So far I belive ghengis khan is a genius. At a young age he is able to make smart military decisions and is able to take on the role of a lear. Although yes he is a Physocopath and killed many people he was able to bring together one of the largest empires of all time. And yes you killed a lot of people to do so but it takes brains to be able to do that

Material life in the Carolingian countryside

Power on an early medieval manor seemed to be judged by the amount of material goods you had. The lords of the manors were in control of the estate and the people working there. All of the people had a job to do and they were required to give a portion of their time and whatever they produced to The Lord. This meant a that The Lord didn't have to work (so wealthy he doesn't have to do anything) and the serfs and peasants did. The reason they gave there goods to The Lord is because he provided them protection and a place to farm. This meant lords had a lot of stuff and the serfs had very little. The stewards job is to keep track of all the goods a lord owns much like money as well as all of the goods the serfs are required to give to The Lord, again much like money. So it is safe to assume that during this time power was determined by the amount of stuff you had.

India and Europe decentralization, comparison map

Post classical china map

Mathematics vs religion and al-Ghazali's work

1. The reading does not specifically say that the Islamic religion is for or against the sciences. It instead states that religion and sciences serve two different purposes. The reading seams to have a slight negative opinion although beause of the lack of faith those that practice the sciences have. The reading states that because they practice sciences they come to the conclusion that everything must have a reasonable and logical explanation while religion requires some faith and because those who practice the sciences don't have that faith you get the sense from the reading that there is a slight dislike of the sciences.

2. Yes religion and mathematics should be separated because neither effects the other. Mathematics is based on facts that "once known and understood, can not be refuted" while religion is based on faith. Al-Ghazali also explains that in the Islamic religion there is no law that condemns the sciences. Because the fact that neither effects each other and they are able to coexist Al-Ghazali believes that the religions should be separated. 


The truth about Plato and Al-Ghazali

Al-Ghazali and Plato both talked and taught about how to find truth and exactly what reality was. Both men taught that you must question everything in order to find the truth and that you are not able to rely on your sense to determine what is real or not. This evident by Plato's cave in which he explains that men are bound to rocks and forced to look at shadows on the wall. There perception of reality is based solely on what they see and hear and it is no where close to what is really true as discovered by one who escapes the cave and visits the outside world. Al-Ghazali version of this is that life and the world is the cave, we are misguided by the things around us and that the only way to truly discover the truth is through death.

Constantinople vs Baghdad

Benjamin of Tudela got around, visiting some of the greatset cities of his time including Constantinople and Baghdad. Both cities where similar in size, Constantinople coming in at 18 miles in circumference and Baghdad at 18 miles circumference. Both cities attracted much trade and business due to their size and as a result they became very wealthy. In bothe cities there are buildings with gold and silver columns, a representation of wealth and power. In his descriptions of both cities he mentions Constantinople's entertainment system and Baghdad's Caliph. In Constanitiople they have a place called the Hippodrome where there are many different forms of entertainment preformed. In order to impress the emperor. Benjamin describes the Caliph in his description of Baghadad. The Caliph is the head of the Muslim religion and he lives in a grand palace. The Caliph providspes hospitals for his people and all of his actions are good. Baghadad also has palm trees and fantastic gardens and vegetation.

Maps, Expansion and contraction of Byzantine empire, expansion of dar-al-Islam

Compare and contraste the qurans teaching with other religions

The relastionship between Allah and human beings is similar to the views of Zorastrianism, Judaism and christianism in its belief of a paradise after death and different in that Zoroastrianism had several different dieties. All four religions foused on and idea of a paradise after life that one can get to if they practiced good moral behavior. They also believed in a hell which you would go to if you were evil. The religions empazied that the behavior that was appropriate to practice in order to get to heaven was dictated by their supreme deity and there for they should follow him and be subbisive to him as stated in the Quran, "men and women who have come to submission". The religions differe in one aspect which is that Zoroastrianism believes in several dieties not just one all powerful. This probably came from the fact that it was the earliset and it's roots are planted it early Persian religions that involved many dieties for different things.

Byzantine questions, women and Justinian

The Byzantine Empire, much like the rest of the world during its time, was a highly patriarchal society. Women had little to no rights and men dominated society. Their job was to take care of the house and children as well as be subservient to their husbands and other men. We can tell this because, as mentioned before, the Byzantine empire was similar to Rome in it's culture and home life, and we know that Rome was a patriarchal society as well. Also the Justin's code is very biased towards men ands shows the unfairness in the law towards women.

