25 DEC 2023 · Over the course of the eighteenth century, a series of famines and economic crises deepened wealth inequality and narrowed access to political power on both sides of the Atlantic. As the growing influence of the public sphere and Enlightenment ideas of equality and liberty shaped opposition to colonial and monarchical privilege, the century concluded with a series of revolutionary movements and the adoption of novel democratic systems. The American Revolution, which initiated the revolutionary era, launched the foundation of the newly formed United States of America but established a paradoxical model of political liberty that coexisted with the institution of slavery. Inspired by the colonists’ victory over the British monarchy, those who led the French Revolution established a political model based on principles of democratic rights and equality, but they faced significant challenges due to political factionalism and ongoing economic crises. The Haitian Revolution resulted in the most radical break from the past by toppling the French colonial government, successfully challenging the institution of slavery, and creating the new nation of Haiti. However, Haiti faced long-term economic challenges after France imposed an independence debt on the fledgling nation in 1825. Although these revolutions reflected a variety of political aims and consequences, each radically reshaped the political landscape of the Atlantic world by challenging traditional models of monarchical privilege and calling into question long-standing disparities in wealth and access to political power. All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/7-3-revolutions-america-france-and-haiti Welcome to A Journey into Human History. This podcast will attempt to tell the whole human story. The content contained in this podcast was produced by OpenStax and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/1-introduction Podcast produced by Miranda Casturo as a Creative Common Sense production.

22 DEC 2023 · Over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the public sphere became an increasingly important component in the spread and development of Enlightenment ideas. As networks of informal socialization and intellectual exchange, coffeehouses provided a setting in which people from all social backgrounds who had the luxury of leisure could share ideas and opinions without fear of punishment from the state or church. Salons likewise served as important centers of philosophical discussion. They also enabled the small number of women from the upper and middle classes who hosted them to play leadership roles in the Enlightenment, though guests from less privileged backgrounds were generally excluded. Along with the emergence of academies, print shops and a flourishing long-distance community of writers, salons and coffeehouses ensured the development of a public sphere that stimulated the free and open exchange of Enlightenment ideas. All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/7-2-the-exchange-of-ideas-in-the-public-sphere Welcome to A Journey into Human History. This podcast will attempt to tell the whole human story. The content contained in this podcast was produced by OpenStax and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/1-introduction Podcast produced by Miranda Casturo as a Creative Common Sense production.

20 DEC 2023 · The eighteenth century marked the beginning of a new spirit of intellectual exchange in Europe known as the Enlightenment. Inspired by the Scientific Revolution’s spirit of critical thinking, the ideas of the Italian Renaissance, and the legacy of Muslim, Greek, and Indian scientific foundations, the Enlightenment centered on the role of reason and generated a newfound optimism in philosophical principles such as liberty, rights, and the rejection of tyranny. Such ideals inspired many members of the upper and middle classes in western Europe to question the legitimacy of traditional laws, political systems, and religious teachings. Although the Enlightenment established important foundations for the defense of human rights, its reach was limited to a relatively small elite. Despite its emphasis on ideals of freedom and liberty, it coexisted with the oppressive institutions of slavery and colonialism. All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/7-1-the-enlightenment Welcome to A Journey into Human History. This podcast will attempt to tell the whole human story. The content contained in this podcast was produced by OpenStax and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/1-introduction Podcast produced by Miranda Casturo as a Creative Common Sense production.

18 DEC 2023 · Mechanization and industrialization, motivated and enabled by capitalism, created tremendous wealth for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century business owners and middle-class professionals, but their profits often came at a high cost to workers. The production of goods shifted from the handiwork of highly skilled middle-class artisans to mechanized production done by low-paid unskilled laborers. Workers did enjoy access to new consumer goods made cheaper by industrialization, but to afford those goods they had to work long hours, in difficult and often dangerous conditions. Perhaps most importantly, workers lost control over their working conditions. Karl Marx and his followers responded to the worst excesses of capitalism by proposing a new theory that became known as Marxism. Marx argued that the bourgeoisie, members of a social class that owned the means of production, were primarily motivated by the desire to exploit labor and keep the excess value wage earners produced in order to buy political influence. Eventually the capitalist system would collapse and workers reclaim control of society. Marx argued that the struggle between classes was the root of all historical conflicts. He predicted that society would eventually replace current economic systems with socialism, a system in which the public, not private companies or individuals, owns the means of production. All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/6-3-capitalism-and-the-first-industrial-revolution Welcome to A Journey into Human History. This podcast will attempt to tell the whole human story. The content contained in this podcast was produced by OpenStax and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/1-introduction Podcast produced by Miranda Casturo as a Creative Common Sense production.

