Chapter 12

I never attempted to address how pastoral life or paleolithic life made it into the modern period. In Australia, the Americas, and North Africa had thriving civilizations that had not yet converted to the modern way of life. Australia remained gather hunters well into the 18th century, America had chiefdoms and small village societies. Other nations had tribes like the Igbo and Iroquis who were present and updated with agriculture but had nothing to do with other large empires besides trade. DUring this time period China and Europe were both recovering from the fall of the mongouls. Both went back to their pre mongoul views and ways of life. China during their Ming Dynasty had a chance to become a real powerhouse due to their strong naval system. They gave up on maritime which lead the Europeans to control the oceans and the land that it surrounded. At the time the land was need because they were searching for help against muslim powers.. Muslim powers grew substantially over this time but also divided as the practice spread. Five empires  all with turkic influences took over  southeast asia.

Mongals

Were the Mongals more than just cruel barbaric people? They are introduced  in most history books just as they are threatening or conquering civilizations. What they fail to talk about is how the Mongals took advantage of their land by building an empire or the influx of cultural and the effect of the interactions they had with people of different regions. Russia's land was used to continue their pastoral way of life and exploited pesant Russians into slavery. They even produced a trading network that further connected trade between the two ends of the eurasian world. This lead to a diplomatic relationship across the Eurasian countries especially China and Persia. They also brought the black death across the Western europe and the middle east.

Chapter 10 Christianity

Although Christianity is popular in western civilizations today (the Americas) a majority of the religion resides in eastern civilizations such as  Asia and Africa, I found that interesting due to the fact the Europe was the main adopter of the Christian religion. In Africa and Asia, Christianity was prominent, but with the adoption of certain ideas come different interpretations from different people and groups. Surprisingly there are multitudes of denominations of the Christian faith and that leads to conflict and contoversy everywhere. While they were seen in these areas they also werent the main religion. Most places like the Middle East already had and established religion or practice embedded into their culture. So how was it able to spread? Especially since Rome the home of Christianity ceases to exist the way it once did. The book doesnt really explain how it happend but it talks about how Western Rome rebuilt itself after its collapse. With no central government western europe was succeotable to conquest and became the victim to many invasions. Even with this the bounce back in the New Age of european civilization was immense. They expanded bringing Christianity with them and grew into independent states which had their own distinct languages and cultures. Monarchs held rule over these nations and the upbringing of urbanization helped women find job oppotunities. While the western rome empire was coming back the eastern part of the Roman empire was fending off Arab and turkish invasions. To answer the question from earlier, the Crusades allowed for the expansion of Christianity as the europeans and other nations fought to gain control of the holy ground they claim as their own.

Chapter 8

Now of all the countries and nations we have talked about thus far,China had the greatest chance at becoming  a nation that ruled all of Asia. I mean for crying out loud they had EVERYTHING and even found the time to invent things like gunpowder and paper that still has a large impact on life today. They acknowledged thair superiority and had a hold on early nomadic nations. After a while however it turned out that more nations were extorting China and really didnt fear them as much as a nation like Rome or even Athens wouldve been feared. The ending of the Han dynasty seemed to  be the ending of a strongly feared nations as the Tang and Song dynasties focused more on attempting to unify all of China. Out of their reign came an emergence of a state structure and a political presence that nations from all over eastern Asia would come to adopt. Civilizations like Korea and Vietnam were victms of conquest but slowly got their freedom as time progressed. They used this freedom to come into China's tribute system and allowed them to access goods and adopt their rendition of the Chinese political system. They differ from each other in ways that made vietnam more independent and allowed for women to be more free. Vietnam was able to obtainirrigation systems from China before having their own unique identity, they had their own language and placed women at a high role than in the more confuscian Korea. Japan voluntarily yielded to Chinas's tribute system and for the same reasons as most nations; to exploit goods and services from China. Being an island of the coast, Japan beilieved they had no immeadiate threat from China allowing them to be more risky with adopting their polotical systems and beliefs. One idea that varried from nation to nation was the acceptance of buddism. Because of the silk road buddism was able to make it all the way to China but didnt really sit well with cinfuscian views of native China of all nations has been the one that couldve had the most power yet continually be taken advantage of? Maybe that could be a new research topic.

Chapter 9 Islam

Islam became a religion that thrived off of early conquest. The Arab goal being created by a merchant was to ultimatley control trade routes and rich agricultural regions. It is well known how Muhammed had a spiritual journey and came back a messenger of allah and wound up forming into a religion that spread form the lower class up. It competted with the home of judaism and christianity in Mecca and at one point spread from Spain to India. 4 major cultures recieved an enormous change.

In places like India where Hinduism and Buddism was already commonplace, Islam was not able to spread. The Religion never reached over 25% of all religion. In regions where there was conversion it was said to be due to the attraction to the egalitarian nature in comparison to Hinduism. Like most religions there were still inequalities between men and women and they were very extreme in some cases. Infidelity from women was punishable by death known as an Honor killing. Like most of the other religions however, there were relious alternatives that empowered women.

Chapter 7

Trade and the exchanging of goods has been one of the most common forms of combinations of culture that strayer has talked about. In Chapter 7 he breaks down the 3 main trade routes across the mediterranean. The Silk Road the red sea and indian ocean, and the sahara desert all originated because their areas had a vast majority of environmental differences. These differences led to the need for other resources from more tropical climates. Instead of migrating, Nations would send a few men to gather what they need from another nation in exchange for something the had. The Silk Road connected Asia to India and brought a lot of indian culture to China such as the Buddist and Hindu Practice. The Sea Roads connected Africa to medditeranean cultures. From east west and north african countries, the trading of slaves wasnt super common but it did happen especially in the areas of dryer climates. With the bringing over of the camel to Africa, the Sahara became more popular as a trade route. This connected Swahili to other nations of tropical climate. Trade brought more than just the exchange of goods. It gave interactions of different cultures, the sharing of different ideas and languages. Religious practices were passed around and giving across all trade markets. Buddism and hinduism had such a big influence on the meditteranean nations that most "rest stops' or "trade stops" would have temples for people to practice their religion/practice in. It also brought about diseases and immunity to those over time. Although the native Americans did not have the same fire power as the european settlers it is hard to deny that their lack of immunity to certain diseases had a major influence on their downfall. If there were trade routes connecting to the Americas at that time maybe it wouldnt have been so easy for the europens.

Chapter 6 The Worlds Forgotten civilizations

I find it amazing how historians don't ever focus on smaller civilizations because according to the book, their impact pushed for better arcitecture and better societies. There were many other Civilizations that existed, not as big as the Roman Empire but were able to have flourishing nations because of it. In Africa it was ssurprising to see life spread out over three major regions but then I had to remember that life would have only been sustainable for long periods of time in more tropical regions. It was impressive to read about how they were able to carry on such successful nations based soley on being in  the hub of trade. However it became dissappointing that deforestation led to the demise of these prospering small societies. In the Americas Mayans made the best out of the little they had and developed the most advanced and complex citties and buildings at the time. Being the founder and reason for mathematics (gee thanks) and the first forms of solar calendars, I expected mayan civilizations to have more political structure in the form of a central government. But as architectually advanced as they were there was no central power among the "city states". Most went to war with one another and sacrified each other which I found strange.