Final thoughts

I think I enjoyed reading chapter 10 and starting to learn the beginnings of the classical era the most out of the semester. In my Religion class today we talked about the classical era and christendom being accepted by the Roman Empire as the official religion in 313 and I liked already knowing the backstory and history that lead to this event. Also I thought it was interesting about heretics and how in small private communities someone who didn't agree with the group was automatically outcasted as a heretic. If that was the case today I don't think anyone would have any friends or family at all. Another thing that I found interesting in this chapter was the split in the Roman Empire.

I have a hard time remembering which states and countries are involved with the East and West because I get my directions messed up like my left and rights. However I did find it interesting to learn about the nitty gritty details of each directions path after the split of the roman empire. In the East, Constantinople was where the new capital was moved to and the Byzantium and orthodox christians were on the rise. I always get confused between the Orthodox Christians and Greeks and the Ottoman Empire I think that their names sound similar to me so I was a little lost during this part of the class however I still enjoyed learning about the differences between them and the catholic church. Another thing that I found interesting in the split of the empire was how big of a role science played in forcing this split to be even greater and greater. Science created a large split between the empires and excommunication because of christendom.

In chapter 8 and 9 I enjoyed learning about the routes of trade through Europe and Asia as well as the tribute system in theory and in practice in China. I thought that the influence that these trade routes and tribute systems left on these continents was an important part of the building blocks to how they interact and exists as continents today. I feel like today with the United States offshoring technology and work into China it resembles a similar past that the chinese faced with the Mongols and tribute system. A type of system where one party is taking advantage of the other which ended in death and conquering. Hopefully nothing bad comes from America offshoring work to China and surrounding countries.

All in all I enjoyed the way in which Strayer presented his textbook for the most part which I think is hard for historical writers, especially textbook writers, to keep the attention of those who don't initially have any interest in history of the world. The only thing that I didn't enjoy about Strayers text was that I felt most chapters dragged on in the examples of many different aspects to whatever that chapters topic was. I feel like when studying this book in one semester there is so much material to cover and when reading about things that are not discussed in class it is sometimes a struggle to pick out the important points of information that should be remembered compared to the less important forgettable information.

Mongols

When debating over the Mongols in class I was a little disappointed that my luck put me on the side defending them for their barbarian and crazy ways. I was hoping to argue for the point that while the Mongols had some faults they should be still classified along with the other civilizations that we have categorized earlier in the semester.

Some key points that I took into consideration when preparing for the debate were the qualities that have characterized a civilization. The points that we had come up with earlier in class included that of a complex economy, trace, a system of centralized government, a common language and culture among the people living in the community, cities, city-states or some type of urban based community, advanced technology as well as writing and documentation for the happenings during those times. Agricultural base and large scale populations were other important aspects in civilizations as well as specialization and surplus, control of a water source or multiple water sources, social hierarchies among "governmental"officials or rulers of that civilization as well as spirituality and a common belief system among those living in these places and lastly was a military or type of protection system to warn off dangers and massive wipeouts through killings of the entire community.

When analyzing these points and trying to determine if the Mongols were or were not a civilization I came to terms to believe that they were indeed a civilization but an adapted one at that. They had advanced technology and militarily uses through learning the specialization of creating saddles to ride horses. They acquired skills and spirituality from those who they conquered and didn't force those new conquered people to conform to Mongol beliefs. They had a varied agricultural base with the main product being livestock which also doubled as a mobility utilization. They also used the meat and blood from their livestock to live off of. The Mongols had an organized system of government through the Khans and their centralized government was an adaption to the normally recognized capital city of a civilization. Normally capitals could be picked out instantly because of the high importance and effort put into showing the divinity and excellence of these high ranked officials but the Mongols had an adapted view. Being nomadic they moved constantly and had no time to set up a centralized capital. They also had a large scale population, control of water where ever they migrated to and advanced war tactics including a germ-fare that locked people in their city walls with infected bodies to kill them slowly.

