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.

Chapter 5

 This chapter focused on how societies shaped their society and classes. Some places like China and India shaped their classes off of their teachings/religions. China to me was a litttle interesting because I interpreted confusian thinking to be one that benefits the people. However to be a part of the "Chinese elite" you have to be in a high economic state. It was very rare for a family of poverty to send an Intelligent male to school unless his family is able to raise the funds for such task

In India their political systems were based soley on their hindu practice. Looking at it from the outside in their way of life can be seen as very unequal but their society embraces that sense of inequality. What your born into is who marry interact with and even hold an occupation in. The only way to leave that caste is through reincarnation and good dharma.

In Greek and Roman societies, slaves kept the cities alive and flourishing especially in Rome. The wealthiest people would have up to thousnds of slaves. What's even more ridiculous is that even the emancipated slaves had slaves. Rome in theory had so many because of their success on the battle field. Slaves also had the ability to try and emancipate themselves there are strength in numbers but if a slave kills their owner all slave of that owner are killed. It seems unfair but it sets a balance up to keep them in check.

Chapter 4 and Service Article

Chapter 4 depicts the one of the most important advancments that make the classical era differ from the ancient agricultural era, mainly because of how religion became a major part of most large cultures and communities. Instead of focusing on the bettering of the nations the earliest thinkers began to start asking why we are here and our purpose for life in a deeper way than ever before. In earlier chapters we see the natives relying on nature for their spirituality. In this time their are two distinct forms of belief, In human rationality and in unseen entities. The people of China and Greece had a form of the confucion point of view. Even though Greece still had the Gods of Mount Olympus, they had a multitude of greek thinkers that shifted away from having religion be the source of philosophy, The man taking the lead of these free thinkers was Socrates. For every little thought you could think of there appeared to be a different philosopher for each. Getting into religions in the middle east, I was very surprised to see that they all have some sort of correlation or allusion to the other. For example the first monotheistic practice was held in Persia and had a God and an evil entity in a battle for human custody. Just like Buddism, Judaism and Christianity. I never knew how similar christianity and buddism are. Both deal with a prophet who went on their own derivative of a spiritual journey and came back to share their experience and obtained a following. Also one thing I didnt particualrily know about Christianity is how it was preached to be an egalitarian practice but its stated in the Bible how women are to serve men.


I agree with the message the article is sending. I have gotten the message from mentors and people i look up to about the difference between the two. There is a fine line between the two and it makes me think of how I can serve without personal satisfaction and just for the goodness of life and a smile on another peson's face. Helping without seeing a person as having a problem or broken and interacting with them as the human being they are is key and essential to serving.

Chapter 3 Documents

Source 3.2

I would love to see the original documents used by Tacticus in order to write his thoughts on the germanics people. They seemed to have a distinct way of life that worked for them and might have not worked anywhere else. They had strict rules and strict enforcement of these rules. I think the adultery punishment is a little harsh but that would teach a person a lesson. I didn't really understand how power was distributed in this nation either. Kings were appointed but generals did not abuse their power, punishment came from the priest. which would give an explanation on why adultery was punished harshly. Their laws were inferred to be religion based and i guess in a secluded nation their way of life is the only they see fit. Its surprising. I was fascinated by their lack of diversity being so close to Rome.THey married within themselves and only themselves which is kinda cool but weird at the same time. I have a feeling that some of these statements made by Taticus are assumptions based off of what he read in the documents rather than restated fact. THe only way to find out is to read the original documents.

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Part 2 Chapter 3

The introduction to part 2 opens talking about the changes from our first civilizations to our next civilization, they called this time the Age of Agriculture just like in the neolithic era. Compared to the first civilizations there were a lot of "minor changes' at least according to the author but since there was no technological advancement to further enhance resources this time period was in some ways a bust. From a political standpoint however, we learn that there were some changes that can still be seen today.

Learning about the rise of the Persian and Greek was really interesting to me. Two nations adjacent to one another one of about 50-60 million people and the other with about 5-6 million. It's hard to really see the greek empire prevailing and being able to hold its own against a huge army from a nation known to expand via conquest while greece was known to expand via settlement. The persian empire was sort of like a "one nation under emperor" type of place which to me was really funny yet interesting because of all their rituals held in honour of their emperor at the time.

 To me the rise of greece was also a surprise because of their lack of a unified political system throughout their city states. Though these nations shared the same language and God they could only get along once every 4 years for their olympics.

