here are a few questions that can be considered when attempting to solve a problem. What is the underlying problem? Is the issue interacting, interrelated, and interdependent component that forms a complex and unified whole. Many... ...whole for the results of our future and to get it, we need to think differently, manage differently, and organize differently. Once people accept that a homogeneous change can provide new opportunities and possibilities, the change is well on its way to successful implementation. The ability to reach an uniformed decision can create stronger values both professionally and personally for this is crucial in an increasingly turbulent world. Therefore, negotiation and decision-making will become critical for survival. Works Cited Scott, C. & Jaffe, D. (1995). Managing Change at Work: Leading people through. Menlo Park, CA: Crisp Publications. Randers, J. (1980). â€Å"Guidelines for Model Conceptualization† in Elements of the System Dynamics Method. J. Randers, ed. pp. 117-139. Waltham, MA: Pegasus Communications. (Randers, 1980). (Scott & Jaffe, 1995). Negotiation and Decision Making: A Professional and Personal View Essay Negotiation and decision-making offers you a powerful new perspective, a specialized language and a set of tools that you can use to address the most stubborn problems in your everyday life and work. Negotiation and decision-making is a way of understanding reality that emphasizes the relationships among a system's parts, rather than the parts themselves. This is based on a field of study known as system dynamics. Negotiation and decision-making has been defined as an approach to problem solving, by viewing problems as part of an overall system, rather than reacting to specific parts, outcomes or events and potentially contributing to further development of unintended consequences. The rationale behind negotiation and decision-making is critical to an organizational survival. Why is Negotiation and decision-making critical? It can assist you in designing smart and enduring solutions to problems. In its simplest sense, negotiation and decision-making gives you a more accurate picture of reality, so that you can work with a system's natural forces in order to achieve the results you desire. It also encourages you to think about problems and solutions with an eye toward the long view. For example, how might a particular solution you're considering play out over the long run? What unintended consequences might it have? Negotiation and decision-making is founded on some basic universal principles that you will begin to detect in all areas of life once you learn to recognize your emergent issues. Here are a few questions that can be considered when attempting to solve a problem. What is the underlying problem? Is the issue interacting, interrelated, and interdependent component that forms a complex and unified whole. Many... ...whole for the results of our future and to get it, we need to think differently, manage differently, and organize differently. Once people accept that a homogeneous change can provide new opportunities and possibilities, the change is well on its way to successful implementation. The ability to reach an uniformed decision can create stronger values both professionally and personally for this is crucial in an increasingly turbulent world. Therefore, negotiation and decision-making will become critical for survival. Works Cited Scott, C. & Jaffe, D. (1995). Managing Change at Work: Leading people through. Menlo Park, CA: Crisp Publications. Randers, J. (1980). â€Å"Guidelines for Model Conceptualization† in Elements of the System Dynamics Method. J. Randers, ed. pp. 117-139. Waltham, MA: Pegasus Communications. (Randers, 1980). (Scott & Jaffe, 1995).

An Online Business Expansion Proposal Essay

Dancy’s Fancy Butter is a local, singly owned and operated butter/spread. This business is located in Jacksonville Michigan. The operation started out from a simple request from a friend who wanted to buy the Garlic butter for a party. It was then that Anna Dancy realized the family and friend’s favorite dinner addition was a possible money making venture. The actual business side was at first a bit taunting. Anna had never run her own business, nor had she worked in food service or distributing food. There was a lot to learn that went way beyond the product. She purchased a mobile kitchen unit, and started creating her butter spreads. It was not long before the Health inspector paid her a visit. She was fortunate that she was giving solid advice as to how to move forward with rules in running a food service business. The holdup was minimal and it gave her time to actually prepare for bring her product to a larger customer base then family and friends. Farmer’s markets are the primary selling place for Dancy Fancy Butter. The product is made and kept preserved in the mobile kitchen, and then Anna and family helpers travel thought out the Jacksonville region setting up at Farmers Markets. It has been a great success. Now that she has a year under her belt, and with family and friends living outside of Jacksonville and the state of Michigan Anna Dancy had decided that she wants to explore expanding her internet presences and move into selling and shipping her product to a wider market. The advantages in today’s market for placing access to your product and services online are numerous. For Dancy Fancy Butter being online will open up an opportunity for a larger population to see the products offered. There is an international customer base available into Canada with the location of the company in Michigan. The possible challenges to building an online presence for this company will be assuring there is up-keep for everything from the website through the social media outlets. The online presence is bound to bring in more clients, the significance will be made clear and the management of the online environment will align with the overall goal to be successful in this endeavor. Current Online Competition The online completers that come up in a basic search for butter, butter spread and organic are, Home Earth Balance (http://www.earthbalancenatural.com/), Melt Up! (http://www.meltdirectnow.com/), and Bryanna’s Vegan Butter (http://vegan.com/recipes/bryanna-clark-grogan/bryannas-vegan-butter/). Earth Balance is an off shoot of the Smart Balance products whose parent company is GFA Brands, Inc. so even though this is an natural butter spread, it is still a part of a large company. The website is well organized, and has several appealing features such as a Recipe section and Kitchen Tips. There is not a ecommerce or shopping cart, so the product is only available in stores. The next company Melt Up! is an organic butter spread. The website is very basic. It does have a shopping cart and ecommerce. The site offers a newsletter and runs and RSS syndication on its front page. This sight is a good set up if you are familiar with the product. The third website like or close as a competitor is Bryanna’s Vegan butter. This site is connected to Vegan.com (http://vegan.com). It is more of a blog site. If the site does allow you to buy products, however it takes you off to Amazon to complete your purchase. This websites do have similar products as Dancy Fancy butter, however they are not homegrown, home town products. The advantage to Dancy Fancy butter is it will carry a local feel to all who visit the website. Online Marketing Suggestions and Strategies Three online strategies that are planned for the rolling out Dancy Fancy Butter online expansion will be an email campaign, a Facebook group for the company and third will be content strategy of building Cooking Tips videos for the website.

Auditing Special Assignment

Theresa Golding BA 418 – Auditing Dr. Charles Pineno April 25, 2010 PART 1: â€Å"Small Firms May Face Audit Music† (published in The Wall Street Journal on April 19, 2007) addresses the ending of the delay in applying portions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to smaller companies. At the time of the article, some 6,000 smaller public companies had yet to be required to â€Å"make an annual assessment of their internal financial-reporting controls with further review by the company’s outside auditor of these systems designed to help prevent accounting mistakes and fraud. The delay arose from complaints that compliance was overly costly and time consuming for larger companies. According to Mr. Cox, the SEC and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) are close to making less burdensome for all companies which would end the need to further exempt the smaller companies. The proposed changes would make realization of compliance in 2008 possible. Delays could again result if the new standards are not issued soon enough to meet the current deadlines. The chairman of PCAOB, Mark Olson, has blamed the high cost of complying on what is viewed as an overly cautious approach. PCAOB reports that progress is being made but there is still a way to go as some auditing firms still have not fully integrated an audit of the company’s financial statements with an audit of the company’s internal controls which are interrelated. PART 2 –RISK ASSESSMENT STANDARDS: Standard 1 – Reasonable Assurance, Evidence SAS No. 104 (â€Å"Amendment to SAS No. 1, Codification of Auditing Standards and Procedures) addresses â€Å"the attributes of audit evidence and the concept of reasonable assurance. This particular standard is closely related to General Standard 3: The auditor must exercise due professional care in the performance of the audit and the preparation of the report. Chapter 1: The Role of the Public Accountant in the American Economy The two forms of assurance services that CPAs perform with particular emphasis on â€Å"those that increase the reliability of information. † Since reliability enhancement is such a huge part of assu rance services, this standard is fundamental because proper assessment and testing of risk plays a critical role in the reliability of information. Chapter 2: Professional Standards This chapter introduced the 10 Generally Accepted Auditing Standards as set forth by the AICPA. As previously stated, there is a close relationship between Standard 1 and General Standard 3. Also, this standard also has a close relationship with Standard of Fieldwork 3 which reads: The auditor must obtain â€Å"sufficient appropriate audit evidence† by performing audit procedures to afford a reasonable basis for an opinion regarding the financial statements under audit. The gathering of evidence regarding risk falls into this standard of fieldwork. Chapter 3: Professional Ethics Within the chapter on â€Å"Professional Ethics,† we learned that Article V of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct addresses â€Å"Due Care† and states: â€Å"A member should observe the profession’s technical and ethical standards, strive continually to improve competence and the quality of services, and discharge professional responsibility to the best of the member’s ability. Reasonable assurance and proper evidence regarding risk assessment would fall under the â€Å"Due Care† responsibility. Chapter 4: Legal Liability of CPAs Chapter 4 described the sources of CPA liability as: Contract, Negligence, and Fraud. Should the CPA not incorporate the appropriate levels of reasonable assurance and evidence regarding risk assessment, they could be found liable for at least ordinary or simple negligence. If there was a blatant disregard for this standard, the possibility of gross negligence could also exist. Chapter 5: Audit Evidence and Documentation The chapter detailed relationships among audit risk, audit evidence, and financial statement assertions and directly relates to the third standard of fieldwork stating that: the auditor must obtain appropriate audit evidence by performing audit procedures to afford a reasonable basis for an opinion regarding the financial statements under audit. This chapter also emphasizes the point of that there is an appropriate level of audit risk that must be met and the evidence collected and testing procedures utilized must be in keeping with this level. Chapter 6: Audit Planning, Understanding the Client, Assessing Risks, and Responding â€Å"Planning the audit† provides the foundation of the process. The reasonable assurance and evidence standard regarding risk assessment should be considered and integral part of the planning process. Chapter 7: Internal Control Assessment of internal control is part of knowing reasonable assurance can be given and regarding the reliability of the evidence acquired. Chapter 8: Audit Sampling Acceptable risk level is an important element of determining the proper sampling technique and size. Should an inappropriate sample technique/size be utilized, reasonable assurance will be lacking. Standard 2 – Internal Control, Evidence SAS No. 105 serves as an amendment to SAS No. 95, Generally Accepted Auditing Standards. Along with addressing work by the auditor on internal control, it further addresses audit evidence as well. This standard broadens the understanding the auditor must obtain of the business as well as its environment. Chapter 2: Professional Standards There is a relationship between this Risk Assessment Standard and Standard of Fieldwork 2. The fieldwork standard addresses the requirement for the auditor obtaining â€Å"a sufficient understanding of the entity and its environment†. It has now been further broadened when looking at the level of internal control. Chapter 5: Audit Evidence and Documentation The