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.