Week 3 Reflection

Making Week 3 Reflection         

          This past week, we talked about the organization of Europe and how throughout history, the changes in political control of different regions and the relationships between these regions have created a network in which the world built its global trade foundation on. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, European towns were an essential to this new type of network, allowing trade, large-scale industry, and banking to emerge and thrive. The Mediterranean was also a place of economic, political, cultural, religious, and social encounters.

Economically, as people began to interact with each other and move from different regions, a global and regional trade network emerged. The regional tensions that occurred from these movements led to the rise of different political powers, influencing regions in different ways. The rise of cities including Venice, Istanbul, Rome, Florence, Genoa, and Naples expanded. The ways in which the different regions interacted with each other can be described as very fluid, and aware of the different cultures and values from each region (Braudel, 222). The overlapping civilizations of the East and West and the North and South created a newfound appreciation for the different cultures, languages, and religions. In terms of religion, the Catholics and the Protestants separated Northern and Southern Italy with the Reformation, and the Inquisition separated the East and West. Socially, the interactions between the towns and city-states led to migration into urban cities and larger territories. The transition from the rural countryside to the urban city life led to a larger social class differentiation. It was more obvious in cities who was a noble and who was a peasant, but the way in which these people interacted was still fluid and accepting. Ultimately, the trade network that emerged from the Mediterranean areas have created a global market that many countries in this area still depend on today. Unfortunately, the fluidity that once existed is no longer prevalent in the Mediterranean in my experiences in Florence and Istanbul.

            At a glance, it seems like many countries are more accepting of different races and people, because there are often such a large groups of diverse people in modern society today. With the current refugee crisis occurring in Syria, this is not the case in places in Europe today. The difference between the Ottomans and Venetians in the past centuries to what it is like today. Although in Venice there are certain remnants of Ottoman influence in some of the art and architecture, Venetians still have a certain coldness towards Easterns. The perceptions the East feel towards the West and the West feel towards the East influence daily interactions, socially, culturally, and religiously. The difference in the modern day political structures of the countries in the Mediterranean are also responsible for the current rigid and no longer fluid availability for people in the Mediterranean to migrate easily.

            In Istanbul, it was more obvious that foreigners were not as common, even in Galata. Although Galata was the main place where people from the West immigrated during the Ottoman Empire, it seemed like there was less of a Western influence and more of an approach towards tourists. It was very interesting to learn about in Professor Cengiz’s class and this class about the importance of Galata as such a prominent part of the Mediterranean trading economy. In comparison to Venice and Florence, I feel that there is a certain stigma towards immigrants and foreigners. This dates back to the cultural, religious, and lifestyle differences between the East and West. I think it will be even more interesting to see how Spain fits in to this picture when we get to Barcelona. The modern day result of the influences of past empires have created a new type of Mediterranean relationship, and one that will continue to mold and shift as time continues.