reliability of the evidence collected directly relates to whether it was â€Å"generated through a system of effective controls rather than ineffective controls. † Those controls will be more thoroughly assessed under this new Risk Assessment Standard. Chapter 6: Audit Planning, Understanding the Client, Assessing Risks, and Responding The scope of the audit plan is impacted by the level of internal control exercised by the client. Broadening the requirements regarding assessment will allow for a stronger foundation in how the plan is developed. Chapter 7: Internal Control This is likely the most important chapter regarding the ins and outs of internal control and this standard should be forefront when considering the content of the chapter. Chapter 8: Consideration of Internal Control in an Information Technology Environment Technological advances have done much to advance levels of internal control. However, if technology is not being utilized effectively, it can also raise the level of risk and under the new standard must be evaluated very carefully. Chapter 9: Audit Sampling Internal control plays an immense role in the level of sampling that should be done. Given the broader consideration now due to internal control, sampling levels will likely be impacted. Standard 3 – Evidence The standard defines evidence as comprising â€Å"all information that supports the auditor’s opinion on the financial statements. † It also â€Å"stresses the importance of supporting management’s assertions regarding the financial statements by gathering audit evidence. † Chapter 1: The Role of the Public Accountant in the American Economy The assurance service of reliability will only be at the proper level if the appropriate evidence is collected and examined with regards to the assertion of management. Chapter 2: Professional Standards Fieldwork standard 3 addresses the requirement of obtaining â€Å"sufficient appropriate audit evidence. This evidence directly ties to Reporting Standard 4 regarding the expression of an opinion regarding management’s assertions. Chapter 3: Professional Ethics Article II of the Code addresses serving the public interest. The public will look to the auditor’s opinion regarding management’s assertio ns and thus the evidence gathered should serve the purpose of protecting the public well. Chapter 4: Legal Liability of CPAs The inappropriate gathering of evidence could lead to the issuance of an incorrect opinion regarding management’s assertions and open the CPA to liability issues. Chapter 5: Audit Evidence and Documentation Audit risk, audit evidence, and financial statement assertions are closely intertwined and the Risk Standard puts more emphasis on that relationship and will do much to increase the reliability regarding the assertions about the financial statements. Chapter 6: Auditing Planning, Understanding the Client, Assessing Risks, and Responding To guarantee the opinions issued regarding management’s assertions, it is imperative that a CPA plan the audit appropriately and have a working knowledge of the client. This standard will strengthen risk assessment and the depth of knowledge the CPA will have about the client. Chapter 7: Internal Control Management’s assertions are influenced by their effective use of internal control. Analyzing and reporting on the level of internal control plays an important role in the opinion that will be issued regarding management’s assertions. Chapter 9: Audit Sampling The sampling scope needs to have the strength necessary to offer an appropriate opinion regarding management’s assertions. The evidence gathered determines the level of sampling needed and due care must be exercised throughout the process with the CPA remaining cognizant of management’s assertions. Standard 4 – Audit Risk, Materiality SAS No. 107 addresses the relationship between audit risk and materiality and has employed a Modified Audit Risk Model. Chapter 2: Professional Standards Assessment of the risk of material misstatement of the financial statements is covered heavily in Standard of Fieldwork 2. The level of risk will greatly determine the design of the audit procedures. Chapter 4: Legal Liability of CPAs Should the auditor not accurately assess the risk of material misstatement, issues of liability could arise. Chapter 5: Audit Evidence and Documentation The evidence collected and documentation kept is done in an effort to reduce audit risk and thus must be taken seriously and the level of risk must be adequately determined to provide this. Chapter 6: Audit Planning, Understanding the Client, Assessing Risks, and Responding The planning of audit should be undertaken in such a way that the level of risk determined can be sufficiently addressed. A clear understanding of the client and a clear procedure for assessing risks are fundamental to the overall process. Chapter 7: Internal Control The stronger the internal control, the lesser the risk and vice versa. It is imperative that a proper assessment of internal control be done to insure that the risk level is known prior to the collection of evidence and the conducting of sampling. Chapter 9: Audit Sampling The greater the amount of sampling conducted, the lower the level of audit risk. Proper risk assessment procedures are instrumental in determining the necessary level of sampling to be done. Standard 5 – Planning, Supervision SAS No. 108 â€Å"superseded guidance provided in previous standards and deals with the understanding of the engagement and planning issues. † This standard provides that the auditor plan the strategy concurrently with planning the engagement. Chapter 1: The Role of the Public Accountant in the American Economy The nature of the attest engagement must be clear to both the CPA and the firm and clearly defined at the onset of planning. Chapter 2: Professional Standards General Standard 1 requires â€Å"adequate technical training and proficiency† for the auditor and staff. Standard of Fieldwork 1 requires that the auditor â€Å"adequately plan the work and properly supervise any assistants. † Should these standards not be adhered to, the audit risk will be higher than an acceptable norm and during the planning of both the engagement and audit procedures, the auditor should remain cognizant of the roles these standards are playing/not playing. Chapter 3: Professional Ethics Auditors without proper training and proficiency that do not fulfill this responsibility are not acting in the ethical manner required of the profession and could likely face consequences. Chapter 4: Legal Liability of CPAs Auditors who do agree to an engagement for which they lack the proper training and/or technical ability (to include their assistants) could be open to liability issues in the area of contract and negligence. Chapter 5: Audit Evidence and Documentation Should proper planning and supervision not occur, the level of audit risk will be extremely high and likely not accounted for properly during the process. Chapter 6: Audit Planning, Understanding the Client, Assessing Risks, and Responding Planning of the audit is the first and probably most important step in the Audit Process. This step provides the foundation and it is critical that the auditor know the business at hand, and have the necessary personnel with the necessary training to undertake the engagement. With the new standard this step is concurrent with the planning of the engagement as a whole. Chapter 7: Internal Control If the auditor and team do not adequately assess the internal control, audit risk will likely be understated. It is essential that the risk assessment procedure implemented be understood by all and adequately applied. Chapter 9: Audit Sampling The risk determines the scope of sampling to be conducted. It is also important that ALL members of the team know the level of sampling to be done and have a clear understanding of the sampling procedure. Standard 6 – Understanding and Assessing Risk This standard again â€Å"supersedes previous guidance on the auditor’s consideration of internal control† and reiterates the need for the auditor to obtain â€Å"an understanding of the entity and its environment. Chapter 2: Professional Standards The easiest way for an auditor to adequately understand and assess risk to clearly understand the entity and its environment as well as the level and effectiveness of internal control which is once again in keeping with Standard of Fieldwork 2. Chapter 3: Professional Ethics Should risk not be properly understood or assessed, the subsequent reports issued will not be done with â€Å"Due Care† and thus, will not be in keeping with the Code of Professional Conduct as prescribed by the AICPA. Chapter 4: Legal Liability of CPAs Misunderstanding and improper assessment of risk will likely create issues of liability for CPAs. Chapter 5: Audit Evidence and Documentation The audit evidence and documentation gathered/prepared should adequately reflect the risk level and thus a clear understanding and assessment of risk need occur to guarantee the appropriateness of said evidence and documentation. Chapter 6: Audit Planning, Understanding the Client, Assessing Risks, and Responding Proper planning can only occur with a proper understanding and assessment of risk. So while planning the audit is technically the first step in the process, assessment/understanding of risk needs to be considered at the same time. Chapter 7: Internal Control Internal Control is at the center of risk assessment and should be considered part of the process of assessing risk, thus hopefully leading to a clear understanding. Chapter 9: Audit Sampling The needed level of audit sampling directly correlates to the perceived level of audit risk. Thus, a clear understanding and assessment of risk will do much to ensure the appropriate level of sampling. Standard 7 – Responding to Risks SAS No. 110 (covered as Standard 7) works in conjunction with SAS 109 (covered as Standard 6). Response to risk was covered exclusively for terms of our course in Chapter 6: Audit Planning, Understanding the Client, Assessing Risks, and Responding. As stated in both the article and our chapter, an auditor responds to risk at two levels: 1) overall level of financial statement and 2) level of relevant assertion. This will be of greater focus with the new standards and Response to Risk will be of as much importance as the assessment of said risk. Standard 8 – Sampling The purpose of SAS No. 111 is to provide guidance which addresses both statistical and nonstatistical sampling. The standard also â€Å"notes that the auditor should set tolerable misstatement at a level below that of materiality for the financial statements. † Chapter 2: Professional Standards Sampling is an integral part of obtaining sufficient evidence which is basis for Standard of Fieldwork 3. Chapter 5: Audit Evidence and Documentation There needs to be an adequate amount of audit evidence collected to meet the sampling need. The evidence collected also has to be adequate in amount to ease the risk which also applies to the sampling procedure in that the sample sizes need to be substantial enough to account for the risk. Chapter 6: Audit Planning, Understanding the Client, Assessing Risks, and Responding The level of risk is a crucial element in audit planning and the audit plan determines the level of sampling that must be completed to adequately deal with the risk level. Chapter 7: Internal Control The strength of internal control plays a major role in the level of sampling that will be required because of the inverse relationship between risk and internal control. Chapter 9: Audit Sampling Audit sampling provides the best method for collecting evidence and the amount needed is proportional to the level of risk assessed. PART 3: The SASs described in the article will now need to be at the forefront of the management accountant’s mind when preparing for an audit. The procedures will now be far more involved and as a result, procedural adjustments will likely need to be made. The auditors will likely expect far more from the management accountants because of the need to assess far more in terms of acceptable level risks. Management accountants would do well to address their internal control issues because the stronger the internal control the less the concern for risk in the eyes of the auditor. Clear understanding of the standards and what changes they have created will benefit a management accountant greatly as they will be better able to anticipate what an auditor and his or her team will likely be inquiring about and what evidence they will probably want to collect. PART 4: Internal Control when implemented effectively does much to reduce the overall risk of material misstatement by a company. With the drafting and release of these new standards firms will do well to assess their current internal control and consider previous audit reports regarding it. The firms would do well to first address all areas of weakness that have been previously denoted if it has not already done so. Under the new standards, those particular areas will likely receive the most scrutiny from auditors. Secondly, though other areas may not have been identified as weak in previous audits, they might likely be less effective under the new standards and as such should be assessed as to whether it will stand up under the scrutiny the new standards call for. The importance of quality internal control was not of much significance pre-Sarbanes Oxley, however 2002 brought an end to that and now with the more concise standards set forth recently, is of the utmost importance.

