In one hour, from 6-7 pm, tell me the most significant aspects of world history covered in chapters 1, 4, 5, and 7. Tell me also what interests you most from these chapters. This is for a grade.
I must be honest; I admit I don’t remember a lot in detail. I can say I enjoyed what I read about, I thought world history would be so boring and I would not be interested in it. The only two topics I remember for all the skimming is what I to the time to read about in detail. I had no idea that the problems with Iran and the surrounding country was so deep. I was intrans to when I saw the original name of Iran. I wrote a note to myself to look on line in great deal to find out more because I now have a need to know the whole background. The other was Christianity in Rome. This one blew my mind. The fact that world history and the bible are so entwined. I never realize that Rome was prime so to speak for Christianity. To know that at the time Rome have basically three religions base on paganism. These religions only served the state, and the great Roman Empire. That It did nothing to feed the soul. Put that with difference in status amount the people and you have people with a need for spiritual growth. When John the Baptist to of a Masaya. He made the spiritual and civil state very volatile. Now you add Jesus and the fact he said he was the Masaya. Remember that what was being taught by Jesus was radical. The there is a kingdom after dead. Now let creaser Kill Jesus and Rome of resurrection and the wick is light, now there is a explosion of Christianity. The box is open and there is no way to put the cap back on it. I see a template that has be used over and over again. Even today you can see how socail structures are a big influence on religious climate. The more the people are improvise the more religion has a strong hold and a abundance of religious unrest.
Chapter 1 the most significant was the contribution of Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome to the modern world. It is very important for us to remember where our ideology and technology stem from. Everything from the alphabet to the advances in science that we continue to building thanks to the documentation left by ancient civilizations.
Chapter 4 this chapter intrigued me because it shows that not only do we as the modern world get our innovation from the ancient world but our nation is built on some of the same governmental concepts that were used in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. This chapter also shows us the beginning of the enlightenment period when people began to think outside of the box. Philosophy began to challenge people to see more than what was present in plain sight.
Chapter 5 was my favorite this is where you really learn about the rise and fall of Rome. Until I read this chapter I really didn’t know exactly how significant Rome was. Rome was the world and everything fell subject to the Roman Empire. I also found it impressive how long Rome maintained their status as the world empire. Not only did Rome sustain world domination, but they continue to pursue more countries and more power. Rome’s boat of victory was capsized because of internal deceit and greed.
Chapter 7 talks about the evolution of Europe. How European culture was influenced by Christianity which soon became the core of their society.
The subject that interests me the most was the Chapter 5 the rise of Christianity. The one thing that I never knew is that Christianity was once considered a form of Judaism and was separated when Paul began to preach a gospel that applied to all not just Jews. This really grabs me by surprise.
One thing that is interesting to me is how everyone was trying to conquer everyone in the early civilizations. It seemed like each civilization wanted to be the dominant one. Such as the Assyrians attacking Syria and Palestine, or the Romans and their struggles with the Barbarians. It makes you wonder why certain groups of people have so many problems with other groups of people. It’s not like you see groups of say, birds killing other birds. Birds go after their prey and stay away from their predators like most other animals but for some reason humans are predators and prey of…..other humans! It’s just a little hard to make much sense of it.
I also find it interesting how civilizations start. Like how each civilization develops language, customs, rituals, laws, culture, all that stuff. It’s like every group of people want to break off and do their own thing, but they end up not being so different from everybody else when you think about it. For example, no matter what your language is, there’s always a designated greeting when you meet someone, there’s always a designated word you say when you part with someone (in our case, bye!). Every language is different, but essentially everyone is just saying “hi” and “bye.” People choose to live their own way but we’re all very similar at the same time.
I also like to see how different civilizations will adapt to their surroundings. If they live near a river or body of water (such as Egypt being near the Nile River, they’ll most likely have a lot of farmland and such. The things that are abundant in their surroundings is what they most often profit off of. They could have enough supply for their own population and still have some to sell to other civilizations. It’s just pretty cool to see people interacting with each other and trading with each other. As much as you hear about war in history, it makes it pleasant to see humans coexisting with each other and interacting positively with each other for a change.
