Timeline Essay: Greed in Explorations
By Anonymous
Time Period
During the scientific revolution, in 1768 expeditions like that of James Cook began departing England (Harari,2015). They visited many islands in the Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand and returned to England with many new resources (Harari,2015).
Resource Characteristics
Cooks’ expedition came back with many material goods, but also with new knowledge, conquered lands, and new diseases like scurvy (Harari,2015). Conquered lands gave England access to new lands both for crops and their growing populations. New fertile lands were able to produce more crops than the depleted soils in England that had been starved of nutrients. With a growing population, new lands also gave citizens a place to spread out and further grow England’s total population. New knowledge led to new inventions that helped people do their everyday tasks more quickly and with less effort. It also led to further desire of wealth, which in turn led to more expeditions.
Governance characteristics
Many of these expeditions were because people in command desired more wealth. With the increased desire for wealth also came the increased desire for power. At this time wealthier people and the people in charge were desperate for power, so expeditions like Cooks gave them exactly what they desired and encouraged more to occur. These trips were valuable to both egos and to the economy.
Social Context
Not everything was beneficial coming from these trips. Many men came back with disease. One of which was scurvy that caused men to become lethargic, have teeth fall out, and become jaundiced (Harari,2015). This led to many deaths and decreases in the population. With no definitive cure it led to fewer expeditions. When it was eventually discovered that scurvy was due to a vitamin C deficiency, it was once again safer to embark on these long expeditions (Harari,2015). It also led to a social change in sailors who took up Cooks nautical diet eating lots of fruits and vegetables while in ports (Harari,2015).
Environmental Interactions
When Cook acquired new lands it also allowed new land to grow crops on. This depleted the natural environment of these areas to make way for agricultural development. Without proper precaution and use of the land this depletes the soil of nutrients. This makes it very difficult for anything to grow. This essentially makes the land useless and is very harmful to the surrounding environment.
Outcome
My loopy module begins with the strong desire for wealth in society. It goes through all my characteristics with some fluctuations, but ends with large population size, increased profits, more desire for wealth, and new inventions and medicines. Desire for wealth in society greatly encouraged the scientific revolution and imperialism. Without it we may have stuck to our traditional ways of society and never changed our behaviors.
Citations
Harari, Y. N. (2015). Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Harper Collins.
Loopy Model
The Exploration of Christopher Columbus
By Jared Tankel
This event took place around the beginning of the Scientific Revolution, starting in 1492 and continued for the following 5-10 years. The exploration of Columbus was the cause of a lot of wealth and prosperity for the Spanish empire, as they were the ones who sponsored him(Harari, 2015). Some of the resource units that Columbus found that contributed to this wealth were gold, silver, sugar, tobacco, and other foreign goods. Not to mention the fact that Columbus and his crew took some of the indigenous people as slaves, which benefitted Columbus and his crew, but not the Natives(Harari, 2015).
One key element of the expeditions of Columbus was that they led to the rise of the system that we know today as “credit.” Columbus convinced Queen Isabella to invest in his exploration. He made it to the Americas, which resulted in an incredibly large return on investment for the Queen. This led to other wealthier individuals being more willing to invest in riskier tasks, as the potential for humongous rewards had been proven to exist. This then led to the English also investing large amounts in ships through joint-stock companies. What these companies did was take only a small amount of money from each investor, resulting in much less risk being taken by each individual investor(Harari, 2015). This resulted in money being able to be raised much easier, especially for expeditions requiring large amounts of capital.
One thing that played a key role would have to be demographic trends, especially during the 1500s. People wanted to invest in well spoken, educated, primarily white individuals who were able to clearly articulate a vision, and this mostly rings true today as well. When comparing different options, people often have some sort of subconscious bias, even if they don’t realize it. Something else impacted by credit would have to be political stability. In 1568, the Dutch revolted against and overthrew their Spanish overlord. They managed this by using credit to basically hire a large force of mercenaries to fight for them, even though they couldn’t afford it in straight cash(Harari, 2015). They were able to have so much money in credit because of the reputation that they had built over the years. They were known for always paying back on time and having courts that benefitted the correct party, rather than the king always being right, since the Dutch courts are a completely separate branch of government(Harari, 2015).
Of course, this all starts with the human environment interactions all the way back with Columbus. Columbus took money from the government, went to a mostly undiscovered wilderness, and began promptly destroying the environment. While getting the riches from the Americas, Columbus didn’t magically make them appear on his ship. He had to chop down trees, move the indigenous people, and generally make the environment a worse place.
The outcome of the system is that everyone partaking in the system of credit benefits from Columbus up. However, the native people and native land that he used for his benefit suffered greatly as a result of his actions.
Works Cited
Harari, Y. N. (2015). Sapiens. Harper
Loopy Model
The Cycle of Discovery
By Anonymous
For the timeline entry assignment, I wish to explore the cycle of advancement seen in the Scientific Revolution and discuss how it correlates with environmental degradation. While the time frame for this revolution is broad, the cycle I wish to discuss began in earnest during the industrial revolution and continues to this day.