Ap World Unit 4 Review

PART II, UNIT IV:1750-1914 The era between 1750 and 1914 C. E. was one of clear Europeanhegemony. In the previous era (1450 to 1750 C. E. ), Europeans hadtilted the balance of world power away from Asia, where powerfulcivilizations had existed since ancient times. However, despitegrowing European influence based on sea trade and colonization, majorland-based empires in Asia still influenced long-distance trade andshaped political and economic conditions around them. In this era,Europe not only dominated the western hemisphere, as it had in thelast, but it came to control the eastern hemisphere as well. How didthey do it?Part of the answer lies in a set of discoveries andhappenings that together constitute an important â€Å"Marker Event† – theIndustrial Revolution. Another set of philosophical and politicalevents were equally important – the establishment of democracy as amajor element of a new type of political organization – the†nation. † QUE STIONS OF PERIODIZATION Very important characteristics that distinguish 1750-1914 fromprevious eras in world history include: †¢ European dominance of long-distance trade – Whether by â€Å"unequal treaties† or colonization, sea-based trade gave European countries control of all major trade circuits in the world. â€Å"Have† and â€Å"have not† countries created by Industrialization – The Industrial Revolution gave huge economic and political advantages to countries where it occurs over countries that remained primarily agricultural. †¢ Inequalities among regions increase due to imperialism – Industrialized countries set out to form overseas empires, sometimes through colonization and other times by economic and/or political domination. †¢ Political revolutions inspired by democracy and desire for independence – These revolutions continue to the present, but â€Å"seed† revolutions that put new democratic forms o f government in place occurred during this era.The â€Å"nation† emerged as a new type of political organization. We will analyze these important characteristics of the period byexamining these topics: †¢ Changes in global commerce, communications, and technology – Patterns of world trade and contact changed as the Industrial Revolution revolutionized communications and commerce. Distances became shorter as the Suez and Panama Canals cut new channels for travel, and new technology meant that ships were faster than before. Railroads revived land travel. Demographic and environmental changes – Huge numbers of people migrated to the Americas from Europe and Asia, so that population in the western hemisphere grew dramatically. The slave trade ended, and so did forced migrations from Africa to the New World. Industrialization had a huge impact on the environment, as demands for new fuels came about and cities dominated the landscape in industrialized countries. Industrialization also increased the demand for raw materials from less industrialized countries, altering natural landscapes further. Changes in social and gender structures – Serf and slave systems became less common, but the gap between the rich and poor grew in industrialized countries. We will explore the controversy regarding changes in women's roles in response to industrialization. Did women's status improve, or did gender inequality grow? †¢ Political revolutions and independence movements; new political ideas – Absolutism was challenged in many parts of the globe, and democracy took root as a result of economic and social change and Enlightenment philosophies that began in the 17th century. Nations† arose as political entities that inspired nationalism and movements of political reform. †¢ Rise of western dominance – The definition of â€Å"west† expanded to include the United States and Australia, and western dominance reached n ot only economic and political areas, but extended to social, cultural, and artistic realms as well. Although coercive labor systems as such declined during this era,new questions of equality and justice emerged as west came todominate east, and the gap between the rich and poor grew larger,particularly in the most prosperous countries. CHANGES IN GLOBAL COMMERCE, COMMUNICATIONS, ANDTECHNOLOGYBy 1750 international trade and communications were nothing new. During the 1450-1750 era Europeans had set up colonies in theAmericas so that for the first time in world history the western andeastern hemispheres were in constant contact with one another. However, after 1750 the pace of trade picked up dramatically, fed bya series of economic and technological transformations collectivelyknown as the Industrial Revolution. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Remember that to be called a Marker Event in world history, adevelopment should qualify in three ways: †¢ It must cross national or cultural b orders, affecting many civilizations. Later changes or developments in history must be at least partially traced to this event or series of events. †¢ It must have impact in other areas. For example, if it is a technological change, it must impact some other major areas, like government, belief systems, social classes, or the economy. Like the Neolithic Revolution that occurred 10,000 years beforeit, the Industrial Revolution qualifies as a Marker Event accordingto all of the above criteria. It brought about such sweeping changesthat it virtually transformed the world, even areas in whichindustrialization did not occur.The concept seems simple &endash;invent and perfect machinery to help make human labor more efficient- but that's part of its importance. The change was so basic that itcould not help but affect all areas of people's lives in every partof the globe. The Industrial Revolution began in England in the late 18thcentury, and spread during the 19th century to Belgium, Germany,Northern France, the United States, and Japan. Almost all areas ofthe world felt the effects of the Industrial Revolution because itdivided the world into â€Å"have† and â€Å"have not† countries, with many ofthe latter being controlled by the former.England's lead in theIndustrial Revolution translated into economic prowess and politicalpower that allowed colonization of other lands, eventually building aworldwide British Empire. WHY BRITAIN? The Industrial Revolution helped England greatly increase itsoutput of manufactured goods by substituting hand labor with machinelabor. Economic growth in Britain was fueled by a number offactors: †¢ An Agricultural Revolution – The Industrial Revolution would not have been possible without a series of improvements in agriculture in England.Beginning in the early1700s, wealthy landowners began to enlarge their farms through enclosure, or fencing or hedging large blocks of land for experiments with new techniq ues of farming. These scientific farmers improved crop rotation methods, which carefully controlled nutrients in the soil. They bred better livestock, and invented new machines, such as Jethro Tull's seed drill that more effectively planted seeds. The larger the farms and the better the production the fewer farmers were needed. Farmers pushed out of their jobs by enclosure either became tenant farmers or they moved to cities.Better nutrition boosted England's population, creating the first necessary component for the Industrial Revolution: labor. †¢ A technological revolution – England also was the first to experience a technological revolution, a series of inventions built on the principles of mass production, mechanization, and interchangeable parts. Josiah Wedgwood developed a mold for pottery that replaced the potters wheel, making mass production of dishes possible. Many experimented with machinery to speed up human labor, and interchangeable parts meant that machin es were more practical and easier to repair. Natural resources – Britain had large and accessible supplies of coal and iron – two of the most important raw materials used to produce the goods for the early Industrial Revolution. Also available was water power to fuel the new machines, harbors for its merchant ships, and rivers for inland transportation. †¢ Economic strength – During the previous era, Britain had already built many of the economic practices and structures necessary for economic expansion, as well as a middle class (the bourgeoisie) that had experience with trading and manufacturing goods.Banks were well established, and they provided loans for businessmen to invest in new machinery and expand their operations. †¢ Political stability – Britain's political development during this period was fairly stable, with no major internal upheavals occurring. Although Britain took part in many wars during the 1700s, none of them took place on British soil, and its citizens did not seriously question the government's authority. By 1750 Parliament's power far exceeded that of the king, and its members passed laws that protected business and helped expansion.NEW INVENTIONS The earliest transformation of the Industrial Revolution wasBritain's textile industry. In 1750 Britain already exported wool,linen, and cotton cloth, and the profits of cloth merchants wereboosted by speeding up the process by which spinners and weavers madecloth. One invention led to another since none were useful if anypart of the process was slower than the others. Some key inventionswere: †¢ The flying shuttle – John Kay's invention carried threads of yarn back and forth when the weaver pulled a handle, greatly ncreasing the weavers' productivity. †¢ The spinning jenny – James Hargreaves' invention allowed one spinner to work eight threads at a time, increasing the output of spinners, allowing them to keep up with the weavers . Hargreaves named the machine for his daughter. †¢ The water frame – Richard Arkwright's invention replaced the hand-driven spinning jenny with one powered by water power, increasing spinning productivity even more. †¢ The spinning mule – In 1779, Samuel Crompton combined features of the spinning jenny and the water frame to produce the spinning mule.It made thread that was stronger, finer, and more consistent than that made by earlier machines. He followed this invention with the power loom that sped up the weaving process to match the new spinners. These machines were bulky and expensive, so spinning and weavingcould no longer be done at home. Wealthy textile merchants set up themachines in factories, and had the workers come to these places to dotheir work. At first the factories were set up near rivers andstreams for water power, but other inventions later made thisunnecessary.Before the late 1700s Britain's demand for cotton wasmet by India, but they in creasingly came to depend on the Americansouth, where plantation production was speeded by Eli Whitney'sinvention of the cotton gin, a machine that efficiently separated thecotton fiber from the seed. By 1810 southern plantations used slavelabor to produce 85 million pounds of cotton, up from 1. 