Museum Visit

My husband and I visited the Legion of Honor to see the mummy exhibit of Irethorrou. Irethorrow was estimated to live around the time of 500 BC. I chose this exhibit because I wanted to do a research paper on the people of ancient Egypt. The exhibit had many other artifacts from this time frame. It also included how they used medical science to learn more about this mummy without destroying it. They took pictures of the CT scan that they used to uncover what was in the mummy. You were able to still see the protective amulets that they are burried with. Through modern medicine they examined the process of ancient mummification. The Mummies and Medicine exhibit also includes other “cult of the dead” antiquities that relate to the ancient Egyptian beliefs of death and the afterlife including a beaded mummy mask from Dynasty 26 (7th century B.C.), an anthropoid coffin from Dynasty 30 (4th century B.C.), a funerary shroud circa A.D. 180-275, amulets, funerary furnishings and a selection of historical prints. There was also a computer there that generated models of the skulls of Irethorrou and of a close relative Ankh-Wennefer. My visit to this exhibit corresponded to my section in my research project named the "After Life". The ancient Egyptians lived for the after life. The preparation for the after life was very important and a very detailed process. It was all very interesting to see how important and how much preparation the Egytians spent on the after life. It is what drew me to researching and trying to understand the Ancient Peoples of Egypt. I wanted to know more on how the lived instead of just how they died. So that is what I did my paper on.

Blog #10 - Part 6b - Ch 23 - 24

I enjoyed the class although it was very challenging for me. Below are my final outlines for chapters 23 & 24.

CHAPTER 23: Independence and Development in the Global South, 1914–Present
Nelson Mandela of South Africa spent 27 years in prison for treason, sabotage, and conspiracy. In 1994, he became South Africa’s first black president
Decolonization was vastly important in the second half of the twentieth century.

+ Toward Freedom: Struggles for Independence

• The End of Empire in World History
=India, Pakistan, Burma, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, and Israel won independence in the late 1940s
=African independence came between mid-1950s and mid-1970s
=imperial breakup wasn’t new; the novelty was mobilization of the masses around a nationalist ideology and creation of a large number of new nation-states
=fall of many empires in the twentieth century
a. Austrian and Ottoman empires collapsed in the wake of World War I
b. Russian Empire collapsed but was soon recreated as the USSR
c. German and Japanese empires ended with World War II
d. African and Asian independence movements shared with other “end of empire” stories the ideal of national self-determination
e. nonterritorial empires (e.g., where United States wielded powerful influence) came under attack
i. U.S. intrusion helped stimulate the Mexican Revolution(1910)
f. disintegration of the USSR (1991) was propelled by national self-determination (creation of 15 new states)
• Explaining African and Asian Independence

+ Comparing Freedom Struggles

• The Case of India: Ending British Rule
• The Case of South Africa: Ending Apartheid

+ Experiments with Freedom

• Experiments in Political Order: Comparing African Nations and India
• Experiments in Economic Development: Changing Priorities, Varying Outcomes
• Experiments with Culture: The Role of Islam in Turkey and Iran

CHAPTER 24: Accelerating Global Interaction Since 1945

+ Global Interaction and the Transformation of the World Economy

• Reglobalization
• Disparities and Resistance
• Globalization and an American Empire

+ The Globalization of Liberation: Comparing Feminist Movements

• Feminism in the West
• Feminism in the Global South
• International Feminism

+ Religion and Global Modernity

• Fundamentalism on a Global Scale
• Creating Islamic Societies: Resistance and Renewal in the World of Islam
• Religious Alternatives to Fundamentalism

+ The World’s Environment and the Globalization of Environmentalism

• The Global Environment Transformed
• Green and Global

Note: Info comes from The Ways of the World, A brief Global History textbook by Robert W. Strayer, website, http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/strayer1e/default.asp?

Blog #9 - Part 6a - Ch 21 - 22

CHAPTER 21: The Collapse and Recovery of Europe, 1914–1970s
disappointment that it wasn’t the “war to end all wars”, but now the major European states have ended centuries of hostility.
“a European civil war with a global reach”
between 1914 and the end of WWII, Western Europe largely self-destructed.
Europe recovered surprisingly well between 1950 and 2000, but without its overseas empires and without its position as the core of Western civilization.

