The Worlds of The Fifteenth Century(13 Chapter)

-->

Jose Betancourt

World History 1

Patti Andrews

11/28/12

                                        The Worlds of The Fifteenth Century

            The world of the fifteenth century was much similar to the world of the past, but with an emphasis in the reality of the new era or the new times with more advances in thought around all places in the world. “Bands of hunters and gatherers, villages of agricultural peoples, newly emerging chiefdoms or small states, nomadic/pastoral communities, established civilizations and empires-all of these social or political forms would have been apparent to a widely traveled visitor in the fifteenth century”(365). Even though the world had changed and had more technological advantages during the 15^th century there were still people that lived nomadic lives or gathering hunting lives. Around the fifteenth century too happened something really interesting. The reality that people by the fifteenth century lived really close to larger civilizations. Although people lived in civilizations close to one another, people usually identified themselves with their smaller communities.

            Something else that was very interesting about reading the chapter was that during the fifteenth century there were competitions especially from china and the Europeans. The competitions were mostly about the maritime voyaging and conquering. What gave Spain (European country); an advantage over other countries was the conquest or the voyage to the Americas during 1492. After a while china seemed to give up on the voyaging and Europe took charge.  “The most striking difference in these two cases lay in the sharp contrast between China’s decisive ending of its voyages and the continuing, indeed escalading, European effort, which soon brought the world’s oceans and growing numbers of the world’s people under its control”(376). It seems that after Europe took control of the voyaging, Europe becomes the center of the world and a place that people yearned or aspired to go, visit, or make trade with.

            

Pastoral Peoples on the Global Stage(Chapter 12).

Jose Betancourt

World History 1

Dr. Patti Andrews

11/19/12

Pastoral Peoples on the Global Stage(The Mongol Moment: 1200-1500).

         When thinking about great civilizations, I tend to think of the Romans and the Greeks. The Mongols like the other civilizations may not be thought of as important, or as one that has made change but it dd.  Pastoral societies different for agricultural societies were less productive economically (334), but were supporting “far smaller populations”(334). This probably meant that the communities in the pastoral were less urban and more rural. This pastoral communities organized themselves into kinship groups and “clans that claimed a common ancestry”(334).

         In a modern sense this communities must have been more conservative because of the values and rules they held. One idea that struck my thoughts while reading was the way that the Mongols thought about remarriage of widows. They did not think like the Chinese. The Mongols had no such rules to not marrying if women were widows.

         Something interesting about the Mongols was also their sense of brotherhood. “Pastoral nomads interacted with their agricultural neighbors not only economically and militarily but also culturally as ‘they became acquainted with and tried on for size all the world and universal religions”(337). It is said that at some points Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam were found with the nomadic people in inner Eurasia. I just think that society has not changed much form our past generations. Our life is simply making more history that one day will be remembered by many future generations. We are still living in terms of not necessarily having surplus, but creating livestock.

        

The Worlds of Islam(Chapter 11)

Jose Betancourt

World History

Dr. Andrews

11/14/12

             The Worlds of Islam (Afro-Eurasian Connections): 600-1500

            The Islam religion or group was born about the year 600 hundred AC.

In modernity Islam is one of the biggest religions in the world. There are three large monotheistic religions in the world. Islam is one of them. The beginnings of Islam are somewhat blurry. They are blurry beginnings not because of history, but because Arabs of the first century were slowly moving to either Judaism or Christianity (303). Later then in the 7^th century came the messenger Muhammad Obn Abdulla (570-632 C.E). Muhammad was born in Mecca. He was an orphan. “He was adopted by his uncle, became a widely traveled trader, and married a wealthy widow, khadija herself prosperous merchant, who provided him with financial and emotional support”(303).

            Muhammad was very spiritual person, and thus his inspiration and message was evident once he proclaimed it. The book of Islam is the Quran. The Quran has Gods law and the pillars of God. Allah is God and Muhammad is the messenger of God. First tenet of Islam is the belief in the one true God, the second tenet is prayer, the third pillar is the sharing of money with community, the fourth pillar is the month of fasting, and lastly the fifth one is the pilgrim to Mecca. (306). The most interesting Pillar to me is the “third pillar, requiring believers to generously give their wealth to maintain the community and to help the needy, reflected the Qurans repeated demands for social justice”(305-06). In that case one can realize that Islam was not only a religion for God, but for the people and for all those that wanted to be in the path to God, then one would admit and commit to God.

The Worlds of European Christendom (Connected and Divided) 500-1300

Jose Betancourt

World History 1

Dr. Andrews

11/12/12

          The Worlds of European Christendom (Connected and Divided) 500-1300

            The time of the Christendom is mostly thought of happening in Europe. Christianity rose from a small Jewish community. With that said, one can conclude that Christianity has its roots from Jewish thought, and Jewish culture. One interesting fact that I thought about while reading the chapter was that at the same time that the Christendom happened and the ruptures or discontents happen in the Christian nations, Europe was going through a time of no innovations. While Asia, was really advanced in technology and science.

