Veronica Ramirez

Research Post:

1.      The fruits of colonizing clearly were profitable because colonization was accepted, even with its disregard for the colonized.  I would like to explore the views of people during this time as a research post.  While slave traders, diamond dealers, sugar and tea dealers very well thought it was okay to exploit other countries for money, people, and resources, was there anyone who raised a concern? Where the intellectuals, writers, and politicians of the day knowledgeable of the atrocities and turned a blind eye to enjoy the luxuries, or were they knowledgeable of them and thought it was okay because of the class differences? This topic came to mind after a class discussion on The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope.  Pope describes Belinda’s toilet with perfumes from Arabia, with turtle and elephant brushes probably from Africa, and gems from India.  Was the luxury taken for granted? Or did the consumers know what they were causing along with their purchase ?

2.     During the first half of the class, we have looked at England as the colonizing country.  I would like to look at Belgium as a colonizer. ( I recently traveled there and still saw some things that made my eyebrows raise )  But if we get into Belgium as a colonizer deeper in the class, then I can pick a different topic. Maybe women as a double minority and thus double casualty in being colonized ?