The Fifteenth Cent.

Major developments around the world in the fifteenth century vary depending in the country. In Central, East, and Southeast Asia, major developments include: Ming dynasty china (1368-1644), conquest of timur (1370-1406), rise of malacca, and more.

Regions that also had a major development include: South Asia/ India, Middle East, Christendom/ Europe, Africa, The Americas/ Western Hemisphere, and Pacific Oceana.

There is still some extent paleolithic persistence going on.

Mongol Sources

The Russians have their own review of the Mongols. It is stated that usually the first impression that people have of the Mongols is that of devastation, destruction, and brutality.

Another world for Mongols is "tartars". In the year 1238, foreigners called the Mongols tartars. In the primary source it says that they came in countless numbers. They compare them to "locusts".

The Chinese have their own perception of the Mongols. Marco Polo reported that some Mongol officials treated Chinese just like slaves. This generated outrage.

primary sources

The Voice of Allah- Muslims believed in the Quaran. The Quran contains the very words of God. Quaran means "recitation" in Arabic. The Quaran was writtten about 30 years after the Prophers death. It was organized in 114 Surahs, chapters.

There at least 5 surahs written in the book. Surah I states that God must be praised and worshiped. Surah 2 states there should be no doubt about the Quaran itself. It is a guide to to God.

Islam

At this time, there is the conversion of Islam taking place. As stated in the book, "no doubt, converting to Islam was or subsequently became a matter of profound spiritual or psychological transformation". It seemed to be like Islam was hard to avoid.

Meanwhile, in the Arab Empire, Arabs were becoming attracted to Allah. Slaves and prisoners of war were the first to be converters. In the Arab Empire, they enjoyed a huge and secure arena for trade. People aspiring to official positions found conversion to Islam an aid to social mobility.

Migration Theories

Brainstorming ideas for writing an essay can be quite difficult at first. We had to write an essay on either the Kelp Highway or Polynesian Migration and whether the evidence supports it or not.

I will write about both theories. I write about how there is sufficient evidence to back up the Kelp Highway Theory. Bones and boats have been left in the coastal shore in the location where they resided in. I make sure to use enough quotes from academic sources.

Doing research, I found it a but difficult to find info on the Polynesian Migration Theory. I found info, but not sufficient evidence.

The Golden Age of China

The Europeans had interest in Chinese inventions. The Chinese inventions of printing, gunpowder, and the mariner's compass were brought to Europe by Arab traders during the Renaissance and Reformation. Education was important. The Chinese emperor was responsible for the welfare and the people, of course. 

There were Mongols in Asia. The Mongols invaded China from the north, defeat the Song, and establish the Yuan dynasty in 1279, ruling less than one-hundred years, to 1368. Not only that, but the Mongol empire also spans Eurasia in the 13th and 14th centuries and facilitates trade and exchange across the Eurasian land mass. Also, Marco Polo visited China under the mongol rule. 

It can be questionable and to some extent debatable whether historians give the mongols a good or bad review in history.  

looking at documents

As reading the documents at the end of the chapter, there are documents about Chinese people and their view points on certain topics. I found one of the articles interesting.

There is an article called  "A Chinese Buddhist in India". This article talks about a highly educated Buddhist monk from China, Xuanzang. He writes about how he had a long journey to India for a couple reasons. He mentions that he is disappointed that he couldn't fulfill and learn all there is to known about Buddhism in his home country.

It actually saddened me when i read how he wrote, "I have doubts and have puzzled in my mind, but I could find no one to solve them. That was why I decided to travel to the West". The fact that no one could answer his questions back home infers that Buddhisms wasn't as practiced back in China as in India.

onto the roads

There are three different types of roads, both metaphorically and literally:silk roads, sand roads, and the sea roads. These "roads" were used around the areas of China, Europe, Africa. The Silk Road and Sand Roads are a more metaphorical name for a certain trade route. Sea Road is in fact a literal route because people did travel and trade through the sea/ oceans.

Through the different routes, different things were traded, gained, and lost. In China, silk, bamboo, paper contributed to china. In India, cotton textile, stones, spices are important.

In certain parts on these countries, diseases were spread as well.

Back into Empires- Persian Empire for example

• Empire: an extensive group of states or countries under a single supreme authority, formerly especially an emperor or empress.
• Empires are big, culturally diverse, conquest
• How is it different than other forms of political organizations?
• Examples
• Persian Empire:
• Benefits of Persian Empire:
• security
• military

Confuciusm and his Reinforcement

• Confucius:
• social philosopher
• influenced Chinese, Korean , Japanese
• emphasized personal and governmental morality
• seen by Chinese as “Greatest Master”
• teachings viewed as a type of virtue ethics

a peaceful life style

for the Chinese

a very interesting form of style

Summary of ideas and impacts of Two Seminal Thinkers

• Socrates:
• idea that life focused on self-development (goodness, virtue, justice, friendship)
• absolute good and absolute justice
• idea of asking questions in order to acquire more knowledge
• can gain true knowledge by the little we know
• immortality of the soul
• Impacts: affected areas of ethics, logic, knowledge
• Buddha: Four Noble Truths
• 1: old age, illness, death = forms of human suffering
• karma
• reincarnation depends on person’s karma-merit
• 2: suffering is closely linked to desire
• desires: ageing, illness, mortality
• power= not always realised
• 3: suffering can be dispelled by abandonment of desires
• 4: abandonment of desires can be achieved by following Noble Eightfold Path
• Purpose: meditation, to change yourself and develop qualities of awareness
• does not worship creator or God
• anyone can achieve enlightenment

Looking at Culture and Religion

Religion and Culture. Seems like a simple concept to understand, but it is more complex than what one may perceive it to be. Each and every culture/ religion has their own very strong history background. If one wanted to learn every thing about a specific culture/religion, he/she would find that they all tend to connect with each other.