Justin's background is important because it gives a sense of where he is coming from and what might have influenced his decisions as emperor. He was born a pheasant so unlike many other emperors he has the background of what it is like to be the lowest of the low. This would influence his decisions because he is going to attempt to make the lives of the poor better because he has sympathy for them. He was also soldier so he has the strict military lifestyle behind him as well, which might have led to his want for a orderly set of laws to govern the empire

Reasons for the collapse of the roman empire

I agree with the theory that Disease was a cause of the fall of Rome. I don't believe it is the only cause but I believe it played a significant role. The epidemics that spread throughout the Roman Empire wiped out nearly half the population. This meant their were less people to tax and a large army to support some it caused some economic problems. Also with out any money the army wouldn't be able to be funded and therefor would have a hard time keeping everything in control. Also because barbarians lived outside the empire or in isolated towns they weren't as affected by the epidemics as the Romans were. This meant the population of the barbarians grew while the roman population decreased. The barbarians then had an easier time attacking the Roman Empire and integrating themselves into the Roman Empire causing more strain on the people and the roman culture. All in all disease was a major reason for the decline of the Roman Empire.

collapse of Han Dynasty and Roman Empire Venn Diagram

Sim Silk Road

I found out that the Silk Road was a very confusing process. There were many regions with many different languages and currency.this caused problems when people began to trade because we could only communicate with a certain amount of people. This complicated things when we needed goods from other people. Not only that but because humans are humans greed took over. This was evident in this activity even though it was just a simulation. People tried to swindle each other some stole and others lied in order to get what they want. This was reinforced even more when we introduced a banker and translator. People stole money from the banker and the translators acted on their own trying to make a profit for themselves. So the Silk Road was a crazy in short.

I enjoy these kinds of activities. It beats sitting in a chair taking notes. Although it is very easy to get out of control and lose the meaning of the activity, it is also very easy to rember the meaning. So I think as long as those involved have a little self control and look at the bigger picture it is a great and effective way of teaching. Of course it needs some background information, places and people but in order to understand the main concept it worked very well. I would love to do something like this again.

Roman city prompts

C.  An aqueduct moves wage by using gravity. Once architects have found a source of water in the mountains they determine what angle is needed to bring the water to the city. By having the water move down a gradual slope they rely on gravity to do all the work for them. Beside building the actual aqueduct, which was constructed out of stone. Large pillars supported the slope and Romans made use of arches to span large rivers and support the weight. Aqueducts are similar to the Persian water system called the qanat. Qanat also relied on gravity to transport water. The major difference between the two was that Aqueducts were

F. Marcus Fabricius can't marry Aiden because she is not a Roman. This is similar to the Indian society and their caste systems. People of India could only marry people within their castes.

G. Slaves were not treated with as much disrespect as seen in other parts of the world. Marcus Fabricius does not abuse his slave and instead he has a level of respect. Marcus also gave his slave freedom. Greece and Rome's attitude toward slavery was very similar. Both societies showed more respects towards their slaves than many parts of the world. They also gave their slaves freedom after a long time of loyal service. They could also be granted freedom if they were skilled enough craftsman.

#Reptoemp

The roman republic made a transition to the Roman Empire because of its system of roads and the transition to a dictator/emperor instead of a republic.

I would like to know how to roads began and how much they actually effected the development of the empire and how the transition to a emperor occured

1. William McNeil's argument is that caste and territorial sovereignty had enormously different effects on the development of Indian and European societies.

McNeil defines a caste as a group of people that will eat together and intermarry. He also explains it as new people shoe come along are defined as there own caste. Also castes can be centered around occupations.
The book defines a caste as a social class of hereditary and usually unchangeable status. The distinct social groups and the term used to define Indian social order.

The three feelings and thoughts that helped maintain the idea of the caste were
Ceremonial purity, the idea that you are always above somebody unless your the lowest of the low and reincarnation.

I think these tag convincing because each one gives severybody something to look forward too or at least hold on to and in the days when life was a lot of work and very little reward that was important

Because people in one caste usually only interacted with those people there was no strong movement to unite everybody under one political government

This was because of the rise of priests and there idea that they could sway the gods through prayer

The Upanishads brought the idea of reincarnation and the belief in breaking out of that cycle. Also that in order to break out of the cycle they had to live good life's and preform rituals.

McNeil defines a teritorial sovernty as a state or unit with supreme power.

Because the Greeks could not find proof of gods they strayed away from that and began looking into things they could prove such as natural laws.

The Flowering of the Greek civilization was because of the adherence to the polis also the limitation of activities were not compatible with the polis. Each achievement surrender other alternatives.

