Blog #8

I found the Global Development and Inequality Chart on page 1145 of Strayer very interesting.  I've always been aware of the differences between Third World and First World countries but seeing it in black and white and so detailed was a shocker. 
One big shocker was the huge difference between the deaths under age 5 per 1000 live births.  In the low income countries it was 120 deaths and in the upper income countries it is only 7.  This just shows how bad the healthcare and prenatal in the low income counties is.  If this improves in the low income countries it would make a big difference to their populations.
Another shocker was the literacy rate.  I was expecting a bigger difference between the low income and higher income countries.  The low income countries had a 66% percent and the higher income had 99%.  While 66% is pretty low I figured it would be even lower.  Especially given the fact that their computer rate is 1.2 per 100 people and the high income countries have 60.4 computers per 100 people.  With the advance in technology the world is experiencing I am surprised the low income countries haven't caught up yet.  But, maybe its a good thing they haven't because their carbon dioxide emissions are 1 metric ton per capita and the high income countries are 13 metric tons per capita.  It is amazing how much we are destroying our environment to succeed and have a convenient life.  I wonder what would happen if we had a simpler life...would we be as advanced as we technology wise.  If people weren't itching to get things done quicker would we have the motivation to keep working so hard to find the next best app...? 
A few ago I went to El Salvador and stayed in a very poor part of the country.  I was able to see how they lived and how different their lives are than mine.  While they didn't have garbage service or running water a lot of the houses (which were shacks) still had satellites.  The men wore dirty, torn clothes but had nice dress shoes.  Just as have our status symbols in the United States (cars, purses, etc..) Third World countries have the same.  If I didn't experience it for myself I wouldn't think shoes and satellite dishes would be theirs!

Blog #7

Industrialization is very significant when discussing the history of the world.  I think Industrialization brought us where we are today.  While not everything about the Industrial Revolution is positive it definitely enabled the United States and Europe to be global super-powers.  Some long term effects of industrialization on the modern world were more jobs and people, a rise in productivity, urbanization, health problems, pollution, and working conditions.  These factors ultimately led to reforms and political movements leading to the new modern world with jobs and work.  Trade, new inventions, and industrial growth have helped to shape our world to what it is today.  Many of these inventions in new technology made daily lives easier, and more efficient. Each new invention led to a newer and more powerful invention, but along with the labor to create and manufacture the products comes pollution, money spent and money earned, and the overall impact of global warming.

Blog #6

The Discovery Of America

Most people are familiar with Christopher Columbus and the discovery of America.  We all know the Indians were in America first and the Europeans came over and basically wiped them out.  However, I don't think people realize how bad it really was.  The Europeans caused the Great Dying (which is a term I was not familiar with).  Approximately 90% of the Native Population died.  These deaths were caused by diseases the Europeans over, murder, starvation, etc...  The Europeans claimed they were doing this in the name of God.  The Europeans wanted to expand their empire and to do this they needed land.  Once they came to America and saw the opportunity they went full force. 

I have always been fascinated by the Enlightenment Era.  I find the idea behind it interesting.  The central theme of Enlightenment is progress.  Tradition had little influence over the Enlightenment ideals.  Reason and education were the most important factors.  It was about forming new ideas and new ways of looking at social and political situations.  I think the era progressed the world (especially America) a great deal.  If we didn't have these Enlightenment ideals implemented into the foundation of our country we wouldn't be able to adapt to new ideas or changes.  Every person/country should aim for progress.  The times have changed so much over the last 100's of years, even the last 50 years!  With the ability to look forward we would never be able to succeed.

Blog #5

The Mongols....everytime people here that they cringe and just think about how awful they were.  The Mongols travelled around, they were nomads who conquered cities/civilizations.  If these people showed resistance they were annihilated.  If they adapted they lived.  The Mongols were pretty successful under the rule of Chinggis Khan.  I think they were successful because of their pastoral background.  They were able to just pickup and travel on to the next place.  They didn't have to worry about leaving things behind.  One thing the Mongols failed at was leaving a positive footprint behind.  The Mongols didn't leave a language, language, or a culture behind.  They would mold to the way of life for whatever peoples they conquered. 

Before this reading, I knew little about ancient China.  For example, I didn't know they had successful maritime voyages.  Unfortunately, this success didn't last long.  If they would have kept exploring their influence over other countries would have been greater.  However, with their rebuilding/rebirth they because a secluded country.  They went back to their traditional, Confucian ways and had little influence over other countries at that time.

Blog #3

Learning about the value of the Silk, Sand and Sea Roads was interesting.  I have heard of and had a basic idea about the Silk Roads, however, the Sand and Sea Roads were new.  I think it is interesting that the general population is familiar with the Silk Roads over the Sea and Sand.  I think it is because the Silk Road transported luxury items and because the Silk Roads went through a more developed part of the world.  However, the Sand and Sea Roads transported more necessary items.  The Sea Roads made it possible to transport bulk items.  It was also cheaper to transport good along the Sea and Sand Roads. People had to pay high rates to travel along the Silk Roads.  The easy access of the Sea and Sand Roads boosted the economy along these routes.  The Sea and Sand Roads also connected countries and allowed for an exchange of goods, ideas, customs and cultures.  Communities were created along these routes. 

Blog #4

I have always been interested in the Islam religion. At NDNU I have taken both a Women's Spirituality and World Religions class.  In both classes we talked a lot about Islam.

