The Final Quiz

This is the very first time I take World History. I found it very educational. Although this class had a very heavy workload; it was difficult to try to keep up with the readings while working full time, all the reading, writing and blogging took tremendous amount of time, I have gained tremendous knowledge from this course by doing so. To find out how human came about, from Old Stone Age to Modern age is priceless; in the Paleolithic era how people use stone tools to survive was impressive.  The civilization and religion rose together globally and lead to formation of communities was a phenomenon; how empires use religion to gain power and conquer others. It was interesting to learn that the Mongol conquered other empires to gain power yet they couldn’t keep it together instead benefited them with all they brought with them. The silk, sea, and sand road/world trades had strengthened the economy globally help people to connect all over the world by trading their goods. I found that Confucius teaching was very powerful and humanist, had China followed Confucius it might had been a developed country in every way. When renaissance started at about 1350-1500 Asian, Greeks, Roman with art and people believe it signified wealth and hierarchy, the purpose was used to influence other cultures through teaching. 

   It were depressive to found out how decision were made in the past such as on                                     feminism, slavery, oppression, exclusion, globally. I felt kind of relief while reading that Abolitionists sought the end of slavery; feminist tried to end, or at least mitigate, male dominance. It was great to see people try to fight for their rights and to end oppression.

I learned that history itself doesn’t change, but interpretations change from each era, century and decade; what was appropriate then may not be appropriate now; what was humanly than might not be humane now. Hence the eras, centuries were pregnant of social injustice, inequality of human life, exploitation of slaves, peasants. All those were slowly recognized during the modern era and were starting to practice human rights.

The Analysis papers were a challenge for me initially but it had help enhanced my research abilities, thoughts, brainstorming, and APA style writing. It was astonishing to me that such thing as Carbon-dating even existed and it is very effective with finding evidence. The 2014 Olympic Game in Russia had certainly made Putin’s pounder for to a second thought about giving back the rights to the Circassians.

The class debate on the significance of European renaissance and the Mongol civilization had definitely made an impacted on our memories on the history of those events. The Oppression of women exercise was impressive; while women could not speak in public, could not use pencils and could only have one text book, somehow they was intelligent enough to find a way to communicate their answers and won over men. Those were unforgettable class activities.

I also gain great knowledge by conducting the research on The Cultural Revolution. When I was in school in China I remember Maoism was still “echoing” in school even after it ended for a few years, but I did know the whole story. In school we were not taught on what went on or what was going on. Researching it made me learn about the significant historical era. I found myself saying “oh my god! I cannot believe what an evil and selfish person he was. He was the reason why China is still a developing country.” The more I read about that era the more I resent him, and I also found myself cursing him.

All the assignments were well worth doing; if I go to the natural history museum again next time I would enjoy my visit better then when I didn’t know history. I remember seeing the canoe, the homo- sapiens, the ape-like looking figure, all the different religions, animals in the Natural History museum in New York City. Thank you, Ms Andrews and classmates for a wonderful class have a great rest of your summer.

Bolg #8

These are definitely interesting chapters to read.  Wars? I am not sure if it’s necessary however,  I guess things between countries needed to be settled in some ways sadly it had to be war. World War II about Pearl Harbor was a tremendous loss for the Unites States.  How could Japanese be so sneaky to attack the United States in such a way that they were not able to fight back right away? I don’t blame the United States for dropping the atomic bomb to retaliate. Many innocent people got killed, injured and crippled for decades during that war. For people who witnessed the war they are scared for life. I know a person who witnessed Japanese attacked Hong Kong to this day he told me that he hates Japanese. I was shocked to hear that I thought that in today’s society, a New Era, The Modern world people learn to forget the pass and to forgive.  In fact, when I asked him why?  He said that he could never forget what he saw; the Japanese were raping women, killing the innocent on the street.  What more depressing than the war was the Great Depression in the late 1920’s to 1930’s. It was cause by World War I; Strayer mentioned that “Never had the instabilities of capitalism been so evident or so devastating as during the decade that followed the outbreak of the Great Depression in 1929. The American stock market crashed, Wall Street financiers committed suicide, investment dried up, people lost their life’s saving, bank closed there were no jobs (page633),”  The country’s poverty increased all and all in was a very devastating period of time.  I can’t even imagine the chaos if we were in such deep depression like it was then. Back in 2008 we were in depression, but at least there were still jobs, majority of factories were still open, and businesses were operating normally.