I believe their non ability to get along led to their nation losing in the peloponnesian war. This war saw the end of Athens and led to Macedonia taking over. this is how Greece began his reign. 

Alexander the Great when he was around my age did more than I ever could lead an army to defeat the persians.. They even started their own expansion via conquest until alexander died.

THe other to empires talked about rose from conquest due to their brutal military. 

 The romean Empire went from rags to riches story and in a way so did the chinese empire. THere was a funny story about how rome repopulated when they were in poverty but i don't think its the best idea to mention that here. EIther way in the end all of the nations feel either to conquest , death or lack of resource and the main reason for that lack of resources wasbecaue of no technological advancement to enhance those resources on the growing populations. 

Although these empires had their hardships id love to live in this era, Preferably in the mediterrainean or india which at the time saw the change in their cultures and became a huge melting pot of culture.

Document 2.3 "Dancing GIrl"

At first looking at this staute, I wouldn't assume this woman was anything less than royalty because usually random statues of women arent made. Secondly this women is dressed in a lot of jewelery with her hair tied back. The dancing girl had very long legs (disproportionate to her body). I think those features stood out because thats what attracted the artist or creator of this statue. IN my opinion the is how women of society were looked at, Long legs a dancer with a lot of jewelry mustve have been what guys were into in this society.

Answered: "How do you react to this statue? What qualities does the figure evoke?"

Agricultural Revolution;More Harm than Help?

I left off talking about the effect the ending of the Ice Age had on early civilization, this process of 'Intensification begins. resulting in the emergence of people ( I Guess you could say the first Baby boom). Selective breeding and domestication of animals brings about the most impactful changes on early society with a source of protein in most areas, fertilizer and, for lack of a better term, horse power. The majority of the agricultural age took place around the same time for all regions on the planet. The result? Deforestation of course. but I guess it helps that trees were destroyed only to bring about more plant life and food. As the areas became more engrossed with crops and food the people began to settle. A majority of the continents forced out the "gather hunters" as they became farmers: that population was almost extinct by the end of the common area. Farming and agriculture brought people together, languages and people of different nations start to migrate towards each other and societies first melting pots I have emerged. The downfall? Human communities start to see the earliest forms of inequality and a form over government rise. Even with women being the stable source of income, males become alphas. most early villages had a some rendition of a democracy. Others had what they called a Chiefdom which inherited positions of power and privilege introduced a more distinct element of inequality. Chiefs could use seldom force to compel the obedience of their subjects. Overall I was shocked at the early struggles with inequality once communities formed, but i never knew that once gather hunters transitioned into farmers they struggled with their health and life expectancy. Today I understand the purpose of moving forward and still introducing crops to to the carnivorous gather hunters, but why do these people think it was okay when their life expectancy significantly dropped?

First Writing Assignment

Our ever changing, repeating history started with an explosion which led to the creation of our earth 4.5 Billion years ago, life submerged as unicellular organisms 3 billion years ago and have evolved from there. There have 5 mass extinctions, millions of life lost and formed all before humans came to their form as homo sapien sapien just about 250,000 years ago. As time moves from chimpanzees to homo erectus to our nomadic homo sapiens, humans learned to move as their food and climate did. early advancements included learning to farm and raising/domesticating animals.These advancements helped our ancestors live long enough for advancements in technology and life. At the end of the Ice Age life the environment became more diverse due to the more comfortable nature of the climate. This lead to our nomads beginning to settle down and our first societies and civilizations are born. Free of tyranny and inequality. Women were seen as equal and actually brought in more to the homes than males. The newly settled nomads have now began to interact with each other, the end result being an increased use of the environment which opened a world of new advancements.

Since I lack a bunch of historical knowledge this information was fascinating to me. One thing that did not surprise me was that nomadic people still had things like male competition (even to death) women abuse(sexually and physically) and the most important to me; deforestation. Since the beginning of human reign we have been known to destroy life and plant life with ease. Even homo erectus who killed plantlife with fire.Being known for being the cause of death in our planet baffles me because our species have been here for the shortest. I guess being at the top of the food chain and being the most advanced in the kingdom allows for us to destroy as we please. I'm curious to see if later on our earliest civilizations try and address deforestation but i honestly doubt it the earth will find ways to replenish itself just like had in any of the other mass extinctions the question is will we do anything to make sure humans survive?