I think it is amazing that in the 21st century 22%  of the world identified as Muslims.  I have also found it interesting that Islam started from a single person, Mohammad.  For 22 years he had revelations which were recorded and formed the Quran.  It's not mentioned in the reading but I always found it interesting that Muhammad's wives and daughters were a big part of the recording of the Quran and had a great influence over other Muslims during the early stages of the religion.  Then, women were considered second class citizens but yet they had a huge part in the Islamic religion.  

Even though the message of the Quran challenged the ancient Arab religion and the way of life it was still able to spread across the world.  Not only did Islam spread quickly through Arabia it became their way of life with the 5 Pillars being at its core. Islam joined the church and state of Arabia, whereas Christianity has also separated the two.

I didn't know that Islam was a major influence in the Arab Empire. It created a new empire, religion and civilization.  I also found it interesting that although the conversion process was pretty intense a lot of people still converted.  While some converted because they were "believers" many also converted for social mobility.  

Journal #2

Like most people, I have always thought about empires negatively.  Empires are usually associated with political and/or cultural oppression.  Most often empires have a single ruler with a unified political system.  I found it interesting that empires such as Greece and Mesopotamia were developed and succeeded because of their common culture.  Current political values condemn empires but the majority of people before the 20th century lived in empires.  There are positive and negative aspects of empires.  A lot of empires were violent, they exploited their citizens and had a strong warrior culture.  However, empires also provided peace, a sense of security, economic and artistic development, commercial exchange and allowed for a mix of cultures. 

I have heard of the Persian Empire but didn't know much about it.  It was the most impressive empire of that time.  It spread from Egypt to India and consisted of 35-50 million people within 23 different provinces.  The Persian Empire had a very structured political system.  They had a kingship/monarch with governors and imperial spies.  I thought it was interesting that they used imperial spies.  With the empire being so large the King needed eyes and ears everywhere.  The Persian Empire had a standardized monetary system, taxes, canals, a "royal road" which helped with trading, a underground irrigation system, palaces, monuments and halls.  The Persian Empire had everything cities, states and countries have today.

With how advanced and massive the Persian Empire was I was shocked that they were not able to conquer the Greeks.  The Persians tried twice in 10 years to conquer Athens and somehow the Greeks succeeded.  Years following the Greeks experienced the Golden Age of Greek Culture.  The political unification of Greece occurred.

It was also interesting to learn about the Roman and Chinese empires.  Even though both empires were so distant they were so similar.  They both defined themselves in universal terms, they invested heavily into the public works, had a strong military and commercial system.  They invoked supernatural sanctions to support their rule and incorporated foreign religious traditions.  Although the Roman and Chinese shared these similarities, they also had significant differences.  The relationship between ruler and subject was much different.  The assimilation to its subjects was also different.  For example, Rome often granted citizenship to individuals/families who took on Roman culture.  The two also had different culture, language, political structures and thought of the environment differently.

Reading about these early civilizations/empires was very interesting.  It was eye-opening to read how these empires came into power and how they collapsed.  While each successful empire has a different story and faced different challenges they are all very similar into how they came into power and how they lost that power.  The gender, religious, cultural, patriarchal, and political systems set in place by these early empires made the world what it is today.  The majority of today's society is based on the success and failures of these early empires.

Journal #1

I haven't taken any form of World History since Freshman year of high school..and that was a Western Civilization class.  I have never even heard of the Paleolithic and Neolithic Eras!!  And the Paleolithic Era represents 95% of the total time humans have been around but only 12% of the humans on this planet.  The Paleolithic and Neolithic Eras are such an important part of human history its hard for me to believe some text/history books don't even include these time periods.

I thought it was interesting that there were originally 20-30 different types of hominid species and Homo-Sapiens are the only ones to survive.  The facts given in the prologue of the Part 1 just amaze me!  There were approximately 10,000 individuals in the world 100,000 years ago and now there are people just about everywhere!!  It's hard for me wrap my head around the fact that humans have come so far with technology, agriculture, tools, etc...

The book mentioned the first human societies and how it believed that they lived in egalitarian societies.  They didn't have kings, chiefs and other significant leaders so they were thought to have lived free of tyranny and oppression.  I don't know if I 100% agree that this would be possible.  Although I do believe men and women could have been equal in the fact they both had to take on different roles...it is hard for me to understand how whole communities could have lived equally.  The text mentioned an Aboriginal tribe that had competition amongst men which would result in combat and bloody battles.  I think this type of thing happened very frequently in tribes.  I think it is human nature to be somewhat competitive and to have some need of being better than others.  While living in an egalitarian society free of oppression and tyranny sounds amazing I just think it is too good to be true.

I also found it interesting how the end of the Ice Age changed the climate so much that it enabled tribes/clans/people create settlements and pretty functioning communities.  The agricultural globalization was definitely a turning point/major transformation for human kind.  The beginning of agricultural globalization began in the Fertile Crescent.  It lasted about 10,000 years and brought the spread of plants, animals, seeds, technology, tools across the world.

This Agricultural Revolution had some positive and negative effects on human kind.  The increase in agriculture brought on an increase in population.  With the new knowledge many societies were obtaining they were able to develop crop rotations were able to use animals for more than just their hide and meat-they learned to milk animals also.  However, because of the close proximity humans lived to the animals their exposure to diseases increased.  Not only did they contract more diseases but the diseases became epidemics and sometimes wiped entire communities out.

I find it amazing how all of these different civilizations came from different parts, had different experiences, different land, different climate and different obstacles but were still able to overcome and set the path for humans today..hundreds of thousands years later!