From: "Rosser Jr, John Barkley" <rosserjb-AT-jmu.edu>
Subject: Re: M-I: AG Frank etc. again
Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 18:36:36 -0500 (Eastern Standard Time)


Jim B.,
     Well there is nothing admirable in my eyes about 
Western European Christianity in 1492.  But it does 
contribute to an explanation as to why they were making 
efforts that people more technically advanced than them 
were not.
     Also, there were plenty of things to loot far to the 
north of Acapulco.  The North American northwest was and is 
a very rich ecosystem, all those temperate rain forests.  
There was gold in Alaska and California, as well as lots of 
other stuff, like the furs the Russians were after.
     Furthermore I think you have given away your key 
geographical argument.  How so are the westerlies of the 
North Pacific less reliable than the easterlies and 
westerlies of the Atlantic?  Again, one can/could get to 
North America from Northeast Asia by simply following the 
coastline, not nearly as difficult as shooting across a 
wide stretch of open ocean.  Of course Columbus partly was 
willing to do this out of ignorance, not having the 
accurage estimates of the size of the earth that the East 
Asians had he really thought he had reached Asia when he 
reached the Americas.  Some times ignorance is bliss.
     BTW, I agree with Mark Jones that developing coal had 
a lot do with the rise of industrial capitalism in Britain. 
But Jim Blaut is right that it was in many other areas and 
the Chinese among others had been using it at least in a 
limited way for a very long time.
Barkley Rosser
On Fri, 6 Feb 1998 20:37:35 -0500 james m blaut 
<70671.2032-AT-CompuServe.COM> wrote:

> Barkley:
> 
> The Koreans would have had to get to Acapulco or thereabouts in order to
> find something worth looting and therefore the basis for an attempt at
> comnquest. Compare the distance with that between the Canaries and the West
> Indies. The Pacific westerlies are not at all reliable as are the
> (tropical) trade winds.
> 
> As to religion, a brief generic comment: One can always find differences
> between Eiuropean civilization/s in 1491 and other civilizations, and the
> "European miracle" historians take each and every one of those differences
> and elevate it to the status of a Reason For the European Miracle. Religion
> falls into that category.
> 
> Jim B  
> 
> 
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-- 
Rosser Jr, John Barkley
rosserjb-AT-jmu.edu




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