WW Part 5

In early modern European colonies being significant. The Mugal Empire pulled together Hindus and Muslims, Qing dynasty in China doubled in size, and the Ottom Empire re-established older political unity in the Islamic heartland.  Also, early modern empires entered a new stage of globalization; European Empires in the Americas, Spaniards in the Aztec and Inca empires, etc. Europeans controlled most the the Americas, which was dude to their geography which positioned them well for the Americas. However, rivalries within the Americas provided allies for European invaders, leading to the demographic collapse of Native American societies. Pre-Columbian Western Hemisphere had a population of around 60-80 million, but the Europeans brought European and African diseases and killed off about 90 percent among Native American populations; as well as, population drops in Mexico.

Europeans did not just conquer and govern established societies, instead they created whole new societies. All were built on the theory that governments should encourage exports and accumulate gold and silver to serve their countries, as colonies should provide closed markets for the mother country’s manufactured goods.  However, colonies differed depending on the cultures and economy that was already established. Later on, plantations started to boom in North American and the use of African slavery became a main source of labor. and so North America gradually started becoming more dominant in the world.
                      
Around 1500, a small Russian state centered on Moscow began to emerge. Over three centuries Russia began to grew into a massive empire. Moscow started to conquer neighboring cities, and early expansion into the grasslands to the south and east was for security against nomads. Russia's conquest was made possible by modern weapons and organization. With imperial expansion, Russians became a smaller proportion of the overall population, rich agricultural lands, furs, and minerals helped make Russia a great power by the eighteenth century.

By 1526 Mughals had united much of India, however, the Mughal Empire's most important divide was religious. According to the book, 20 percent of the population was Muslim, but most of the rest were Hundu. The Emperor Akbar accommodated the Hindu majority buy assimilating many Hindus into the political-military elite, imposing a policy of toleration, and abolishing payment of jizya. However, Emperor Aurangzeb’s policies provoked Hindu reaction and created opposition movements fatally weakened the Mughal Empire after 1707        

Interview

1. What do I want to know about the History of the event, era, situation or injustice? With regards to my interviewee I would like to hear racism, prejudice and segregation from his point of view.

2. What can I find out before meeting for the interview? I know what city and when his was born so I could do research on the current events of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s to get a better understanding of the questions I could ask that he would best qualify to answer.

3. What resources will you consult before meeting with the person? I will use the internet for the bulk of my resources to conduct research.

4. What can you find out by only experiencing the person's face to face presence? How the events and situations of injustice impacted his life and the choices he made.

5. Where, when and with whom will your interview be conducted? It will be conducted tomorrow June 26th with a 84 year old gay black man at a coffee shop in the south bay.

6. I will record this interview with my Phone. 

7. What special challenges do I foresee? I am not sure how open he is about the questions I am going to ask him. I am not sure there are any significant challenges, I will just have to wait and see.

Some Questions I am going to ask:

What significant events occurred that directly impacted himself or his family during his childhood.
When know he was homosexual and when did he come out to friends and family.
What forms of prejudice, racism and/or segregation did he face.
Background of his family.

WW Part 4

The rate of growth and longevity of Islam fascinates me.  It is one of fastest growing religions and as the book points out, encompasses 22 percent of the world’s population.  

The initial concept of Islam is stimulating depending on it’s interrupted.  For example, the Arabian Peninsula, where Islam was founded, consisted mainly of nomadic tribes that were constantly warring with each other.  Life seemed chaotic, but they did halt fighting to worship gods, ancestors, and spirits in the years before Islam.  In my opinion what I always found the most interesting about Islam is what the prophet Muhammad was told in his first revelation.  He was told to “read,” and that lead the religion into something powerful because the nomadic people did not read or write, and as Islam began to take hold of this region of the world, it really opened up a lot of potential which eventually lead to the Ottoman Empire, among other things.  However, after Muhammad’s death it did led to divisions in the religion due to the arguments breaking out on which Caliph (Successors of Muhammad), would continue on the legacy.  Creating ultimately two separate components of Islam: Sunni and Shia.   

Although, Islam today is considered extreme towards women, up until the last 250+ years, Islam seemed to be more liberal in a loosely based sense.  Even as the world continued to war, break down, and build up, Islam grew and remained strong because it really grabs the attention of people, in an essence Islam is a good book of morals and guidelines if you want to approach it from a non-religious stand point.