Most of what the book is talking about in these chapters are how civilizations “get onto their feet” so to speak. It’s just interesting to read about why groups of people do the things they do, and the motives for their actions as well. When you read about why people did “this” when “that” happened, how people deal with “this” problem by doing “this”, how people will sell what they have so they can buy what they need, it teaches you a lot about what’s going on in the world today and why all this stuff is happening. More people need to know about the past so they can help prevent all this bad stuff from happening in the modern days. To the people that think history is just the past and think they don’t need to know about it because they think it doesn’t relate to modern times: You’re a clown.
What I learned in these chapters is humans really don’t like it when other humans get in their way (a.k.a. exist). Humans will betray anyone they have to in order to get to the top. As long as there are people, there will be wars and power struggles. I like to hear about moments of war as much as I like to hear about moments of peace. It’s not like war isn’t going on constantly. There is both war and peace and it’s important to know about that.
The first significant aspect of world history started during the Neolithic period. This is where early civilizations finally started to live in towns. They created leaders in the towns, started a form of agriculture, writings, and improvements in tools. Also, they built Stonehenge, which has become a great gathering point to this day for some religions. Their culture was spread by the first conqueror names Sargon. The Mesopotamian culture continued to improve on the basis set up in the Neolithic Period. They made vast improvements in math, medicine, and even religion. Different classes of citizens were created because they had nobles who ran the towns. In Egypt, they started their culture a little different from the Mesopotamians. Instead of nobles, they had pharaohs, and slaves and worshipers created temples for them during their reign. Many cultures and religions were started in the early times before 700 BC with many different aspects on life. The Ten Commandments were written, Jewish societies were born in Israel, and many civilizations fought for more land and goods. During the Dark Ages, Greek culture spread throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Many Greeks wanted to get out of Rome and start their own paths of civilizations. They went on to create their own city-states, with the top three being Sparta, Athens, and Thebes. Their fast growth led them to seek land elsewhere, like Italy and Africa. Many conflicts between these city-states let to the Peloponnesian War. After the war, Sparta tried to create a Greek empire, but failed. This led to King Philip II conquering Greece and creating the Macedonian Empire. After the wars and creation of the Macedonian Empire, all the cultures were at a standstill for a while. Apparently everyone was happy with their land and didn’t need much expansion at the time. As time went on, religions and cultures spread, with many civilizations going through many different religions until they found the one they liked. Euclid created geometry, which led to the calculation of how big the Earth really was. The Roman Empire was founded somewhere around 750 BC. During its creation, it was under the control of the Etruscans. The Romans continued to invade Italy and claim it as their own. At first, they weren’t just conquering just to have land. They wanted to eliminate threats to their culture. The Punic Wars were a fight for Sicily against Carthage, and then the destruction of Carthage. Christianity came and caused many problems for the Jews in Rome. The Romans were afraid of an overthrow of power from the Jews because of what the Messiah had told. Also, since the teachings from Jesus were basically Jewish, they had a reason to be nervous. Even though it wasn’t intended to be a threat to the Roman Empire, they thought it was, so he was killed. Christianity started to spread and became accepted by many countries and also began the rise of the Christian Church. It was finally legalized in 312. This began the rulings of Popes to run states. Their main goal was to enlighten their citizens with the teachings of Christianity.
From these chapters, I would have to say that the most interesting part of it was the beginning of history during the Neolithic period when everything was first started. We moved out of caves, and went to create towns. I also like the Egyptian times where they had pyramids, even though their people weren’t treated fairly. From these points and on throughout history, humans began to evolve their culture and ways of life to continually improve. I also like the Greeks and Romans, especially the movies that were inspired during these times. This time has to be my second favorite time in all of history.
