Early Modern Era reflection 5 ..

Many more significant things happening here .  Not that the past was more significant but this is where things really start to hustle and bustle .  Globalization is becoming easier, the key in this era are oceanic journeys of European explorers. many more positive changes are yet to occur but catastrophe will also, once again, rear its ugly head .  
With Columbus discovering America Europeans entered into the new world.   This discovery was very promising for the europeans to further extend their empire, it was to their advantage in many ways especially for the fact that the new world was closer to europe than it was to other empires such as Asia.  Unfortunately, for native americans and others across europe disease had spread  and wiped out a large population of native americans and others across the world.  On a more fortunate note there were many different types of trading going on in the new world .   Significantly, the columbian exchange provided the import of new types of foods and  animals into to the new world just as exports from the new world so just corn and potatoes went out to other areas of the world .  Commerce and many new ideas were growing in the new world , new religious ideas , ways of doing business and new ideas of government were being born .  At the same time and other parts of the world empires were being built such as the russian empire .  The asian empires were also continuing to expand and the  mughal empire  was under pressure due to opposing religious views.  The opposition movement in this area fatally fractured the mughal empire and opened the way for the british take over in the 18th century.  Also in this tara the ottoman empire was also flourish and as many christians welcomed the ottoman  conquest because taxes were lighter and oppression less pronounced.
Continuing on , the 15th chapter focuses on global commerce.  It was very unfortunate that slave trading had much to do with global commerce and impacts on human relations that are still affecting life today.   On the brighter side of commerce, it joined empires , created new relationships, disrupted old patterns, brought it in peoples into contact with one another and enriched others.   It is quite amazing to me that this was the beginning of our commerce, many things from different countries began to show up in different areas of the world.   At this point, commodities such a silver were key to the expansion of commerce  throughout the world .
With trade expanding and commerce growing the spread of religion and the development of sciences was beginning to be more profound . 
In regards to religion just as in past history,  the spread of religions usually occur due to take overs  and the migration of people .  In this early modern era, the religion of the people still had a large bearing the way things were run just as they are in some countries today.  Religion of all different types in this era was very wide spread  leaving to cultural changes and blends of different people in different religions .   This early modern era also yielded some very significant scientific breakthrough .  The emphasis of observation and experimentation became a key to modern science , improve telescopes for developed , circulation of the blood and the function of the hard work understood better , concepts of gravity and concept of inertia and laws of motion were born, the  importance of mathematics became more focused on,  and more earth and planet science related  study was occurring .  

Next up Eurocentrism......

Interview

The interview that I have chosen to conduct focuses on a person who was born into the Iran- Iraq war. 
The questions that I intend to ask have to do with the era in which the war occurred; this persons view onwhat was happening;  how it was to live during the time of war; what are the most imbeded memories of this time; was there any trauma that affects his life today,  and what it was like after the war ended.   

