Interview Questions for final project...

  It took me a while to figure out who I was going to interview or what could I write about. After talking to some of my co-workers and during some normal conversations I found what I was looking for. The topic that I am going to write about is the Civil War in El Salvador, the person that I am going to interview is 94 years old and is the father of one of my coworkers, he can give me a lot of information on the topic, since he was part of the event somehow when it occurred. I don't really know a lot about the topic, but I believe it will be interesting to know how it evolved and how it affected people at that time. Some of the possible questions that I will be asking would be: 


1) What effect did the civil war had on you and your family?


2) What are your personal feelings in regards to this event?


3) What do you feel the government could have done to prevent the war?


4) What impact did this war have after it was over in your country?


5) What was the major reason for you to decide to leave your country?


6) Who do you feel is at fault for this war?


7) If you were part of the government, What could you have done that would have affected the outcome of the war?


8) What can be done know to prevent another war from taking place in your country?


9) Out of all the other countries providing aide, Why did you decide to migrate to the United States?


10) Briefly explain how this historic event changed your life.

Islam, the Mongols & the 15th Century

   This week's readings were really interesting to me, even though it took me a while to finish, I was able to finally get it done. The first chapter, was about Mohammed and how the Islam was initially started. It was interesting to learn about all their beliefs and their actions of what is right and wrong. One of the things that I always like to know is how women were treated, so see how bad they had it back then. It seems that even though they had some kind of privileges as being able to sue for divorce in case of  not getting sexual satisfaction, they also had it really tough with the men being able to beat them up if they disobeyed or the "honor killing" part which got to the extreme. It is amazing to learn about how things have changed and evolution through the years. One thing that is important is to understand the impact of this religion and how it has shaped the world and the peoples way of thinking. Religion is something that most of us practice and even when there are so many, it is interesting to understand how one differs from the other.
     The next chapters focuses on the Mongols, The Mongols where a group of pastoral and nomadic people that had its origins in a territory above China and grew to become a powerful empire. This empire dominated Eurasia in the 1200-1500 centuries, through the use of horseback riding  and powerful armies. While ruling China, the Mongols put the Chinese to work to improve infrastructures, agriculture, water systems , etc. Another interesting thing was that the Mongols converted to Muslims, they learned the Persian language instead of the Chinese, allowed intermarriages and discriminated against the Chinese. This chapter has so much interesting and WOW stuff that it seems hard to stop mentioning all the things this group did, but it was a really good chapter.
    The last but not least was the chapter that gives us a broader view of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These centuries signified a lot of changes that left its fingerprints for the future centuries. In some places they were still living the Paleolithic life but had more advanced tools and methods to sustain their food supply. In China, after they restored from what the Mongols had done it was going back up again. Europe was going through the Renaissance period with many classical ideas coming back.  It was a whole new era reflecting a more naturalistic feeling with some of the world's greatest artists creating wonderful paintings, sculptures and music.  

Trade, China & Christianity.....

   From the readings from chapters 8,9 and 10, we can understand how the roots of some of the most important things in the business world lie deep in the past, like Strayer mentions. The most important topics covered on the chapters are: the importance of trade and how this develop during this period, China and the “golden age” , culture tradition and their strength with his dynasties, and the last chapter talks about the expansion of Christianity in Europe and how it grew.

            The development of trade and commerce dates back to the ancient times. These practices were really amazing on how they developed. Trade became the vehicle for the spread of religious ideas, technological innovations, even the spread of diseases and plants & animals  to regions far from their places of origin. The Silk Roads called after their most famous product, silk; these routes connected pastoral and agricultural peoples as well as the larger civilizations on the continents. Silk roads connected Eurasian societies by land, sea-based routes likewise connected distant peoples all across the Eastern hemisphere . Transportation costs were lower on the Sea roads than on the Silk roads because they were able to accommodate larger and heavier cargoes than in camels, like they did on the Silk roads. So ultimately the Silk roads where used to travel more luxury goods and the sea roads for more bulk goods and products for a mass market. The value of silk during those times was also really important. In some places it was used as currency and as a means of accumulating wealth.

            In China, with the collapse of the Han Dynasty, it regained its unity under the Sui Dynasty. But due to the Sui emperor and his military campaign to conquer Korea, he exhausted the states resources and prompted the overthrown of the Dynasty. The Tang and Song dynasties followed and pretty much built under the Sui foundations. These dynasties built a state structure that endured for a thousand years. The most obvious sign of China’s prosperity was its rapid growth in population which jumped from about 50 million during the Tang dynasty to 120 million by 1200, they also had remarkable achievements in agricultural production. The Chinese later invented gunpowder which led to a revolution in military affairs. China became the center of the world because of their intellectual achievements, Chinese people were more educated and saw other cultures as primitive. Even with their prosperity an power, China later had cultural problems and disagreements with Korea, Vietnam and Japan mainly due to their difference in beliefs, resistance and aggression.

            The last chapter goes into detail about Christianity and how it grew during the Middle Ages in Europe. Europe eventually became the global center of Christianity, especially Byzantium and Western Europe. When the Roman Empire collapsed that had a major impact on the way people lived and left many open to invasion and religion. Christianity took an important place in Europe and spread around the world.

            

Classical Era

The readings from week 2, which includes chapters 4,5,6 and 7, have a lot of information that refers to the Classical era. There is a lot to learn from this Classical era, it is amazing to understand how it all became to be what it is today, because even when so much time has passed by; there are things that are still ongoing from back then. People sometimes don’t take the time to really appreciate, the things we have and how we currently live; if they would only think about how different and harder things were back then.