Early history brought us the Greeks, who through superior logic gained control of the largest empire the planet had seen to date. The Greeks used different forms of government throughout their history, experiencing everything from tyranny to democracy in it’s purest form. In the end it turned out, as it always has, that whoever held the power decides which form of governance to use. I think the Greeks were among the first societies to truly value knowledge in the arts and sciences, it is from them that great philosophers and poets rose to be truly admired by their own society. From Socrates to Sappho and many others before and after them, taught their own people and the many generations who were to follow that there was much more to life than simply surviving. Following on the Greeks footsteps, the Romans grew into one of the greatest civilizations that we have ever known. Though their study of politics, use of religion and mastery of the sciences(which included some of the first indoor plumbing) grew the largest empire since Genghis Khan conquered Asia, though this greed for growth would also be their down fall. Along with their growth, Rome brought Christianity to the lands it conquered, which would turn out to be the most the religion would grow until the Gutenberg press would be invented a few years later. Other benefits that we would see from Rome included the use of laws by a governing body to restrict it’s leaders and the number of roads and trade routes that came from the expanision of the Empire.
The time period for chapters 1, 4, 5, and 7 is when the earth was much younger. The time periods stretch from the early civilization to the fall of Rome. What interest me about this time period is that man across the world had the same concept, conquer or be conquer. It was about power which led to most of their down falls. Most of all the groups of people grew so large until greed took over and cause civil wars amongst themselves. When a group stretch itself out to far where they can’t keep their own organization stable then there will be problems. For example, I think the Greeks were stronger and would last longer if they would of stay a polis that were ran by the people because during the Hellenistic period they went to monarchy. There was a kingdom ran by a king who cared more about his kingdom than the people. The more land the kingdom conquers means the more cities that they can build. Then within the kingdoms the cities will fight for border control so they won’t lose land or power from their neighboring city.
It happened in Palestine in the thirteenth century with the Hebrews when they separated into two halves once King Solomon died and they are still fighting over the land today. It happened to the Greeks where they conquer land from the east to the west but couldn’t stop the cities within their kingdom from having civil wars. The same thing happened to the Romans their thirst for world domination cause their down fall because they couldn’t contain all the power struggles within their own organization. Once the Roman Empire began to drift apart they were easy pickings for the barbarians.
Hopefully our great nation can learn from the mistake of the earlier great civilization that greed/power can destroy any great nation.
Chapter 1 Starts with talking about the Neolithic period, this period was from 400,000 to 7,000 B.C.E. The people during this period live and survived in packs. They made there own tools and hunting weapons out of whatever they could find. This era was considered the Stone Age. They developed hunting and gathering of plants and animals. During this period they also developed writing. One of the things that intrigued me about this period was they where able to create something as powerful as the Stonehenge.
Next was the Mesopotamian Civilization. Writings where discovered from this civilization. This writings where studied to find out that they where sophisticated forms of communication. They developed school for education to help teach each other and trade learned skills.
The Mesopotamians developed religion based on the stars in the sky. They tried to understand the origin of the existences and many myths came from it. They developed medicine to heal there sick, and started developing mathematics. They maintained a class system consisting of nobles, free clients of nobles, commoners, and slaves. The king and people close to the king had rights to huge sections of land.
Chapter 4
There were a lot of important things about this chapter. First Sparta became the leading power in Greece. Philosophy became known with Socrates. Socrates had a predecessor named Plato. Hellenism being popular with monarchy style government.
The most interesting part of this chapter to me was conflicts. The Greeks rebelling against the Persian Empire. Also the Peloponnesian war began with Athens threatening Sparta.
Chapter 5
Key parts to chapter 5 • Conflict around the Mediterranean • Founding of Rome • Rome’s Development • The Golden age • Greeks Culture • The end of the republic of Rome. • Augustus’s settlement • The Empire in conflict.
What I found most interesting about this chapter was during the crisis in Rome between 235 and 284 over 20 emperors where in and out of the throne. It was like a hot seat.
Chapter 7
Key parts to chapter 7
• Christian Church Blossomed. • Christian believe working together with Roman culture • Germanic Society began • The second Rome
Constantinople became the greatest city in the Christian world during its peak before falling a part. Constantinople’s foreign trade was controlled by Jewish, Muslim, and Italian merchants.
Unfortunately what I know is based on notes. Some might say I didn’t read the chapters while other might say I didn’t understand what I was reading.
