City-State Essay

Michaela S. 12/11/11

City-State Essay

During this stimulant we created our own city-state and were allowed to trade. Before we started we were given resources to start with that we would use to trade to gain more or better resources. When I first started off my land looked more like agricultural land. I had many animals and not many energy or food resources. I wanted more of these resources to provide food to my country so my people wouldn't starve and so there would be more industrial resources to build. At first we were only able to trade with one city-state. The city-state I traded with didn't have a lot of industrial resources but did have some food, so my happiness level increased by one, but still wasn't very high. My happiness level increased because now I had food to feed my city-state, but I still wasn't pleased with the amount of energy and mining resources my city-state lacked because without these two resources it would be hard to start a powerful army. The next round of trading we were now allowed to trade with two neighboring countries. After this round my satisfaction increased a lot. This round gave me lumber to build and natural gas to supply my army and country with energy. Even though I had two great resources I still wasn't happy, I wanted more mining resources. Gradually the amount of countries to trade with increased. Now I was able to trade with three other countries. During this trading round I gained iron ore, this resource allowed me to have a large army to protect my country and defend my resources. During the last round my happiness level was the highest it could be, I had everything I needed such as things I could make profits from such as, coffee, mining tools, and 40 units of agricultural tools. After this trading experience I felt that my country was prepared to attack our enemies and still keep our people safe. I think this happened because when we had more countries to trade with there was a greater chance of getting what you needed. This is why world-wide unrestricted trade is beneficial. World trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories. However, the downfall with unrestricted trading is that it is not as safe as restricted trading. With unrestricted trading we could import contaminated foods and objects which could bring harm to our people and animals. Therefore, a country needs to have trade regulations for protection.

One resource that my country was rich in was the energy source, oil. One of the real world consequences of trading this resource is war. This source causes many arguments between countries because of disputes of prices, location, and distribution. Many countries want this resource to power their factories and cars. This situation is like the real life war going on now. Some of the tension between America and the Middle East is because of the oil these countries possess. The U.S. needs oil very badly to power vehicles, heat homes and transport goods. However, trade between countries at very different levels of economic development can create many problems. Therefore, I think it is important for countries to seriously consider creating trades that benefit both countries equally.

I think World Trade can have positive results, but there are also some negative aspects that come from it. Some examples of the good things that come from world trade are that it provides a framework and trade agreements between the participating countries. Some other pros of world trade are that it updates all participating countries and banks to international standards and efficiency