1. What is Ms. Shaffer’s thesis in the article?
Ms. Shaffer’s thesis in the article is that southernization caused
everywhere from Islam to China to become prosperous through trade.
2. What does the author mean by “Southernization”?
The author means the spread of things from China out to other regions,
such as the middle east and Malaysia.
3. How is the “South” defined in her article?
The “South” is defined by countries like China, India and Malaysia.
4. List the ideas, the agricultural, mineral, and manufactured products and the
inventions that she associates with “Southernization.”
Products and inventions associated with southernization are sugar, cotton,
spices, printing, gunpowder, and the compass.
5. What places were the ideas, agriculture, minerals, and manufactured products
associated with.
The places associated with the products and ideas are China, with
gunpowder and the compass, and also India, with bullion and cotton.
6. What were the major contributions of Indians, Malays, Chinese, and Arabs to
hemispheric development?
Their major contributions were the compass, printing, gunpowder,
mathematics, silk and bullion.
7. According Shaffer, what role did the Arabs and Mongols play in the spread of
“Southernization”?
The role that they played in the spread of “Southernization” was that the
Arabs brought the compass to the Mediterranean and the Mongols
brought to Italy block printing and gunpowder.
8. Why does she say that northwestern Europeans were most fully participating
in the “Southernization” process only after they acquired tropical colonies?
She says that because their wealth was lesser and they did not rise until after
they had acquired the tropical colonies.
9. Do you agree with her thesis? Why or why not?
I agree with her thesis because China’s major inventions like gunpowder and
the compass did spread, helping other regions become prosperous through
trading, like in Malaysia where the compass was relied on for navigation. All of
these important products spreading around had major positive impacts on the
economy and prosperity of these regions because of the reliance they had on
each other, which makes me agree with her thesis that southernization
caused prosperity through trade.