European demands, then, were on one side of the equation, but the other side depended on what the colonized regions had to offer in the first place, and how their inhabitants could be persuaded to part with with what was theirs. p. 220
My thoughts: In order to understand capitalism, we must see it from both sides of the equation. If one side is unwilling to budge, capitalism won't work. While capitalism can imply one nation dominating another, it doesn't necessarily mean that one nation is superior in regards to arts and culture, as illustrated by Europe's admiration of Mogul India. Europeans admired their fine arts, grand cities. To me, it's a matter of who got there first, who came up with the idea of saying how to run things, and exerting those ideas forcefully onto others which brought about imperialism, increased exchange in resources, products and the birth of capitalism.
Summary: Subsistence producers were swallowed up by powerful, capitalist states. For example the Spanish in Latin America. One people group called the Mundurucu were divided in the 1950s into those who chose to preserve their subsistence lifestyle in the Amazon and those who chose to branch out to other jobs such as collect rubber for traders. For the Mundurucu, there was no division between private "family" life and "work" life. Family relations would be present while they exchanged goods and their sexual division of labor was unique. Women did the majority of the work, the hard field labor, household labor and childcare while men were the hunters or cleared ground for cultivation.
Based on the Mundurucu, pre-capitalist societies they had no political organization like how we perceive ourselves today, associated with a specific race or political stance. They had no bureaucratic structure. Every village had a chief, but their purpose was for influence instead of authority. They also believed in supernatural powers and symbols. Economically, pre-capitalist societies were not organized to produce a surplus and were mostly egalitarian, kinship was very important. There were other kingdoms however, with an implicit caste system, like the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa of pre-colonial Rwanda (p. 229).
The Kingdom of Bakongo was an empire In Africa (present-day Angola) with smiths making weapons, knives and were exchanged throughout the country. They exchanged with colonists, merchants and missionaries. Europeans easily dominated established kingdoms such as the Incas of Peru, with the invasion of Spanish conquistadores. The Incas had an unwritten language. The Moguls 1526-1761 in north-west India, whose influence spread because of their monetized economy and organized state. The ruling elite were Muslims and the masses were Hindu. Castes existed in the division of labor.
The rise of Islam had a powerful effect in European cultures and was a unifying factor from West Africa to Indonesia. Its spread took off after the death of Muhammad in 632.
2 ending points:
-Wealth went to the transformation of productive processes in Europe, the Industrial Revolution
-European imperialism brought the new world economic order (p. 240).
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