Chapter 2 reading

In this reading a couple things stood out to me. For instance I read that in West Africa children were a big part of the labor force. I think reading this surprised me because when I thought of child labor I thought that the children's help would help their family just a little, but I read the keyword "essential." That word was really big for me because if their work is essential I could only imagine what type of work these kids had to do. It is unfortunate to learn because I feel as if these kids had to grow up fast and did not get the chance to be kids. Not only is it unfortunate for the children, but also for West Africa as well. The child labor that West Africa practices reflects how hard it was to survive if the parents needed the help of their children. What also was mind-blowing that men would marry more than one woman in order to make children. To me, it shows the extreme practices they had to do to live.
Another point in which stood out to me was how more than half of the Europeans were peasants. When people usually think of history, they think of only the Africans who went through hardships, but so did Europeans. It was interesting to learn the tensions within their society such as the imbalance of the rich and poor, when it came to religion, and between the states and politics.