The other side of the argument was much weaker and did not have as many points to defend those of the side claiming the Mongols to be a civilization and I think that was clear in our struggle during the debate. Points that should have been addressed I thought were interesting and hadn't thought about them until our professor pointed them out; does it matter if they were a civilization and how successful were the mongols at passing on their genes.

Recent readings and paper

From the readings discussed in class today I thought it was interesting how they related to our research paper due Friday. Before starting my research for the possibility of other migrators who could have settled in America first I always assumed that Native Americans were the original people and never gave much other thought to it. However my opinion has definitely changed and not just because I had to pick a side for our paper to argue. I do believe that it is possible for Coastal peoples to have traveled from East Asia down the coast following kelp forests and eventually settling in America. I also believe that these people could have had some relation to the Chinese and Zhang's exploration missions in the 15th century. I think it's interesting to consider when thinking about the original settlers of certain places of the world and I have learned to think about it differently through an almost outside of the box way from this class. I knew that people had migrated from Africa some thousands of years ago but I never considered or really thought that everyone at one point originated out of Africa. Now that we have come to the end of the semester I can appreciate the migration paths that many of these people had to endure if they wanted to go to a new location.

Another point that I found interesting was the section on the Chinese and how they pulled out of exploring the world through conquests in boats as did the Europeans. I do agree with what the text says that China could have imposed their whole culture on the world if they hadn't withdrawn themselves from these excavations so quickly. I wouldn't go as far to say that it was the Chinese error but I do agree with the text's opinion that it was a mistake that definitely affect people on a global perspective both thousands of years ago as well as today.

Things that lost my attention when I was going through this chapter were the parts about the Ottoman Empire. I feel like whenever I learn about them I find myself forgetting everything about them in the following semester or whatnot. They are the one empire that has never left a lasting mark on me and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing yet. Civilizations like Mesopotamia and Egypt and other first civilizations will always have an impact but you would think that through the accomplishments and expansion of the Ottoman empire they would too leave an everlasting impact. Maybe I have just shut them out because whenever I seem to be learning about them it is at similar times with Greek and Roman societies and my interests just lay in what those civilizations and empires had to offer over those of the Ottoman empire. Hopefully if I take another History course in the future I can fix this problem with always shutting out the Ottoman empire from staying in my head for more than a few days or week because they did have great accomplishments and conquered and expanded across Europe in a vast way.

Ch 9

I like how Strayer has adapted this mission of trying to stray from a Eurocentric type of view towards a more true world history perspective but I'm having some issues with that in chapter 8 and 9 as well as some other parts of the book. I can agree that his book has adapted a wider view of the term world history but it is still seemingly Eurocentric in the fact that most of what he covers shows impacts on "Eurasia." Maybe I haven't been reading clear enough and I'm missing the impacts on America and other countries or maybe he switches focuses from Eurasia to America and other countries in later chapters. So far it seems all that he has covered is the Maya or Olmec that were in Mesoamerica.

That being said I found chapter 9 to be very interesting especially the parts around women in the Song Dynasty. I remember learning about the binding of their feet in my freshman history class in high school and it always stuck with me as such a weird and obscene thing to me but to them it was what they considered normal. It makes me think of what they would consider weird and obscene if they were still alive today, social networking and internet relations would probably be considered completely insane if they time traveled to our century. Another thing that I found interest in the Song Dynasty was how even though it was less than a golden era for women since it was still ruled by a patriarchal society and there were set restricts from Confucianism and growing economies women still had new opportunities. They were allowed to work in and even own restaurants, they sold fish and vegetables in local markets as well as working as maids, cooks, and dressmakers. While women may have been cast to keep separate in every domain of life through Confucianism they still had a variety of opportunities which I did not anticipate to read about.

The last thing in thing in chapter 9 that struck me was the final section on Buddhism and how to India this was and is still probably their biggest gift to China. Buddhism entered via the Silk Road in the first and second centuries taking root in 300-800 ce and it still remains today. That's amazing to think about how a culture can spread through trade routes and take root and grow in a completely different country. The growth of chinese buddhism provoked resistance and criticism within the chinese state and destruction began against foreign religions in 841-845 but Buddhism did not disappear because of this, it remained an important element of popular religion. It is also amazing to think about in 12-14,000 years what might remain from our societies that can have impact on the following generations. Hopefully we can leave enough of our planet for societies to continue to grow and develop in 12 to 14 thousand years!