The natural stocks explored in my loopy model are humanity’s quality of life, population size, and resource consumption. The governance characteristics exist primarily in the form of regulations. The social settings include an environment in which discovery and progress are prioritized- however, there also exists a desire to stick to the status quo and prevent progress, thus feeding into the cycle of ignorance. Resource policies also play a role, as regulations are implemented to decrease environmental degradation.
For my loopy model, I wanted to focus on the cycle of progress and how it can both contribute to and help mitigate environmental degradation. As discussed in the scientific revolution chapter, the scientific revolution is the discovery of ignorance. As we start from a place of ignorance, we can make discoveries. From this point, there are two options- we can accept that this discovery means our perception of an issue is wrong and pursue knowledge, or we can refuse to believe this discovery and delve back into ignorance. Should we choose to pursue, our intrigue leads us to research, which leads to us obtaining more knowledge, which then leads to us accomplishing things previously deemed impossible. From there, the cycle continues- our new knowledge makes us even more aware of our ignorance, and we aim to correct this through more and more discoveries. However, the second part of this cycle correlates with the environment. These new powers often mean a higher quality of life for humanity, which leads to a bigger population and longer life spans. However, these new powers also mean that more fuel is necessary to sustain this quality of life. All of these factors contribute to a higher resource need, whether it be the need for more food, housing, water, etc., which in turn leads to more environmental degradation. However, not all is lost. As environmental degradation occurs, people strive to mitigate it. This leads to research into the issue, which then leads to knowledge, which then leads to regulations preventing environmental degradation. Furthermore, these new powers can also be used to mitigate environmental degradation as the cycle continues. The outcome leads to a continuous flux between high and low environmental degradation
Citation:
Harari, Y. N. (2015). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Harper.
Loopy Model
Scientific Revolution
By Clay Carver
Prior to around 1500 AD, the average human’s life was quite straightforward. They would work, take care of their family, and any questions they had about the world would be answered by the church. Around 1500 AD, this average life was changed on a major scale because humans began to thirst for knowledge (Harari, 2018). Of course, there has always been great free-thinkers who bring us new inventions, but this was a scientific revolution on a global scale. European monarchs began investing more money into scientific research and this led to imperialism worldwide. This revolution led to many great discoveries such as microbiology and gravity, but this shift also led to the destruction of the Aztec empire and the first nuclear bomb being dropped.
The resource I will be discussing is not tangible, but it is knowledge. There are many factors that affect the amount of knowledge known to humans in 1500, but the main driver at the time was wealth. There was a thirst for knowledge in this time period, but the catalyst for all this change was financial gain for the ruling class. The only reason that Columbus made it to the Americas was because the king of Spain thought he could accumulate wealth from this trip. This thirst for wealth unintentionally started the downfall of the Aztec empire, and eventually led to the creation of one of the wealthiest countries in our world’s history, the United States. This quest for new land and knowledge was heavily influenced by the environment of European cities. The cities were overcrowded with people which led to widespread poverty and disease such as the black plague which had ravaged Europe not long before 1500 (Harari, 2018). People wanted a new world and this revolution of exploration and scientific discovery allowed them to push the boundaries of what humans thought was possible. At the same time, this push for knowledge also resulted in heavy degradation of our natural world over the last 500 years. As you can see, with every step the human race has taken, there has always been negative consequences for the health of our planet.
Citations:
Harari, Y. N. (2018). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Harper Perrenial.
Loopy Model
Scientific Revolution and its Relationship with Capitalism & Imperialism (1500-present day)
By Anonymous
The scientific revolution played a significant role influencing and transforming society into what we know it as today. As Harrari describes it, all of this technological advancement was thanks to the acceptance of ignorance. Previously, various society’s depended on finding answers through their belief in religion. However, with the discovery of new land, such as the Americas by Columbus, a new door opened causing numerous individuals to ask themselves questions and to accept that they did not know everything. Back then, scientific research and technological development were two separate concepts. People would test things based on a trial and error process, making it difficult for any actual technological development to occur. The shift from this practice to empirical research, that tried to help explain what people did not know, was caused by an “alliance between science, European empires, and the economics of capitalism.” (Harari, 180)
In order for scientific research to grow, Capitalism and Imperialism were two primary governance systems that needed to occur. Scientific research is a very expensive process, so it is “shaped by economic, political and religious interest.” (Harari, 195) These different interests are primary reasons as to why businesses and governments would fund scientific research during this time. Imperialists would fund scientific research in order to make it easier to conquer and understand new land. In return, they would fund the projects of their researchers. As for businesses and capitalists, they would fund scientific researchers in the hopes of increasing the profit. The use of scientific research would allow capitalists to practice more cost efficient practices helping them earn more money.
As these scientific researchers got funded it resulted in the development of new weapons, medical advancement, agricultural advancement, and newer technology. All of these advancements affect various natural resource units such as natural resources, population, and food production. The political and economic setting that played a role was market incentives and political stability. In order for capitalism to be strong enough to fund research projects, market incentives had to have been in place during that time. If a scientific project would lead to the possible earning of more profits (market incentive) than more and more business capitalists would invest. As for political stability, empires and nations had to be politically stable in order to properly fund research and exploration projects. If a country were falling apart, then any form of technological advancement would be slowed down.