15 DEC 2023 · The Seven Years’ War (1754–1763) established a new balance of power in Europe in which Britain emerged as the dominant empire. The French surrendered their imperial possessions in North America and India to Britain, while the Spanish surrendered Florida and the French gave control of the Louisiana Territory to Spain. The Peace of Hubertusburg guaranteed Prussian control of Silesia and confirmed Prussia’s status as a major force in Europe. The British East India Company provided the British with a strong basis of military and economic power in south Asia; it and Britain both benefited economically from their colonial control of India. In China, the Qing dynasty’s leaders completed new trade treaties with foreign nations, including the Treaty of Kyakhta (1727) with Russia, and improved trading relationships with Japan, the nations of Southeast Asia, and the Philippines. Under the Canton system, China increased its trade with Europe and improved its economy, while rejecting most European trade goods and insisting on payment in silver, acquiring a very favorable balance of trade. European colonialism did not go unopposed. In Africa, the Ndongo battled the Portuguese, the Khoisan and Xhosa fought the Dutch, and the Asante opposed British expansion. In both India and China, people took up arms against Britain. Ironically, some of the strongest opposition to the role of Great Britain came from its own colonies in North America, where economic dissatisfaction led to a declaration of independence. All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/6-2-the-rise-of-a-global-economy Welcome to A Journey into Human History. This podcast will attempt to tell the whole human story. The content contained in this podcast was produced by OpenStax and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/1-introduction Podcast produced by Miranda Casturo as a Creative Common Sense production.

13 DEC 2023 · European settlers in North America were a diverse group with a wide array of motives. Many Spaniards came as part of a broader search for “God, Gold, and Glory.” French settlers also hoped to find wealth, although they were more likely than other Europeans to cooperate with rather than exploit Indigenous peoples, whom they saw as economic allies. The Virginia Company of England founded Jamestown in an effort to gain wealth, while English Puritans founded communities they hoped would earn profits while also promoting their religious ideology. Native peoples responded to European colonization in a variety of ways. In Mexico, the Aztecs fought the Spanish and were destroyed, while the Tlaxcalans, who collaborated with the Spanish against the Aztecs, enjoyed greater status and economic opportunities in the Spanish Empire as a result. All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/6-1-european-colonization-in-the-americas Welcome to A Journey into Human History. This podcast will attempt to tell the whole human story. The content contained in this podcast was produced by OpenStax and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/1-introduction Podcast produced by Miranda Casturo as a Creative Common Sense production.

11 DEC 2023 · To extract wealth from their colonies, over the course of the late fifteenth through the early nineteenth centuries, European nations shipped approximately twelve million enslaved African people across the Atlantic Ocean on the Middle Passage. Some ten million arrived alive to satisfy the labor needs of European planters, who grew cash crops like sugar, rice, and tobacco. These agricultural goods were shipped to Europe, and finished products made from them were shipped to Africa to purchase more captives from other Africans. This three-legged exchange made up the triangular trade. The slave trade brought some areas of Africa damaging population losses, and the importation of European goods also harmed African industries. The majority of enslaved people labored in the Caribbean and Brazil growing sugar. The work was hard and dangerous, and many died. Nevertheless, enslaved people established ties with one another and found ways to maintain their human dignity and aspects of their culture. Europeans profited immensely from their labor, and many industries were enriched by either the slave trade or the sugar production that depended on it. All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/5-4-the-atlantic-slave-trade Welcome to A Journey into Human History. This podcast will attempt to tell the whole human story. The content contained in this podcast was produced by OpenStax and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/1-introduction Podcast produced by Miranda Casturo as a Creative Common Sense production.