Comments

1. Annie's Blog:
I thought you gave a good summary of the chapter. I think that if people haven't had the chance to take History classes they might not know that many American traditions that we celebrate have found their roots in China, India and the Middle East. Good observation!

2. Ben's Blog:

I agree with your last paragraph when you talk about how trends move from continent to continent through evolution and growth. I also think that it's amazing and as you said monumental. While you mentioned that of it begging the question of a universal driving force my interpretation is that of globalization. I think that idea describes the process in your last paragraph the best. 

3. Hannah's Blog:

I think it's interesting how she talks about how all good things must come to an end, specially with Greece. It was a power that has left so many traditions and different aspects of culture behind it's unfortunate that this good empire and power had to come to an end.

4. Chris' Blog:

I agree with what you said about the Persian empire becoming too consumed with becoming a superpower. It seems to be a constant reoccurring factor in World History textbooks. I think that's why I have a similar interest as you in Greek history over the Persion failures of conquests. I also think it's interesting how you brought up Strayer commenting on US being the new Rome before we talked about it in groups today, good job! 

5. Courtney's Blog: 

I think what she says here about human beings all having one thing in common, agricultural revolution, is very true. While many civilizations have different religious practices or cultural differences everyone still developed through similar ways of the agricultural revolution and I think that's an interesting concept.

-Rachel

Midterm prep

Prepping for the midterm tomorrow morning:

Paleolithic Era: 200,000-12,000 years ago.
1. We evolved as homo sapiens
2. We developed technology through basic stone tools.
3. Socially, we formed ourselves into small groups of gatherer-hunters.
4. We migrated out of Africa to almost all other continents, the idea of globalization.

Paleolithic Era is known as the Old Stone Era

Neolithic Era: 12,000 years ago.
1. We out competed all other species of homo.
2. We developed advanced tools for more complex purposes
3. Socially, we formed ourselves into small agricultural communities.
4. Human population was complete.

Neolithic Era is known as the New Stone Era or Agricultural Era.

Ancient Era: 3500 BC- 500 BC
1. We competed against ourselves for power, wealth, status leading to social hierarchies.
2. Writing developed.
3. Civilizations and city-states developed creating an agricultural surplus.
4. Interaction between people from different continents increases due to trade.

The development and growth from era to era created an everlasting effect that is still in effect today. What one generation or era learns is adapted to fit a new generation or era. The qualities of life and technologies that brought beneficial aspects to one era are adapted and changed to fit the new needs and qualities of life of another generation or era. This idea is what is so significant about human development starting 200,000 years ago. Homo sapiens developed from gatherer-hunters who lived in small bands of 20-25 people to huge civilizations and nations that spread across the whole globe today. Our technological, social, and cultural advances all have their roots in the Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Ancient eras but as they did 200,000-12,000 years ago they adapted to change the technology and social way to fit their current quality of life. It's an interesting part of humanism and development as a species in general.

I wish that for our midterm we were allowed to bring a small outline or flash card of key points we wanted to discuss in our answers since there is so much material that has the possibility of being covered. It aso worries me that preparing for all 12 of these short answer questions for only 6 or 7 to be put on the midterm I haven't studied the right material. It's hard to gauge exactly what is important for such a broad range of questions, especially the contrasting and comparisons of the first civilizations. We'll see how day one of the Midterm tomorrow turns out, hoping for the best.

Chapter 4.... and handout synop

The preface and combination of Chapter 4 when I was scanning through before actually diving into reading it seemed a little daunting and well, boring. I've been finding it easier to take notes on what I'm reading and then going back to highlighting points that our teacher covers in class which I have in my notes. I found this method to be most helpful for the next chapter because it shows me what I've focused on too much and what I seemed to skip over in a daze.