Albert Hofmann says. The Neolithic period from 7,000-3,000 B.C. was a prehistoric time where people followed herds to keep safe from natural disasters and predators, while always searching for food. Sumerians was the first civilization to create a form of writing, which was spread to the Mesopotamian culture. Once again about Mesopotamian, it was a transformation of the people of Eurasia and Africa. Where they would acquire to do just about everything required for everyday living. I read briefly about the Rome and their many ups and downs. During the “up” points Rome was so powerful they’d take over other countries like Italy. And that’s just about all the time I have.
I think what interest me in history most isn’t who took over this land or that, or how a colony of newbie’s became epic. It’s the smaller more meticulous things like the rules of nature through which one group might live their lives. It’s the missing hand you might get from striking your father, or how the father might sell his wife to pay off his debt that interest me more.
During the early Neolithic period of time, cultures started to advance technology in building things from mud like buildings, Crop and farming tools like sickles, art, weaponry, and artifacts. These developments all helped in the rise of western civilization. Then, the Mesopotamian culture became dominate throughout the east because of developments in writing and astrology by the Sumerians. During this time people started increasing their level of organization and nationalism throughout their civilizations, expanding from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Helping to contribute to the development of the eastern civilizations, Egypt developed a unified system of writing, hieroglyphs, which started to spread to other cultures. Egyptians also helped to start religion through Polytheism; belief in many gods. The first ideas of profit came from the Egyptians trading their leftover crop resources to other cultures who didn’t have those resources. The rise of Mesopotamia through trade routes and sharing of cultures was a major development for this time period. Through trade, education was shared, languages were formed, and the beginning of the importance of diplomacy was established. From this point, Hebrews settled into Palestine which eventually lead to the now established religious beliefs and even the Bible. Along with the increase in trade came the increase in technology for transport and war machinery. Wars were started because cultures desired to expand and conquer. One of these empires, Persians, started from a small civilization and expanded their control to include Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran, and Western India. However, the Persians did not destroy the civilizations; they merged cultures with the civilizations they conquered. The Greeks were another culture that also desired to control the land. They helped develop the polis and the basic political forms by which it was governed. The merging of cultures from the East and West helped shape the development of economy, religion, philosophy, science and medicine. Along with the Persian and Greeks, the Romans also desired to expand. Rome achieved greatness because of their ability to mix traditions, beliefs and customs from the cultures they conquered. Alexander the Great was a major factor in why Rome rose to greatness. They were a civilization of Empires, from their roman empire to the Christian empire. Rome had advanced legal institutions and governing rules, which is one of the reasons why they eventually fell. The corruption of officials and emperors trying to rise to the top, lead to civil wars and conflict. Eventually Rome tried to restore the Republic, which led to the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman world. Rome eventually fought against the Barbarians, a branch of their own who split when Rome was falling. Once Christianity started to spread, it started to develop attitudes toward classic culture and Germanic people. This attitude was one of destruction and assimilation. Christianity strove to be the only religion and get rid of others who contradicted their belief. What interested me the most from these chapters was how easily empires rose and fell. It was easy for these Empires to conquer other civilizations, but when it came to controlling them once they had conquered they fell apart. It may have been the leadership not being able to develop a strong political system, but maybe it was because of the merged cultures countering each other. Maybe the civil conflicts between merged cultures negate the possibility of merged civilizations to thrive for very long?
Quiz1 During these ancient periods of life there were a lot of changes over their early civilizations. People were just trying to get situated as far political, transportation, and religion. Each group of people, civilization or culture learned how do things like trade with others. That was very important because some cultures needed different things but could not find objects or food they needed. For example if there were a civilation that lived near the river they could easily capture fish and could trade it with a civilation that lived the wooded area for some bear meat or fur. So that technique could be very valuable and useable as it is in today’s society. Language and writing was also a taught as a trade because you needed to educate especially with mathematics. There were also teachings on science and astronomy during these times this is where the constellations where named for the groups of stars. To go along with that religion was also taught as far primary gods, goddesses, and proper burial.
