Week 3 Blog

Key Points from Chapters 8,9, and 10. 

Chapter 8: The Silk Roads were Eurasia’s extensive networks of exchange with its many people and cultures.

The Growth of the Silk Roads...

As the major civilizations of Persia, China, Rome, and Byzantines prospered so did the Silk Road.  With a successful empire policing its boarders the Silk Road was allowed to flourish providing the exchange of goods across Eurasia.  In the 13^th and 14^th centuries the Mongol Empire nearly controlled the entire road.

  Disease in Transit...

With goods came many diseases from lands where the people afflicted had no immunity or history treating.  The most famous occurrence being the bubonic plague that swept through Europe in 1346 AD killing 1/3 of its inhabitants.  Other outbreaks of small pox, measles, and anthrax had serious consequences for the Chinese, Romans, Persians, and the Native Americans.

Reflections: Economic Globalization—Ancient and Modern

The world of third wave civilizations was a more balanced, multi-centered world than we see today.  Different civilizations had a more equal footing in global affairs and economically.  Could we be seeing a change today as our own world economies become more connected and equal?  

Chapter 9: 

The Reemergence of a Unified China...

After the collapse of the Han dynasty in 220 AD many of China’s inhabitants migrated south toward the Yangzi river region.  And by 1000 AD 60% of its inhabitants lived in southern China. This migration saw the terrible destruction of China’s old growth forests and the migration of many of its native species of animals. 

Making Buddhism Chinese...

Buddhism originally enters China from the Silk Road.  Buddhism takes hold after the fall of the Han dynasty in 200 AD, and like so many religions, captures the hearts and minds of the people when they needed it most.  Some of the original Indian words and concepts were changed to be more understandable to the Chinese.  The term dharma, referring to Buddha’s teachings was changed to Dao, or the way.   The Indian concept of “the husband supports wife,” was changed to “husband controls wife.” 

Chapter 10:

·      In the Wake of Roman Collapse: Political Life in Western Europe, 500-1000

Germanic peoples who the Romans deemed barbarians, Goths, Visigoths, Franks, Lombards, Angles, and Saxons – now emerged as the dominant forces in Western Europe.  They would see a decline in literacy, road and building repair, and a general decline in social order.  Charlemagne ruled an area that included France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and parts of Italy and Germany from 768-814.   

·      In the Wake of Roman Collapse: Society and the Church, 500-1000

In the absence of a supreme ruler like Rome before, serf life or serfdom became a common form of life at this time.  Unlike a slave a serf was not the property of the lord and could live with his or her family – but he did have to make various forms of payments from working the lords fields to providing coin or livestock.  The serf would then receive whatever protection the lord could provide – and in a increasingly dangerous world this was a huge asset.  Charlemagne saw to the conversion of the Visigoths and other Germanic peoples but other religious leaders had a more covert way of converting these people.  Pope Gregory famously instructed missionaries in England not to destroy the temples and places of worship only the idols inside so the native people would still be familiar with the religious site. 

·      Accelerating Change in the West, 1000-1300

During the preceding 3 centuries Europe was prone to many invasions from all areas but these conquering/conquered people had begun to adapt and settle into a new life.  Europe’s population was thought to have gone from 35 million in 1000 to 80 million in 1340.  This gave way to a massive deforestation and urbanization of the continent.  During this time we also see a consolidation of power not seen since the Roman times were regional monarchs begin to appear – as well as a renewed sense of state.

·      Europe Outward Bound: The Crusading Tradition

Europe’s outward expansion in made most evident by a series of holy wars or crusades beginning in 1095 and continuing for nearly 4 centuries.  The crusades solidify the rift between eastern and western Christianity and only adds to anti-Semitic and anti Muslim thought at the time. 

Week 2 Blog

Key Points From Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7

Chapter 4:  Empires: The basic definition of an empire is a political system that provides coercive corrective power.  It is more commonly used for larger more aggressive states that rule, conquer, and extract resources from other states and peoples.

Empires and Civilizations in Collision: The Persians and the Greeks
Most cultures in this region did not encounter one another with the exception of the following Persian and Greek Empires.  Empires can collapse for many reasons; size constraints, resource constraints, and lack technological advancement.  Another factor within a prosperous empire is the increasing influence of the middle class where than can exercise more control of commoners and create a peasant system.  After the fall of Rome is 476 AD Western Europe is unable to recreate the splendor and scale of Roman imperial status.  The Byzantine Empire in Eastern Europe picks up where Rome leaves off much more easily as it was supporting the western half of the empire for many centuries.  China also doesn’t suffer from a weak transition of power, as other dynasties were about to continue the Empire in one form or another. 
Chapter 5: Key points; Empires and their growth and the inception of seminal thinkers.