+ The First World War: European Civilization in Crisis, 1914–1918

• An Accident Waiting to Happen - by around 1900, the balance of power in Europe was shaped by two rival alliances:
a. Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria, Italy)
b. Triple Entente (Russia, France, Britain)
c. these alliances turned a minor incident into WWI
June 28, 1914: a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne
a. Austria was determined to crush the nationalism movement
b. Serbia had Russia (and Russia’s allies) behind it
c. general war broke out by August 1914
Factors that contributed to the outbreak and character of the war:
a. popular nationalism
b. industrialized militarism
=large number of new weapons had been invented (tanks, submarines, airplanes, poison gas, machine guns, barbed wire)
=result: some 10 million people died in WWI, perhaps 20 million wounded
c. Europe’s colonial empires
=battles in Africa and South Pacific
=Japan (allied with Britain) took German possessions
=Ottoman Empire (allied with Germany) suffered intense military operations and an Arab revolt
=the United States joined the war in 1917 when German submarines harmed U.S. shipping
• Legacies of the Great War
=Germany was finally defeated November 1918
=became a war of attrition (“trench warfare”)
=became “total war”—each country’s whole population was mobilized
=women replaced men in factories
=labor unions accepted sacrifices
=rearrangement of the map of Central Europe
=creation of independent Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia
=created new problems of ethnic minorities
= triggered the Russian Bolshevik revolution (1917)
=the Treaty of Versailles (1919) made the conditions that caused WWII
a. Germany lost its colonial empire and 15 percent of its European territory
b. Germany was required to pay heavy reparations
c. Germany suffered restriction of its military forces
d. Germany had to accept sole responsibility for the outbreak of the war
e. Germans resented the treaty immensely
=dissolution of the Ottoman Empire
a. the Armenian genocide
b. creation of new Arab states
c. British promises to both Arabs and Jews created a new problem in Palestine
=in Asia and Africa, many gained military skills and political awareness
=the United States appeared as a global power

+ Capitalism Unraveling: The Great Depression

+ Democracy Denied: Comparing Italy, Germany, and Japan

• The Fascist Alternative in Europe
• Hitler and the Nazis
• Japanese Authoritarianism

+ A Second World War

• The Road to War in Asia
• The Road to War in Europe - 1939: attack on Poland—triggered WWII in Europe, Germans were finally defeated in May 1945
• World War II: The Outcomes of Global Conflict
=an estimated 60 million people died in WWII
a. more than half the casualties were civilians
b. the line between civilian and military targets was blurred
= the USSR suffered more than 40 percent of the total number of deaths
= China also suffered massive attacks against civilians
a. in many villages, every person and animal was killed
b. the Rape of Nanjing (1937–1938): 200,000–300,000 Chinese civilians were killed; countless women were raped
=bombing raids on Britain, Japan, and Germany showed the new attitude toward total war
=governments’ mobilization of economies, people, and propaganda reached further than ever before
=the Holocaust: some 6 million Jews were killed in genocide
a. millions of others considered undesirable were also killed by the Nazis
=WWII left Europe impoverished, with its industrial infrastructure in ruins and millions of people homeless or displaced
a. Europe soon was divided into U.S. and Soviet spheres of influence
=weakened Europe could not hold onto its Asian and African colonies
=WWII consolidated and expanded the communist world
=growing internationalism
=the new dominance of the United States as a global superpower
+ The Recovery of Europe


CHAPTER 22: The Rise and Fall of World Communism, 1917–Present

+ Global Communism

+ Comparing Revolutions as a Path to Communism

• Russia: Revolution in a Single Year
• China: A Prolonged Revolutionary Struggle

+ Building Socialism in Two Countries

• Communist Feminism
• Socialism in the Countryside
• Communism and Industrial Development
• The Search for Enemies

+ East Versus West: A Global Divide and a Cold War

• Military Conflict and the Cold War
• Nuclear Standoff and Third World Rivalry
• The United States: Superpower of the West, 1945–1975
• The Communist World, 1950s–1970s

+ Comparing Paths to the End of Communism

• China: Abandoning Communism and Maintaining the Party
• The Soviet Union: The Collapse of Communism and Country

Note: Info comes from The Ways of the World, A brief Global History textbook by Robert W. Strayer, website, http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/strayer1e/default.asp?s=&n=&i=&v=&o=&ns=0&uid=0&rau=0

Blog #8 - Research Project

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July and a nice holiday today.

