Chapter 12: The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century

Its interesting how the chapter begins by saying "Columbus was a perpetrator of genocide..., a slave trader, a thief, a pirate, and most certainly not a hero. To celebrate Columbus is to congratulate the process and history of the invasion". With this said it is ironic that we still celebrate Columbus, when we all know that he was never a hero he was a terrible person with the people that they were conquering. I personally feel that he should not be celebrated because we are celebrating him for all the terrible things he did. Another part of this reading that I found interesting was the Aztec Empire, the Aztec state was the work of the Mexica people, a semi-nomatic group from northern Mexico. The conquered people and cities had to deliver to their Aztec rulers impressive quantities of textiles and clothing, military supplies, jewelry and luxuries, foodstuff, animal products and many other things. This empire is very impressive, it had palaces, temples, pyramids, canals, dikes, causeways, and bridges. The Aztec people seemed very prosperous with their food and their structures. One thing that surprised me the most was that among the "goods" that the pochteca obtained were slaves, many of whom were destined for sacrifice in bloody rituals so central to Aztec religious life. I found this terrifying because I do not understand how their religion would ask them to sacrifice other people.

Chapter 11 Documents

In the document "The Secret History of the Mongols", first begins talking about two friends Temujin and Jamugha. Both of them decided to renew their old pledge and love each other forever. I was a little confused with this document because it talks about the mongols as people who cared for each other and accepted when they had done any mistakes. From what I learned in class I thought they were more aggressive people. But with this document it seemed that they were different people. I find this credible because this is history from a mongol source. In document "Letter to Changchum", was a letter sent to a Chinese Daoist master named Changchun from Chinggis Khan. I enjoyed reading this document because it is giving a different side of Chingis Khan, in the letter he expresses how he cares about his people. Chinggis says, "I eat the same food...I consider the people my children, and take interest in talented means if they were my brothers..." After reading this letter it made me think that Chinggis Khan was not a bad rulers that he actually cared for his people, which is a great quality for a ruler. The oly thing he wanted from the Chinese Daoist was wisdom. When Chinggis says," I at least hope that at least thou wilt leave me a trifle of thy wisdom." This part made me feel like he was a humble and sensor person. In the document about the Russian view of the mongols was different the Russians saw them as devastation, destruction, and brutality. The document "The Chronicle of Novgorod", gave a different perspective of the mongols. In this document we can see that the mongols wanted to take over a town. It says,"And the Tartars took over the town on December 21... They likewise killed the Knyaz and Knyaginya, and men, women, and children, monks, nuns, and priest." This document gave a different perspective of the Mongols, they were killers and took over other people's land. In the document about the Chinese perceptions of the Mongols, talks about a Mongol official named Menggu. In the document "Epitaph for the Honorable Menggu", talks about Menggu as a person who took charge and helped everyone to live peacefully. Document says, "the violence became obedient and no one any longer dared violate the laws. Farmers on the fields and travelers on the roads felt safe, and people began to enjoy life." With his document I was able to see that the Chinese people respected Menggu because he brought peace and safety, and showed love for the people. Maybe this lead the Chinese to admire him and like him. I found all these documents to be interesting because I was able to see the different perspectives of the mongols, and not only think that they were bad people who liked to hurt others. There were some Mongols who seemed to be good people that cared for others. 

Chapter 9 Documents

One document that I found interesting was document 9.1 it began by talking an God/Allah and telling him he has guided them through the right path. Then it goes on to Jesus were he begins by talking about who he is and what he will be thought the wisdom and the law of the Gospel. This part is similar to the Bible. Then it continues on society, this part is telling us the people how we should act. For example "You should do good unto your parents and kinsfolk, and the orphans, and the poor". What shocked me the most on men and women was when it said " admonish them, refuse to share their beds, beat them; but if they return to obedience, seek not against them. I do not understand why it is saying to beat up women when it talked about doing good, and that is definitely not good. Another one was document 9.3, I found interesting that Muslims have to pray five times a day exempt for women who are recovering from childbirth. The rules about marriage were strange, I don't understand but man could not marry two sisters, and they had to set free their slave girl before marrying her. It confusing because I did not think that men could be married to free women and a slave women. I found all these laws to be strange because I do not see how they affected in any way a person who wanted to do good for there religion. For example men and women not being able to eat and drinker keep ointments in vessels of gold or silver. 