Out of Chapter 4 the most fascinating thing to me were the points about the Greek Golden Era. The 50+ years that followed after the defeat of the Persian allowed for a transformation from small competing city-states of Greek to come together and unify for a common purpose. This common purpose extended into a peace period where what developed would go on to be the most remembered thing about this Greek civilization. Like Prof Andrews mentioned in class the Golden Age of the Greeks gave way to the start of famous Greek culture, including the Parthenon, Greek theatre, philosophy and some of the greatest Philosophers, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, etc...

The play off the Golden Era I think allowed for the writings of our handout regarding the war between the Persians and Greeks. Before the peace period that came after this war there would not have been the unity or cohesion between the city-states of Greece for a document like this to exist. It's amazing to think that if one event had not had occurred that another event would not have either, as in the case of this war. If it had not occurred no document would have been written as I said before.

This golden era struck my attention most I think because it was what I happened to remember from my 7th grade World History class. I remember tracing maps of the Greek peninsula and the land mass, Peloponnesus stuck in my head and when it was brought up in class brought me back to the time of easy 7th grade classes... which I know miss compared to these college classes. However while I think that the Greek Golden Era is extremely fascinating I still can't help but wonder what other civilizations existed around them that Paleontologists or Archaeologists have not discovered.

Going back to the first wave of first civilizations I still have an interest in the Indus Valley civilization, like I said before they were a people of over 40,000 citizens! That's a huge number that cannot just go unnoticed as magnificent. I start to wonder if at the time of the Ancient Greeks and Persians if there were civilizations that existed in the Americas, Australia, or various parts of Africa. Maybe this is just me speculating and not being as well knowing in World History as our Professor but it still always makes me wonder to how many other civilizations existed in these similar time periods that have too gone unnoticed.

Contrasts between First Civilizations

As I mentioned in my last post I thought that it was interesting how there has been a switch in focus from the Mesopotamians and Egyptians to digging for new "first civilizations." When I was looking at my text again the map on page 59 of Strayer's Ways of the World shows the Indus Valley civilization to be located in NW India on the brinks of current day Nepal and Pakistan. While obviously it is not what we would consider as "close" today to other civilizations it is located the closest out of the rest of the first civilizations highlighted in this chapter to the Egyptians and Mesopotamians. This made me wonder, why has the Indus Valley civilization only been recently investigated?

Other first civilizations like the Olmec or China have been studied in past history classes that I've taken however this is the first time that I have began to learn about the Indus Valley civilization and since it's new I'm finding I have more intrest in what their civilization is all about, where it came from, why and how it ended. In the text it shows a picture on page 63 of a discovery of an Indus Valley city. This city looked structurally sound and planned for. The text also goes on to say that the place where this city was discovered, the city of Mohenjo Daro, had a population of around 40,000, an awfully large number for a civilization. 40,000 people is bigger than my home town of Foster City by 10,000 people and to think that in 3500 years no one would know that a small civilization lived there is unbelievable.

Also another thing that struck me was how well planned the Indus Valley civilization was. Their cities were mapped out in a grid fashion, with indoor plumbing, and luxurious houses of two to three stories. It's also unbelievable to think that people 3500 years ago had the brainpower and advanced technology to accomplish all of these tasks. I know that if I was asked to build a temple or small city I would have absolutely no idea where to even begin. It's astonishing that these first civilizations all link back to have one thing in common, they all gained their start from the Agricultural Evolution.

The Agricultural Evolution really sparked and gave beginnings to all of the first civilizations highlighted in the chapter. In order to sustain a large civilization of 40,000 like the Indus Valley you need a surplus of goods, commerce, economy, and workers. From just the development of growing and creating a surplus from agriculture goods it is impressive that these civilizations could figure it all out. I know that now I would not be able to figure out how to get a donkey or horse to plow my field. Their advancements of technology back then is very similar to our advancement in technology now. They invented and developed items to aid their needs and today our society has done the same.. Maybe it's a humanistic quality to developed technology for your needs and wants.

Ways of the World

I've been trying really hard to make sure that I've been keeping up with all the readings in my classes and recently I have found that they have started to interlink each other. This semester I'm taking five general education classes, I'm getting lucky that some of the material is being covered in more than one class.