I just finally completed my research project. I wrote about the ancient peoples of Egypt. It is nice to stop and take a deeper dive in regards to some of these civilizations we are studying to get to know the people more. It was also nice to take a field trip to a museum. I don't take the time to just go out and visit one unless I have too, so it was nice.

During my research on the Egyptian peoples I came across the youtube video from the History Chanel called "Engineering an Empire - Egypt - 1 of 10" I watched all 10 excerpts. It was really interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu_2Fxp_e0s

What a stress though... I almost lost my research paper to a virus. Very scarry. I had been working on my paper for about 6 hours I was only a couple of paragraphs away from completing and all of a sudden my computer started going crazy with asking me to protect my computer. The virus name was AV Suite and it was actually malware but it totally hosed my computer. It wouldn't let me email or anything. Luckily I was able to get a USB hub and it reluctantly allowed my to save to it. So then I was able to finish my report on my husbands computer while he fixed mine. Whew... thank god. Can you imagine loosing your paper after all that work. bye for now.

Blog #7 - Part 5, Ch- 17, 18, & 20

Part 5 The "long nineteenth century" 1750 -1914

Two themes for this era:
1. Creation of new "modern" human society - Scientific, French, and Industrial revolutions
2. Growing ability of these modern societies to exercise enormous power and influence over the rest of human kind

Eurocentrism: Geography and History

Five responses to countering Eurocentrism
1. remind ourselves the relativity of time and space this took place in comparison to the rest of the history.
2. rise of Europe occurred within an int'l context, It was the withdrawal of the Chinese naval fleet that allowed Europeans to dominate the Indian Ocean in the sixteenth century, while the Native Americans lacked immunity to the European diseases as well as their own divisions.
3. They had to be flexible and sometimes bend their rules.
4. Other peoples benefited from the European advancements. These global changes the modern era arose.
5. They were not the only game in town, nor were they the sole pre-occupants of the world.

CHAPTER 17: Atlantic Revolutions and Their Echoes, 1775–1914

+ Comparing Atlantic Revolutions
Thomas Jefferson advise the French on the eve of the French Revolution.
Simon Bolivar visited Haiti twice before the Mexican Revolution, receiving Military aid.
European enlightenment was shared across the alt antic, the questioning of the past government and entitlements.

• The North American Revolution, 1775–1787 - Independence from Britain, preserve their autonomous ways, not pay taxes to the British, and practice the Enlightenment way of government. Republic enthusiasm. French soldiers aided the Americans.
• The French Revolution, 1789–1815- War between the commoners and the Priveleged rights. Unlike the Americans, who sought to restore or build upon earlier freedoms, Frech revolutionaries perceived themselves to be starting from scratch and looked to the future. Abolishing Aristocracy.
• The Haitian Revolution, 1791–1804 - True slave revolt, bottom level became the top.
• Spanish American Revolutions, 1810–1826- The imperial state was destroyed in Spanish America, but colonial society was preserved. Basically the taxes that were sent back to Spain, stopped but nothing changed politically or socially.

+ Echoes of Revolution

• The Abolition of Slavery
• Nations and Nationalism
• Feminist Beginnings

CHAPTER 18: Revolutions of Industrialization, 1750–1914

+ Explaining the Industrial Revolution

• Why Europe?
• Why Britain?

+ The First Industrial Society

• The British Aristocracy
• The Middle Classes
• The Laboring Classes
• Social Protest Among the Laboring Classes

+ Variations on a Theme: Comparing the United States and Russia

• The United States: Industrialization without Socialism
• Russia: Industrialization and Revolution

+ The Industrial Revolution and Latin America in the Nineteenth Century

• After Independence in Latin America
• Facing the World Economy
• Becoming Like Europe?