I buy his argument. With anything just a little change even if it came from the same place cause people or things to go in many different directions. Because of the difference in these two societies structures they became very different cultures with different beliefs and political systems.

Alexander the great

I believe Alexander desereaves to be called Great. He was extremely intellegent and a skilled warrior. He was able to lead an army over mountains and through rough terrains and was able to create one of the largest empires the world has ever seen. And not to mention he was 20- 30 years old when he did it. Although Alexander was an alcoholic and had a temper it is still remarkable that he could do what he did when everybody including himself was drunk. That in mind plus the fact that he did kill thousands of people and was generally not a nice person I think his overall actions are what define him as great. His capability of creating a empire as big as he did as young as he was is fascinating. Thus I beleive he does deserve to be called great.

India questions

The Arabic numerals were impornant because they are the basis of our calculations today. They invented the index of placeholders so that you could simplify the writting of numbers by using the same symbols. They also created the number zero independently form Mayans and Babylonians. In all it simplified math and made it much easier to carry out difficult calculations.

 Confuciusnism and and the reflections of the caste are similar because they explain how to live your life. Both talk about knowing your place and do your job. With confusius it's so society will be better and in these reflections it's so they can escape rebirt. Zoroastrianism is similar because they both talk about a soul that needs saving.

If I were emperor or advisor to the emperor during the Han dynasty I would have tried hard hard like many of the Han emperors to keep the dynasty alive and prevent its fall. The fall of the Han dynasty was cased by several factors. First was conflicting social classes. Similarly to every other point in human history the rich were rich and the poor were poor. A big part of this was land. The wealthy had more land than the poor and were able to grow more crops and produce more food. The ruler Wang Mang tried to fix this problem y taking land from the rich and giving it to those without any. Unfortunately the lack of preparation and communication caused this plan to fail. Another cause for the fall of the Han was the fact that the smaller leaders wanted more power and they rose up to try and take the power. This resulted in internal conflict with the government. This coupled with the fact that there were outside invaders that had weakened the Han state before hand completly brought the Han dynasty to its knees.

So it seems to me the best way to stop the fall of the Han dynasty would be to solve the issues of government control, land, social classes and outside invaders. Solving the issue of government control is always tricky. As history shows us there are always people looking to rise up. So the best thing I believe would be to set up a system of checks and balances. Were you have a central ruler and his advisors, were each person has a job and then also to keep the others in line. And if one person screws up or try's to mess with the system they all get sentenced to death. Which is the most pursavsive form of punishment. Next would be land and social classes. When we talked about the Ancient Eygiptians they had a system where the temples would have control over some land and would employ workers and take in homeless and orphans, as well as provide food for those in need. If each city or town had something similar to the Eygiptian temples that would be in charge of distributing land and food has well as collecting taxes from the people. These taxes would go to helping the dynasty but also give back to the community and people of that town so they would be more willing to pay the taxes. The rich would pay more than the poor to make things fair. The temples would be run similarly to the leaders which a system of checks and balances and the ussual form of punishment If someone steps out of line. The last way I would attempt to prevent the fall of the Han dynasty would be to prevent the outside invaders. Hopefully if the following ideas worked there would be less need for an army to keep control of the people and they could be directed to stoping the invaders. I would outfit them with the latest and greatest weaponry so they could crush them. If all of these work I belevie it would prevent the fall of the Han dynasty.

Daoism

Daoism is about living in harmony with nature and people, and everybody plays an important role in a functioning community. Living in moderation

Confucianism

I do not belevie Confucianism to be a religion. Instead more of a way of life or a set of rules or guidelines. Confucius does not mention a god or deity that is superior to all. He does not tell a creation story, and he does not say what you must do. Instead Confucius tells small stories and then at the end gives advice or explains what the right man would do. Because he is offering advice on how to become better individuals it suggest that he does not believe humans are born good. Rather they are born neutral or evil and must better themselves and their ways of life in order to become good. This is shown in chapter two of book two, "“If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be
given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good.” Confucius explains that if they follow the rules, and conform to the moral behaviors of what's is excepted you will have shame in doing the wrong thing and you can then become good. In the books I have read Confucius does not actually state that humans are born evil. He mentions that you can become evil or follow evil paths which leads me to believe that he believes humans are born neutral.

