Write a 5-7 page paper (double spaced, 12 point font, standard margins) on one of the following topics. Your title page and bibliography (and any other pages that are not writing) do not count towards the page count. Please cite all your sources, with an accepted citational standard of your choice. For sources, you may only use:
- Readings assigned in class.
- Other writing by authors assigned in class.
- Sources which address the exact same topic as readings assigned in class (e.g. West African deindustrialization; gender roles in Iriquois Confederacy, etc.).
- Discuss the outlines of the emergence of the mercantilist system. Using several examples, what role did violence play in forging the expansion of mercantilist relations across the globe? What role did voluntary exchange play in other parts of the system? Using examples from three different continents, discuss how the expansion of market relations drastically transformed social relations. Finally, discuss how mercantilist accumulation opened up possibilities for industrial capitalist accumulation, and what processes enabled that.
- Describe the Great Divergence (or Reversal of Fortune) that took place in the world from around 1500 to around 1850, both in terms of average incomes as well as outlines of changes in mode of production. In terms of national incomes and wealth, how did Europe jump ahead of Asia, Africa, and the Americas? Two broad schools of thought seek to explain the Great Divergence, which we have termed ‘culturalist’ and ‘world systems throught’ explanations. Describe the main ideas of each. What’s at stake with these theories? Which one makes more sense to you, and why?