5 million in1790. TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENTS Once the textile industry began its exponential growth,transportation of raw materials to factories and manufactured goodsto customers had to be worked out.New inventions in transportationspurred the Industrial Revolution further. A key invention was thesteam engine that was perfected by James Watt in the late 1790s. Although steam power had been used before, Watt invented ways to makeit practical and efficient to use for both water and landtransportation. Perhaps the most revolutionary use of steam energy was therailroad engine, which drove English industry after 1820. The firstlong-distance rail line from the coastal city of Liverpool to inland Manchester was an immediate success upon its completion in 1830, andwithin a few decades, most British cities were connected by rail.Railroads revolutionized life in Britain in several ways: 1) Railroads gave manufacturers a cheap way to transport materialsand finished products. 2) The railroad boom created hundreds of thousands of new jobs forboth railroad workers and miners. 3) The railroad industry spawned new industries and inventions andincreased the productivity of others. For example, agriculturalproducts could be transported farther without spoiling, so farmersbenefited from the railroads. 4) Railroads transported people, allowing them to work in citiesfar away from their homes and travel to resort areas for leisure.THE SPREAD OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION The Industrial Revolution occurred only in Britain for about 50years, but it eventually spread to other countries in Europe, theUnited States, Russia, and Japan. British entrepreneurs andgovernment officials forbade the exp ort of machinery, manufacturingtechniques, and skilled workers to other countries but thetechnologies spread by luring British experts with lucrative offers,and even smuggling secrets into other countries. By the mid-19thcentury industrialization had spread to France, Germany, Belgium, andthe United States.The earliest center of industrial production in continental Europewas Belgium, where coal, iron, textile, glass, and armamentsproduction flourished. By 1830 French firms had employed many skilledBritish workers to help establish the textile industry, and railroadlines began to appear across western Europe. Germany was a littlelater in developing industry, mainly because no centralizedgovernment existed there yet, and a great deal of political unrestmade industrialization difficult. However, after the 1840s Germancoal and iron production skyrocketed, and by the 1850s an extensiverail network was under construction.After German politicalunification in 1871, the new empire rivaled En gland in terms ofindustrial production. Industrialization began in the United States by the 1820s, delayeduntil the country had enough laborers and money to invest inbusiness. Both came from Europe, where overpopulation and politicalrevolutions sent immigrants to the United States to seek theirfortunes. The American Civil War (1861-1865) delayed furtherimmigration until the 1870s, but it spurred the need for industrialwar products, all the way from soldiers' uniforms to guns torailroads for troop transport.Once the war was over, cross-countryrailroads were built which allowed more people to claim parts of vastinland America and to reach the west coast. The United States hadabundant natural resources &endash; land, water, coal and iron ore&endash; and after the great wave of immigration from Europe and Asiain the late 19th century &endash; it also had the labor. During the late 1800s, industrialization spread to Russia andJapan, in both cases by government initiatives. In Russia the tsaristgovernment encouraged the construction of railroads to link placeswithin the vast reaches of the empire.The most impressive one wasthe Trans-Siberian line constructed between 1891 and 1904, linkingMoscow to Vladivostock on the Pacific Ocean. The railroads also gaveRussians access to the empire's many coal and iron deposits, and by1900 Russia ranked fourth in the world in steel production. TheJapanese government also pushed industrialization, hiring thousandsof foreign experts to instruct Japanese workers and mangers in thelate 1800s. Railroads were constructed, mines were opened, a bankingsystem was organized, and industries were started that producedships, armaments, silk, cotton, chemicals, and glass.By 1900 Japanwas the most industrialized land in Asia, and was set to become a20th century power. CHANGES IN PATTERNS OF WORLDTRADE Industrialization greatly increased the economic, military, andpolitical strength of the societies that embraced it. By and large,the countries th at benefited from industrialization were the onesthat had the necessary components of land, labor and capital, andoften government support. However, even though many other countriestried to industrialize, few had much success.For example, Indiatried to develop jute and steel industries, but the entrepreneursfailed because they had no government support and little investmentcapital. An international division of labor resulted: people inindustrialized countries produced manufactured products, and peoplein less industrialized countries produced the raw materials necessaryfor that production. Industrial England, for example, needed cotton,so turned to India, Egypt, and the American south to produce it forthem. In many cases this division of labor led to colonization of thenon-industrialized areas.As industrialization increased, more ironand coal were needed, as well as other fibers for the textileindustry, and the British Empire grew rapidly in order to meet thesedemands. Many countries in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia,and southeast Asia became highly dependent on one cash crop – such assugar, cotton, and rubber – giving them the nickname of â€Å"BananaRepublics. † Such economies were very vulnerable to any change in theinternational market. Foreign investors owned and controlled theplantations that produced these crops, and most of the profits wentto them.Very little of the profits actually improved the livingconditions for people that lived in those areas, and since they hadlittle money to spend, a market economy could not develop. Despite the inequalities, the division of labor between people incountries that produced raw materials and those that producedmanufactured goods increased the total volume of world trade. Inturn, this increased volume led to better technology, whichreinforced and fed the trade. Sea travel became much more efficient,with journeys that had once taken months or years reduced to days orweeks.By 1914 t wo great canals shortened sea journeys by thousandsof miles. The Suez Canal built by the British and French in the 1850slinked the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, making it no longernecessary to go around the tip of Africa to get from Europe to Asiaby sea. The Panama Canal, completed in 1913, did a similar thing inthe western hemisphere, cutting a swath through Central America thatencouraged trade and transportation between the Atlantic and PacificOceans. DEMOGRAPHIC AND ENVIRONMENTALCHANGES The Industrial Revolution significantly changed populationpatterns, migrations, and environments.In industrialized nationspeople moved to the areas around factories to work there, citiesgrew, and as a result an overall migration from rural to urban areastook place. This movement was facilitated by the growth of railroadsand improvement of other forms of transportation. This era also sawmigrations on a large scale from Europe and Asia into the Americas,so that the overall population of the west ern hemisphere increased. However, this movement did not translate into a decrease ofpopulation in the eastern hemisphere.Particularly in Europe, theAgricultural Revolution improved nutrition, especially as the potato(transported from the New World in the previous era) became a maindiet staple for European peasants. THE END OF THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE ANDSLAVERY Even as we may debate whether slavery and the slave trade cameabout because of racism or economic benefit, we may argue about whyboth ended during this era. From the beginning, as the Atlantic slavetrade enriched some Africans and many Europeans, it became a topic offierce debate in Europe, Africa, and the Americas in the late 18thcentury.The American and French revolutions stimulated thesediscussions, since both emphasized liberty, equality, and justice,topics that fed a strong abolitionist movement. Because most slaveswere not allowed to learn to read and write, most outspokenabolitionists were free whites in England and N orth America. However,Africans themselves took up the struggle to abolish slavery and theslave trade, rising in frequent slave revolts in the 18th and 19thcenturies that made slavery an expensive and dangerous business.Probably the most famous African spokespersons was Olaudah Equiano, awest African who published an autobiography in 1789 that recountedhis experiences as a slave in Africa and the New World. He latergained his freedom, learned to read and write, and became active inthe abolitionist movement. Many people read his works, heard himspeak, and were influenced to oppose slavery. Despite the importance of the abolitionist movement, economicforces also contributed to the end of slavery and the slave trade. Plantations and the slave labor that supported them remained in placeas long as they were profitable.In the Caribbean, a revolution, ledby Toussaint L'Ouverture resulted in the liberation of slaves inHaiti and the creation of the first black free state in the Americas. Howe ver, the revolution was so violent that it sparked fear amongplantation owners and colonial governments throughout the Caribbean. In the late 18th century, a rapid increase in Caribbean sugarproduction led to declining prices, and yet prices for slavesremained high and even increased. Even as plantations experiences these difficulties, profits fromthe emerging manufacturing industries were increasing, so investorsshifted their money to these new endeavors.Investors discovered thatwage labor in factories was cheaper than slave labor on plantationsbecause the owners were not responsible for food and shelter. Entrepreneurs began to see Africa as a place to get raw materials forindustry, not just slaves. THE END OF THE SLAVE TRADE Most European countries and the United States had abolished theslave trade before the mid-19th century: Britain in 1807, the UnitedStates in 1808, France in 1814, the Netherlands in 1817, and Spain in1845. Ardent abolitionists in Britain pressured the governme nt tosend patrol ships to the est coast of Africa to conduct search andseizure operations for ships that violated the ban. The lastdocumented ship that carried slaves on the Middle Passage arrived inCuba in 1867. THE END OF SLAVERY The institution of slavery continued in most places in theAmericas long after the slave trade was abolished, with the Britishabolishing slavery in their colonies in 1833. The French abolishedslavery in 1848, the same year that their last king was overthrown bya democratic government.The United States abolished slavery in 1865when the north won a bitter Civil War that had divided the southernslave-holding states from the northern non-slavery states. The lastcountry to abolish slavery in the Americas was Brazil, where theinstitution was weakened by a law that allowed slaves to fight in thearmy in exchange for freedom. Army leaders resisted demands that theycapture and return runaway slaves, and slavery was abolished in 1888,without a war. IMMIGRATION TO THE AMERICAS Various immigration patterns arose to replace the slave trade.Asian and European immigrants came to seek opportunities in theAmericas from Canada in the north to Argentina in the south. Somewere attracted to discoveries of gold and silver in western NorthAmerica and Canada, including many who made their way west from theeastern United States. However, European and Asian migrants whobecame workers in factories, railroad construction sites, andplantations outnumbered those who were gold prospectors. By the mid 19th century European migrants began crossing theAtlantic to fill the factories in the eastern United States.Increasing rents and indebtedness drove farmers from Ireland,Scotland, Germany and Scandinavia to North America, settling in theOhio and Mississippi River Valleys in search of land. The potatofamine forced many Irish peasants to make the journey, and politicalrevolutions caused many Germans to flee the wrath of the governmentwhen their causes failed. