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Question 1

History

Hanseatic League

Hanseatic League was a commercial association comprising of northern German cities, which thrived between the years1250 and 1500. The league comprised of all the towns considered important on Baltic shore and along the Northern Germany main rivers. It monopolized trade along the Baltic and North seas mostly in herring, cloth, grain, furs, lumber, and minerals. The league was helpful in suppressing piracy and improving navigation because of dredged waterways as well as building of lighthouses and canals. At the same time, there was establishment of courts at the league’s alien trading posts to assist in settling disagreements among members (Walford 182). The league later became strong and protected its merchants against arbitrary laws in relation to foreign rulers and foreign lawsuits. Mutual monetary interests led to high cooperation and the expulsion of rebellious members from the league. The collapse of Hohenstaufen dynasty in Germany in 1254 was the end of an aggressive imperial rule. The situation encouraged many Northern German towns to form leagues and protect their trading rights overseas. Later, the German Merchants Associations Abroad united together with the Northern German towns to create the Hanseatic League.

The league continued to grow in power in the first half of the 14th century. King Wald Mars IV from Denmark challenged the supremacy of the league in the Baltic. Although the Danish King was originally successful, the league overpowered him. This is because its status and power had reached new heights and extended its commercial control in Northern Europe. The main reason for the formation of Hanseatic League was to help in tackling weak national governments since a solid governmental presence would obviously be part of their collapse. In the process, many governments realized that the harnessing of resources managed by the Hanseatic League would make them become more powerful. 

Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company was a trading company, which was chartered in the year 1602 by the assembly of Netherlands States-General. The main aim of its formation was to look sustain and control Dutch trade mainly in the Indian Ocean, as well as provide support in fighting against countries such as Spain and Portugal. The company raised money by selling shares and was ruled by representatives who came from separate Dutch states. It was also offered trade monopoly in the East Indies and was in a position to import goods from Netherlands without payment of free duty (The Dutch East-India Company and Accounting for Social Capital at the Dawn of Modern Capitalism 162). It replaced Portuguese, which was considered a master in commerce in Europe as well as the East Indies. It had supreme ruling power in Dutch colonies mainly from the East of Africa and across the Pacific. The company was rich and strong in the late 1600, but declined because of mismanagement coupled with foreign competition. It collapsed in 1798 after the French dominated Netherlands. Conversely, the firm’s South African colony stood at ‘the Cape of Good Hope,’ which was founded in the year 1652, and conceded by the Netherlands to Britain in the year 1815. The company’s island colonies were located in the Pacific was later controlled by the Dutch government, until after the second world war when majority of them came together to form Republic of Indonesia.

Suleyman the Magnificent

Suleyman the Magnificent was considered one of the best Ottoman Empire rulers. He is remembered as one of the fiercest Islamic religion conquerors. In Middle Eastern cultures, he is referred to as an excellent builder. Suleyman’s reign as sultan saw the Ottoman Empire reach its peak in terms of power and affluence. Muslims as well as Europeans also viewed him as an important leader in the world (Atıl and Arifi 309). The Ottoman Empire military experienced a great expansion to the east and west during his reign. Suleyman also gave out threats of overrunning the center of Europe by himself. He embarked on an extensive cultural, complemented with architectural projects in Constantinople. Istanbul, established in the middle of the sixteenth century, remained architecturally the most active and innovative city in the world. Suleyman was a clever military strategist, shrewd politician, and an arts cultivator. He sponsored many artists, religious thinkers together with philosophers who surpassed the most educated

Tokugawa

Ieyasu Tokugawa founded modern Tokyo after accepting the shogun title from the emperor in the year 1603. This was preceded by the country gaining peace in 1600 with law codes issued under his name underpinning its composition. Majority of Daimyo had affirmed their loyalty to Ieyasu, and Tokugawa estates, which comprised of a quarter of Japan’s farmland and made him a supreme Daimyo (Gordon 389). The authority of Tokugawa against other Daimyo was merged by leaving their wives and families and becoming permanent Edo hostages. This meant that they were in a position to attend the shoguns in the capital after every second year.