As previously mentioned, capitalism and imperialism influenced the growth of scientific research during the scientific revolution. As scientific research received funding, there were more technological advancement, medical advancement, weapons, and agricultural development. The development of new technology such as tractors, railway systems, and mining wells made it easier and faster to extract natural resources. This would then deplete natural resources at a faster rate, leading to a decrease in biodiversity and then habitat loss. Medical and agricultural advancement increased the population, respectively, people were able to live longer and food production increased to meet demand. However, with an increase in population disease spreads more easily, decreasing the population. In addition, with the development of newer weapons, war increased causing the population to decrease. All of these different interactions cause resources and population to fluctuate the most.
Citation:
Harari, Y. N., Purcell, J., & Watzman, H. (2015). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Harper, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers\
Loopy Model
Scientific Revolution Analysis
By Ezra Embrey
Time Period
I wanted to focus on the capitalism portion of the book, this included a large time period but went hand in hand with the scientific revolution and begun around the 1500’s.
Resource characteristics
People’s wellbeing would be a natural stock, this is the amount of peace the everyday person has. However, it is dependent on outside factors such as governance.
Governance
There was a lot of governance systems included in my loopy model. Firstly, I focused on positive aspects of capitalism, this included an urge to discover scientific technologies in order for capitalists to maximize profits, so for example capitalists bioengineered wheat so that it is more hardy, in turn this provided more food and increased everybody’s wellbeing. War was also on the decline because a main reason for war is to gain finance in the form of land (Harari 2015).
However Capitalism has negative aspects. Such as the need for cheap, fast, labor. This results in slavery and in early days, colonization to acquire this cheap labor. This is a loop that occurs to acquire and promote slavery for maximum profits. The slaves suffer, while the capitalist rakes in their money.
Social/economic/political settings or related ecosystems
Yes, capitalism drives people to make money. This results in exploitation for their success. The market incentive is fast money. On the other hand, the market incentivizes people to make products more accessible for everyone. Like how cheap and quick fast food is, while being very calorie dense.
Interaction(s)/Outcomes
I tried to split the model in two sections, The negative and positive aspects of capitalism. When a government converts to capitalism, more scientific research is implemented for financial discovery, this leads to something like accessible health care. Also, bioengineering occurs, such as altering cows’ udders to produce more milk, this leads to more food and increases the average person’s wellbeing, making them less volatile to partake in war, however animal well-being is decrease because of the genetic exploitation in their cow udder size increase.
In the loopy model, the color red, are the negative aspects of capitalism. Cheap and fast labor results in a loop of increasing slavery, colonization, and intense labor as I explained prior.
Citation
Harari, Y. N. (2015). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Harper.
Loopy Model
Science and Imperialism
By Lani O’Foran
Prior to European imperialism, societies did not want to explore the unknown because religion explained it (Harari, 2018). Previous empire’s conquests were done solely for wealth, power, and naming lands in the name of their monarchy (Harari, 2018). The event of the western world merging science and imperialism began in 1500. People started to “acknowledge ignorance,” which inspired them to explore and conquer the outside world. This allowed them to gain knowledge that they did not possess. European imperialism was incredibly successful because the “geography, climate, flora, fauna, languages, cultures, and history” of desired communities was studied. This gave imperialists an advantage. An example of this is the Spaniard’s conquest of the Aztec Empire. Hernán Cortés was able to divide the empire from the inside. He traveled to city-states, such as Tlaxcala and Cempoala, where the populations resented the Aztecs. These communities eagerly agreed to collaborate with the Spaniards to take over the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán (Juanita Carillo, 2021). Unbeknownst to them, they were about to experience a “racist and greedy” regime that was worse than the Aztecs (Harari, 2018).
Europeans began to conquest many places by possessing much knowledge on communities. Many of the conquested areas did not know an outside world even existed. They were too busy with local quarrels that they had no desire to explore. This brought a doom to their populations because they did not prepare themselves for what was coming (Harari, 2018). There were more unsuspecting issues introduced as well. Diseases such as smallpox and measles were spread from the Europeans to the native populations. Native populations had never been exposed to these diseases before. Therefore they had no protections against falling ill and dying. Natives were also forced into slavery. They had to extract desired natural resources and work on plantations in harsh conditions. Those who refused to comply were killed mercilessly. The rest were wiped out by sickness or from the harsh working conditions (Harari, 2018). The natural resources of conquered lands suffered as well. Precious metals were reduced from continuous mining. Imperialists left populations in disarray and moved to other unsuspecting communities when the monetary assets, slavery and gold, were depleted.
Bibliography
Harari Yuval Noah. (2018). The Marriage of Science and Empire. In Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. essay, Harper Perennial.
Juanita Carrillo, K. (2021, May 20). How Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztec empire. History.com. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://www.history.com/news/hernan-cortes-conquered-aztec-empire
Loopy Model