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries,most immigrants to North America were from southern and easternEurope, fleeing famine, poverty, and discrimination in theircountries of origin.While migrants to the United States came to fill jobs in thedeveloping industrial society, those who went to Latin America mostlyworked on agricultural plantations. About 4 million Italians came toArgentina in the 1880s and 1890s, and others went to Brazil, wherethe government paid the voyage over for Italian migrants who came towork on coffee plantations after slavery was abolished. Others camefrom Asia, with more than 15,000 indentured laborers from Chinaworking in sugarcane fields in Cuba during the 19th century. Chineseand Japanese laborers came to Peru where they worked on cottonplantations, in mines, and on railroad lines.THE DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION This era saw a basic change in the population structures ofindustrialized countries. Large families had always been welcome inagricultural societies because the more people a family had, the moreland they were able to work. Children's work was generally worth morethan it costs to take care of them. However, in the west, includingthe United States, the birth rate declined to historically low levelsin the 19th century. This demographic transition from high birthrates to low reflected the facts that child labor was being replacedby machines and that children were not as useful as they were inagricultural societies.Instead, as life styles changed in urbansettings, it became difficult to support large families, both interms of supporting them with salaries from industrial jobs and inhousing them in crowded conditions in the cities. High birth ratescontinued elsewhere in the world, so the west's percentage of totalworld population began to slip by 1900 even as its world powerpeaked. ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES Wilderness areas in Europe were virtually gone by 1750, withalmost every piece of land used by farmers or townspeople. However,the process cont inued during this era, and deforestation became themost serious problem.Americans transformed their lands even morerapidly as people moved west, clearing forests for farms and thenmoving on when the soil was depleted. The cultivation of cotton wasespecially harmful. Planters cut down forests, grew cotton for a fewyears, moved west, and abandoned the land to scrub pines. Surprisingly, industrialization actually relieved environmentaldepletion in Britain because raw materials once grown on British soil&endash; like wool and grain – were replaced by coal and iron foundunderground. Iron replaced wood in many building structures,including ships, so that deforestation slowed.The most dramatic environmental changes in industrializedcountries occurred in the towns. Never before had towns grown sofast, and major cities formed. London grew from about 500,000inhabitants in 1700 to more than 2 million by 1850, with the largestpopulation a city had ever had in world history. Cities in the middleindustrial belt of Britain, such as Liverpool and Manchester grewrapidly during this period as well. New York City in the UnitedStates reached about 600,000 in 1850. CHANGES IN SOCIAL AND GENDERSTRUCTUREIndustrialization also transformed social and gender structures incountries where it developed, although it is not entirely clear as towhether the â€Å"gender gap† narrowed or widened. By and largeindustrialization widened the gap between the rich and the poor bycreating opportunities for businessmen to be far richer than theupper classes in an agricultural society ever could be. Although theywere free, not forced, laborers, the wages for factory workers werevery low, and many suffered as much if not more poverty than they hadas rural peasants. WORKING CONDITIONSIndustrialization offered new opportunities to people withimportant skills, such as carpentry, metallurgy, and machineoperations. Some enterprising people became engineers or opened theirown businesses, but for the vast majority of those who left theirfarming roots to find their fortunes in the cities, life was full ofdisappointments. Most industrial jobs were boring, repetitive, andpoorly paid. Workdays were long with few breaks, and workersperformed one simple task over and over with little sense ofaccomplishment. Unlike even the poorest farmer or craftsman, factoryworkers had no control over tools, jobs, or working hours.Factoryworkers could do very little about their predicament until the latterpart of the period, when labor unions formed and helped to provokethe moral conscience of some middle class people. Until then, workerswho dared to go on strike &endash; like the unmarried girls at theLowell mills in Massachusetts &endash; they were simply replaced byother workers from the abundant supply of labor. FAMILY LIFE Because machinery had to be placed in a large, centrally locatedplace, workers had to go to factories to perform their work, a majorchange in lifestyles from those of agr icultural societies.Inprevious days all family members did most of their work on the farm,which meant that the family stayed together most of the time. Division of labor meant that they did different types of work, mostlysplit by gender and age, but the endeavor was a collective one. Evenin the early days of commercialization, â€Å"piece work† was generallydone by people at home, and then delivered to the merchant orbusinessman. Now, people left their homes for hours at a time, oftenleaving very early and not returning till very late. Usually bothhusband and wife worked away from home, and for most of this period,so did children.Family life was never the same again. In the early days of industrialization, the main occupation ofworking women was domestic servitude. If they had small children,they usually tried to find work they could do at home, such aslaundry, sewing, or taking in lodgers. However, even with bothparents working, wages were so low that most families found itd ifficult to make ends meet. Most industrialists encouraged workersto bring their children along with them to the factories becausechildren usually could do the work, too, and they were quitecheap. CHANGES IN SOCIAL CLASSESA major social change brought about by the Industrial Revolutionwas the development of a relatively large middle class, or†bourgeoisie† in industrialized countries. This class had beengrowing in Europe since medieval days when wealth was based on land,and most people were peasants. With the advent of industrialization,wealth was increasingly based on money and success in businessenterprises, although the status of inherited titles of nobilitybased on land ownership remained in place. However, land had neverproduced such riches as did business enterprises of this era, and somembers of the bourgeoisie were the wealthiest people around.However, most members of the middle class were not wealthy, owningsmall businesses or serving as managers or administrator s in largebusinesses. They generally had comfortable lifestyles, and many wereconcerned with respectability, or the demonstration that they were ofa higher social class than factory workers were. They valued the hardwork, ambition, and individual responsibility that had led to theirown success, and many believed that the lower classes only hadthemselves to blame for their failures. This attitude generallyextended not to just the urban poor, but to people who still farmedin rural areas.The urban poor were often at the mercy of business cycles &endash;swings between economic hard times to recovery and growth. Factoryworkers were laid off from their jobs during hard times, making theirlives even more difficult. With this recurrent unemployment camepublic behaviors, such as drunkenness and fighting, that appalled themiddle class, who stressed sobriety, thrift, industriousness, andresponsibility. Social class distinctions were reinforced by Social Darwinism, aphilosophy by Englishman Her bert Spencer.He argued that humansociety operates by a system of natural selection, wherebyindividuals and ways of life automatically gravitate to their properstation. According to Social Darwinists, poverty was a â€Å"naturalcondition† for inferior individuals. GENDER ROLES AND INEQUALITY Changes in gender roles generally fell along class lines, withrelationships between men and women of the middle class being verydifferent from those in the lower classes. LOWER CLASS MEN AND WOMEN Factory workers often resisted the work discipline and pressuresimposed by their middle class bosses.They worked long hours inunfulfilling jobs, but their leisure time interests fed thepopularity of two sports: European soccer and American baseball. Theyalso did less respectable things, like socializing at bars and pubs,staging dog or chicken fights, and participating in other activitiesthat middle class men disdained. Meanwhile, most of their wives were working, most commonly asdomestic servants for middle class households, jobs that they usuallypreferred to factory work. Young women in rural areas often came tocities or suburban areas to work as house servants.They often sentsome of their wages home to support their families in the country,and some saved dowry money. Others saved to support ambitions tobecome clerks or secretaries, jobs increasingly filled by women, butsupervised by men. MIDDLE CLASS MEN AND WOMEN When production moved outside the home, men who became owners ormanagers of factories gained status. Industrial work kept the economymoving, and it was valued more than the domestic chores traditionallycarried out by women. Men's wages supported the families, since theyusually were the ones who made their comfortable life stylespossible.The work ethic of the middle class infiltrated leisure timeas well. Many were intent on self-improvement, reading books orattending lectures on business or culture. Many factory owners andmanagers stressed the importance of churc h attendance for all, hopingthat factory workers could be persuaded to adopt middle-class valuesof respectability. Middle class women generally did not work outside of the home,partly because men came to see stay-at-home wives as a symbol oftheir success. What followed was a â€Å"cult of domesticity† thatjustified removing women from the work place.Instead, they filledtheir lives with the care of children and the operation of theirhomes. Since most middle-class women had servants, they spent timesupervising them, but they also had to do fewer household