Seminal Thinkers

Socrates- Born in Greece, Did no original writings (his work is carried on through his students like Plato), concerned with the nature of reality and knowledge attained through reason, nature of truth, known as the father of philosophy, influential among rational people of all faiths, created a method of rational inquiry, had an effect of revolutionary change.

Confucius- Born in China around 500 BC, Analects (the collection of his works), concerned with social order and the right place of social order, Mandate of Heaven, Chinese leaders still follow this wisdom to this day, not a religious system, provided social stability,

Buddha- Siddhartha born in India circa 500 BC, his teachings were also spread through his students, individual spiritual quest for enlightenment, anyone can achieve enlightenment in their lifetime, practiced more in southeast Asia, China, and Europe, is a religion, leads towards change,

Hindu- From India, collection of Gods, arose over time, major writings include..., goal of human life is enlightenment, reincarnation is only achieved through the caste system and only after achieving Brahmin status, still widely practiced today, is a religion,  socially stable,

Jesus- Born in the Roman Empire around year 0 (duh), New Testament, love, compassion, forgiveness, equality, emphasis on marginalized people, anyone can get to heaven within their lifetime, practiced widely throughout the world, is a proselyting religion, a revolutionizing religion in its belief of a single god in a Roman Empire,

 Mohamed- Born in Arabia 600AD, his followers wrote his sayings and his examples the hadita and suma, 5 pillars of Islam; profession of faith, praying 5 times a day toward mecca, alms giving, pilgrimage to mecca, fasting during Ramadan. This religions, life and politics are not independent, practiced everywhere throughout the world. Proselyting religion.

Chapter 6: Reflections: Arguing with Solomon and the Buddha

Solomon thought life continued in a constant cycle or path where Buddha thought the only constant is change. 

·      The Landlord Class

In China like many societies wealth meant land.  Landlords could avoid paying taxes thus increasing revenue and placing a greater burden on the peasant class as well as possibly funding private armies of their own. 

·      Peasants

Peasants make up the vast majority of the Chinese populous throughout its history.  It was a hard life where you were venerable to nature, landlords, and the state.  Although peasants were oppressed they were seen as the backbone of the Chinese culture. Enduring through hard times and their perseverance was to be admired.

·      Merchants

Merchants were seen as profiting off others hard work as well as greedy, lazy, and material driven.  Some would use their wealth to educate their children for the civil tests.  Some would purchase wealthy estates as a way to increase their position but decrease their dislike. 

Chapter 7: 

Mayans; Although they were in Central America as far back as 2000 BC the classical Mayans reined between 250 and 900 AD.  The Maya lived in an almost totally manufactured society where drained swamps, terraced hilltops, and water management systems were commonplace.  They had an advanced understanding of mathematics and astrology.  They had many city-states and local lords and lacked a central political system and cultural center.  After an extremely fast population growth pushed the Mayan population to over 5 million there began a gradual exhaustion of resources and starvation set it.  This is thought to be the cause of their demise, which is in contrast to their historical counterparts. 

Reflections: Deciding What’s Important: Balance in World History What culture gets more pages? Is duration of culture an effective guide?  Should history be taught to a particular group?

Chape

Week One Blog

Let's try this again...

Key Points from Intro, Chapter 1, 2, and 3.

Intro: We, Homo sapiens don’t come onto the scene until December 31^st in the Cosmic Calendar.  January 1^st of this calendar being the Big Bang.

Chapter 1: Hunter-gatherers had a relaxed schedule for hunting and household tasks.  Deep spiritual connections with past relatives and practiced trance healing. Complex social structure with naming rules.  They were egalitarian in nature.  As the primary gatherers women provided the majority of the families income.  Europe’s worship of the great goddess or Venus, with her importance being the creation of life. Female fertility also mirrors the cosmos with similar patterns of regeneration and destruction. This differs from Western “straight line” thought.

Chapter 2: About 12000 years ago as well as the taming or breeding of animals.  Many of these new domesticated plants and animals couldn’t survive in the wild anymore and humans couldn’t survive without them as they lost the ability to hunt and gather like generations before.  The size of human populations wouldn’t allow for basic H&G anyway.  As populations grew the need for farming to maintain that population grew with it.  Cultural achievements such as pots and metallurgy became necessities for farmers, as well as discovering new uses for domesticated plants and animals. Milk, wool, and the use of manure all come from this period.  Where farming was not possible herding animals became a distinct part of agriculture.  They relied on all parts of the animal.  Conflicts arose between herders and more traditional farmers.

