The Early Explorers

Ecology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter C. Mancall

Early explorers played a crucial role in both ecological transformations in the early modern era (c. 1400–1800) and in scholars’ ability to understand environmental change over time. Christopher Columbus, the most famous explorer in the history of the world, figured prominently in the growing European desire to lay claim to the Western Hemisphere and established a model of explorers who traveled far in the pursuit of gold, God, and glory. But he also solidified the role that explorers played in identifying species and in the initial transportation of biota, which produced a series of far-ranging impacts. Following in the wake of the pioneering work of the environmental historian Alfred Crosby, who developed the concept of the “Columbian Exchange,” scholars have written about the environmental consequences of long-distance travel, primarily (though not exclusively) of Europeans in the period often called the Age of Discovery. As many of these studies have revealed, the development of trade networks that spanned the oceans spurred unprecedented ecological change, including localized species depletion and alterations in climates long before observers such as Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold called attention to detrimental human impact on the environment.

Author(s):  
Manuel Perez-Garcia

ABSTRACTThis monographic issue of theRHE-JILAEHpresents new case studies in order to compare regions of Asia, Europe and the Americas through analysis of global demand for western goods in China (goods of European and American origin) as well as demand eastern goods (of Chinese and Indian origin) in Europe and the Americas. The global circulation of goods included accumulation of American silver in the hands of Chinese merchants and private institutions. Thus, this issue re-evaluates origins of the first globalisation during the 16thcentury, as opposed to the 1820s. Global trade networks and long-distance alliances in Asia, the Americas and Europe date back to the 16thcentury when Manila galleon routes were established.


2014 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 363-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Baysal ◽  
Burçin Erdoğu

The use of marine shells in the manufacture of bracelets and beads is a well-attested phenomenon of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods of Western Anatolia, the Aegean, and the Balkans. The site of Gökçeada-Uğurlu, located on an island in the Aegean between mainland Europe and Anatolia, shows evidence for the manufacture and use of bracelets and beads from Spondylus and Glycymeris shell. This use of personal ornamentation ties the site into one of the widest material culture production and trade networks of the prehistoric period. This article explores the possible role of, and influences on, an island site within the wider context of long-distance exchange. The life history of shell products is investigated, showing that a bracelet may have gone through processes of transformation in order to remain in use. The article also questions whether there was a relationship between the use of marine shell and white marble from which similar products were manufactured in contemporary contexts. In its conclusions the article addresses the value of materials and of the personal ornaments they were used to make.


Author(s):  
Christopher Brooke

This is the first full-scale look at the essential place of Stoicism in the foundations of modern political thought. Spanning the period from Justus Lipsius's Politics in 1589 to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile in 1762, and concentrating on arguments originating from England, France, and the Netherlands, the book considers how political writers of the period engaged with the ideas of the Roman and Greek Stoics that they found in works by Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. The book examines key texts in their historical context, paying special attention to the history of classical scholarship and the historiography of philosophy. The book delves into the persisting tension between Stoicism and the tradition of Augustinian anti-Stoic criticism, which held Stoicism to be a philosophy for the proud who denied their fallen condition. Concentrating on arguments in moral psychology surrounding the foundations of human sociability and self-love, the book details how the engagement with Roman Stoicism shaped early modern political philosophy and offers significant new interpretations of Lipsius and Rousseau together with fresh perspectives on the political thought of Hugo Grotius and Thomas Hobbes. The book shows how the legacy of the Stoics played a vital role in European intellectual life in the early modern era.


Transfers ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 127-130
Author(s):  
Mariana C. Françozo

Located at the old harbor of the city of Genoa, the modern Galata Museo del Mare was inaugurated as part of the commemoration of Genoa as the 2004 European Capital of Culture. Only twelve years later, the museum proudly welcomes 200,000 visitors annually into its twenty-eight galleries, organized in an impressive exhibition space of 10,000 square meters, showcasing 4,300 objects. While the aim of the museum is to tell the maritime history of Genoa—ranging from Christopher Columbus to an open-air space showcasing the story of the Genoese shipyard—it is the exhibition on migration to and from Italy that will truly impress the visitor.