choresthemselves. Historians disagree in their answers to the question of whether ornot gender inequality grew because of industrialization. Gender roleswere generally fixed in agricultural societies, and if the lives ofworking class people in industrial societies are examined, it isdifficult to see that any significant changes in the gender gap tookplace at all.However, middle class gender roles provide the realbasis for the argument. On the one hand, some argue that women wereforced out of many areas of meaningful work, isolated in their homesto obsess about issues of marginal importance. On the farm, theirwork was â€Å"women's work,† but they were an integral part of thecentral enterprise of their time: agriculture. Their work in raisingchildren was vital to the economy, but industrialization renderedchildren superfluous as well, whose only role was to grow up safelyenough to fill their adult gender-related duties.On the other hand,the â€Å"cult of domesticity† included a sort of idolizing of women thatmade them responsible for moral values and standards. Women were seenas stable and pure, the vision of what kept their men devoted to thetasks of running the economy. Women as standard-setters, then, becamethe important force in shaping children to value respectability, leadmoral lives, and be responsible for their own behaviors. Withoutwomen filling this important role, the entire socia l structure thatsupported industrialized power would collapse. And who could wish formore power than that?NEW POLITICAL IDEAS ANDMOVEMENTS In 1750 only England and the Netherlands had constitutionalmonarchies, governments that limited the powers of the king or ruler. All the other kingdoms of Europe, as well as the Muslim Empires andChina, practiced absolutism. Absolutist rulers benefited from thetendency for governments to centralize between 1450 and 1750 becauseit extended the power they had over their subjects. Most of therulers reinforced their powers by claiming special authority for thesupernatural, whether it be the mandate of heaven as practiced inChina, or divine right as European kings declared.Between 1750 and1914, absolute rulers almost everywhere lost power, and the rule oflaw became a much more important political principle. One of the most important political concepts to arise from the erawas the â€Å"nation-state,† a union often characterized by a commonlangu age, shared historical experiences and institutions, and similarcultural traditions, including religion at both the elite and popularlevels. As a result, political loyalties were no longer so determinedby one's attitudes toward a particular king or noble but by a moreabstract attachment to a â€Å"nation. FORCES FOR POLITICAL CHANGE As the Industrial Revolution began in England, the economicchanges were accompanied by demands for political changes that spreadto many other areas of the world by the end of the 19th century. Twoimportant forces behind the change were: †¢ The influence of the Enlightenment – The 1700s are sometimes referred to as the â€Å"Age of Enlightenment,† because philosophical and political ideas were begun to seriously question the assumptions of absolute governments.The Enlightenment began in Europe, and was a part of the changes associated with the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the Protestant Reformation, all taking place betw een 1450 and 1750. The Enlightenment invited people to use their â€Å"reason† using the same humanistic approach of Renaissance times. People can figure things out, and they can come up with better governments and societies. In the 1600s John Locke wrote that a ruler's authority is based on the will of the people. He also spoke of a social contract that gave subjects the right to overthrow the ruler if he ruled badly.French philosophes, such as Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau spread the new ideas to France, where they began uproar in a land that epitomized absolutism. †¢ New wealth of the bourgeoisie – Ongoing commercialization of the economy meant that the middle class grew in size and wealth, but not necessarily in political power. These self-made men questioned the idea that aristocrats alone should hold the highest political offices. Most could read and write, and found Enlightenment philosophy appealing in its questioning of absolute power. They sought po litical power to match the economic power that they had gained.REVOLUTIONS A combination of economic, intellectual, and social changesstarted a wave of revolutions in the late 1700s that continued intothe first half of the 19th century. The started in North America andFrance, and spread into other parts of Europe and to LatinAmerica. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Ironically, the first revolution inspired by the new politicalthought that originated in England began in the North Americancolonies and was directed at England. It began when Americancolonists resisted Britain's attempt to impose new taxes and tradecontrols on the colonies after the French and Indian War ended in1763.Many also resented Britain's attempts to control the movementwest. â€Å"Taxation without representation† turned British politicaltheory on its ear, but it became a major theme as the rebellionspread from Massachusetts throughout the rest of the colonies. Colonial leaders set up a new government and issued th e Declarationof Independence in 1776. The British sent forces to put the rebelliondown, but the fighting continued for several years until the newlycreated United States eventually won. The United States Constitutionthat followed was based on enlightenment principles, with threebranches of government that check and balance one another.Althoughinitially only a few had the right to vote and slavery was notabolished, the government became a model for revolutions to come. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION A very different situation existed in France. No establishednobility existed in the United States, so when independence wasachieved, the new nation had no old social and political structure tothrow off. In contrast, the Revolution in France was a civil war, arising against the Ancien Regime, or the old kingdom that had risenover centuries.The king, of course, had absolute power, but thenobility and clergy had many privileges that no one else had. Socialclasses were divided into three estates: firs t was the clergy, secondthe nobility, and the Third Estate was everyone else. On the eve ofthe Revolution in 1789, about 97% of the population of France wasthrown into the Third Estate, although they held only about 5% of theland. They also paid 100% of the taxes. Part of the problem was that the growing class of the bourgeoisiehad no political privileges.They read Enlightenment philosophes,they saw what happened in the American Revolution, and they resentedpaying all the taxes. Many saw the old political and social structureas out of date and the nobles as silly and vain, undeserving of theprivileges they had. The French Revolution began with King Louis XVI called theEstates-General, or the old parliamentary structure, together for thefirst time in 160 years. He did so only because the country was infinancial crisis brought on by too many wars for power and anextravagant court life at Versailles Palace.Many problems convergedto create the Revolution: the nobles' refusal to pay taxe s,bourgeoisie resentment of the king, Louis Vic's incompetence, and aseries of bad harvests for the peasants. The bourgeoisie seizedcontrol of the proceedings and declared the creation of the NationalAssembly, a legislative body that still exists in France today. Theywrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, modeledafter the American Declaration of Independence, and they set about towrite a Constitution for France.The years after the revolution began were turbulent ones that sawthe king beheaded and the government taken over by the Jacobins, aradical group that sought equality through executing those thatdisagreed with the government. The Reign of Terror lasted for abouttwo years, with thousands of people guillotined and thousands morefleeing the country. The Jacobin leaders themselves were eventuallyguillotined; the country teetered for several years in disarray, andfinally was swept up by Napoleon Bonaparte as he claimed French gloryin battle. Democracy did not c ome easily in France. CONSERVATIVE REACTION TOREVOLUTIONNapoleon Bonaparte, of minor nobility from the island of Corsica,rose through the ranks of the French military during a time of chaos. He seized the French Government at a time when no one else couldcontrol it. He promised stability and conquest, and by 1812 theFrench Empire dominated Europe to the borders of Russia. His invasionof Russia was unsuccessful, done in by cold winters, long supplylines, and Tsar Alexander It's burn and retreat method that leftFrench armies without food. Finally, an alliance of Europeancountries led by Britain defeated Napoleon in 1815 at Waterloo inmodern day Belgium.Although Napoleon was defeated and exiled, othercountries were horrified by what had happened in France: arevolution, the beheading of a king, a terrorizing egalitariangovernment, and finally a demagogue who attacked all of Europe. Toconservative Europe, France was a problem that had to be containedbefore their ideas and actions spread to the rest of thecontinent. The allies that had defeated Napoleon met at Vienna in 1815 toreach a peace settlement that would make further revolutionsimpossible. The Congress of Vienna was controlled by therepresentatives of three nations: Britain, Austria, and Russia.Eachcountry wanted something different. The British wanted to destroy theFrench war machine, Russia wanted to establish an alliance based onChristianity, and Austria wanted a return to absolutism. They reachedan agreement based on restoring the balance of power in Europe, orthe principle that no one country should ever dominate the others. Rather, the power should be balanced among all the major countries. France actually came out rather well in the proceedings, due in largepart to the talents of their representative, Tallyrand.However, theCongress restricted France with these major decisions: †¢ Monarchies – including the monarchy in France – were restored in countries that Napoleon had conquered à ¢â‚¬ ¢ France was â€Å"ringed† with strong countries by its borders to keep its military in check. †¢ The Concert of Europe was formed, an organization of European states meant to maintain the balance of power. THE SPREAD OF REVOLUTION AND NEW POLITICALIDEAS No matter how the Congress of Vienna tried to stem the tide ofrevolution, it did not work in the long run.France was to wobbleback and forth between monarchy and republican government for thirtymore years, and then was ruled by Napoleon III (Bonaparte's nephew)until 1871, when finally a parliamentary government emerged. Andother countries in Europe, as well as colonies in Latin America, hadheard â€Å"the shot heard round the world,† and the true impact of therevolutionary political ideas began to be felt. REVOLUTIONS IN LATIN AMERICA From North America and France, revolutionary enthusiasm spreadthroughout the Caribbean and Spanish and Portuguese America.Incontrast to the leaders of the War for Independence f or the UnitedStates, most of the early revolutions in Latin America began withsubordinated