The first chapter of the second part, explains how some of the major empires of Eurasia where built, and how they collapsed. Each Empire was brought up differently and had different impacts from the history point of view. One of the largest and impressive of the world’s empires was that one of the Persians. On the other hand the Greeks created a civilization that was distinctive in many ways, particularly in comparison to that of the Persians. Their population was a fraction of that of the Persians. The most distinctive and contrasting feature that separated the Greeks from the Persians was there popular participation in Political life. Alexander “ the great” was celebrated as the liberator from Persian domination and was declared “son of the gods”. While these two empires where in conflict, two other empires were taking shape, the Roman Empire and the China’s imperial state. They both flourished around the same time. Unlike the Persians and Greeks, the Romans and the Chinese had almost no direct contact with each other. Both of these empires invested heavily in Public Works. Another interesting thing about them is that both of their authorities invoked supernatural sanctions to support their rule.

As we go to the next chapter, the main topic of this chapter was cultural traditions and the development of the different religions. I am not at all a religious person, but it is interesting to learn and understand how they developed and how they differ from each other. Their beliefs are very different and what they want to prove is also interesting. In my personal opinion Confucious is something that I would agree on, his way of thinking seems to have impacted many, and is still ongoing nowadays. So many religions and so many points of view, can make people confused on what to follow.

It is also important to look at the hierarchies in the Eurasian societies, where slaves were prevalent in many different cultures during this era. In China and India, both of these civilizations, birth determined social status for most people, sharp distinctions and great inequalities characterized the social life. India had their unique Caste system, in which their social status was determined by their race or the purity of their blood. In the case of the Roman Empire, slavery generally meant ownership by a master, the possibility of being sold, working without pay, and the status of an outsider at the bottom of the social hierarchy. This is so harsh, imagine being one of those slaves, I wouldn’t have being able to take so much injustice, and no human rights at all.

The last chapter of this second part involves Africa and the Americas during the classical era. Everywhere except Oceania, gathering and hunting remained long as the sole basis for sustaining life. At the beginning the world human’s population was very unevenly across the three giant continents; during the Classical era, Euroasia had 80% of the population, leaving Africa with about 11% and the Americas with about 5 to 7%  only. This is one of the many reasons why there is more attention on the history of Euroasia than on Africa or the Americas. These civilizations where also fewer in number and generally smaller than those of Euroasia, and larger numbers of their people lived in communities that did not feature Cities and states.

            

First Things First

     After reading the first three chapters, I was really surprised by all the new things that I learned. Honestly, I am not a history fanatic, most of the time it is hard for me to remember a lot of the things I read in history books, but this time it was different. It was really easy for me to understand the readings and I also enjoyed it. It is important for everyone to have an idea of where we come from or how everything started. We sometimes don't realize, that it was not always easy for people to survive and how hard they had it back then, it kind of makes you appreciate more what we have and the times we are living at.
     The first chapter, explains in detail the Paleolithic Era or "Old Stone Age", it talks about how often history books neglect this long phase of the human journey and instead choose to begin the story with the coming of agriculture, because its people did not write. But the Paleolithic era was really important for human history, because I feel it explains the evolution of us, and how everything started. Africa, is considered the place where the human revolution occurred, where culture, defined as learned or invented ways of living, became more important than biology in shaping behavior.From Africa, human migration led first to the Middle East and from there westward into Europe and eastward into Asia.Like all human cultures, the Paleolithic societies also had rules and structures. One thing that really surprised me was that relationships between women and men usually were far more equal, as they were the primary food gatherers; women provided the bulk of family income. There life expectancy was low, it was around 35 years on average, which is kind of sad, but I think it was mainly due to their living styles. It's amazing to discover how these civilizations created methods of survival, in order to continue the growth of population, they were the ones that started civilizations they shaped and formed in various different ways.
    The second chapter is focused on the Neolithic or Agricultural revolution, and the new relationship between humankind and other living things.The neolithic age was summed up with the term "intensification" that means getting more for less, in this case more food and resources, way more from a much smaller area of land than it was possible with a gathering and hunting technology like in the Paleolithic era. The most amazing feature of this era is that it happened, separately and independently, in many widely scattered parts of the world, and all of this took place at roughly the same time.The agricultural revolution took shape in different ways in different parts of the world. The Fertile Crescent was one of the most favored areas and the first one to experience a full agricultural revolution,this area consist of Iraq, Syria, Israel/palestine, and southern Turkey, nowadays.As we can see Agriculture was a really important part of human history, because it made possible ansd increase in population far beyond what a hunting and gathering economy could support, and it enabled human beings to manipulate both plants and animals for their own purposes far more than ever before.
      The third chapter talks about civilizations, as described in the chapter by Strayer humans began to become unequal.  By this time there was more technology, more productive economies and greater wealth.  When  I started reading about this I started to understand where it all started, I wish that the Paleolithic era of equality would have trascended to now a days, but unfortunately we where not that lucky.It also makes me think about the origination of prejudice, which it is more commonly related to more modern times.Since the early civilizations we can  clearly see how the development of societies has also lead to the negative attribute of humans to mistreat each other but we can also see the positive developments such as language, accounting and social structure. It is amazing to learn from our past and how it influenced what we are now. 

World History---Blog Set up

Today is our first day of history class and we are creating our own blog to post journal entries...