According to Strayer; the root of communism came from Karl Marx; the idea was to end poverty and to bring peace to the world.  Communist countries give no rights to human; they control education, as to what could be taught in school; they control economy, policies and media, such as what could or could not be shown and said to the media. For example; in China, when the country was building the dam for the Yangzse River, the government just gave their people a deadline to move and the people have no-say-so. I was glad that there was a feminist movement that they were pushing for the women’s rights as Stayer had mentioned that new communist regimes were efforts at liberating and mobilizing the women by organizing multiple meetings such as to train them to operate a day-care center, medical clinics, published newspapers and magazines that target at female readers, they gave education and prenatal classes and encouraged Muslim women to take off their veils. All that I thought it was great that women have a movement to stand-up for themselves unfortunately, that didn’t last long.

Industrial Globalization sounds like a good term that would help strengthen the world’s economy.  On the other hand, it weakened the United States’ job market. It had caused unemployment rate to increase in the U.S. since the United States decided to have thing make overseas; such as machines, electronic parts, clothing etc. Most recently the solar panels that are made in China are half the price at the ones made in the U.S. that accounts for many layoffs in the solar panel factories and possibly closing of the factory. While company owners are benefiting from making a huge profit by having things made overseas, it’s devastating the U.S. job market. 

Blog # 7

The ideas of the Enlightenment contribute to the Atlantic evolution were shared across the ocean through newspapers, books, and pamphlets. This amazing ides had influenced the world’s social movement. The American revolutionary movement was a conservative one according to Strayer; instead of a new movement they preserve the existing liberties of the colonies rather than to create a new one. To answer Strayer’s question from the book; what was revolutionary about the America revolution it that the kind of society that had emerged within the colonies. The revolution accelerated the established democratic tendencies of the colonial societies; the United States became the world’s most democratic country and announced in the Declaration of independence. What was not revolutionary about the America revolution in my opinion was the elimination of Native Americans, and imposing a variety of new taxes and tariffs on the colonies without their consent. All the countries’ revolution that Stryer had discussed I think it was a necessity in order to gain independence and freedom. The feminist movement was astonishing I applaud, admired to leader and organizer for standing up for the women and their rights. For the Declaration of the Rights of Women, women are able to have education opportunities to enrich their brain, able to have a career so we don’t get look down upon and oppress by men, able to have freedom and equal rights to those of men. According to Strayer one of the limitation for the Declaration of the Rights of Women was that when leave their husband and children behind, household chores were undone, serious reproductive damage and as a consequence depopulate the nation.

The first industry revolution country was Europe that I think accounted for why the county was ahead and advance economically for some time which other countries looked up to. Europe had opened up the communication with other countries, helped give ideas and gave rise to technology of the scientific revolution. For all the scientists which lead others to continue their scientific route to more advance technology into the next century. Nowadays; technology is so advancing continuously, for some it is hard to keep up-to date with the knowledge and the technologies.

Europe Empire was harsh to other countries, for their superpower. They have built territories and exploited other countries resources. Forced labor was unprecedented; abusing slaves treating them so brutally like garbage. They had no human decency back then; in my opinion it was due to racism that they had no respect for the slaves and colored people. What kind of punishment was cutting off a body part? What good did that do to those authority figures in that century? Yeah, it made them feel better they had taken their anger out of those poor slaves. But not only they destroyed a slave’s life, they diminish their slave population by doing so. After reading this chapters made me so glad that I did not exist at that time to experience slavery. But on the up side who knows maybe I would make a difference in that century.