CHAPTER 20: Colonial Encounters, 1750–1914

+ A Second Wave of European Conquests

+ Under European Rule

• Cooperation and Rebellion
• Colonial Empires with a Difference

+ Ways of Working: Comparing Colonial Economies

• Economies of Coercion: Forced Labor and the Power of the State
• Economies of Cash-Crop Agriculture: The Pull of the Market
• Economies of Wage Labor: Working for Europeans
• Women and the Colonial Economy: An African Case Study
• Assessing Colonial Development

+ Believing and Belonging: Cultural Change in the Colonial Era

• Education
• Religion
• “Race” and “Tribe”

Note: Info comes from The Ways of the World, A brief Global History textbook by Robert W. Strayer, website, http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/strayer1e/default.asp?

Blog #6 - Part 4 Early Modern Era Ch 14-16

PART 4 - THE EARLY MODERN WORLD 1450-1750

Beginnings of globalization, distinctly modern societies, and a growing European presence.

European explorers and conquests, African slave trades, Global trade,

CHAPTER 14: Empires and Encounters, 1450–1750

+ European Empires in the Americas
Columbus landed in Hispaniaola 1492, (current day Domincan Republic/Haiti)

• The European Advantage - They were close in distance to the Americas
• The Great Dying - In some cases up to 90% of the America's population died from diseases becuase they had not immunities built up because the lack of domesticated animals.
• The Columbian Exchange - massive transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and people
From Europe: Wheat, rice, sugarcane, grapes, and many garden vegetables and fruits. Also, horses, pigs, cattle, goats, sheep...
From Americas: corn, potatoes, and cassava

+ Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas
Spanish, Portuguese, British, and French

• In the Lands of the Aztecs and the Incas
• Colonies of Sugar-Plantation Agriculture, Slave trade, 80% went to Brazil and Carribean, only 6% went to North America. Sugar was labor intensive. Slaves were made up of captured criminals. Slaves came from West Afica. Less mixing blood with the North America slaves.
• Settler Colonies in North America- North American colonies were more literate because their religions encouraged them to read the bible themselves.

+ The Steppes and Siberia: The Making of a Russian Empire
Invaded Siberia for their fur (which was like gold, soft gold)

• Experiencing the Russian Empire
• Russians and Empire- The wealth of Empire - rich agricultural lands, valuable fures, mineral deposits - played a major role in making Russia one of the great powers of Europe by the eighteenth century, and it has enjoyed that position ever since.

+ Asian Empires
Turko-Mongol invadors from central asia created the Mughal Empire. (India)
Qing or Manchu Dynasty

• Making China an Empire- Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689) peaceful marking of the boundary between Russia and China.
• Muslims and Hindus in the Mughal Empire
• Muslims, Christians, and the Ottoman Empire

CHAPTER 15: Global Commerce, 1450-1750

+ Europeans and Asian Commerce

• A Portuguese Empire of Commerce
• Spain and the Philippines- Named after the Spanish king Philip II.
• The East India Companies
• Asian Commerce

+ Silver and Global Commerce

+ The “World Hunt”: Fur in Global Commerce

+ Commerce in People: The Atlantic Slave Trade

• The Slave Trade in Context
• The Slave Trade in Practice
• Comparing Consequences: The Impact of the Slave Trade in Africa

CHAPTER 16: Religion and Science, 1450–1750

+ The Globalization of Christianity

• Western Christendom Fragmented: The Protestant Reformation
• Christianity Outward Bound
• Conversion and Adaptation in Spanish America
• An Asian Comparison: China and the Jesuits

+ Persistence and Change in Afro-Asian Cultural Traditions

• Expansion and Renewal in the Islamic World
• China: New Directions in an Old Tradition
• India: Bridging the Hindu/Muslim Divide

+ A New Way of Thinking: The Birth of Modern Science

• The Question of Origins: Why Europe?
• Science as Cultural Revolution
• Science and Enlightenment
• Looking Ahead: Science in the Nineteenth Century
• European Science Beyond the West

Note: Info comes from The Ways of the World, A brief Global History textbook by Robert W. Strayer, website, http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/strayer1e/default.asp?