Reflection 4

Throught the readings for this week religions have again been an important  topic.  The birth of Islam seems to be quite interesting for me as it adds to a much bigger picture of religion.  I find it extremely interesting that the beliefs of Islam Christianity and Buddhism have some very common similarities.  As Strayer noted in the text, the three religions all had a profit who a higher God sent messages through.  The ongoing human discussion about whether or not a God actually exists could certainly include this information.   The similarities could be looked at as a coincidence, however, to me this appears to be more than a coincidence .  It is completely amazing and fascinating  how three figures,  Jesus the Buddha and Mohammed  all were said to have  experienced some very similar occurrences.  In addition,  I find it very interesting that these religions,  Buddhism, Christianity and Islamic faith all had similar messages that denounced the injustices of humanity.   Of significant note as well, Strayer highlighted the spread of the Islamic Religion and the changes it made to the Arab world resulting in the growth of a large empire, the Arab empire.   The spread of Islam influenced many to convert to this religion as many people of other religions had similar beliefs and according to the text, there was a tax called the jizya that was imposed on to non Muslims.  The tax certainly could have been a motivator for the conversion many people to Muslim belief.  Also as noted in the text , there were some divisions in islamic world that are still divided to this day .  The divisions referenced by Strayer in the text were that of the Sunni and Shia.After the death of Mohammad, Muslims became in conflict as to who should hold the role of the caliph, the successor to Mohammad.  The Sunni held that the caliphs should be political military leaders selected by the islamic community .  The Shia strongly feel that the caliphs should that of blood relatives of Mohammad.  It is amazing that we could see in today's world this conflict continuing . 
When I think about the strong influences that religions have had on the world , I also wonder about how much consideration the people actually gave to the element of no real proof that there is a God.  Yes, on one hand the message of some of these religions is great and the basis for human treatment seems to be well also  but my question is how can the world be controlled by religion? Throughout history it seems that  religion has been the cause of many wars, it seems ridiculous to waste human lives over belief systems.  Even in our modern world today humans are still fighting wars that a religious based, will this ever change?  Oh, and just to clarify I'm not insinuating that Muslims cause war, its obvious that all religions have contributed to war .
Moving on to the chapter on pastoral people, I found that I have not taken much interest in these people or at least spent too much time thinking about them .  Coming from today's society is very hard to imagine living like they did .  Moving about over vast land following the patterns of their herds and their seasonal changes in vegetation and water supply to sustain life seemed like it was very difficult .  However, I begin to develop respect for these people as they were probably ones that have spread much knowledge to the rest of the world.  These people certainly must have been responsible for what we know about agriculture today .   Also, amazingly enough as I continue to learn about pastoral people I find that their abilities to ride horseback not only was a great contributor to transportation but also to warfare .   Just more potential for human violence.  Again, religions are also at the forefront of the nomadic people according to the chapter .   This chapter in particular is extremely long and mostly highlighted the Mongol conquest of China, Russia, and Persia.   Besides all of the violence, this chapter talks about some of the more positive aspects were that of a cultural exchange in the Mongol realm.  In specific, in particular I appreciate the section where Strayer notes that the Mongals called in Muslim astronomers for second opinions and how they actually honored places of worship for other religions.  Are these conquerers actually good at heart?  I guess something positive can be found in everything.  Speaking of which,  during these times in history there were horrible plagues that spread throughout many lands.   The Mongols found some positive in the plague, it was to catapolt infected corpses at their  enemies to spread disease , this was noted by Strayer as being the first instance of biological warfare.  The plague also seems to have sparked an interest in disease prevention .
As I continue on I feel tired from reading about conquest, control, war disease and religion, however, I guess this how we eventually developed into what we are today .  It's just hard to grasp the huge spread in time that I have in reading this text .   According to the text the 15th century appears to be quite a significant time in history .  In addition to a restructuring of China under the Ming dynasty  and the renaissance era appearing , there were many voyages of exploration that I found interesting .  One of which I found to be quite interesting was the exploration of Zheng He.  This effort of exploration was incredible and had a crew of up to 27,000 people and had around 300 ships .  Unfortunately these expeditions are said to have lead to nowhere .  Incredibly, other efforts of maritime expeditions lead to significant discoveries such as the mistake of  Columbus landing in the Americas .  In and of itself, this early history of maritime exploration is quite interesting to me I enjoy looking at the old world maps and imagining how it would've been to be along with these voyages during that time period.  At this time centers of civalization also were flourishing in Mesoamerica in the Andes .  These empires both we're gaining increasingly larger populations resulting in stimulated developments of markets and the production of craft goods.  There archetectual layout in Mexico was said to be amazing by a young Spanish soldier in 1519 .  In the Andes, the Inca empire continued to develop and became more bureaucratic.  This empire had state who own the land and regions that were governed by an Incan governor.  In these societies there was no gender equality,men always occupied top positions in both political and religious life and male infidelity was treated much more lightly than female infidelity .  Women's duties were more housebound and family centered .    More to come, the modern era !  get ready for global economy, advance political relationships, economic ties, a large jump in human population  and even an idustrial revolution! 

