Quiz 4 - Last Post

Quiz 4 1) Hallmark 5 is reflected in Strayers’ book in multiple ways. First in looking at all of history and focusing on more than Western European History. Strayer includes within each time period a sampling from different regions around the world rather than just looking at the development and history of Western Europe. Within, Empire Building he looks at all of the Empires not just the Roman, in the Classical he includes Classical eras for other areas such as China. It is an unbiased account of the development of human kind. In creating a book for use within an educational setting he is expanding students’ knowledge and understanding more fully. By using his book NDNU is creating an inclusive and expansive educational environment. Although not “in his” book, your use of the book combined with the in classroom interactive lecture style does address the needs of a class across different boundaries. For me the best part of this semester was the classroom time, I very much enjoyed your lecture/teaching style. 2) Modern Humanistic Society broke down in the 20th century because everything became more focused on the individuals. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, we began to lose our sense of small communities and reliance on each other for our daily needs. Society evolved to be more focused on industrial output and capitalism. Even with Communism the original goals broke down as people came to power. “Greed” will always out. “Slavery” may have ended in the “civilized” world, but it continued in the various forms of racism. While I believe we are headed in the right direction, I also believe we have an incredibly long way to go before truly equalize and move back to a more humanistic society. The ways have not all been mended and I believe it will take several more generations before we see a proper return to that type of society. 3) Post-Modern, I am not sure we can say for certain that we have moved into a new era and agree with Strayer when he says, “Like all other historical periods, this most recent century both carried on from the past and developed distinctive characteristics as well. Whether that combination of old and new merits the designation of a separate era in world history will likely be debated for a long time to come.” (Strayer, 873). I think that aspects of your four bullets are correct (and ever since Wednesday, I have been thinking about this). We move in fits and starts I think we started to see capitalism regulated and cooperation begin to happen, but, I think the current political environment does not favor that, and we may move somewhat backward for a bit. Sustainability as a part of technology again is partially there, but, until we stop replacing technology every year or two, we will not truly create sustainability. I think we saw with the EU a step toward some globality within governments, again though, with Brexit and some of the other concerns, we may be staking a step back. Today Facebook announced it was opening a new “Village” with 1500 homes. Employees could work and live in the one location, this would centralize even more “Corporate Power” and I thought about the fact that a Facebook or Google could be the Global Corporate Empire of the future. Western European Civilization recognizes co-equality. I think you will always have large groups of people who think they are superior to others, so back to my previous statement. I believe it will be several generations before we see the outcome of this.

Section 6 The Most Recent Century

Chapter 20 I have never found current history, meaning WWII and forward interesting. But, reading chapter 20, made me realize that we are quite possibly in the same place we were at the start of the last century. Strayer talks about how WWI lead to WWII and though I knew that Hitler rose to power because Germans were very disenfranchised during the depression, I was unaware that much of that was driven on the extreme hardships the Allied Powers placed on Germany. Why hold 1 country responsible for everything that happened. Nothing in the reading led me to understand that Germany should have been held entirely responsible. I have to say, I also found it very disconcerting to read about the collapse of the global economy and the way different peoples in different countries Felt. It all felt extremely similar to the times we live in today. From the global economic melt down of 1930's (2008), to the ability of extreme right groups being able to take power (Donald Trump). How close are we all to the edge of the knife at this point? Another thing I found interesting was the fact that initially, Mussolini made fun of Hitler for his hatred of the Jews and Italy did not initially participate in the pogroms. That only came much later during the war. Chapter 21 For all of its problems communism as an ideal does make sense. I was amazed to read that communism truly fostered feminism and was ahead of the rest. Not because I had no idea that communist women were provided the appropriate educations and skills. But because prior to reading this chapter I had not thought about it. I also don't recall ever reading or hearing about the "people's communes" in China, again, I think the idea made have made sense. It was unfortunate to read that it was unsuccessful.