            In that case Christianity served as an ideal for most people of Eurasia. “During the postclassical era, Christianity provided a measure of cultural commonality for the societies of western Eurasia, much as Chinese civilization and Buddhism did for East Asia”(269).  Christianity brought what they could to society. They did not bring to Europe much of the sciences; all that people relied on was the scripts of the monks (Religion and Technology Class).  During the time of the chiefdoms there was also a trying to preserve of classical times form the part of the Byzantines. “Like Tang Dynasty china seeking to restore the glory of the Han era, Byzantium consciously sought to preserve the legacy of classical civilization and the Roman Empire”(271).  In that case we can see that Christianity was not a bad way of viewing life, but a way of giving society the best they could at the time. What bothers me though is the modern thinking of many scholars and professors who see Christianity as an oppressor of races and cultures because of the inquisitions and the American conquest. It bothers me because it totally diminishes the great contribution to the people that Christianity has done and still does for the world.

            Finally one other reality and truth was that Christianity has had many ruptures or breaking bonds. The church separated during the time of the Christendom. The west excommunicated east and vice versa. The reasons were theological, a and also cultural. The Christian orthodox still remains to be strong during our time, and the Catholic Church is still one of the largest institutions in the whole world. (272-273).

Pacific Islands and the Americas

Jose Betancourt

World History 1

Dr. Andrews

11/07/12

                                                            Pacific Islands

            In class we talked about the different roads or networks in India china, and Europe. One other road or network that was important was the Kelp Highway in the Americas. It is said that maybe the way in which many Asians came after the ice age 11 thousand years ago was through the oceans to the Americas. “It now appears that the northwest coast route opened a millennium or two earlier than the ice-free corridor and that the diversity and richness of coastal ecosystems after the LGM nay have created a ‘kelp highway’ that facilitated a maritime migration from northeast Asia into the Americas”(11, PREHISTORY). It is evident that there is a theory that some people or many people came to the Americas from East Asia. In many ways it seems that the waterways and coming to America through water may have made traveling and arriving faster.

            It is also interesting how seafaring happened thousands of years ago. (120). I see how sophisticated the American people were even before they were supposedly conquered. Now the idea and theory that there was some navigation and seafaring happening is not simply a theory with out evidence. “Support for these ideas is drawn form evidence of late Pleistocene maritime migrations across temperate pacific waters to Australia and New Guinea approximately 50,000 years ago”(22). In that case this theories seem true, although there is not yet totally accepted that the Pleistocene cultures had the ability to be in water or had the skill of Watercraft. 

Commerce and Culture:Chapter 8

Jose Betancourt

World History 1 Blog

Dr. Andrews

11/05/12           

                                    Commerce and Culture:

            While reading this chapter, something interesting that I thought about was the Silk Road. I began to think how human’s brains seemed to be developing, not only biologically, but the ideas became truths and realities. “Silk Road trading prospered most when large and powerful states provided security for merchants and travelers”(220). The social building of this networks aided civilizations to prosper, in the sense that it provided border territory to exchange goods and also ideas. It s profoundly interesting how this Eurasian empires despite of their disagreements, they were or at least there was that “pull” to be with one another or needing from each other to finish a task or to make ones society and culture better. Silk was not only important to have culture meet in the borderlines but was also a form of currency. “In central Asia, silk was use as currency and as a means of accumulating wealth”(221). Silk was also a way to see who belong to the elite. Only the elite could wear silk clothes.

            Silk was very important, like the author says, “Silk roads, trade were a conduct for culture”(229). Different civilizations influenced not only the people in terms of culture, but also in terms of religion. Buddhism for example aided Buddhism to help in the understanding of what Buddhism was and more people were more interested and maybe wanted to join. Another way of traveling or networking in the past r the times of commerce, were the salt roads. The salt roads “enriched west Africa”(232). During the postclassical era west Africa assimilated to other cultures due to its form of doing commerce and trading. 

China and The World(Chapter 9)

Jose Betancourt

World History 1

Dr Andrews

11/02/12

                                    China and The World

            The period of time for chapter nine and china and the world is from the year 500 to 1300. During this time china was a “powerful civilization”(241). The way in which the Chinese were unified by their emperor was through the system of the canals. (242). In that one can see that the canals was not the only way to have an economical stable state but to stretch the borders of china and work for the betterment of the society and the looking to prosperity as an important ideal for the peoples. For the first centuries after the fall of the Han dynasty (220 C.E), the Chinese civilization seemed to have some sort of unity. “But the ruthlessness of Sui emperors and a futile military campaign to conquer Korea exhausted the states resources, alienated many people, and prompted the overthrow of the dynasty”(243). Although the dynasty was overthrown, china did not sufferer any disintegration. After the Sui dynasty the Tang (618-907), and the song (960-1279) were two dynasties that kept unity amongst the peoples, amongst the governments and within the political world.

            The economy and unity of china happened though the help of people, but most importantly through the help of the canal system. “ Supplying these cities with food was made possible by an immense network of internal waterways-canals, rivers, and lakes-stretching perhaps 30,000 miles”(245). In that case one can clearly see that water was an important way of contributing to the civilization in china but the system of unity was what reinforced this great economy they had and the great nation they still are in modern times.