 

I remember learning about Chinggis Khan growing up, but I had no clue he had brands of beer, rock bands, and even a chocolate bar named after him.  It made me laugh a little about the candy bar. It just goes to show the power of persuasion can have on a group of people. However, even though the Mongol’s once controlled lands from the Pacific coast of Asia to Eastern Europe, they left no cultural imprint on the world. They numbered about 700,000 people and were fearsome, but unlike the Arab world and Islam, they offered no new civilization or religion. The Mongols never tried to spread their own faith among subject peoples.  Matter of fact, the most impressive thing the Mongols accomplished was probably the discipline and loyalty of their army to its leaders.  This paved the way and ensured steady momentum for the Empire to expand as rapidly as it did.  Not to mention, the strategic decision making by the Empire’s leaders in dispersing its conquered subjects into different regiments. Maybe Chinggis Khan’s policy was a major factor as well, “whoever submits shall be spared, but those who resist, they shall be destroyed with their wives, children and dependents…so that the others who hear and see should fear and not at the same.”

The way Strayer breaks down how the world was shaped after the voyages in 1492 is inspiring, but when he concludes with, “But none of these developments were even remotely foreseeable in 1492,” it seemed obnoxious.   It seemed that Strayer was making a point in chapter thirteen that many cultures choose to avoid becoming assimilated into the growing civilizations and empires in the fifteen.  Groups of people that were still gather-hunter societies were happy with their way of life.   As for the Aztecs I found it crazy the tribute they collected from its people.  Their level of sacrificing human life in the name of the Gods was fascinating but I had heard stories of it since elementary school. Lastly, the Inca Empire shared a similar “rages to riches” story, growing from a modest group of people, in which they encompassed more than the Aztecs.  They required its conquered people to not so pay in tribute, but rather to pay in labor. 

WW Part 3

I sometimes enjoy Strayer’s writing technique.  For example, I liked how Strayer compared the early twenty-first century plans to expand roads further for trade and economic growth just as the Silk Road network across Eurasia did.  This shows an obvious correlation and emphasizes that global trade has been important for centuries and is nothing new.  The inventions of roads across Eurasia created the possibility of different groups and people to trade their valuables and delicacies on a much grander scale than ever done before.  These trades, which usually consisted of jewels, silks, cloth, and other valuables that were not offered in their specific area, allowed the mainly the rich to access these items a lot more easily.  However, it also enabled the wealthy and powerful to gain more wealth helping large cities to keep up with the stresses of its people.  However, this did bring about widespread disease as new foreign people and animals were introduced to new regions.

I have believed for many years now that China is the dominating country in this world.  Many American’s still believe that America is the strongest superpower in the world, yet neglect to see or are ignorant to that fact that China even controls a big portion of our economy.  With that being said, China has been a superpower since the third-wave of civilizations.  As Strayer points out in the book, all of China’s neighboring states, virtually had no choice by to work with or do trade because of the gravitational pull China’s booming economy had on that region of the globe.  However, it was telling to see that China also absorbed outside influence in its endeavors as well.  Meaning Buddhism mainly, but also Christianity and Islam, taking root in China as the economy started to attract many new visitors.  The interesting thing about China is the fact that they have been able to sustain themselves over the centuries, even with the rise and fall of many dynasties.  This probably occurred due to a stronger cultural and societal unity than other countries that have risen and collapsed, but also due to China maintaining a relatively strong economy even at its weak points.

As mentioned before various religions started to spread into China, but also, Christianity was taking giant leaps all over Europe due to the Roman Empire.  As Strayer mentions in the book, “from Spain and England in the west to Russia in the east – had embraced in some form the teachings of the Middle Eastern Jewish carpenter called Jesus.  Which still makes me laugh at the fact that Strayer’ purposefully chooses to make Jesus “ungodly,” although attempting to be objective unbiased to world history, probably still gets backlash.  To continue, when the collapse of the Roman Empire occurred it left much of that world vulnerable to different religions through conquests.  The rapid Arab/Islamic expansion was causing grief to the Byzantine state, but with that being said the state still remained a major force in the eastern Mediterranean.  To jump forward a bit, as intellectual life started to flourish in Europe after year 1000, universities were being created and reason was being introduced into teachings, which created tensions with religious teachings.  Reason was introduced to Islamic states as well, but natural philosophy and Islam did not mix as well as it had with western culture.