Blog #5 - Part 3 Post Classical Era - Ch 11 -13

Chapter Outlines to be filled in with what I think are interesting facts to know and notes from class. This way helps me see the big picture and study for quizzes.

CHAPTER 11: The Worlds of Islam: Afro-Eurasian Connections, 600–1500
Islam stretched from Spain to India. Came on fast and very thorough
Trade routes/ Pasoral
City of Mecca == Trading Zone, full of riches
Kaaba - Square monument that held 360 idols
Islam based on the 5 pillars
1. Monotheism - One God, Muhammad was the messenger of God
2. Prayer 5 times daily
3. Generously give your wealth to maintain the community, and to help the needy
4. Rhamadan - Month long fasting
5. Pilgrimage to Mecca

+ The Birth of a New Religion

• The Homeland of Islam
• The Messenger and the Message
• The Transformation of Arabia

+ The Making of an Arab Empire

• War and Conquest - The Byzantine and Persian Empires were ripe for take over because they had been weakened by decades of war with each other and by internal revolts.
624 battle of the Muslims against Mecca (3:1)
• Conversion to Islam
• Divisions in the Islamic World
• Women and Men in Early Islam

+ Islam and Cultural Encounter: A Four-Way Comparison

• The Case of India
• The Case of Anatolia
• The Case of West Africa
• The Case of Spain

+ The World of Islam as a New Civilization

• Networks of Faith
• Networks of Exchange

CHAPTER 12: Pastoral Peoples on the Global Stage: The Mongol Moment, 1200–1500

+ Looking Back and Looking Around: The Long History of Pastoral Nomads

• The World of Pastoral Societies
• The Xiongnu: An Early Nomadic Empire
• The Arabs and the Turks
• The Masai of East Africa

+ Breakout: The Mongol Empire
Mongolia - largest continuous land area to this day.
Mongol empire exhisted same time as Song Dynasty.
They were about fueding and revenge
Mongols conquered Persia
4x size of Alexander's Army

• From Temujin to Chinggis Khan: The Rise of the Mongol Empire
killed his older brother
• Explaining the Mongol Moment

+ Encountering the Mongols: Comparing Three Cases

• China and the Mongols
• Persia and the Mongols
• Russia and the Mongols

+ The Mongol Empire as a Eurasian Network

• Toward a World Economy
• Diplomacy on a Eurasian Scale
• Cultural Exchange in the Mongol Realm
• The Plague: A Eurasian Pan

CHAPTER 13: The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century

+ The Shapes of Human Communities

• Paleolithic Persistence
• Agricultural Village Societies
• Herding Peoples

+ Civilizations of the Fifteenth Century: Comparing China and Europe

• Ming Dynasty China
• European Comparisons: State-Building and Cultural Renewal
• European Comparisons: Maritime Voyaging

+ Civilizations of the Fifteenth Century: The Islamic World

• In the Islamic Heartland: The Ottoman and Safavid Empires
• On the Frontiers of Islam: The Songhay and Mughal Empires

+ Civilizations of the Fifteenth Century: The Americas

• The Aztec Empire
• The Inca Empire

+ Webs of Connection

Note: Info comes from The Ways of the World, A brief Global History textbook by Robert W. Strayer, website, http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/strayer1e/default.asp?

Blog #4 - Part 3 Post Classical Era - Ch 8 -10

The Post Classical Era, AKA the Medieval (too Eurocentric), and Third-Wave Civilizations. This Era roughly lasted through the time 500 - 1500 CE.

CHAPTER 8: Commerce and Culture, 500–1500

+ Silk Roads: Exchange across Eurasia
For 2000 years, goods, ideas, technologies, and diseases made their way across Eurasia. One of the worlds most extensive and sustained networks of exchange among its diverse peoples.

• Goods in Transit

- China Contributed: Silk, bamboos, mirrors, gunpowder, paper, rhubarb, ginger, lacquerware, chrysanthemums.
- Siberia/Central Asia: furs, walrus tusks, amber, livestock, horses, falcons, hides, copper vessels, tents, saddles, slaves
- India: cotton, herbal medicine, precious stones, spices
- Middle East: dates, nuts, almonds, dried fruit, dyes, lapis lazuli, swords
- Mediterranean basin: gold coins, glassware, glazes, grapevines, jewelry, artworks, perume, wool and linen textiles, olive oil.