Amerindians and blacks. Even before the FrenchRevolution, Andean Indians, led by Tupac Amaru, besieged the ancientcapital of Cuzco and nearly conquered the Spanish army. The Creoleelite responded by breaking the ties to Spain and Portugal, butestablishing governments under their control. Freedom, then, wasinterpreted to mean liberty for the property-owning classes. Only inthe French colony of Saint Domingue (Haiti) did slaves carry out asuccessful insurrection.The rebellion in 1791 led to several years of civil war in Haiti,even though French abolished slavery in 1793. When Napoleon came topower, he sent an army to tame the forces led by ToussaintL'Ouverture, a former slave. However, Napoleon's army was decimatedby guerrilla fighters and yellow fever, and even though Toussaintdied in a French jail, Haiti declared its independence in 1804. Other revolutions in Latin America were led by politica l andsocial elites, although some of them had important populistelements. †¢ Brazil – Portugal's royal family fled to Brazil when Napoleon's troops stormed the Iberian Peninsula.The presence of the royal family dampened revolutionary fervor, especially since the king instituted reforms in administration, agriculture, and manufacturing. He also established schools, hospitals, and a library. The king returned to Portugal in 1821, after Napoleon's threat was over, leaving Brazil in the hands of his son Pedro. Under pressure from Brazilian elites, Pedro declared Brazil's independence, and he signed a charter establishing a constitutional monarchy that lasted until the late 19th century when Pedro II was overthrown by republicans. Mexico – Father Miguel Hidalgo led Mexico's rebellion that eventually led to independence in 1821. He was a Catholic priest who sympathized with the plight of the Amerindian peasants and was executed for leading a rebellion against the coloni al government. The Creole elite then took up the drive for independence that was won under the leadership of Agustin de Iturbide, a conservative military commander. However, Father Hidalgo's cause greatly influenced Mexico's political atmosphere, as his populist ideas were taken up by others who led the people in revolt against the Creoles.Two famous populist leaders were Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa, who like Father Hidalgo were executed by the government. Mexico was not to work out this tension between elite and peasants until well into the 20th century. †¢ Spanish South America – Colonial elite – landholders, merchants, and military – also led Spanish colonies in South America in rebellion against Spain. The term â€Å"junta† came to be used for these local governments who wanted to overthrow colonial powers. Two junta centers in South America were: 1. Caracas, Venezuela – At first, laborers and slaves did not support this Creole-led ju nta.However, they were convinced to join the independence movement by Simon de Bolivar, a charismatic military leader with a vision of forging â€Å"Gran Columbia,† an independent, giant empire in the northern part of South America. He defeated the Spanish, but did not achieve his dream of empire. Instead, regional differences caused the newly independent lands to split into several countries. 2. Buenos Aires, Argentina – Another charismatic military leaders – Jose de San Martin – led armies for independence from the southern part of the continent.His combined Chilean/Argentine forces joined with Bolivar in Peru, where they helped the northern areas to defeat the Spanish. Martin's areas, like those led by Bolivar, also split along regional differences. All in all, constitutional experiments in North America were moresuccessful than those in South America. Though South Americans gainedindependence from colonial governments during the 19th century, theirgov ernments remained authoritarian and no effective legislatures werecreated to share the power with political leaders. Why thisdifference? COMPARATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL EXPERIMENTS ; NORTH AMERICA AND SOUTH AMERICA | |NORTH AMERICA |SOUTH AMERICA | |Mother country had parliamentary government, so colonial governments had a |Mother country governed by absolute monarch; colonial | |constitutional model |governments had authoritarian model | |Colonies had previous experience with popular politics; had their wn |Colonies had no experience with popular politics; | |governments that often operated independently from British control |colonial governments led by authoritarian Creoles | |Military leaders were popular and sometimes became Presidents (Washington, |Had difficulty subduing the power of military leaders;| |Jackson), but they did not try to take over the government as military |set in place the tradition of military juntas taking | |leaders; constitutional principle that military wou ld be subordinate to the|over governments | |government | | |American Revolution occurred in the 1770s; vulnerable new nation emerged at|Latin American Revolutions occurred during the early | |an economically advantageous time, when the world economy was expanding |1800s, a time when the world economy was contracting, | | |a less advantageous time for new nations | The differences in political backgrounds of the two continents ledto some very different consequences. For the United States (andeventually Canada), it meant that relatively democratic governmentsleft entrepreneurs open to the Industrial Revolution, which, afterall, started in their mother country. For Latin America, it meantthat their governments were less supportive and/or more removed fromthe economic transformations of the Industrial Revolutions, andstable democratic governments and economic prosperity would be a longtime in coming. IDEOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OFREVOLUTIONSThe Enlightenment philosophy that inspired rev olutions in theUnited States, France, and Latin America brought about lastingchanges in western political ideology, with some people reactingagainst the chaos that revolutions brought, and others inspired bythe values of democracy, liberty, equality, and justice. Threecontrasting ideologies may be seen by the early 1800s: †¢ Conservatism – People who supported this philosophy at first advocated return to absolute monarchy, but came to accept constitutional monarchy by the mid-1800s. Generally, conservatives disapproved of the revolutions of the era, particularly the French Revolution with all the violence and chaos that it brought. †¢ Liberalism – Liberals supported a republican democracy, or a government with an elected legislature who represented the people in political decision-making.These representatives were generally from the elite, but were selected (usually by vote) from a popular base of citizens. Emphasis was generally on liberty or freedom from op pression, rather than on equality. †¢ Radicalism – Radicals advocated drastic changes in government and emphasized equality more than liberty. Their philosophies varied, but they were most concerned with narrowing the gap between elites and the general population. The Jacobins during the French Revolution, and Marxism that appeared in the mid 19th century were variations of this ideological family. REFORM MOVEMENTS The political values supported by revolutions were embraced bysome who saw them as applying to all people, including women andformer slaves.Values of liberty, equality, and democracy hadprofound implications for change within societies that had alwaysaccepted hierarchical social classes and gender roles. Reformmovements sprouted up as different people put differentinterpretations on what these new political and social valuesactually meant. Women's Rights Advocates of women's rights were particularly active in Britain,France, and North America. Mary Wollstonecr aft, an English writer,was one of the first to argue that women possessed all the rightsthat Locke had granted to men, including education and participationin political life. Many French women assumed that they would begranted equal rights after the revolution. However, it did not bringthe right to vote or play major roles in public affairs.Since genderroles did not change in the immediate aftermath of revolution, socialreformers pressed for women's rights in North America and Europe. Americans like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in theUnited States decided to concentrate their efforts on suffrage, orthe right to vote. A resolution passed at Seneca Falls, New York, in1848, emphasized women's rights to suffrage, as well as to education,professional occupations, and political office. Their movement didnot receive popular support, however, until the 20th century, buttheir activism laid a foundation for large-scale social changelater. The Limits of the Abolitionist Movement Although slavery was abolished in Europe and North America by thelate 19th century, blacks did not realize equality within the timeperiod. Although former slaves were guaranteed the right to vote inthe late 1860s in the United States, they were effectively barredfrom political participation by state and local legislation calledJim Crow laws. Blacks all over the Americas tended to have the leastdesirable jobs, limited educational opportunities, and lower socialstatus than whites. Conservative Reactions to Reform During the late 1800s two systems of related political thoughtemerged among conservatives to justify inequalities: †¢ Scientific racism – This idea system became popular among conservative thinkers in industrialized societies.It used scientific reasoning and evidence to prove its premise that blacks are physiologically and mentally inferior to whites. The theory generally constructed three main â€Å"races† in the world – Caucasian, Mongoloid, and Ne groid ; and built its arguments that basic differences existed among them that made Negroids inherently inferior to Caucasians. Scientific racism, then, justified the inferior positions that blacks had in the society and the economy. †¢ Social Darwinism – This philosophy justified not racial differences, but differences between the rich and the poor. It used Darwin's theory of natural selection (living things that are better adapted to the environment survive, others don't) to explain why some get rich and others remain poor.In the competition for favored positions and bigger shares of wealth, the strong, intelligent, and motivated naturally defeat the weak, less intelligent, and the lazy. So, people who get to the top deserve it, as do the people who remain at the bottom Marxism Another reaction to the revolution in political thought wasMarxism, The father of communism is generally acknowledged to be KarlMarx, who first wrote about his interpretation of history and visi onfor the future in The Communist Manifesto in 1848. He saw capitalism; or the free market ; as an economic system thatexploited workers and increased the gap between the rich and thepoor.He believed that conditions in capitalist countries wouldeventually become so bad that workers would join together in aRevolution of the Proletariat (workers), and overcome thebourgeoisie, or owners of factories and other means of production. Marx envisioned a new world after the revolution, one in which socialclass would disappear because ownership of private property would bebanned. According to Marx, communism encourages equality andcooperation, and