Friday, September 25, 2009

blog entry 3

India never sought its potential. It was never a major trader of the seas, and it really stayed to itself. Because of it's location, however, India was always very involved in trade. It jutted out of the land which broke up the Indian Ocean. This allowed India to be a large trader because people were always going through it. People came to India to trade, so they really did not care that much about being a huge naval trader. Unfortunately the lack of protection India had really hurt them. Traders were always coming in and attacking them because of their lack of force and protection. This really hindered India's chance at ever becoming a great world power.
Weather had a great impact on Indian trade seasons. Hurricanes and winds in the ocean made it impossible at some times of the year to sail through the ocean and especially to India. The trade was very dependent on the weather patterns. But, the countries had found out what times are safe to travel. The bad times to travel were deadly, ships get swept up and destroyed.

It is interesting that India never became the greatest it could have been. With its size and population, it had the looks of being extremely powerful. The lack of protection of India's land seriously hurt it and truly caused the fall of it's trade. The weather seasons also hurt it because it was not a major trader all-year-round.

Why do you think India never tried to become powerful, even when they had the chance?

6 comments:

  1. In the middle of the 18th century, the British East India Company imposed heavy duties on both the imports and exports on the Indian merchants. This prevented merchants from Asian countries from coming to the eastern provinces for trading. Indian textiles to England was completely banned. The company monopolized India's foreign trade so much that Indian traders started to look elsewhere for other jobs.

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  2. This is a good point by Dominique and I agree that the East India Company was the reason Asian nations were unable to gain dominance. The sanctions placed on trade made it impossible for India along with other Asian countries to compete in the foreign trade market.

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  3. That is a very interesting argument by Dominique. That explained why India was not too aggressive and risk taking during trade in the thirteenth century. Those actions against India made it harder for India to develop important and necessary relation with their Asian subsystems. Furthermore, weather (moonsoons) was an impact as well. The moonsoon guide made it possible for Indian merchants to trade. Natural disasters and the black death plague was also factors for the Indian fall. Even though India had the chance, they did not become powerful because they were content in their wealth and happy with their situation. India's geographical location was imperative in their passiveness in world system trade.

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  4. Interesting argument, certainly. In the future, try to develop it a little more!

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  5. I also found it very interesting that the Muslims were not involved more in trade outside of their main area. I wonder if they could have potentially became a hegemony if they traded with more areas in farther places.

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  6. I don't think that India ever had a reason to become a hegemon. Because of India's prime location and the fact that they were self-sufficient and wealthy, they didn't have a need to try to develop an empire so become a dominant world power. Based on my believing this, I don't believe that India ever tried to become a world power even when they may have been able to establish themselves as a dominant force in the world.

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