So it's been a while...but I'm back and better than ever. Taking another cue from current events my current focus has been on the economic woes of the United States. In my US history class we've been discussing the populist movement, the political movement of the "people" in response to the excesses of wealth in the late 19th century. The farmers were right! ..but they didn't win. The country could not survive without them, and even so they still fell victim to exploitation. Fast forward to the 1920s. The farmers problems had been addressed by presidents such as TR, Taft, and Wilson. Then came the backlash - no more government handouts! On to the Roaring 20s and a laissez faire approach to economic policy. Once again, the farmers were forgotten and this ultimately led to the crash in 1929. There have been some more scares over the years, but the government has since gotten involved in the economy like never before. Today government has been easing off...and what has been the result? Recession? Speculation? Greed? Well, greed is always there...but once again, there seems to be no "base" to support the massive upside down pyramid that is the distribution of wealth.
If you don't know what I'm talking about or what you're reading - fear not, I think I've gone off on some large tangential rant! But I think this relates somehow to the spread of Islam. Merchants. Trade. The middle class. Without this group there seems to be turmoil. The growth of Islam led the rise of Golden Ages. Wealth and prosperity. Rome collapsed without a middle class. As did the Han. (The French Revolution seems to be the anomaly...with the middle class actually causing the collapse of the French monarchy). Did Islam help develop a middle class for the world???
YOUR THOUGHTS???!!!
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This is an ACADEMIC BLOG - the sole purpose is to discuss issues within world history and any connections to the present.
5 comments:
mr. Shrinsky-
looking at your post, I completely agree with your idea that the spread of Islam helped lead to the rise of a middle class, trade, and golden ages in various societies. Since Islam greatly valued merchents, many Muslims became merchents, and considered it a worthy trade. Therefore, as islam spread across Eurasia and Africa through military conquests and interactions between societies, trade rose and the middle class did as well. Now, there were a group of people between the ruling families and the poor peasants, because they did not have to create their own food due to their wealth, which was much greater then those of the peasants, as well as the power they held over the famers. I guess you could almost view it as a cycle-as trade increased( due to the spread of Islam) more people became merchents, causing a middle class to emerge. Then, foriegn items would become more in demand, causing trade to increase even more, and the middle class to then get larger and more powerful...
I agree with Chelsea: trade & Islam's value of merchants were key in the creation of a middle class during ancient times. Here and now in the US, we have a middle class, though as Mr. S mentioned, wealth is unevenly distributed throughout our hierarchy. However, could the US suffer from a developing lower class? Though farmers would probably make up this lower class, they are getting replaced with factories and our ever changing technologies, which develop all social classes. Here, I believe that we think as lower classmen as minorities: in short, immigrants. Will trade with other countries effect our middle class as it did in ancient times? And how will immigration effect our lower classes?
I agree with Lauren.
Due to the large amount of intelligent people that agreed and even as chagrined as I am to say it, i would have to agree as well. Yet, is it still possible that the LONE merchants of the Islamic world created the middle class? I realize thats not the question, but still I do fully support that the Islam legitimized merchants and traders, allowing for the middle class to emerge. After all, religion was the basis of life in the younger years of sophisticated humans.
SHRINSKAYYYYYYYYYYY
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