Chapter 3: The oldest civilization is found in Sumer, southern Mesopotamia (Iraq) is 3500BC to 3000BC.  Sumerians have the world’s first written language.  Simultaneously the Nile valley also was the home of the Egyptians around the same time.  A civilization had also developed in Peru between 3000BC and 1800BC.  Another civilization to emerge was in the Indus valley in modern day Pakistan.  Unlike the Middle Eastern city states the people of the Indus Valley had no palaces, temples, kings, or warrior classes.  This area was abandoned in roughly 1700BC.   China’s early civilization dates back to perhaps 2200BC.  It was a stark contrast to the Indus Valley as it had great dynasty where the ruler was seen as the “son of heaven” and could communicate with God.  These rulers also made great leaps with organized roads and aqueducts.  The final civilization is the Olmec’s and it took place around 1200BC in the Gulf of Mexico.  Thought to be the mother of all Mesoamerican cultures (Mayans) it is believed they created writing in the Americas in 900BC.  Also the Aegean Greeks who pre date the classical Greeks we know so well today.

TED talks - The Global Power Shift

I know, I know, people always post links to these TED talks and most are discussions about profound technological advances and how they will impact our lives.  This discussion is quite different, the speaker,  Mr. Ashton goes into great detail about how we are entering a new global era.  He proposes that we entering a global era where we need to bring "global governance" to this new "global space" we have created with the advent of the internet.  He also discusses how we are seeing a power shift away from the traditional western powers centered around the Atlantic and that power is moving East along the Pacific Rim.  This reminded me of countless times throughout our history discussions where power was not centered in one place or among one group but spread out among many nations across the world.  We have read about great ancient civilizations existing in China, Meso America, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.  Many of theses existed at similar times or overlapped in a way where absolute power centered in one region was rare.  Europe pre World War II is also a good example of power being somewhat balanced between Europe, Russia, and the United States.  This brings us to Mr. Ashton's most daring hypothesis that the United States is coming out of a completely rare moment in history where, "all compass needles point to Washington."  Meaning the American century is coming to an end, not a destructive end but an end regarding its supreme control over global power.  I would have to agree with Mr. Ashton, we cannot continue policing the world and need to resort to diplomacy and communication to maintain our global position.  The video also discusses some other topics along the lines of how power continues to shift Eastward but I'll let you watch for yourself. 

Uploaded on Jan 5, 2012

http://www.ted.com Paddy Ashdown claims that we are living in a moment in history where power is changing in ways it never has before. In a spellbinding talk at TEDxBrussels he outlines the three major global shifts that he sees coming.

Paddy Ashdown: The global power shift

Reading Thoughts - Global Commerce

I was very interested to read about the East India Trading Companies from the Netherlands and Britain and their expansion into the Indian markets. 
        This reminded me of an article I read on the subject several years ago in The Economist. The article compares modern state backed companies in China, Brazil, The Middle East and Russia and how there origins arise in the East India Trading Company.  It also chronicles the high and low points of such joint endeavors between "private/state" hybrid companies.
"A POPULAR parlour game among historians is debating when the modern world began. ...the modern world began on a freezing New Year's Eve, in 1600, when Elizabeth I granted a company of 218 merchants a monopoly of trade to the east of the Cape of Good Hope."
This opening paragraph hooked me back when I originally read the article and after our reading I feel it has even more profound connections today.  Below is a link to the full article please read it for yourself.  I hope you find it as interesting as I did. 

The East India Company

Mains'l Haul Handout

I really enjoyed the Mains'l Haul handout, I found the Kelp Highway theory to be very interesting.  Certain ideas stood out that had less to do with a boring historical record and more to do with monumental achievements of humankind.  I found it quite inspiring that these vast migrations were done by people with Stone Age technologies and how brave they must've been to be able to embark on such a journey.  

"These ancient maritime migrations to Australia, the Americas, and the Pacific, accomplished with Stone Age technologies but with great courage and human ingenuity, represent three of the most significant migrations in human history,” (Erlandson 13).  

 I feel as though early humans get described far too often as simple or primitive when their exploits illustrate quite the opposite.  After the reading I came to the understanding that although we humans today are more technologically advanced and possess tools that ancient man couldn't have envisioned we are really no more intelligent than them,  no more ingenious,  and certainly no more courageous.  This migration from me brought up comparisons to early space exploration, where brave individuals with untested technology ventured to uncharted and unexplored places.  For early humans the Pacific Ocean might have well been a foreign planet and as a further testament to their courageousness many of the oceans today are still yet to be explored.

"This human ability to innovate during periods of heightened environmental stress is one of the hallmark characteristics of our species…” (Cassidy 22).