For example, Christianity, seems to be the most common and popular form or religion. However, in my opinion as having learned about this religion in a couple of history classes, I would say Europeans are the ones who practically forced everyone to practice this faith. We have been taught that Christianity originated somewhere in Europe. The Europeans were the ones who wanted to expand. They would invade a country and introduce their customs. Eventually they would say that their (Europeans) way of living and religion is the correct form.

That is how religion spreads in my opinion. You go into a country, introduce your customs and believes, try to convince them your believes are the right ones.

When in Rome

Rome. A beautiful city. But what exactly do we know about its history? If we look into it, we can see that it also played a role in the rise of empires and states.

The Chinese and Romans were building their own empires at the time that the Persians and Greeks were competing for theirs. It is evident that the bigger the empires, the more powerful they felt.

Rome began as a small and impoverished city state in central Italy. They were described as being weak. The Romans had to reduce to kidnapping neighboring women to maintain the citys population.

That is very rude and messed up. The fact that they had to kidnap people from nearby places for their own benefit? doesnt seem like a good reason to me, but now Rome has a good population.

Moving into Eurasia

The era of empires and states was an important era in history. It was a time in which people wanted to become leaders of their own countries. Not only this, but also control to some high extent the continent. It was evident that everyone wanted power.

This time period involved a lot the Greeks, Africans, Europe, Asia. The Eastern hemisphere was thirsty for power. It is mentioned that there was a war going on between the Greeks and the Persians, known as the Greek-Persian Wars.

Greek was a small empire whereas Persia was a more built and larger empire. Regardless of the Greeks smaller empire, they managed to defeat the Persians. Goes to show that size does not matter.

Into the Art

Flipping through the pages, are very fascinating images from the Indus Valley. A picture that captured my attention was the one on page 105. It is called the Man from Mohenjo Daro. This artifact lays in the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Karachi, Paskistan.

What captivated me about this artifact is the fact that it is amazing how the Indus Valley people managed to create this piece of art. Although it has some cracks, it seems in good condition considering it is from many years ago. I do wonder why they decided to keep the eyes closed? Overall, very fascinating artifact.

Ancient Civilizations

When talking the older world and how things were, it is very interesting what one discovers. The ancients civilizations can be said to be that are Sumer, Egypt, Andes, Indus River Valley, China, Olmec.

Their forms of communication is very interesting. The symbols are very interesting as well. The symbols are meant as their form of communication withing the tribe. The Egyptians have different symbols as opposed to the Chinese.

According to the book, the type of symbols of the Indus Valley people hasnt really been diciphered. This is quite interesting because it can be almost as old as the other civilizations.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Last week, we were assigned roles and scenes from a chapter of the epic, The Epic of Gilgamesh. My group and I were assigned to be group one.

The purpose for this was to bring to life what the Mesopotamians wrote thousands of years ago. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a long book, which makes it to some extent more interesting to read. The fact that the Mesopotamians wrote this book thousands of years ago, and it is still around.

Furthermore, each group had to come up with a way to bring the story to life. Whether it was from utilizing props or changing your one's voice to match the character's personality. It is interesting to see how the Mesopotamians perceived each character.

However, the story plot itself is not easy to follow. The Epic is a bit too complex. That is the reason we acted out a few scenes from the Epic, to help us understand what is going in an easier way.

It was a great idea nonetheless.

Agriculture

It is hard to believe that the Ice Age ended about 11,000 years ago. The Agricultural Revolution practically began when the Ice Age ended. 

It is interesting to learn about when and where agricultural breakthroughs happened. For example, in Southwest Asia, my agricultural breakthrough occurred between 9000-7000 b.c.e. In Eastern Woodlands of N.A. between 2000-1000 b.c.e. 

There is a section on ch.2 of the Strayer book the writes about corn. There is a timeline of the evolution of corn. It has history as early as 9000-8000 b.c.e. until 16th-18th century c.e. 

Agriculture dates back to as many thousands of years ago.  

My Thoughts on Historical Timelines- Ch.1 reading

It's amazing and interesting at the same time to think about how long the earth has been around. History can only go back so far. There is just so much we do not know. 

I found the time table on page 13 quite interesting. It is a timeline of date and beginning of a new historical event in history, of course. For example, the first time recording it states is "Earliest bipedal homids" which was approximately 7 to 6 million years ago. Cool, right? Another time in history is states is "Earliest Homo sapiens in Africa" which was approximately 250,000 years ago. The last category in history is states is "Human entry into New Zealand" which was approximately 1,000. That one is the most recent. 

The most recent is 1k years ago, yet it seems like centuries ago. As year by year goes by, one does not notice how fast the years go by until you reflect 5-10 or maybe 20-30 years back. Then one will see the many changes, struggles, victories that he/she went through. 

History may not seem interesting to every one, but it is important. It is important to understand our past. Whether our past is from Europe, Africa, Australia, South America, or North America. History is and will always be apart of us. The past is a learning experience to prevent to remake same mistakes in the future. 

Overall, my intake in today's class reading is that history is important. There is a historical timeline that tells us, the reader, what and when things occurred in history. If you ask me, I think that's pretty amazing. 

If you bothered to read this, thank you xx 

hello

First post. Yay