Essay on World History Since 1500

“A Mexican Textile Factory,” in Stearns, Peter N. , Stephen S. Gosch , Erwin P. Grieshaber, and Allison Scardino Belzer. Documents in World History, Volume 2, The Modern Centuries: From 1500 to the Present. 6th. Pearson Education (US), 2011. 83-85.

Introduction of World History Since 1500

            I have taken both primary sources from the book “Documents in World History, Volume 2, The Modern Centuries: From 1500 to the Present”. The main reason for choosing these sources was their similar kind of topic, which is to discuss the unfortunate fate of poor Indians, working as laborers and slaves for the rich. Both topics are connected in a way that both are discussing how people with power and authority have abused poor Indian workers, and how they were being deprived of their basic rights. It also shows how people having power can get carried away with their ability to abuse others, rather thinking to facilitate those, who are poor and less privileged in the society.

Analysis of the First Document of World History Since 1500

            The author of the sourcebook is Stearns, Peter N. , Stephen S. Gosch , Erwin P. Grieshaber, and Allison Scardino Belzer. They have written all the topics and primary sources of this book including the first document selected for this analysis, titled “The Potosi Mine and Indian Forced Labor in Peru.” But it is unknown, and not mentioned in the book, who is the actual author of this excerpt. There is no indication about the real author, who produced this primary source. However, when I read this excerpt more carefully, I think the basic purpose of the author is to discuss the idea of the author is to reflect on the powerful people, like how they tend to use their powers to abuse poor and underprivileged people. It is hard to measure, why powerful people act like this, but history is full of such cases, where powerful people abusing with their power to suppress the poor people, who can’t do anything.

            Looking at this excerpt, it is not easy to define the audience of this topic. The readers can vary in so many ways, and it is only known to authors of actual text, like who was being targeted by them as the audience. However, it is being a history-related book, and primary sources are also discussing the events and facts from the history, it can be said that intended audience for this excerpt is historians, and people who are interested in reading history with all its perspectives so that they can get a clear view of history, increasing their knowledge.

In this particular source, different ideas or themes are being discussed by the author, who produced this original work. The first idea is showing how powerful people when they have authority and power in their hands can use it to suppress the people, who are weaker in status. They tend to abuse others with their power. In an ideal state of affairs, the poor people should be given their basic rights, and if powerful people use them for their work or anything else, then they should take care of them as well. But the second idea of this excerpt shows that powerful people don’t go for an ideal thing, rather they use authority to keep poor people suppressed and frightened so that they can never stand up against them. The third idea which is more important in my views is the fact regarding the weakness of poor people. In this excerpt, it was evident that poor Mita of Indian workers working in mines were abused in so many ways, but they were not standing up for their rights. If they would have shown some courage to stand up, it could have put powerful people on the back-foot.

Analysis of the Second Document of World History Since 1500

            The second primary source being analyzed in this paper is “A Mexican Textile Factory,” It is important to mention here that similarly like the first document, the actual author of this excerpt is also not mentioned anywhere. So, it cannot be identified here again, who wrote this original primary text, which is taken by the authors of this book. Regardless, who is the original author of this document, it is vital to say that it is another important document from world history, which is discussing some issues, which were persisting in that old era. I can say that slavery is not present in the present world in a proper form, which existed in history in so many ways. So, the basic purpose of this document is to discuss slavery and abuse of those poor Indian slaves and workers, who were deprived of their basic rights in their lives, even if they were working so much for the privileged class.

            Same as the first document, it can be said for this document as well that it is written for the intended audience of historians, and the people who have their interest in world history. The people who love to read world history, and analyze its variety of perspectives, they tend to like such documents from history, which give an idea of the world, how people used to live, earn, and stay together. How powerful and privileged class acted in the past, and how poor people were struggling with their lives.

            In this document, the author is trying to work on different themes and ideas, which are so relatable to the real lives of people in any given context. The first major idea of this excerpt is quite sad to analyze, as it talks about poor Indian workers, who used to work in woolen mills, weaving a great quality cloth. The owner of these mills not only take profits of this work, but they are also the privileged class, who wear these finest quality woven clothes, where Indian workers can’t even think to wear such expensive clothes. The second major theme of this document is that poor people are involved in facilitating the powerful mill owners and giving them great profits, but what they get in rewards, basically nothing; rather they are being abused in a variety of ways. The third major theme of this document is that if poor people cannot stand up for their own rights, and if they will not stop powerful people from abusing them, then no one else is going to save them. The powerful people will continue to abuse poor Indian workers until they give them a threat of some sort.

Connecting the Two Documents of World History Since 1500

            If I look at the context and themes of both documents, they are very much similar in their actual concepts. I cannot found any considerable difference in both documents, other than their facts. The first major similarity of the document is showing how powerful people are enjoying their power. For instance, it is said on page 83 in the first document “The Potosi Mine and Indian Forced Labor in Peru” that “the mine owners on this massive range have a right to the mita of 13,300 Indians in the working”. The similar authority of privileged class is mentioned in the second document at page 84, and it is said about the poor Indian workers that “To keep their mills supplied with labor for the production of cloth and grograms, they maintain individuals who are engaged and hired to ensnare poor innocents” The second similarity of the document is showing how poor workers are being abused by powerful people. It is said in the first document at page 83 that “After each has eaten his ration, they climb up the hill, each to his mine, and go in, staying there from that hour until Saturday evening without coming out of the mine” It is so cruel to keep poor workers in the mine for a whole week. The second document has shown this abuse of power on page 84 by saying that “they get him into the mill, once inside, they drop the deception, and the poor fellow never gets outside that prison until he dies”. This is how poor Indian workers were being abused and treated by people in power.