In Ways of the World chapter three Strayer talks about the first civilizations including the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Notre Chico, Indus Valley and China. These civilizations are deemed to be the first five that began to represent a new particular type of human society that was made possible through the progression of the Agricultural Revolution. The surplus of food that was starting to emerge from the Agricultural Revolution made it easier for civilizations to start to build communities. The surplus of food also brought not only development of communities but also the freedom of decision making aspects for what extra food should be used for. While it may seem that this may be a common practice to many of us today, the development of civilizations and communities were a slow and evolutionary process that took thousands of years of development.

Something that became prevalent after the development of civilizations was the difference in levels of equality. Hierarchical genders started to emerge and human rights and authoritative roles of society started to come into play more and more as well as the increase of power over others. Inequalities began to exist in gender roles, wealth, status, and power. Gender roles specifically began to change. Women in civilizations began to have more children and instead of work in the fields or gather foods for their families began to focus on work in the home and care after their children. Humans rights started to come into question as the idea of slavery and power over another person came into play. The authority over people to drive them into slavery disregarded all human rights and deny any liberties to that person. The Paleolithic probably did not have any slaves as there was no surplus of goods or power for any need of them. The Agricultural Era stimulated the economy and created this new use for slaves. Power was reflected through terror, authoritative roles in new civilizations used terror as a way to scare people and intimidate them into completing tasks similar to the way slaves were treated.

I think it was interesting in the chapter how Strayer began his discussion about the development of the first civilizations and ended it with comparing two of the more well known civilizations. Most people have learned about the Mesopotamians and Egyptians but little about the Notre Chico or Indus Valley civilizations. While the latter may not have the same interesting aspects surrounding war fare I wish he had spent a little more time on the development of why these new found first civilizations are categorized with the famous Mesopotamians and Egyptians. I feel like if the Notre Chico or newer Indus Valley civilizations were given the chance to be studied in depth they would be as interesting as the Mesopotamians.

Human history and growth

Ending the week in Math class our homework was to write a paper on the History of Pi. When I started the assignment this weekend I realized that not only is the history of how humans came to be extremely interesting and unique, but also the history of how the things humans have created may be even more interesting. The fact that humans could adapt to the evolving ecosystem and still manage to out compete and live many other species is an amazing accomplish in itself. However, the fact that humans could accomplish all that they have in surviving and then develop complicated mathematical problems and solutions from nothingness is even more amazing.

Some believe that the history of pi started over 4000 years ago with the Egyptians through their pyramid construction. It is interesting that over 12,000 years ago homo sapiens began to develop from basically nothingness and it only took them around 8,000 years to finally start putting together technical math sequences such as pi. While 8,000 years may seem like an awfully long and dragged out time to finally start putting together mathematical sequences when you break it down and start to analyze the time that it took homo sapiens to simply stay alive and out compete other species it is an amazing accomplishment that should not go unnoticed.

Our history as a unique species is so fascinating and diverse that someone should never get bored learning about it. There are so many different parts to our history that are being discovered still that bring us closer to our ancestors. Sometimes I think it is easier to think about the development of human species as a game show such as Survivor. There were small bands of people who were in remote locations like the tropics or the middle of African forests. They had little to no materials to hunt with leaving them to gathering local fruits, plants, and vegetables to live off of. The foods that they did find lacked many nutrients that all humans have a necessity for making them weaker and malnourished directly leaving them vulnerable to disease and easy fast deaths, or eliminations from the game show. However, once one tribe figured out an efficient way to gather and hunt providing enough nutrients and nourishments for their tribe or band of people they were able to out compete other bands or teams. These teams or bands that figured out how to advance in the game or in life were able to reproduce and generate the following generation that followed the same techniques that could supplement a whole community. These communities that could survive in such harsh environments successfully is the same as the one winner of the Survivor show. That winner represents someone who outlived, outplayed, and outwitted all other contestants or bands of people leaving that winner the ability to spread their hints or secrets on what it takes to be successful, similar to oral traditions passed from successful tribe to tribe extending that species life.

Early Historical Eras

The differences between the Paleolithic Era and the Neolithic Era when thinking about them through a general aspect seem vastly large. However, when comparing them in smaller broken down groups they are actually quite similar.