Section 5 Eurocentrism

Chapter 16 Atlantic Revolutions It is very interesting to look through the lens of Modern Revolution really occurring in the Atlantic regions and then having a global impact. I have never thought about it that way. I also found Strayers definition of "Revolution" to be interesting when he was looking at the American Revolution as a starting point. My generation certainly was not raised to think about the "American Revolution" in terms of just a colony asserting its rights, with no real change happening. I also found it interesting that it is the first big event in the Modern Era to create such huge ripple effects, down to the suffragette movement. Just as I found the information on the volume of slavery that occurred in the Caribbean Surprising, I was also surprised to learn that Haiti had essentially expelled any "whites" remaining once the revolution was complete. I wonder from a social context that even with the snowball effect of revolution happening in "colony" after colony, those in power really did not seem to get the message. If you think about Tsarist Russia and the lack of changes that were occurring it seems a bit self indulgent for the leaders to not realize that sweeping reforms would be needed or they would lose their positions. I had also never made the connection between the emergence of Nationalism and the various revolutions. Finally in this chapter I found the Zooming In story of Kartini to be fascinating, if not somewhat sad to read. I imagine that her father must have been somewhat progressive to let her continue to study even if it was at home on her own. Chapter 17 Industrial Revolution What I wondered at most in reading this chapter was the fact that the Industrial revolution was focused on Britain first and then spreading outward. Given the research indicating that the Islamic Empire and China both looked to be headed for "Industrial Revolutions" if you will. Again using the example of China and the sudden withdrawal of their fleet and drawing inward or reverting to a different way of thinking. One has to really wonder what happened to make those societies pause and say, no I do not wish to go down this path. Why did the European chose to plow forward and ultimately cause epic global change? At what point now does the world halt this progress and slow down to lessen the degree of impact we have on the world? Chapter 18 Colonial Encounters There is a drawing on page 791 of my version of the book and it depicts the 19th Century understanding of development. I call this out because while Racism continues to play largely in our lives today, I really never understood that for Europeans (and I am going to say mostly British/American) they ranked them as evolved to various levels and that they considered the Chinese to be the last step before becoming a White European. I was completely taken aback by this, even though I have thought I understood the levels of racism that exist, I really had no idea. How unbelievably arrogant these men were that colonized the Africas, Pacific Islands and Asia. To think that their idea of industry was far superior to the way these other peoples were living and thus needed to be mastered. I also found the sentiments of Cecil Rhodes reminiscent of the crusades initial launches. We have to many restless people with nothing to do, lets send them somewhere else to "bring christianity", settle areas that would benefit from our people settling in them. One wonders if this is also how homo-sapiens thought when they came across other homo species and essentially out competed them. Another very surprising fact in this chapter for me was the amount of movement between all of the countries between 1846 and 1940. Europe had the largest number of migrants to the Americas and we assume that this is what led to America looking so similar to Britain (even though it was colonized by peoples from all areas of Europe. I liked at the end of the chapter when Strayer asks the question Who Makes History? Marx is certainly correct when he says "Men make their own history." That history is still being made today and hopefully the future brings about a sea change of positiveness for humankind.

