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International Interdependence. The Evolution of Global Trade. Self Sufficiency. A community (or country) is self-sufficient when it provides everything its people need to live. Food, clothing, shelter, and water (basic needs) can be provided without relying on anyone else.
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International Interdependence The Evolution of Global Trade
Self Sufficiency A community (or country) is self-sufficient when it provides everything its people need to live. Food, clothing, shelter, and water (basic needs) can be provided without relying on anyone else.
Hunted and gathered their own food. • Made their clothes from the skins of animals they ate. • Passed down skills for making weapons, shelters, tools, canoes, etc. • (Basic needs were satisfied; They were self-sufficient.)
What basics would one buffalo provide a family in a self-sufficient society?
Communes • Some people today wish to live as self-sufficient as possible. There are groups of people, throughout the world, living in communes or intentional communities. • Intentional communities include ecovillages, student co-ops, and housing cooperatives. • (Commune = Communal Living / Working)
Los Horcones In October of 1973, a group of people interested in the prevention and solution of personal and social problems, founded Los Horcones. This community is based on the principles of cooperation,equality, pacifism (non-violence), sharing and ecological respect (ecological sustainability).
Self sufficiency has been typical of every developing civilization across the globe. • As they travelled longer distances though, different cultures (with different goods) began to come into contact with one another. • Self sufficiency was possible, but was it desirable?
Trade • In Canada, the Huron people were able to grow more corn, beans, squash, and tobacco than they really needed. • Northern peoples were hunters, having hides and furs in abundance.
Through trade, the hunters were able to acquire corn and beans in exchange for hides and furs. (….and vice versa.) • These groups now were interdependent, relying on one another to fulfill certain needs or wants.
Early Trade • 3000 years ago: • China had silk and tea in abundance • India had spices • Camel caravans had figs, scented oils, and rare woods to trade as they travelled across North Africa
The Roman Empire • Merchants came from: • Greece with wine and honey. • Asia Minor with jewels, marble, timber • China with silks and spices • Arabia with glass, dyes, and textiles • Egypt with grain, ivory, and papyrus • Spain with fruit and gold • Britain with tin and copper
The Romans were able to encourage trade by making it easier (and safer) to travel. • http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Roman_Empire_125.png
First Trade Regulations • With the decline of the Roman empire, around 500 a.d., travel became much more dangerous and many communities were forced to become self sufficient again. • During the middle ages (476-1000 a.d.) may communities sprang up around castles, cathedrals, and monasteries.
Local rulers collected taxes from the people that lived around them in exchange for protection. • These ‘feudal’ towns became part of larger provinces and nations. • Economic activity (trade between these towns) was on the rise.
Merchants and craftspeople organized themselves into associations called guilds. • These guilds were very influential in their towns and communities, and they controlled the manufacturing and sale of products made by people of the town.
If you were from another town, and wanted to sell or trade goods, the guilds would make you pay a fee to do so. (a tax) • If your goods would compete with items produced by the guilds, they would tax these items heavily (or encourage their country’s leaders to do so)
Trade and Exploration • In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, and Dutch set out across the Atlantic Ocean to find a westerly route to the spice markets in Asia. • (Spices preserved food, smelled nice, and were used in medicines – an important commodity!)
The journey to India and China was dangerous, expensive, and time consuming for European traders. (But the spice markets beckoned..!) • The belief was, instead of going East, there might be a safer, cheaper, and quicker way if one went West.
1492? • One of the Spanish explorers, Christopher Columbus, claimed the Caribbean islands for Spain in 1942. • (Eventually the Spanish empire included Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, Columbia, Argentina…. still Spanish speaking countries!)
The West Indies (the Caribbean) provided sugar for Spain. • (This also necessitated and initiated the slave trade….. )
Mexico and Central and South America provided gold and silver (some mined, some taken by force from the aboriginal Mayan populations.) • Fish and agricultural products were also sent back to Spain.
The Spanish weren’t alone though… • By the 16th and 17th centuries, France, England, and other European countries were set on claiming territories around the world. • The more gold, silver, and trade goods a country could acquire abroad (through trade or by force), the richer and mightier the country would be.
Key Terms • Self-Sufficient • Communes / Intentional Communities • Interdependent • Guilds
Interdependence Activity • On a piece of paper, write the headings “Item” “Producing Country” Look around the room, at items such as t-shirts, shoes, computers, pencil cases, phones, etc., recording what the item is, and where it is from. Find at least 8!
Activity • Describe briefly at least five changes that would take place in your life if Canada were to become self-sufficient. Think about changes that you would consider positive and others that you would consider negative.