Reflection 6

These chapters were definitely informative. Strayer talked about how major empires expanded and the start of the Modern era.  It was interesting to find out how the Europeans carved out huge empires an ocean away from their home land by the maritime expansion.   Columbus’ accidental discovery of America was significant because of the Europeans’ technology which made a tremendous difference for the country. According to Strayer; the distance made it easier for  the European Empire to sail to America where as other major empire of the world did not, such as; China. On other hand, the American Indian was already here but they were not civilized nor technologically advance until the conquest of the Europeans. I understand more why there are so little Native American Indians after reading the chapter; it was the diseases the Europeans brought who already have strong immunity where the natives’ were lacking. For that reason and starvation it wiped out 90 percent of the Native American Indian population. Europeans were taking control of America, due to the sharply diminished population they had labor shortage for cultivation and animal husbandry which led to slave trade and other items from African.  While Europeans were controlling America, Strayer stated that China was building their empire in the modern era by mastering the language, Confucian teaching, using Chinese bureaucratic techniques to govern the empire; and so did other major empires were solidifying.

It was impressive to see that trades were expanded globally and strengthened the world’s economy in the early modern era.  Agriculture, spices, gold and silver were of course the main goods for trade as well as the Atlantic slave trade-a major process of this time. Porcelain was one of the goods in the trades through China. I found that I keep learning new thing as I read through the chapters; all these year that I have been in the United States I have been wondering why porcelain dishes were called “china” in the back of my head, but I was not curious enough to search for the answer. I felt satisfied to finding out my long question that is finally answered.

Globalization of religion was long chapter to read how Christianity became globalized pretty all across the European countries, Spain, The Philippines and some part of Asia. I was surprised to find that Indonesia has a big Islamic population I thought the vast majority of them were Buddhist interestingly it is the other way around. Christianity is such a wide spread religion to my understanding the religion is spread through doctrines and practices; preaching plays a significant role in spreading the religion; where as in comparing to Buddhism there is no preaching involved. In my understanding, it does not matter what one’s religion is all religion teaches people to be benevolent to have a good heart. All religion helps people mentally aware of what’s good and what’s not. It guides people to have good behaviors and to influence other in the society to do good deed for their communities they reside in.

Blog #5

Interview experience

The event of my research is on  China’s Culture revolution.   Before the interview, I read a journal online tried to have some more understanding about the event (I have always heard from older generation Chinese saying how difficult times were during culture revolution, but I have very little understanding about it).  I also use some academic journals through UDUN library. By interviewing the person face-to –face, I can find out how they feel about the event and their reactions. The person I interviewed was a fifty year old male. The recording method I used was by taking notes and recording. One of the challenges I encountered was that I don't know much about the event that they had gone through, I found myself stuck and not understanding certain things they were saying. I didn't know who the people were behind the event, and translating it into English from Chinese was challenging. I feel that while this might be a good situation to do my research on, it might also be challenging for me.

Reflection 4

Muslim is one of the many religions that I have little understanding of, which had spread and continued in the modern era at about 22 percent of the world’s population. I was really impressed that the rise of Islam religion was so quickly spread to 1.2 billion of the world’s population. In early history, how nomads, people in general believed in god to overcome difficult times.  In the making of an Arab Empire, they were able to construct such a huge empire so quickly by “continuing a long pattern of tribal raids into surrounding civilization” and were able to organized their own mobilize military. The wide spread of conversion to Islam was amazing, the government offer different incentives for claiming Muslim identity; such as slaves and prisoners, traders who were Muslim did not have to pay taxes in their country.  Muslim practiced the religion very seriously they memorized words and recite in groups, they so into their religion that they gave up everything for it. Muslim religion ruled many countries and other religions during the classical era. For example it rules Christianity in Spain until after 1200.