8 DEC 2023 · According to mercantilist theory, to achieve power, nations must maximize their store of precious metals by importing as few goods as possible while profitably exporting products to other countries. In embracing the theory, European governments imposed tariffs, granted monopolies, and subsidized industries. They also sought to acquire colonies to supply natural resources and serve as markets for domestically manufactured goods. England, France, and the Netherlands thus joined Spain and Portugal in establishing colonies in the Americas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. From these, they extracted goods such as furs, hides, tobacco, and most profitably sugar. Critics like David Hume and Adam Smith charged that mercantilism led to inflation and harmed consumers. Smith argued that wealth was not finite, that all nations could prosper, and that the economy should be regulated naturally by competition among producers rather than being managed by governments. All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/5-3-the-mercantilist-economy Welcome to A Journey into Human History. This podcast will attempt to tell the whole human story. The content contained in this podcast was produced by OpenStax and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/1-introduction Podcast produced by Miranda Casturo as a Creative Common Sense production.

7 DEC 2023 · In the sixteenth century, many European Christians were critical of practices within the Catholic Church. Some scholars in northern Europe had turned to Christian humanism as a means of making people more pious and thus achieving religious reform. Martin Luther, a German monk, began the Protestant Reformation when he publicly objected to the church’s sale of indulgences. Luther was excommunicated, but the printing press enabled his ideas to spread throughout Europe. Luther taught that faith alone was needed for salvation and that scripture was the only source of Christian authority. Luther’s ideas became popular among many, including Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin in Switzerland. Followers of John Calvin, called Calvinists, spread his teachings to the Netherlands, Scotland, France, and England. A variety of Anabaptist churches were also established that rejected infant baptism. In England, Henry VIII rejected the pope’s authority after the pope refused to grant him an annulment. As Protestantism gained adherents, religious wars erupted throughout Europe. The Council of Trent, called by the Roman Catholic Church in 1545, reaffirmed some aspects of church doctrine while also passing reforms that attempted to eliminate some of the problems that led to the Reformation. Wars over religion continued for many years. All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/5-1-the-protestant-reformation Welcome to A Journey into Human History. This podcast will attempt to tell the whole human story. The content contained in this podcast was produced by OpenStax and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/1-introduction Podcast produced by Miranda Casturo as a Creative Common Sense production.

6 DEC 2023 · With the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, Europeans found themselves forced to deal with Muslim middlemen to access the prized goods of South and East Asia. European countries thus began seeking an all-water route to the eastern lands they called the Indies, aided by navigational technologies from the Middle East and motivated by religious zeal and desire for profit. The Portuguese were the first to explore the Atlantic, claiming islands off the coast of Africa and voyaging down its western shore. In 1488, the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa. The Spanish monarchs Isabella I of Castille and Ferdinand II of Aragon financed the voyages of Christopher Columbus, who landed in the Caribbean in 1492 believing it was part of the Indies. He did not find great wealth there, but Spanish exploration continued. Hernán Cortés conquered the wealthy Aztec Empire in Mexico and Francisco Pizarro the silver-rich Inca Empire in Peru. To protect their respective interests, in 1494 Spain and Portugal negotiated the Treaty of Tordesillas, which drew a line through the Atlantic awarding the Americas, with the exception of Brazil, to Spain. Animals, foods, and other resources flowed in both directions along the Columbian Exchange, forever altering the culture and economies of North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Diseases also traveled west with the Europeans and wiped out as much as 95 percent of the Indigenous peoples in the Western Hemisphere. Both Europeans and Indigenous peoples had developed rich, diverse, and vastly different cultures, societies, and religions prior to contact. All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/5-2-crossing-the-atlantic Welcome to A Journey into Human History. This podcast will attempt to tell the whole human story. The content contained in this podcast was produced by OpenStax and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/1-introduction Podcast produced by Miranda Casturo as a Creative Common Sense production.