without property to encourage greed and strife,governments would be unnecessary. His theories took root in Europe,but never became the philosophy behind European governments, but iteventually took new forms in early 20th century Russia and China. NATIONALISMIn older forms of political organizations, the glue of politicalunity came from the ruler, whe ther it is a king, emperor, sultan, orcaliph. Political power generally was built on military might, and aruler controlled the land that he conquered as long as he controlledit. Power was often passed down within one family that based thelegitimacy of their rule on principles that held sway over theirpopulations, often some kind of special contact with the spiritualworld. The era 1750 to 1914 saw the creation of a new type ofpolitical organization – the nation – that survived even if therulers failed. Whereas nations' political boundaries were still oftendecided by military victory, the political entity was much broaderthan control by one person or family.Nations were built onnationalism – the feeling of identity within a common group ofpeople. Of course, these feelings were not new in the history of theworld. However, the force of common identity became a basic buildingblock for nations, political forms that still dominate world politicstoday. Nationalism could be based on common geographical locations,language, religion, or customs, but it is much more complex thanthat. The main idea is that people see themselves as â€Å"Americans† or†Italians† or â€Å"Japanese,† despite the fact that significant culturalvariations may exist within the nation. Napoleon contributed a great deal to the development of strongnationalism in 19th century Europe.His conquests were done in thename of â€Å"France,† even though the French monarchy had been deposed. The more he conquered, the more pride people had in being â€Å"French. â€Å"He also stirred up feelings of nationalism within a people that heconquered: â€Å"Germans† that could not abide being taken over by theFrench. In Napoleon's day Germany did not exist as a country yet, butpeople still thought of themselves as being German. Instead Germanslived in a political entity known as â€Å"The Holy Roman Empire. â€Å"However, the nationalism that Napoleon invoked became the basis forfurther revolutions, in which people around the world sought todetermine their own sovereignty, a principle that Woodrow Wilsoncalled self-determination. RISE OF WESTERN DOMINANCEA combination of economic and political transformations in Europethat began in the 1450 to 1750 era converged between 1750 and 1914 toallow the â€Å"west† (including the United States and Australia) todominate the rest of the world. From China to the Muslim states toAfrica, virtually all other parts of the world became the â€Å"have nots†to the west's â€Å"haves. † With political and economic dominance camecontrol in cultural and artistic areas as well. NEW EUROPEAN NATIONS A major political development inspired by growing nationalism wasthe consolidation of small states into two important new nations: †¢ Italy – Before the second half of the 19th century, Italy was a collection of city-states that were only loosely allied with one another. A u nification movement was begun in the north by Camillo di Cavour, and in the north by Giuseppe Garibaldi.As states unified one by one, the two leaders joined, and Italy became a unified nation under King Vittore Emmanuele II. The movement was a successful attempt to escape the historical domination of the peninsula by Spain in the south and Austria in the north. †¢ Germany – The German Confederation was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, but it had been controlled by the Austrian and Prussian Empires. In 1848 major rebellions broke out within the confederation, inspired by liberals who envisioned a German nation ruled by parliamentary government. The revolutions failed, and many liberals fled the country, but they proved to be an excuse for the Prussian army to invade other parts of the Confederation.The Prussian military leader was Otto von Bismarck, who subjugated the rebels and declared the beginning of the German Empire. The government was a constitutional mon archy, with Kaiser Wilhelm I ruling, but for a number of years, Bismarck had control. He provoked three wars &endash; with Denmark, Austria, and France &endash; and appealed to German nationalism to create a strong new nation in the heart of Europe. He pronounced it the â€Å"2nd Reich† or ruling era (the 1st was the Holy Roman Empire and the 3rd was set up by Adolph Hitler in the 20th century). These new nations altered the balance of power in Europe, causingestablished nations like Britain and France concern that their ownpower was in danger.Nationalism, then, was spurred on by a renewalof

The Implications of American Outsourcing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Implications of American Outsourcing - Essay Example Over the years the American economy has taken a drastic turn for the worse, especially in the realm of job sustainability. In a study conducted by the University of California, "14 million white-collar jobs are vulnerable to being outsourced offshore" (Roberts, 2005). These include jobs requiring a high-level of skill including "information technology, accounting, architecture, advanced engineering design, news reporting, stock analysis, and medical and legal services" (Roberts, 2005). According to another study done by EconEdlink, America's unemployment rate has increased alarmingly since 2001, after having experienced a period of substantial lows throughout the mid-90s. After that the unemployment rate remained somewhat steady, with a spiked increase between 2003 and 2004 followed by occasional yet not extremely noteworthy decreases. (See Figure 1 & 2 for a visual depiction of this phenomenon). How can outsourcing be justified in the face of such figures To make matters worse, many of the persons displaced by outsourcing are those who have spent a great deal of time, money and energy at colleges or other academic institutions trying to acquire specialized skills. When education can no longer offer assurance for an individual's financial future, "the value of the investment in training, and in the individual, to promote growth in America's society, and economy, is diminished" (Torrance, 2006). In fact, it is not too uncommon to hear IT graduates mumble about how there are so few jobs available because the jobs they were trained to do are now being exported (Torrance, 2006). Consequently, professional workers affected by outsourcing must consider either negotiating lower wages or changing their vocation completely. The former option seems unrealistic especially considering "businesses who are outsourcing can set a minimum wage in developing countries that would never be accep ted as a minimum wage in America" (Torrance, 2006). The latter option only exists as long as there are industries that are willing to do business primarily in the United States. If other companies also believe outsourcing will improve their profitability, then where can the American worker turn Outsourcing proponents argue that even though outsourcing may take a few jobs away initially, in the long run it will put more money in America's pocket by lowering the cost of consumer goods and services. It will help create a sector of jobs more reliant on management and creativity than a fulfillment of 'worker-ant' responsibilities. All of this could be true as long as some form of employment remains available for Americans to earn money for spending. However, if everyone outsources it will get to the point that reduced costs won't matter because Americans simply won't have the money to

Poems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Poems - Essay Example Essentially, Montresor aims to be the jury, a judge, and executioner. Montresor hates Fortunato because the latter had caused many injuries to the former. Due to jealousy, Montresor endeavors to attack Fortunato by skillfully employing a reverse psychology. Notably, Montresor constantly indicates that he has the capacity to ask Luchesi to observe Amontillado although Fortunate detests the obscene scene, and claims that Luchesi does not have the ability to tell Amontillado from Sherry (Poe 745). The audience knows that Montresor is jealous of Fortunato. In order to complete his revenge mission, Montresor tricks Fortunate into coming to his catacombs in order to taste some Amontillado, which is non-existent. Jealousy drives Montresor to endeavor to betray Fortunato by inviting him to taste Amontillado that did not exist. Montresor wishes that he had what Fortunato possessed. Notably, Montresor tells Fortunato that he has the wealth and many people respect, love, and admire him (Poe 744). In effect, Montresor wishes that he had what Fortunate owns. Due to such wishes, Montresor has developed a vengeful spirit catapulted by jealousy (Meyers 202). Montresor thinks that Fortunato is more significant than he is. The protagonist is in deep thought of revenging although he does not indicate the precise reason for executing the deed. The audience can notice that the protagonist intends to kill Fortunato due to mere jealousy and pride. Jealousy is too much in Montresor, and it does not allow him to give his intended action a second thought. Notably, the protagonist proves that he has the highest level of jealousy when he ridicules Fortunato’s attire. Montresor says, â€Å"The man wore mo tley. He had on a tight-fitting parti-stripped dress and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells† (Poe 744). The description of the Fortunato’s attire hinges on a pure jealousy. Poe uses irony to underscore the theme of jealously. Notably, Poe’s choice of the

Pandora Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Pandora - Essay Example Specifically, the company achieves this through the provision of up-to-date music, drama, and related discussion such as a live performance on the company blog. The blog and the ‘Submit your Request’ platforms within the website allow users to create free online profiles to participate in discussions. The personalized station established the Music Genome Project allows the users to edit or refine the content to fit the personal change in music taste and preferences.The interactive feature on the Pandora.com website characterizes it as a social media platform. The social media is an online phenomenon that supports connectivity and interaction, as well as encouraging contributions and feedbacks on online topics from the members and users of the virtual community. The essential features of the social media include connectedness, participation, openness, and conversation. The Pandora.com supports these characteristics through the blog where users post and contribute to the a rticles on various topics.Another unique and primary feature of the social media is the user-created and maintained an online profile that facilitate digital dialog. Although Pandora.com does not have an intensive and user-enabled profile like Facebook, it has a platform that supports online contribution and commenting on the available topics. The Pandora.com internet community has a common interest in music and comedy categorizing the website as a specified social media that confines its engagement within the entertainment industry