• Cultures in Transit

- Buddhism, a cultural product of India, spread widely throughout central and East Asia.

• Disease in Transit

- Disease is blamed on part for fall of some empires. ie. Mongul empire and the spread of "the black death" or bubonic plague, anthrax, or a package of epidemic diseases. From China to Europe. 1/3 of Europe's population from 1346 - 1350 perished from the plague.

+ Sea Roads: Exchange across the Indian Ocean
linked the distant peoples of the Eastern Hemisphere, China to East Africa.

- Mediterranean basin: ceramics, glassware, wine, gold, olive oil
- East Africa: ivory, gold, iron goods, slaves, tortoiseshells, quartz, leopard skins
- Arabia: frankincense, myrrh, perfumes
- India: grain, ivory, precious stones, cotton textiles, spices, timber, tortoiseshells
- Southeast Asia: tin, sandlewood, cloves, nutmeg, mace
- China: silks porcelain, tea

+ Sand Roads: Exchange across the Sahara Desert

- Trans-African Trade: The North African coastal region generated cloth, glassware, weapons and other manufactured goods.
- Trans-Saharan: By Camel; gold, copper deposits, salt, African ivory, kola nuts, and slaves.
- Sudanic West Africa: exchanged metal goods, cotton textiles, gold, and various food products using boats along the nile river and donkeys overland.

Great empires came out of this trade route in the Sudanic area like the kingdon of Ghana and the kingdom of Mali. These area gained a reputation of Great wealth by the surrounding areas because of what the gained from this trade route.


+ An American Network: Commerce and Connection in the Western Hemisphere
Not a large network of trade due to the absense of horses, donkeys, camels, wheeled vehicles, and large oceangoing vessels, all of which facilitated long-distance trade and travel in Afro-Eurasia. Geographical or environmental differences added more obstacles.

The most intense areas of exchange and communication occurred within the mississippi valley(Cahokia), Mesoamerican(Mayan & Aztec), and Andean(Inca) groups.

CHAPTER 9: China and the World: East Asian Connections, 500–1300 C.E

+ The Reemergence of a Unified China
China had been fragmented. Insurgence from the North. Entrenched with Aristocratic families.

• A “Golden Age” of Chinese Achievement
the Sui Dynasty (589-618)Ragained it's unity with
1200 mile canal system linked northern and southern China economically and contributed much to the prosperity that followed. But the ruthlessness of Sui emporer and a fertile military campaign to conquer Korea exhausted the state's resources, alienated many people, and prompted the over throw of the dynasty. This collaspe gave way to 2 dynasties that followed--

the Tang (618-907) and the Song (960-1270) -- built on the Sui foundation of renewed unity, together they established patterns of the Chinese life that endured into the twentieth Century, despite a fifty-year period of disunity between the two dynasties.

• Women in the Song Dynasty
less golden for the women. More Patriachism was in place in the Song then the tang. This is also where the much talked about foot binding (torture) for women was prevalent. The Song Dynasty offered a mixture of tightening restrictions and new opportunies to its women. More education and property rights.

+ China and the Northern Nomads: A Chinese World Order in the Making

• The Tribute System
• Cultural Influence across an Ecological Frontier

+ Coping with China: Comparing Korea, Vietnam, and Japan

• Korea and China
• Vietnam and China
• Japan and China - Japan has been indigenious to itself. No outside invaders.