During the last week and a half of class we have been discussing four main parts to each of these eras. First we covered the Paleolithic Era which involves many basic aspects to our history as Homo Sapiens. Through studying the Neolithic Era we discussed the advances in the Agriculture Revolution and the direct effects it left on the Neolithic Homo Sapiens.

In the first part of both eras we evolved, not only as Homo Sapiens, but as competing successful creatures. The way in which early humans taught themselves basic survival techniques such as gathering and hunting is simply amazing. It is crazy to think of life without all of the technologies that our ancestors and previous generations have provided for us but to look back on what early Homo Sapiens had to figure out with very limited knowledge is almost even more impressing. In the Neolithic Era we evolved again by out competing all of species of the genius Homo. During this era it seems as things started to click in our brains and we grew physically as well as mentally. Like I said earlier these Eras may seem so different at times but when broken down and compared side by side play off each other in more ways than not.

Through these Eras we also began developing tools to help advance us further as a functioning group of species. In the Paleolithic Era Homo Sapiens developed super basic stone tools probably sharpened rocks and maybe spear heads to defend themselves with. However in the Neolithic Era the Homo Sapiens that outlived all other Homo genius species began to develop even more stone tools and put them to use in more complex situations.

Next in the Paleolithic Era small bands of gatherer hunters began to form. These bands of groups migrated from place to place on Africa using the basic gathering and hunting techniques they taught themselves. When you think about how difficult it must have been to test out food that is suitable enough to provide enough nutrition it's almost unbelievable that any of these gatherer hunter bands survived. Today we take for granted how easy it is for us to go out and get almost anything that we want. Comparing back to the Paleolithic Era it must have been extremely difficult to use moderately weak tools in order obtain any type of food. In the Neolithic Era a big switch in food development happened. The Agricultural Revolution struck and changed the way small bands of Homo Sapiens functioned. Instead of small bands of gatherer hunters they began to transform into small groups of agriculturalists who could now produce their own food and sustain a seemingly healthier nutritional lifestyle.

Lastly in the Paleolithic Era the small bands of gatherer hunters began to migrate out of Africa into other countries and continents. Again, when thinking about how easy it is to travel now compared to trying to move your whole community from one spot to the next it's amazing to actually think how advanced and intelligent these Homo Sapiens were. Not only did they migrate to surrounding countries but they crossed oceans and landed as far as the surrounding islands of Australia. The last step of the Neolithic Era was the completion of the human population. Homo Sapiens too what they knew from the Paleolithic Era and utilized it without knowing it into the Neolithic Era. The advancement and knowledge from migrating from country to country helped with the spread of agriculture directly affecting population growth. The Neolithic Era left an impression on the next era, Ancient Era, just as the Paleolithic Era left an impression on the Neolithic Era. Without each Era developing and changing I don't think that we would be here today as humans reading or typing any of this.

Chapter 1 Readings

I just finished reading the assigned homework for this weekend and found it to be a good review of what we covered in class as well as from previous History courses I've taken. Topics that stuck out to me were that no matter what event it is in History it has importance. I had never thought of History that way because I have never had much of an interest in it. However through this reading I became more conscious to the fact that our human history while short has such an unbelievable existence. Another thing that stuck with me were the percentages around the Paleolithic Era. Human's time on the planet have been spent in the Paleolithic Era for 95%, however that time is only represented by 12% of the Human population. One last thing that stuck with me was form the section Why World History? It talked about how no matter what problems we face as humans whether economical, social, or environmental they don't just affect us personally they leave an ever lasting affect on our History and leave a footprint on the Global structure as well.

Some of Chapter 1 I found myself getting distracted while reading, especially during the final few pages. I'll have to go back and reread the final pages but overall I like the way that the Author writes because it is not like many other History textbooks.

Also my textbook has not arrived in the mail and I was getting a little nervous because the readings were due Wednesday. I googled the book and it showed up in Google Books! If anyone doesn't have their textbook for this class or possibly another class that's another way to try and see if you can get it quick.

:)
-Rachel O

Test post.....