Day 70 - What if?
Today in WHAP we had a "What if" discussion.
First, we started off class by choosing what type of discussion we wanted to have. After going around the room, we decided upon an argument consisting of information for the quiz and what ifs of history.
The topic we ended up going with was the one relating what if China hadn't destroyed their naval fleet and continued to sail the Indian Ocean Trade route. The debate started with Garrett, our resident Master Debater, to say how if China had been present than Portugal wouldn't and really couldn't have been as aggressive as they were with the Cartez system. Because of China's superior navy, they would have been intimidated a bit and really, as we talked about later, they wanted to trade with China so they'd have that opportunity now, so they wouldn't have needed to become the pirates that they were.
To elaborate off of that, they really only became pirates because the people of the coast of Africa didn't want to trade with them. These people had superior appliances than the Portuguese, so didn't want their crummy pots and pans, but only wanted their silver. The Portuguese didn't wan't to give away all their silver, so eventually Vasco de Gama realized that he could just take what he wanted from these people, so he turned to violence instead of commerce.
Later in the discussion, Emilio made a point about how even if China hadn't abandoned their naval exploits, he felt that they would have eventually made the same decision later in order to deal with threats on the mainland. I definitely see some merit to this claim, but feel they would have made an impact in the time they shared the seas with Europe.
To finish up this whole discussion, Mr. Profitt had a thought about how neither of the Europeans wanted to fight China as they just wanted to trade with China. He also talked about how the Europeans found silver right when China was in want of Silver, and how there was some large-scale trade between the two.
I realize this entry is a little late, but I haven't really done much today since I'm preparing for our 4-day weekend...it's gonna snow tomorrow. In fact, I'm so confident that I'm completely disregarding any work I have due tomorrow since there's very little point if we don't have school. Looks like I won't need to study for that reading quiz after all! :) Wishful thinking.
With that, the bell rang and we were dismissed. Until Tomorrow!
First, we started off class by choosing what type of discussion we wanted to have. After going around the room, we decided upon an argument consisting of information for the quiz and what ifs of history.
The topic we ended up going with was the one relating what if China hadn't destroyed their naval fleet and continued to sail the Indian Ocean Trade route. The debate started with Garrett, our resident Master Debater, to say how if China had been present than Portugal wouldn't and really couldn't have been as aggressive as they were with the Cartez system. Because of China's superior navy, they would have been intimidated a bit and really, as we talked about later, they wanted to trade with China so they'd have that opportunity now, so they wouldn't have needed to become the pirates that they were.
To elaborate off of that, they really only became pirates because the people of the coast of Africa didn't want to trade with them. These people had superior appliances than the Portuguese, so didn't want their crummy pots and pans, but only wanted their silver. The Portuguese didn't wan't to give away all their silver, so eventually Vasco de Gama realized that he could just take what he wanted from these people, so he turned to violence instead of commerce.
Later in the discussion, Emilio made a point about how even if China hadn't abandoned their naval exploits, he felt that they would have eventually made the same decision later in order to deal with threats on the mainland. I definitely see some merit to this claim, but feel they would have made an impact in the time they shared the seas with Europe.
To finish up this whole discussion, Mr. Profitt had a thought about how neither of the Europeans wanted to fight China as they just wanted to trade with China. He also talked about how the Europeans found silver right when China was in want of Silver, and how there was some large-scale trade between the two.
I realize this entry is a little late, but I haven't really done much today since I'm preparing for our 4-day weekend...it's gonna snow tomorrow. In fact, I'm so confident that I'm completely disregarding any work I have due tomorrow since there's very little point if we don't have school. Looks like I won't need to study for that reading quiz after all! :) Wishful thinking.
With that, the bell rang and we were dismissed. Until Tomorrow!
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