Author(s):  
Maristella Botticini ◽  
Zvi Eckstein

Circa 1000, the main occupations of the large Jewish community in Muslim Spain and of the small Jewish communities in southern Italy, France, and Germany were local trade and long-distance commerce, as well as handicrafts. A common view states that the usury ban on Christians segregated European Jews into money lending. A similar view contends that the Jews were forced to become money lenders because they were not permitted to own land, and therefore, they were banned from farming. This article offers an alternative argument which is consistent with the main features that mark the history of the Jews: the Jews in medieval Europe voluntarily selected themselves into money lending because they had the key assets for being successful players in credit markets. After providing an overview of Jewish history during 70–1492, it discusses religious norms and human capital in Jewish European history, Jews in the Talmud era, the massive transition of the Jews from farming to crafts and trade, the golden age of the Jewish diaspora (ca. 800–ca. 1250), and the legacy of Judaism.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Chris Urwin ◽  
Quan Hua ◽  
Henry Arifeae

ABSTRACT When European colonists arrived in the late 19th century, large villages dotted the coastline of the Gulf of Papua (southern Papua New Guinea). These central places sustained long-distance exchange and decade-spanning ceremonial cycles. Besides ethnohistoric records, little is known of the villages’ antiquity, spatiality, or development. Here we combine oral traditional and 14C chronological evidence to investigate the spatial history of two ancestral village sites in Orokolo Bay: Popo and Mirimua Mapoe. A Bayesian model composed of 35 14C assays from seven excavations, alongside the oral traditional accounts, demonstrates that people lived at Popo from 765–575 cal BP until 220–40 cal BP, at which time they moved southwards to Mirimua Mapoe. The village of Popo spanned ca. 34 ha and was composed of various estates, each occupied by a different tribe. Through time, the inhabitants of Popo transformed (e.g., expanded, contracted, and shifted) the village to manage social and ceremonial priorities, long-distance exchange opportunities and changing marine environments. Ours is a crucial case study of how oral traditional ways of understanding the past interrelate with the information generated by Bayesian 14C analyses. We conclude by reflecting on the limitations, strengths, and uncertainties inherent to these forms of chronological knowledge.


2021 ◽  
pp. 096777202110347
Author(s):  
Gabriel E Andrade

The management of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic will require huge worldwide vaccination efforts. In this endeavour, healthcare workers face the twofold challenge of reaching remote areas, and persuading people to take the vaccine shots. As it happens, this is nothing new in the history of medicine. Health workers can take inspiration from Francisco Xavier Balmis, a Spanish physician of the 19th century who realised the importance of Jenner's vaccine against smallpox, and led a big successful expedition to administer the vaccines in the Spanish colonial possessions of the Western hemisphere and Asia. This article presents a biographical sketch of Balmis, focusing on his expedition.


2020 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-257
Author(s):  
Jan Greitens

AbstractIn the history of economic thought, monetary theories in the Germanspeaking world of the early modern era are considered backward compared to the approaches in other European countries. This backwardness can be illustrated by two authors from the mid-18th century who were not only contemporaries but also successively in the service of Frederick II (“the Great”) of Prussia. The first is Johann Philipp Graumann, one of the 'projectors' of the 18th century. As master of the mints in Prussia, he developed a coin project, where he tried to implement a new monetary standard to promote trade, generate seigniorage income and implement the Prussian coins as a kind of a reserve currency. In his writings, he developed a typical mercantilistic monetary theory with a clear understanding of the mechanism in the balance of payments. But even when he tried to include credit instruments, he did not take banks or broader financial markets into account. The second thinker is Johann Heinrich Gottlob Justi, who took the opposite position concerning the coin project as well as in his theory. He defended a strictly metalistic monetary approach where the value of money is only based on the metal's value. While Graumann rejected the English coin system, Justi recommended its laws for countries without their own mines, because the sovereign should not misuse his right of coinage. For him, the monetary system had tobe reliable and stable to serve trade and economic development.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 197-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
David N. Bengston ◽  
Jim Dator ◽  
Michael J. Dockry ◽  
Aubrey Yee

Forestry and forest products research has entered into a robust research agenda focused on creating nano-sized particles and nanoproducts from wood. As wood-based materials can be sustainably produced, the potential of these renewable products could be limitless and include high-end compostable electronics, paint-on solar panels, and lightweight materials for airplanes and cars. Others warn about potential serious negative health and environmental consequences. Either way, wood-based nanomaterials could disrupt forestry as we know it. This article is a summary and analysis of a collaborative research project exploring the futures of wood-based nanomaterials within the context of the futures of forests and forest management within the United States. We start by describing the history of forestry through the lens of the U.S. Forest Service, then describe nanotechnology in general and wood-based nanocellulose specifically. Next, we outline the Manoa School alternative futures method, and how we used it to design and carry out a “complete futures of x” project. Following the Manoa School approach, we describe four alternative futures for forestry and forest management. We conclude with implications for the future of forestry, forests, and forest-based nanomaterials, as well as a discussion on the implementation of a complete “futures of x” project.


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