Reflection 3

Through out the readings for chapters 8,9, and 10, I became very interested in cross cultural interaction and how it was so important to human development and the development of societies . 
Furthermore,  as Strayer noted, trade being one of the primary forms of cross cultural interaction has certainly sparked my attention.  I'm also intrigued by the other benefits besides product exchange that trade has brought to humans which includes but not limited to religions, technologies ,and cultural ideas.  Also of much interest, is the spread of disease as well, which in one way was very unfortunate, but in  another way may have been the beginning of a more advanced understanding of medical conditions and risks for the future.  The ideas given in the text opened my eyes to premodern trade and the trade that we have today. It's facinating to think about primitive forms of trade occurring locally between communities and how it eventually evolved into long distance trade.   This makes me think about the large modern cargo ships that I see out in the ocean and the large shipping containers stored in the Oakland Estuary.  Prior to the readings in our text, I never related these modern ways of shipping to the old world and how our form of trade actually evolved.  It's amazing to imagine how some of the long distance trade was executed and how much difficulty they may have had compared to our modern day methods.  I also continue to marvel on the fact that trade which was developed so long ago, has influenced our present life in every way.   
As I continue on with the readings, I found the piece about women in the Song Dynasty to be interesting.  As women lead less restrictive lives in the Tang Dynasty , a shift to more of a restrictive lifestyle occurred in the Song Dynasty which had more confucianism based ideation.   Although with these changes, Strayer noted that the Song Dynasty witnessed more positive trends in the lives of women which for the most part was gaining more control of their lives as they were afforded more responsibility and they were able to be employed.  Was this possibly one of the precursors of the modern day women's rights movements? 
The mention of the Chinese "examination systems" we're also quite interesting .  It seems as if this may have been the first systematic approach to regulating and filtering out incompetent and untrustworthy individuals.  I guess this is similar to things in our world today such as job interviews, and background checks.  It's quite obvious that Chinese were up on their game when it comes to control and regulations.
Another fact that Strayer noted, that I found quite interesting, was the invention of a recipe for gunpowder that unbeknownst to me, was the product of  an Indian Buddhist monk's experiment while traveling on Chinese soil. 
Going further through these readings the importance of religions becomes even more evident.  The detail mentioned by Strayer in the text clearly portrays the important role of religion in world history.  Wether it be Buddhism,  Hinduism, Islam or Christianity, religions basically set a foundation in structure for how people lived.  Religious influence seemed to be found in just about any part of societal development.   This continues to amaze me as all of these practices are still widely used in our modern day.   

Reflection 2

While reading through the chapters for this assignment , I found myself constantly having to stop and realize exactly how long certain spreads of years are . This caused me to think in depth about world history and how long it actually took to develop certain principles, ideas, and ways of life through experiences of successes and failures.  It is just really hard to imagine what could take place in the time span of 1000 years let alone tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years.
In the way that Strayer proceeds through history in this text , I feel like I am moving so fast through time and I am unable to stop and grasp on certain eras or certain things that have occurred which I know may have much more detail.
Once again, throughout these chapters, I am clearly reminded of the mistreatment of people that has dated back centuries. It is very apparent that our ancient predecessors practiced prejudice, slavery, inequality, power, greed, and other injustices in their empirical systems.  These injustices clearly remind me of the failures of certain empire like governments or leaderships of today. This also gives me a good reminder of how history does in fact repeat itself and how human beings are plagued with making the same mistakes time and time again.
However, on a more positive note, there were clear indications that people who were less fortunate then others were beginning to be included in political process . This was well noted by Strayer while mentioning attributes of the Roman Empire when they begin to grant citizenship to various peoples in the community for their service to the empire.
Through these readings, I also enjoyed the information provided on religions.  I found it very fascinating that there was indication of religion much before christ's time.  It amazes me how religions came about and actually became the guide for humanity and society.   I do feel that Strayer provides the reader with good information on the early religions;  his descriptions are clear and concise. 
I especially appreciated the sections on China and their search for order after the fall of the Zhou Dynasty.  In the text this is where Strayer begin to describe the different answers to Chinas problems of disorder and misconduct amongst its citizens.  Interestinly enough to me, was the "Legalist Answer." The the legalist prospective seem to be that of a heavy handed approach getting order amongst the Chinese.  This approach again offered many injustices to the citizens of China as some were regarded to be outcasts and of no value and others regarded as respected people with rights and privilege.  To me, this obviously was no way to gain any type of control  that would result in a positive outcome.  In our world today, we still see examples of this primitive type of control.  Although Strayer noted  that no Chinese philosopher or ruler ever again openly advocated for these ideas; however, others still do. Why do some modern socities continue to rely on this type of rule when they can easily see from history that this is not the best way to treat people and that the outcome always causes some kind of unrest?
The answers to the unrest in China that followed the legalist perspective were that of more of a religious  sense.  Principles that focus more on morals than laws and punishments began to be utilized especially in the  Confucionism philosophy.  I think that the confucianism pholosophy was extremely important as it focused on education and logic.  The Daoist answer that was noted in the text was also a good perspective; however, I'm not sure that it was a great perspective to be able to develop an economical start for China.
As I continue to read on I am ever reminded in the chapters, of the continuing mistreatment of human beings and the origination of inequalities that people of today still face .   These  inqualities are very evident of the caste system of India noted in the text.  Although the functions of a caste system were designed to accommodate various people of different societies and  cultures to fit into the Indian community and still maintain their unique identity, to me, it still fostered inequality.   
As the text continued into providing information on the Americas I began to focus away from the mistreatment of people and began to have wonder about the excellent capabilities of engineering that were found amongst the Mayan culture and other cultures of the Americas.  Although Strayer did note that much warfare and inequalities were present in these cultures,  I seem to have been averted from that thinking because of their other amazing qualities.  I continue to be astounded at the works that they did during that time.  How did these socities develop such intricate skills?  Will more of the mysteries be uncovered in the future? ........ 