Map of Persian Empires

Map of Persian Empires

Answer for question on page 176

Zarathustra makes the assumption that everybody has a choice. Their are two types of people, those who do good, in thought, word and deed. And those who do wrong.  Zarathustra assumes that those who choose to lead a life of good and preform righteous deeds with faith in truth will be rewarded in the afterlife. He believes that humans do have this ability to choose the path of truth when left to their own free will. Zarathustra also assumes their is a path of evil and that people also have the ability to choose this path. Those who choose the path of evil will burn for all eternity in hell.

Comment on Nikhil's project

Hey Nikhil. Just wanted to say the amount of effort put in this project is amazing and it came out really well. So Good Job! First I love the way you added the word Mesopotamia in cuneiform. Also all off the additional symbols and pictures, such as the upside down head and many circles where interesting to read about. I'm not quite sure what there is to improve on. I think that a suggestion for next time would be to add printed pictures as well as hand drawn ones. Hand drawn ones show the amount of effort but if you have both it might show that you explored all aspects of the project, which in some ways is just as good. Also their is a lot going on in this project and with out the description in may seem a jumbled mess. I might suggest making the different symbols and extra pictures a little more distinct from each other just to make the picture a little easier to understand. One similarity between our societies (I'm India, Aryan.) is that they have very similar hierarchies. Both Indian an Mesopotamian societies have a pyramid shape when discussing hierarchies. Slaves on the bottom, artisans and craftsmen, nobles scribes and priests and then kings and leaders. Also the Aryan society could be considered a small melting pot because it is a mixture of Aryan and Dravidian ideas.one thing that is different from our societies is that the Aryan society never developed much in terms of technology or sciences. The mesopotamians developed the measurements of time for year and other math things. One question is why you choose the rubix cube as an symbol. You explain what it symbolizes but what made you think to use something that wasn't actually part of the project?

Aryan head project

For this project I had the India societies and I decided to focus mainly on the Aryan society. For the first theme, Patterns and impacts of interaction between humans and the environment, I drew a picture of an Aryan herding cattle on the inside of the head and a picture of the Aryans migration to India on the outside. The Aryan society migrated into India out of Indo-European origin. They relied little on agriculture and mostly on a pastoral economy. So the inside of the head is an Aryan hearing cattle because that is what they relied on while migrating, outside of the head. For the second theme, Development and interaction of cultures, I drew a picture of an Aryan sacrificing an animal to the gods on the inside of the head and what the Aryans believed would happen when the made sacrifices on the outside of the head. The Aryans preformed many ritual sacrifices and some households had to preform as many as 5 rituals a day. This fact was illustrated by the clock on the wall with the hands at multiple times. Also there is a god standing next to the Aryan because they believed the gods would join them during their sacrifices. On the outside of the head is a picture of a light coming down from the clouds symbolizing divine powers. In that light are images of military success, large families, long life's and abundant herds of cattle. For the third theme, State-building, expansion and conflict, I drew a picture of a leader with his followers on the inside and several states with arrows indicating conflicts on the outside. The Aryans developed many chiefdoms, each with their own leader. This leader was know as a raja and governed with them help of the chiefdoms elders. The inside shows the raja and his followers because the people had to obey the commands of their leader. Because of the many chiefdoms, there was much potential for conflict and the chiefdoms often raided each others cattle. this is represented by the picture on the outside which shows several states and arrows indicating conflict. For the fourth theme, Creation, expansion and interaction of economic systems, i drew a picture of a Aryan herding and another farming on the inside of the head, and on the outside it shows the transition of the Aryan society from a pastoral economy to a agricultural society. As mentioned before the Aryan society relied mostly on a pastoral economy. As they migrated into India and interacted with the people there and began to settle they started to rely more on agriculture. the inside picture shows that the Aryans had to heard and farm in order to survive and the outside shows how the migrating pastoral society transitioned to a more settled society with agriculture. Lastly for the fifth theme, Development and transformation of social structures, i drew a picture of a women watching the house on the inside of the head and man standing over two women on the outside. The Aryan society, like most of the world at the time, was a patriarchal society. The inside of the head shows how men believed that women were only allowed to care for the house. This included, cleaning, cooking and raising the children. the outside picture shows that men were dominant over women and that the Aryan society was ruled by them.

Test Review

I liked the format of the test. 70 questions is pretty easy to get through in 45 minutes and having only multiple choice questions is much better than having short answer questions. I also really like the fact  that the test follows the same format of the AP world exam. It's nice to know what to expect and be able to prepare for that. The questions were pretty straight forward except for some of the map ones. Because they were photo copied it was sometimes hard to make out what was what. But other than that not to hard. I thought that my methods of studying seemed to work well for this test so hopefully that and what we learn in class should help improve my score on the next test.