Despite Daimyo being unchallenged rulers in their estates, they were afraid of Tokugawa, who could seize them as punishment. The emperors used to live in lavish powerlessness in Kyoto that was financially supported and watched by Tokugawa. The society was divided into four classes of samurai, merchants, farmers, and artisans. These had restricted contact with the world beyond Japan for stability preservation. There was standardization of measures for coins and weights. In addition, there was improvement of road networks, comprehensive legal codes, and issuing of admonitions. Tokugawa peace and continuous rich Daimyo traffic to and from Edo made Japan to become prosperous. It also made the country to be one of the most refined pre-modern commercial societies. However, the resulting population explosion surpassed the natural resources; hence prompting a prevalent peasant unrest. The firm Tokugawa administration, which had surrounded the shogun with advisers, hindered response to rising colonialist encroachment. In the end, pro-imperial radicals found in remote Daimyo realm in Western Japan reconciled against Tokugawa over lordship and overthrew the dynasty during the Meiji Restoration. Later, the 15th Tokugawa shogun collapsed in the year 1868, and joined the new Meiji aristocracy as a member.

Saint Domingue Uprising

The Saint Domingue rebellion remained a new type of slave uprising, which revolutionaries claimed was already emancipated and was also known as the Haitian revolution. It was different from other revolutions experienced before because of its violent and bloody character in fighting for independence. Many people were killed since several nations took in the revolt. The Haitian revolution was different from others because of the social cataclysms that accompanied the uprising. The old Saint Domingue collapsed prompting a new social and political entity to develop in the new state establishment. The revolution produced a political reorganization by destroying the social foundations and condensed the entire social superstructure from its original rudiments (Garrigus 199). Slaves fighting mainly for their right to own themselves accomplished all these changes. They were complemented by men who felt that they were half-free and wanted the other half of liberty, which was French citizenship right. The Haitian revolution remained a symbol of significance and gave optimism to the surrounding Caribbean colonies.

Works Cited

“The Dutch East-India Company and Accounting for Social Capital at the Dawn of Modern Capitalism 1602-1623.” The Dutch East-India Company and Accounting for Social Capital at the Dawn of Modern Capitalism 1602-1623. (2012). Print.

Atıl, Esin, and Arifi. Süleymanname: The Illustrated History of Süleyman the Magnificent. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1986. Print.

Garrigus, John D. Before Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French Saint-Domingue. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Print.

Gordon, Andrew. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print.

Walford, Cornelius. “An Outline History of the Hanseatic League, More Particularly in Its Bearing Upon English Commerce.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 9 (1881). Print.

Question 2

Study of Modern Imperialism to Understand Economic Globalization Skeptics

The study of contemporary imperialism is significant in helping individuals understand the reasons some countries, which were colonies remained suspicious of economic globalization. The countries that endured colonization are skeptical and cautious on revolutionary globalization issues. Whilst normally acknowledging the fact that the recent decades have experienced a substantial intensification of international interdependence, skeptics interpretations tend to dispute the novelty (Held and Anthony 234). The degree of modern global interdependence is significantly exaggerated with a spatial concentration of actual nature patterns. This is highlighted in terms of economic interdependence, which insists that globalization is mainly an incident largely associated with the major OECD states (Shaikh 290).

In addition, such sates are the main architects of an open and liberal international economy. The dismissing of a united global economy by skeptics emphasizes that the world seems to be breaking up into many major economic as well as political blocs in which different capitalism forms have continued to thrive (Kim 345). The stress on footloose capital as well as a new global capitalist structure has been overstated and so has the welfare state decline. Instead of a new world order, it is evident that the post Cold War worldwide system has experienced a return of the old style of geo-politics coupled with neo-imperialism. This has helped the most powerful countries and social forces to consolidate their universal dominance. In assuming the current novelty, skeptics’ position indicates that the hyperactive globalists have ignored the continuous dominance of national power and autonomy (Mandle 322).

Works Cited

Held, David, and Anthony G. MacGrew. The Global Transformations Reader: An Introduction to the Globalization Debate. Cambridge [etc.: Polity, 2003. Print.

Kim, Nam-Kook. Globalization and Regional Integration in Europe and Asia. Farnham, England: Ashgate, 2009. Internet resource.

Mandle, Jay R. Democracy, America, and the Age of Globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Print.

Shaikh, Anwar. Globalization and the Myths of Free Trade: History, Theory, and Empirical Evidence. London: Routledge, 2007. Print.