The Caribbean History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Caribbean History - Essay Example Dominique, and Cuba, and finally, about the achievements of the Haitian Revolution and its impact on the Caribbean. THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE AND TRIANGULAR TRADE The 16th century saw the beginning of the slave trade in the Caribbean islands. The European importers had started demanding high quantities of sugar, a product of sugarcane which grew easily in the Caribbean’s temperate climate. As a result, the demand for sugar increased which directly increased the demand for labour. The Arawaks, the original slaves employed by the Europeans had started vanishing and so then-friar Bartoleme de las Casas of Hispaniola suggested to enslave the Africans. The slave raiding parties, who were generally endorsed by the local government, performed the task of enslaving the Africans and bringing them to the island. The slave traders then use to auction the slaves in the market and the whites bought them. The whites insisted that the slaves should cut off all ties with their homeland and the ir families, and also preferred keeping slaves of the same culture apart. The slaves were not given any personal or civil rights; in fact their owner could order them any task that they wanted from them. In the Western hemisphere, the demand for labor gave emergence to a commercial network which was named the Triangular trade. It was so called because it followed a triangular route: firstly, the European merchants would set sail to Africa with bartering goods, arms and liquor and traded for slaves with the African slave traders; slaves were then shipped to the Caribbean islands and; in the final step, the plantation owners purchased slaves from the merchants in exchange of tobacco, sugar and rum which the merchants took to Europe from the Caribbean islands, thus completing the triangle (Figueredo and Argote-Freyre 60-63). THE MIDDLE PASSAGE The middle passage was the second step of the Triangular trade in which slaves were transported from West Africa to island colonies in the Atlan tic. This journey which generally took four to six weeks was the most dangerous and hazardous voyage for the slaves. They were packed into ships in two ways, either a tight pack or a loose pack. The slaves were first laid on shelves, chained to each other with no space in between them. They were supposed to eat, sleep, urinate, defecate, and even give birth in the same allocated place. The conditions were so pathetic that they refused to eat. Most of the slaves revolted; indeed, the lacks of awareness of where they were being taken made many of them commit suicide. However, the ships’ crews practiced various cruelty measures to keep the slaves alive, for instance, they forcefully opened the mouth of the slaves with tools to feed them (Equiano n.p). The slaves were treated very harshly along the whole passage and most of them died because of poor treatment and malnutrition. Records reveal that on an average 9% of the slave died in the middle passage and those who survived were properly fed on the last days, were ‘oiled’ and paraded through the streets to the slave markets. There, they were auctioned off and traded for liquor, gums and other goods (Figueredo and Argote-Freyre 64). LIFE ON THE PLANTATIONS The work on the plantations was very intense and exhausting with the working hours extending up to 18 hours and even up to 24 hrs during the peak

How Hitlers abuse as a child and early life strongly shaped how he Thesis

How Hitlers abuse as a child and early life strongly shaped how he ruled as Fuehrer - Thesis Example Germany had never witnessed so much development, such that it almost reached its full employment level. Apart from the goodness of his rule, Hitler also unleashed his malevolence upon the nation, this depiction of evil is known as ‘the Holocaust’, and through this he pursued his dream of an anti-Semitic nation and a racially pure nation. The Jews, whom Hitler declared to be the ‘anti-race’ were excluded from all university placements, jobs, and even their shops were boycotted, they were proudly declared by Hitler as the ‘subjects’ of Germans rather than citizens of Germany. Then he inflicted upon them the terror of Genocide, which claimed almost 6million lives. During his tenure as the Fuhrer, Germany was in alliance with Italy and Japan, and thus started the World War 2 against the diametrically opposite Allied Powers from 1942 to 1944. Hitler nearly escaped death at the hands of the bomb planted by Claus Von Stauffenberg, under Operation Valky rie; the Fuhrer managed to escape and married his Eva Braun, with whom he had a silent affair for sixteen years. Ultimately, Hitler died of his own accord, by consuming a capsule of cyanide and a bullet in head. Thus the world saw the demise of an evil genius who inflicted terror upon the people of the opposite race, and yet amazed the world with his genius maneuvers (Emagzin, 2010). The way Adolf Hitler ruled as a Fuhrer was not out of the blue, it is claimed by that his personality traits were shaped by the life he spent in his early years, and most importantly the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father, which molded his character such that he became a tyrannical ruler whose actions were identical to incidents from his early life. This paper highlights upon four important factors presented by his early life which shaped his rule as the Fuhrer of Germany, and then these factors are discussed in detail in accordance with their relevance (Craun Kids, 2010). Hitler’s inte raction with his friends in Early Childhood This is perhaps the least important factor which shaped Hitler’s rule as a Fuhrer, yet it is significant with regards to his tactics and plans for Germany’s expansion and the annihilation of the anti-race. As a child in his early years, Adolf Hitler was extremely fond of playing outdoors, and it is known that he spent most of his days playing outside of house with his friends, since he had very minute amount of work assigned to him to complete at home in elementary school. He substantiated this fact in his autobiography ‘Mein Kampf’ that: â€Å"School work was ridiculously easy, leaving me so much free time that the sun saw more of me than my room† (Hitler 8). This is not just a mere fact of a child’s pastime, but it carries immense importance when analyzed in collaboration with the activities of that boy as a grown up. One of the most common games that Hitler was fond of and enjoyed playing with hi s friends was ‘Cowboys versus Indians’. The frequency of this game being played and enjoyed by Hitler speaks of a characteristic inherent in the young kid’s personality, which is love of war. Hitler enjoyed the game because it was a depiction of war, thus translating into the fact which the world witnessed as he grew older and became the Fuhrer of Germany. The enjoyment derived from the game, the sharpness of mind in a warrior like manner and the tactics learned through this game set a precedent for his later