Section Four - The Modern World

Chapter 13 One of the first things that struck me in reading Chapter 13, was the fact that many of the peoples that were part of the Aztec Empire assisted Cortes in his destruction of the empire. It strikes me because no matter where you look in history you see these same behaviors, which never end well for those helping the incoming conquerors. I was also surprised to read that many of the Aztecs settled down willingly with the Spanish. I have never seen the history presented in this manner. It was additionally interesting to read about how differently the British Colonies evolved as opposed to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the Americas. The plague of European illnesses wiping out so much of the native american populations was huge. And the distinct differences between the ethnic mixing in the Southern American Continent vs. no mixing in the North American Continent between conquerors and indigenous peoples. I thought it interesting that Russia grew it's empire by simply annexing and incorporating other regions and peoples into their territories rather than going on conquest. I'd always understood that Church was a huge part of the Russian Empire pre - communism, but the reading leads me to a different conclusion. Not that Christendom did not pay a large role in the creation and maintenance of the empire, but that is was not a driver for the creation of the empire. I found reading about the Mughal Empire much more fascinating than reading about Chinese Expansionism and Empire building. It was very interesting to read how the Mughals went from one extreme (highly Cosmopolitan in their rule) to the other, strictly enforcing Sharia Law and trying to get the entire continent to convert. I had previously not understood how Briton was able to take over such a vast country. The Ottoman Empires big surprise for me was the incursion as far as Vienna of this I was not aware. Islamic state building then was very cosmopolitan and allowed peoples to retain much of who they were including their Christianity. I very much appreciated the way the chapter tied everything together, with all of the foods that were now spread around the world due to colonization of the Americas as well as the impacts globally to the various peoples that were affected by all of this. I was very interested to see the different way to look at European expansionism vs Chinese and Islamic (Ottoman) expansionism and how even today we are all impacted by those results. Chapter 14 Early in Chapter 14 we learn that Europe really had nothing of value for trade purposes with the East. It was the discovery and colonization of the Americas that truly allowed Europe to step on to the World Stage and become a dominant power. I was very surprised to read about the importance of Silver during this time. We don't think of it being the biggest commodity needed for the Asian trade market in todays terms, so this was a bit of a surprise to read about. And that much of it was filtered from the Americas through the Philippine Islands. I was also very interested to read the differences between Japan's use of silver and Spain's use of it. The Japanese were very smart in their use of Silver and their 18th and 19th century societies appear to have the hallmarks of where we are attempting to get today in the world, marrying later, having children later, protecting the environment. I was very surprised to learn the origins of the tie in between racism and slavery, and the different theories that historians have around how Slaver become so strongly associated with African Slavery. Chapter 15 What I got most out of Chapter 15 is the impact of cultural borrowing. Something that I believe we still do today.

Islam and Comparing China to Europe.

I actually found the cadence of reading these three chapters a little difficult and choppy. We jump from paying attention to the rise and spread of Islam, to a rapid overview of the changes occurring during the Medieval Period leading into the modern period. I won't address my thoughts on Chapter 9 here as I did so last week, because I apparently can not follow instructions. That said, I did re-read the chapter just to see if I had really missed anything. I did appreciate being able to re-read the chapter after we had discussed some of the information class. For me one of the most interesting things to read about was "Pastoral Peoples" I had never though of the Mongols or Huns in this manner. The way I read this the empire the Mongols built was the first time we truly had a global economy, in as much as it encompassed the entire known world at the time. It was also interesting to read that it was most likely the Silk Roads that brought plague around the Eurasian world. I had only ever thought of it in terms of coming via ships, not that it also travelled over land, for me it was an interesting correlation to the way HIV travelled around the world. I also very much appreciated the comparison to the colonization of the Americas to that of the Mongol conquests. The similarities are unnerving. In looking at the worlds of the 15th century I appreciated reading about how Paleolithic Hunter Gatherer societies persisted (and I believe to some small degree still do) in Australia, but also in the Americas. I like the way Strayer implies that it is possible those societies really saw no reason to change the way they lived. Being part Algonquin I was raised hearing about the five nations and that in some parts of our version of Democracy in America was based originally on the ideas and tenants of the Iroquois League. Strayer while jumping around did help me to see all of the civilizations and somewhat compare them. From Mind dynasty China working to erase the legacy of the Khans and return to their roots, to the creation of the Europe we in the West grew up studying. Also in looking at the Mexica and Aztec societies, truly getting a sense of why the Aztecs believed so strongly in sacrifice. Or the fact that women had parallel roles in both Mayan and Aztec societies. I really liked his question of What If? What if the Chinese had continued their seafaring explorations and expanded their Empire, how different would our world look today? Makes me think about that Netflix show "Man in the High Castle".