One of the significance of world history was the Mongol Empire; they gave rise to large land-base empires from Asia to Eastern Europe. “What contributed to his growing power was shifting alliances and betrayals, a mounting string of military victories, the indecisiveness of his enemies, a reputation as a leader generous to friends and ruthless to enemies, and the incorporation of warriors from effected tribes into his own force.”  According to Strayer;  He built a strong empire that contain China, Korea, Central Asia, Russia, most of the Islamic Middle East, and part of Eastern Europe very quickly. His armies were better organized, better led, and more disciplined than their opponents.  While ruling China the Mongol put the Chinese to work to improve infrastructures, water systems, agriculture etc. the Mongols did not become Chinese, they did not allow intermarriage, ignored their examination system, discriminated against the Chinese, did not learn the Chinese language and prohibited the Chinese from learning their script. On the other hand, after conquering Persia, they totally adopted to their culture. The Mongols converted to Muslim, learned the Persian language, and allowed intermarriages.  Unfortunately, after thirty years of services they collapse and disappeared instead of driven out by Persian. Moreover, Russian found it beneficial to adopt Mongol empires government systems by paying the required tributes to the Mongol and be left alone. Hence the Russians learned a lot from the Mongols how to better organize and govern their country.

It was astonishing to find out how the spread of that plague wiped out more than 50 percent of the world’s population and they thought the world was coming to an end. The Mongol empire had lost it with the century; from there they lost control of all the countries that they had once ruled and the “entire Afro-Eurasian world economy was affected and largely closed.”

I was not surprised to find out how Chinese were rebuilt in my understanding Chinese had strong army and emperors.  It was very informative of this text to inform the students that China was once ruled by another empire and rebuilt during the Ming dynasty. I was glad that the Chinese reestablish the civil service examination system and beyond after the chaos of the Mongol empire.

Reflection 3

China is one of the oldest countries in the entire world besides its many discoveries Silk is the most well known of its origin. What an amazing discovery! Who would have thought or researched to turn the worm’s spit or poop into fabric. The Chinese totally deserved the well known empowerment. I have heard that the Chinese kept the silk making secret to themselves for more than two thousand years. According to Strayer; silk became a symbol of high status and it was a highly desired commodity across Eurasia; In Central Asia, silk was used as currency and as a mean of accumulating wealth. For that reason silk became to the most precious item in the trade route across the globe. Some say that it was offensive to the husband when his wife wears revealing silk dress outside. During this postclassical era silk clothing was restricted to member of the elite by law, and later it was associated with religions of Buddhism and Christianity as mentioned by Strayer. As the globe was concentrating on silk (for their high status symbol) and other goods trading they also got devastating disease which dramatically decreased the population. This answers my long wondering question; why immigrants had to prove that they are medically healthy and free of diseases before immigrating to the United States.

“The foundation of renewed unity, the ‘Golden age’ was when standards were set for the excellence of poetry, landscape painting, and ceramic.” I think China was advance at the time; however, the discrimination of women had slowed down the country. As mention on my previous blog what on earth made men think that women could not do what they could? Confucius supposedly a pioneer Chinese thinker, but to put women down as they are good for nothing was not as smart of him.  What a torture to women to have to go through a food binding pretty much a handicap state for the rest of her life! As of the Chinese tribute system sounded to me as bribery, a tribute like goods does not benefit the people it only stays within the emperor. That “tribute system” I call it bribery is still widely practiced today in China. Their government system is very much corrupted by bribing.

It’s interesting how religion exploded with civilization and to see how each religion cannot tolerate one another. How Confucius and Daoist thinkers were offensive of the foreigner Buddha, criticized Buddhism and later the criticism became more sharply focused that imperial commanded monks and nuns to return to normal life. And I feel sorry for all the Buddhist monasteries, Shrines and temples got destroyed.

I was not aware that the Roman was once collapsed. I have never taken World history before, however, I have heard about the decreased of population due to disease and warfare.  I think when an Empire collapse the people would not care about their public properties, roads and other places. To those who might have been  governed strictly once before they might think that it was an exhale to be finally free of government until they miss it.