+ China and the Eurasian World Economy

• Spillovers: China’s Impact on Eurasia
• On the Receiving End: China as Economic Beneficiary

+ China and Buddhism

+ Making Buddhism Chinese

• Losing State Support: The Crisis of Chinese Buddhism

CHAPTER 10: The Worlds of European Christendom: Connected and Divided, 500-1300
Christianity provided a cultural commonality for the diverse societies of western Eurasia but divided both politically and religiously. Abandoned Latin for the Greek Language
Serftom - System of Lords and Manners - Serfs = kind of like free slaves
Western Europe's enemy was the Vikings

+ Eastern Christendom: Building on the Past
330 - founding of Constantinople
395 - final division of Roman Empire into eastern and western halves
527 - 565 - Reign of Justinian; attempted reconquest of western empire
7th century - Loss of syria/palestine, Egypt, and North Africa to Arab forces
726 - 843 Iconoclastic controvery
988 - conversion of Vladimir, prince of Kiev, to christianity
1054 - Mutual excommunication of pope and patriarch
1204 - Crusaders sack constantinople
1453 - Ottomans seize Constantinople; end of Eyzantine Empire (Conquest of the Muslim Turks)

• The Byzantine State - continuation of the roman empire - Eatern Half
• The Byzantine Church and Christian Divergence - tied to the state known as caesaropapism
• Byzantium and the World - always in conflict with persia, this weakened them for the Arab armies. traded with all its neighbors.
• The Conversion of Russia - Expansion of Orthodox chrisianity. community of Rus/Kiev (Chosen because in Islam you were not able to drink alcolhol)

+ Western Christendom: Constructing a Hybrid Civilization

• In the Wake of Roman Collapse: Political Life in Western Europe, 500-1000
• In the Wake of Roman Collapse: Society and the Church, 500-1000
• Accelerating Change in the West, 1000-1300
• Europe Outward Bound: The Crusading Tradition

+ The West in Comparative Perspective

• Catching Up
Technological innovation allowed western Europe to catch up
• Pluralism in Politics
• Reason and Faith

Note: Info comes from The Ways of the World, A brief Global History textbook by Robert W. Strayer, website, http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/strayer1e/default.asp?

Blog #3 -> Ch. 5

As assigned from class, my chapter to review for this week was chapter 5.

Chapter 5 was about Eurasian Cultural Traditions. Eurasia consists of Persia (present day Iraq), Eastern Mediteranean/Palestine/Isreal/Eastern Roman Empire, India, China, and Greece.

These cultural traditions are mostly religous/spiritual. They consist of the following:

• Persia -> Zoroastrianism -> Single High god; cosmic conflict of good and evil
• Eastern Mediteranean/Palestine/Isreal -> Judaism -> Transcendent High God; covenant with chosen people; social justice
• Palestine/Isreal -> Christianity -> Jesus; Supreme importance of love based on intimate relationship with God; at odds with established authorities
• Palestine/Isreal/eastern Roman Empire -> Christianity -> Christianity as a religion for all; salvation through faith in Christ
• India -> Brahmanism/Hinduism -> Brahma (the single impersonal divine reality); Karma; rebirth; goal of liberation (moksha)
• India -> Jainism -> All creatures have souls; purification through nonviolence; opposed to caste
• India -> Buddhism -> Suffering caused by desire/ attachment; end of suffering through modest and moral living and meditation practice
• China -> Confucianism -> Social harmony through moral example; secular outlook; importance of education; family as model of the state
• China -> Daoism -> Withdrawl from the world into contemplation of nature; simple living; end of striving
• Greece -> Greek rationalism -> Socrates, Plato, Aristotle; Style of persistent questioning; secular explanation of nature and human life

Most of these traditions sought an alternative to an earlier polytheism (multiple gods). In contrast the classical era sought to define a single source of order and meaning in the universe.

Note: Info comes from The Ways of the World, A brief Global History textbook by Robert W. Strayer, website, http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/strayer1e/default.asp?

Blog #2 - Ch 1-3

My blog is an attempt to highlight all the pertinent points in these chapters so that it will later help me study for the quiz.

History is about the three C's. 1. Comparisons, 2. Changes over time, and 3. Connections or Inter-connections.

We begin with Part One, the beginnings in history. The end of the ice age and the emergence of humankind. The Paleolithic Revolution which means the "Old Stone Age", the Neolithic which means Agriculture, and the Turning point of Civilizations.

The Paleolithic Revolution:

Neanderthals & Modern Humans. Neanderthals lived in the ice age, had bigger barrel chests, their brains were bigger and their musculature. The had to deal with cold and the Mega fauna and they needed the extra strength to kill there meals by having to thrust spears from a short distance into their prey. This was a hunting and gathering group.