World history, when pertaining to the human race, can only go back as far as we have a written record. Prior to the Sumerians inventing a primitive form of writing the only way for historical events to pass from one generation to the next was through the oral tradition. Over the hundreds of thousands of years we’ve been on this planet it has been a significantly small sliver of time that we’ve had a rich understanding of history as these tales and legends prior to the written language were easily modified and embellished, with entire events most likely left out due to some random hatred or bias from one person or culture to the next. We do know, however, that humans were a hunter-gatherer society, roaming far and wide to follow food sources or escape danger, until the end of the eighth millennium B.C.E.
Around 7,000 B.C.E. humans began to change in probably the most significant way in the entire history of our race. The Neolithic people of the time began to farm, to plant and grow and harvest food instead of relying solely on the environment around them for sustenance. This one seemingly simple change has completely shaped the world and everything that has happened since. No longer are humans roaming in disorganized tribes, following game trails and hoping they can survive the winter. Starvation, while still a very real threat, is no longer creating an environment of “only the strong survive”. Now the creation of coherent, well organized villages and communities centered around farms and agriculture is spurring the advancement of the human race. Better tools and weapons are being developed, humans are starting to live longer, fuller lives, able to spend more time discovering and creating rather than running and foraging. Agriculture allowed humans to settle and begin evolving complex societies.
With society came conflict, laws, religion, and division. Humans have always been competitive, even in the times of roaming the plains. Territories would have been staked out, hunting grounds “owned” by specific tribes or individuals, and crossing into one of these areas would most likely have meant death. With the rise of civilizations and society the same thing occurred, it was just more organized and it involved more intricate situations and larger numbers of people. Only the largest and most rapidly advancing societies could survive and prosper in these harsh times, such as the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians. Many groups rose and fell over the years, but it wasn’t until the Egyptians that a truly massive society staked its claim on the Earth and left its mark for all future societies to see.
The Egyptian society came into power around 3100 B.C.E., originally a large collection of randomly scattered tribes along the Nile in northern Africa, a single great God-King, a pharaoh, rose to power and united the peoples into one large culture. The Egyptian culture was wildly polytheistic, having hundreds of gods relating to nearly every imaginable part of the nature surrounding the area, from the plants to the floods and the stars. Chief among the gods was the pharaoh, the mortal incarnation of the father of the gods. Many large facets of the Egyptian way of life centered on serving the pharaoh and honoring the gods. Many of the pharaohs constructed vast cities and monuments, mostly to honor themselves. Sites such as the pyramids still stand in testament to the pharaoh’s immeasurable power over the people of Egypt. Like all great civilizations though the Egyptians were doomed to fall, and around the twelfth century B.C.E. their empire was crushed by outsiders from the rest of Africa and the Near East.
During the time of the Egyptians, not too far to the north another society was coming into power. The Minoans and the Mycenaeans were establishing vast cities and trade routes all over the Greek peninsula and the Aegean Sea. They traded heavily with each other, Egypt, the Near East, and various cultures all around the Mediterranean. The Greeks were not ruled by a God-King like the Egyptians, rather they were a collection of dozens of individual kingdoms, with each having its own ruler and each wanting what the other had. The fragmented society of the early Greeks led to vastly different societies developing and constantly warring with one another. Shortly after the “Dark Ages” in Greece, which occurred immediately after the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures imploded, the Greeks developed a tremendous system of law and architecture that persists to this day. The Greek philosophy of law and governing was very powerful, leading to three major city-states developing around 800 B.C.E., Athens, Thebes, and Sparta. Each of these states was similar, yet vastly different.
The Greek culture during the time of these city-states developed rapidly. Democracy was sought after by many Greeks, while some preferred a rigid militaristic society. Art and philosophy were highly regarded, religion became more refined and celebrated, and the fledgling steps towards large metropolitan settlements were taken with the Greeks developing powerful architecture and civil structures such as fountains and sewers. Amid this cultural blooming war was always a present entity. The Greek societies expanded heavily and very rapidly during the fourth century B.C.E. Alexander the Great took the Greek civilization to the very edge of the known world and conquered anyone and everyone in his path. Upon his premature death the Greek society fell in upon itself, he had spread Greek influence so far and so thin that it absorbed or was taken over by many regional cultures. Chief among these was Hellenism, which rose to dominance rapidly and forever changed the way of the Greek people.