Accelerating Connections - Part 3

The first surprise for me was the fact that silk had laws around who could wear it. I was long under the impression that everybody in China wore silk, like it was a common fabric. I also found it interesting that Seneca felt the cloth was immoral because it did not hide enough of a woman's body. I'm not sure how I thought Buddhism spread, but, I know I had never made the connection to the Silk Roads and the travelers upon it being the ones to spread the philosophy. It was also interesting to read about how the practices and beliefs changed as they migrated along the route. It makes sense that religions evolve while picking up pieces of other belief systems. It is a little bit surprising to realize that in our everyday lives we don't see these pieces falling together or the impact of cultural exchanges have on religions. I also was unaware that Bubonic Plague actually originated in India, long assumptions that it came out of either Africa or China. At the end of Chapter 7 I found Strayer's correlations between early "globalization" and trade patterns to todays globalization interesting. Although, the world of the "third wave" did not seem as globally connected at the modern world, the diffusion we are experiencing today is certainly reminicsent of what you read about in Chapter 7. I like to look at history as a means of finding surprises and I would say the biggest surprise for me in Chapter 8 was not how much the Chinese invented, this has almost always been hinted at. The surprise was in how much they borrowed from other cultures and then expanded upon. It was interesting to learn some of the influences that the Chinese had on other Chinese cultures and that the elite groups in all those cultures tried so hard to mimic Chinese Culture. Styling their cities on the capitol, pulling some semblance of Confucianism into their practices. I had no idea that Chinas was the first to invent printing, but, it makes perfect sense. I like the way Strayer manages to identify all of the impacts that China had on the world at large and the world at large had on China. There are many similarities to other and to later cultures. Using a tribute system that in fact the Emperor was actually paying tribute but stylizing it as gifts after tribute had been paid to him was a really good example of why those systems don't actually work for the long term. I also found it interesting that China was not a closed society until much later in their history. When you study Marco Polo, you think China has never allowed ambassadors and trade but that was not the case. Reading about the formation and growth of Islam did not offer to many surprises, most likely due in part to all of the commentary both good and bad that has prompted the watching of documentaries and reading of historical occurrences. I knew that much of what we in the west take for granted in our styles of learning and emphasis on study came out of the Islamic world. I did not know that Algebra came from that time and thought it stemmed from Asian or Chinese history so that was a new fact to file away. It is very telling however that in reading about the spread and the different Islamic rulers we can locate many similarities in the resurgence of Islam today and its ongoing spread. It was also interesting to learn that the word Jihad was used to really talk about interior personal struggle toward GOD, and that the Jihad of the sword was actually secondary. Also surprising and very interesting was to learn that Muhammad considered himself the last prophet and the revelations GODs final message to humankind.