Chapter 9: The Worlds of Islam

I found very interesting how the Arab empire was made. The new Arab state became a huge empire, encompassing all or part of Egyptian, Roman/ Byzantine, Persian, Mesopotamian, and Indian civilizations. There faith, culture, and language began to spread out of the empire. Because there was a mixing/blending of people this caused a third- wave civilization. They were bound by their faith but divided by culture, class, politics, and religious understanding. After Muhammad's death in 632, the Arab empire began to govern most of Europe and China. The Quran viewed women as inferior to men. The Quran gave women both restrictions but also protection. It is interesting that men were limited to four wives, and had to treat each one equally. Did this mean that they could be married to all four at once? It did not really seem that women really have to much protection because they were seen as week.

Ch 10: The Worlds of Christendom

I had always believed that Christianity had been one of the first religions to ever exist and the most popular. It was interesting that in China, the decimation of Christian communities occurred within a century after Muhammad's death in 632, and only a few groups remained.  As well in Africa were Muslims began to take over and Christianity began to disappear. But in Egypt Christianity had become a major religion that by the time the muslims took over around 640, for the next 500 years large number of people still practice Coptic and practice their religion as dhimmis. I also found interesting how Russia got converted into Easter Orthodox. This happened because Prince Vladimir of Kiev was looking for a religion but he rejected Islam because it prohibited alcoholic drink. This is interesting how a person chooses a religion taking in account if they are going to let you drink or not.

China and the World

The first Dynasty in China was the Sui dynasty, but the dynasty collapsed. Then two other dynasties followed, the Tang and Song dynasty. It seemed that the Song dynasty was the most successful because they built a state structure, the richest, most skilled, most populous country in the world. I found interesting that the reason that made China the richest was because of its rapid growth in population. They also had achievements in agriculture production. During the Song dynasty it seemed that because they were reviving Confucianism, they began to see women as submissive. Very interesting that women had to do foot binding to enhance their marriage prospects . China was a country with an economic revolution and than had an impact on technological innovations. The Chinese technologies were transferred from one place to another. China was definitely a country that began many things and innovations and one of the richest. I think that even today China has a huge impact on everyone because everything that we have is mostly all made in China.

Chapter 7 Documents

One of the documents that I found very interesting was document 7.1 A Chinese Buddhist in India. Xuanzang. He traveled to India in search of Religion, and spend ten years in India learning about Buddhism. In the Record of the Western Religion Xuanzang talks about a description of Indian civilization. He talks about the towns and villages, towns and villages had inner gates. They also talk about the caste and marriage, this was something very interesting because they had four classifications for the division of families. The first are the Brahaman, 2nd are the Kshattriya, 3rd are the Vasyas, and the 4th are the Sudra. The laws they had for caste and families was very interesting because they did not allow promiscuous marriages between  relations and women can only marry once. I found these document the most interesting because the description for there civilization are interesting to see how they acted.

Commerce and culture

Commerce was a big factor and change for daily life. Merchants became distant social group, they were viewed with suspicion by others because of there impulse for wealth without them producing anything themselves. When people bought products that possessed luxury goods from a distance were seen as powerful societies, they also conveyed status in communities. Trade also transformed political life. They were controlling and the taxing trade motivated the creation of states. Because trade became so popular it also brought many disease. These disease traveled through the trade routes of Eurasia. People began to be exposed to to unfamiliar disease for which they had little immunity. I think trade was very important but I think people were not ready to deal with all the diseases that came along the trade route. I feel that people were not as interested in thinking that diseases would be brought instead they were more focused on the products arriving to them.

Chapter 6 Documents

I was not sure if I understood Document  6.4 about the gold. I think the story was talking about a place were there was a lot of gold and then people would use it to trade. They used there gold in order to trade for something else. Something that I found interesting was the Mayan art. it said that the Mayan art was more complex, subtle, extensive, and innovated than the Americas. By looking at the Mayan art I was able to see ho where art has a lot of detailed, and it seemed like there was a story behind the art. I really found interesting how in both 6.2 and 6.3 the Mayan culture focused on fighting because you can always see them with there weapons. I found astonishing how the Mayans would have rituals for example the bloodletting ritual, where Shield Jaguar would let his blood flow. I am not sure what the ritual meant? Overall these documents were investing but they were as well hard to understand.