Reflection 1

As I enter into this learning experience about world history, I am becoming very interested in how us as humans have developed over thousands of years.  I also find it most interesting how our history as human beings was discovered and studied.  Although no actual historic writings or completely solid evidence exists to back up much of early history, the theories that are current seem to make very much sense.  I am also left with many questions in my mind regarding early human life.

Learning about what occurred in the Paleolithic era, which was about 95 percent of the time that humans have been evolving strikes is very intriguing.  Most interesting to me is the process of our early ancestors migration.  Mentioned in the text, Strayer highlights the movement of human beings out of Africa which is said to be the originating area of humans.  I find that these travels are fascinating as early humans were very limited and they were able to expand to much further areas.  Especially fascinating was the mention in the first chapter was the first use of boats.  It is difficult for me to imagine use of primitive boats and what it was like for those who ventured off into the sea.  Even further,  I am astounded at how these early people were even able set out to sea and arrive in another land.  How did they know that some other land was out there?  By what means did they use to navigate?

In the readings, I also found that the presence of a possible spiritual connection seems to have existed among early humans.  Strayer mentions that artifacts such as bones, stones and art shows evidence of the presence of early people, however, it suggests little about what the people thought but the evidence of a "rich ceremonial life" certainly existed.  Evidence of human ceremony found deep in caves where humans did not live suggests some kind of burial ritual.  How did these rituals come about?  Was there a spiritual experience known to early humans before religion as we know it? 

Another interesting part of the history of early humans was the development of agriculture.  The development of tools and other methods to sustain a source of food also clearly shows the development of the human brain and advancement of the human being.  In addition to the advancement of the human, the changing climate of the earth also strikes me as being very interesting, which had its direct effect on agriculture.  It almost seems like the climactic changes happened in sync with the travel of humans across the planet.  The idea that parts of the seas were able to be traveled across due to more ice than water is especially fascinating and incredibly enough, when much of the ice melted as the result of a global warming the seas filled after humans were able to make it to certain areas which otherwise may have been more difficult to access. 

In the third chapter of the text discussion of socialization and the "erosion of equality" was striking.  As mentioned in an earlier chapter, socialization of the first human societies seemed to be more equal as there was no hierarchy.  As described in the third chapter by Strayer humans began to become unequal.  By this time there was more technology, more productive economies and greater wealth.  When reading about this, it brought to mind how the way we live today certainly stems from these early times.  This also makes me think about the origination of prejudice, which may be more commonly related to more modern times.  As I read on in this chapter, I clearly see how the development of societies has also lead to the negative attribute of humans to mistreat each other but I also see the positive developments such as language, accounting and societal structure.  All of these parts of the human development are facinating to me. 

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