From an relative view 95% of human existence was existed by the hunter and gathers.

The Chumash and the San tribes carried the lifestyle of hunters and gatherers well into the modern era. They never evolved into the more civilized agricultural era.

This kind of community were more nomadic. They moved around and didn't settle. The either moved with the animals or the plants. No real form of writing. They worked fewer hours and had more time for leisure. Men were the hunters and women were the gatherers and the maker of tools. men and women were equal and there was not much of a hierarchy. Life expectancy was low, 35 on average. They set fires to encourage growth of plants. Australia ended up with the proliferation of fire-resistant eucalyptus trees as a result of these fires. The Flores men in Indonesia were a smaller version of neanderthals. Little evidence of of a spiritual or religious dimension but some findings in paintings and carvings suggest a ceremonial spirit.

The transition to the Agriculture Revolution coincided with the melting of the ice age and global warming.

The Agriculture (Neolithic) Revolution:

These people settled in one place, gave way for bigger civilization because this way of farming was able to feed and sustain greater amounts of people. This was the era of domesticating both plants and animals. This era also began more of an inequality between them and between men and women. There was more organization. This is where the pyramids were built. mud bricks were made for building homes and pyramids instead of using stone. These communities made pottery. It also brought cities, states, empires, civilizations, writing and literature. Some of the negatives brought with this era was animal-borne diseases, natural disasters, Environmental decay or overuse, and warfare. Transformed corn from one inch to six inches, also known as teosinte and Maize. Sheep gave way to wool, cows gave way to milk, and chickens gave way to laying more eggs. Pastoral Societies relied far more on domesticated animals then agriculture. Tomuls = canue makers. Catalhoyuk = Southern Turkey. This era occured separately and independently in many widely scattered parts of the world: the fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia, serveral places in sub-Saharan Africa, China, new Guinea, Mesoamerica, the Andes, and eastern North America and it roughly took place at the same time. Only the llama/alpaca existed in the western hemishere. With farming it involved more hard work so less leisure time. Living close to animals subjected humans to diseases, like smallpox, flu, measles, chicken pox, malaria, tuberculosis, rabies... which living in tight communities gave way to the first epidemics. Natural disasters could left societies volunerable to famine in case of crop failure, drought or other catastrophes. The working of gold, copper, bronze, and iron became part of jewelry, tools, and weapons. The invention of looms for weaving. No pastoral societies emerged in the Americas. Agricultural societies included the Banpo and Jericho.

Civilizations: Cities, States, and Unequal Societies

The three biggest civilzations from the same time frame was Egypt/Nubia settling around the Nile River Valley, The Sumer, in southern Mesopotamia (presence day IRAQ), settling around the Euphrates and Tigris River valleys, and Norte Chico near the Andes mountains in the central coast of Peru. Three other civilization also important are the Olmecs, in current day Veracruz, Mexico; the Indus Valley civilizations, the Saraswatia river valley which is now Pakistan; and the Chinese Shang Dynasty. These civilizations gave way to more hierarhies of gender and Patriarchy, which is a male dominated society. With the exception of Egypt. There was more communication put to writing and accounting. Kings and leaders. The specialties of crafts. The Egyptians had a more organized and consistant existence with predictiable flooding to renew their farmland, where the Sumer area had a much harder time and it usually flooded thier farmland at the wrong times.

1. Cities lay at the heart of civilizations because they played important roles as centers of adminstration, culture, and commerce.

2. Writings came the invention of record keeping

3. Epic Gilgamesh -> civilization in Sumer

Haitawana was the first person to put her name to her work/writings.

Note: Info comes from The Ways of the World, A brief Global History textbook by Robert W. Strayer, website, http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/strayer1e/default.asp?

Blog #1 - Intro

Here is my first attemt at blogging. My first Blog ever.

This blog is for my World History Class at the College, NDNU. I will be using my blog hopefully as a study guide for me. I will be putting in summaries and important facts from all the Chapter readings in hopes that when it comes time to study for the quizes these notes will become my study guide.

This class meets every Monday and we all are to add at least 10 blog entries in regards to our readings. We will have four quizes in all and 1 paper to write on a field trip we will need to take.