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.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
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.
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.
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.
Monday, November 5, 2012
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!
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!
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