Chapter's 3-6

I found it very interesting to read Herodotus Histories regarding Persian and Egyptian customs. Mostly because there were several notable items that have come down to us today from these First Civilizations that I would not have expected. One, that using the bathroom should always be private, I honestly thought this was a more modern invention and did not think latrine use was private prior to the Middle Ages. Another amazing fact (in my mind) was the practice of circumcision coming from the ancient Egyptians. Because it is such a key component of the Jewish tradition, I always thought that is where it originated. Now I wonder, if the Jew's learned this and some of the other laws from living in Egypt. It would appear to me that the modern day United States Postal service, derived their motto from the ancient Persian Empire. Herodotus noted "Neither snow, nor rain, not heat, nor darkness of night prevents them from accomplishing the task proposed to them with utmost speed." Also, that he noted the Persians celebrated Birthday's more than most. In Chapter 4 reading about the difference between Confucianism and Daoism was very interesting. I had to wonder were the Daoists, Pastoralists already fighting the growth of civilization. Early on the book Strayer talks about how we have always up through modern times striven to return to our deep historical roots. I felt reading about the Doaists extolling people to live in smaller bands and return to nature, were referring to the Human History of the previous 100+ thousand years. We always have Utopian Societies and I don't think I realized previous to my reading that, that is what Daoism really is. I also found it very interesting that Hinduism developed along with the rest of Indian Culture, that there wasn't a "single founder" as there are in other widespread religions. Hinduism seems extremely contradictory on the subject of Women. Push them down, raise them up; which one is it. Whereas Buddhism shared some surprising similarities to Christianity and Christ. The first thing to hit me was the fact that Buddha was the same age as Christ when he "reached enlightenment". I also found it very interesting to read that Buddhism died out in India and what was left there was wrapped into Hinduism. Learning that China had developed the concept of Civil Service was very interesting. You don't think of an empire with a single ruler as being one that would choose its bureaucratic servants based on merit and not familial or social ties. In Chapter 5 when Strayer is comparing Patriarchies he seems to lose some of his objectivity. And begins using very strong descriptives as in the case of Sparta "Sparta clearly was a patriarchy, with women serving as breeding machines for it military system and lacking any formal role in public life". Very strongly worded, but when I read his description or comparison to Greek Patriarchy, I believe I would have rather lived under the Spartan form. It was interesting to read about the Moche, Wari and Tiwanaku Empires of the Andes. It was very interesting to see that although the Wari and Tiwanaku cultures grew up near each other they were very different. And to learn tat the Wari created a very different way in which to manage their agricultural, by creating and planting raised beds in swampy areas. A practice we still use today in different areas. I walk away from these chapters trying to digest all of the similarities between these societies that we still see down to today. I also wonder, how it is we went from seeming to be societies that were egalitarian in nature, to most patriarchal societies.

Chapter 2 First Civilizations

I was surprised that the focus or emphasis in this chapter was mostly on the Mesopotamian and Egyptian societies. In a previous class with a different book, the focus was equally spread between those societies and those of both China and the Indus Valley region. There's no mention so far of Akusha and his setting of how to live, although the chapter did touch briefly on the Egyptian evolution of eternal life. The second surprise for me was that the first domestication of horses and the use of chariots actually developed in Russia. I do not recall ever hearing or reading anything about this previously. If I understood what I was reading correctly the technology came rather late (as it were) to Egypt, yet, I think I had always believed that that is exactly where the technology originated. It is always fascinating to learn that overtime you study a subject, you learn something new about it. I do appreciate the focused approach to giving an overview of these societies.

Chapter 1 Paleolithic Era

5/10/17 So many things to think about when reading chapter 1. The first amazing thing to me is to try and fathom the length of time we spent in this evolutionary stage. I have never though about how long we lived in the "Stone Age". I was also surprised to realize that what I remember from previous history classes many years ago, part of that being that I remember being taught that Paleo Man lived mostly on meat and that the gathering portion was far less than what we are now learning. What triggered someone to say hey, I can force the quantities of grains I am eating to grow so that I don't have to struggle to find them. How on earth did someone come up with the idea of "farming". Or how did they become pastoralists, what triggered them to say; hey I can take these animals and make them breed for me so that I don't have to chase them down and hunt them in order to have a meat source. What sort of leaps did we make to figure out the making of cheese, was it possible that an accident led to people thinking ok I can do this. It is no different than the technological innovations we see today, but, recognizing that this is what makes "humans" the superior species, allowing us to out compete other species, and possibly lead to our own doom eventually. I was additionally very surprised to read that there have been at least 5 major extinction events. I had no idea beyond the event 65m years ago that destroyed the dinosaurs that the earth has gone through multiple events that have wiped out various species of both plant and animal life, allowing different species to be more successful and come to the forefront. It really makes you realize that to some degree our success has truly been a combination of luck and individuals who could make rapid adaptive changes to adjust to new environments. Although I did not spend a lot of time reading the insert stories I did spend some time on reading the different dream time stories from the Aborigines of Australia and found the similarities to the Genesis and flood stories to be a little un-nerving. I had known about the Gilgamesh epic and the fact that the Noah story is similar and that it is possible that it is another telling of the same story. Then to read the stories and especially that of Yhi makes one wonder if the oral traditions that were in place during the Paleolithic time carry around the world.