Hellenism brought back the monarchy, establishing a central king in place of democracy. The Hellenistic kings introduced large economic advancements and many social reforms, the most significant one being an impressive increase in the social standing of women in the Greek culture. There was still a huge dependency on slave labor though, with many of the kingdoms relying heavily on local mines for iron and rare metals. During this time trade routes matured and spread far and wide in the wake of Alexander’s conquest. Many large and significant trade routes were established between the Mediterranean, the Near East, and the Far East. The opening of these trade routes naturally led to the introduction of many varying cultures, including the Romans to the west.
During the tail end of the Greek culture, the Romans were rising to power in Italy. They were a hugely militaristic society, founded in mystery and expanded with the sword. For a brief period they were ruled by the Etruscans, but in 509 B.C.E. they overthrew the Etruscan king and established Rome as a republic. They rapidly, and efficiently, conquered the Italian peninsula, and then moved on to taking over the entire Mediterranean world. The Romans absorbed many of the cultures they conquered, but the most significant among these was the Greeks. The Romans borrowed heavily from the Greek people, “stealing” many of their forms of art and architecture and expanding them wildly. Greek art and medicine and law were also further advanced by the Romans, leading to the most significant society in the history of mankind. The expansive power and rapid development of the sciences by the Roman state pales only in comparison to more modern cultures, many of the Roman discoveries and creations were barely improved upon for thousands of years.
Early Rome was a polytheistic culture like the ones before it, but Christianity easily took hold during the earliest years of the first century. The severity of Roman rule was resented by many and stirred up revolutions and resistances with political and social uprisings. The most prominent “new” religion in the area at that time was Christianity, and it spread rapidly throughout the Roman Empire. Around 300 C.E. Emperor Constantine declared Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, leading way to the acceptance of one of the largest religions of the modern world.
Throughout the next 500 years Christianity grew exponentially. It far outgrew Rome, living well past the fall of the empire. The Christian Church became a new power in the world, supplanting many of the cultures in the region and completely rewriting the way of life for millions of people. The religion spread life wildfire, making its way to the Middle East, down into Africa, and covering all of Europe with its influence. During this time many of the foundations were laid for medieval European culture such as the replacing of classic cultures and ideals with Christian practices and rules, the stark change in architecture, and the attitude towards science and philosophy. Another culture developed during this time however, the Byzantine Empire.
The Byzantine Empire developed from a part of the Roman culture that drifted East and established itself as a power resistant to nomadic invaders. They preserved some of the classical and intellectual ideals of the civilizations that preceded it. They valued education very highly, placing knowledge and advancement above many other facets of daily life, even developing ideas in tandem with other nearby cultures like the Arabs.
(I ran out of time! E-mail: brines4183@students.ecpi.edu)
Oh yeah, what interests me most: All of it really, although I've always loved Greece and Rome. The enormous change in humanity from loose tribal societies into rigid military societies is fascinating. We are all inextricably tied to what happened during those times, our country's founding fathers modeled the constitution on the best of the best ideas and philosophies and political ideals of the time.
The most significant aspects of world history as recorded in our textbooks is the development of technologies and societies from the multiplex of nomadic tribalism to state and empire building. The time period from pre-7000 BCE to 400 CE held the most significant and permanent influences on modern civilization. From the development of agriculture, writing, and spoken languages that helped to bind tribes into fledgling societies where people were forced to confront problems and create solutions to sustain their group cohesiveness as well as to survive.
Many if not most of the cultures exercised the use of war as a methodology to capture and control resources to build and grow societies. Much of the bounty of war came in the form of human slave labor that was used effectively to do everything from build the wonders of the world to farming. During this period were the developments of the first states or sovereign entities which had many different forms of government as people and leaders experimented with different ideologies whilst still practicing the art of war. The Greeks termed this the polis, or city-states that performed the first forms of diplomacy where they would band together on a temporary basis to confront enemies of a polis or a neighboring state. This period also contains the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. One of the most expansive military campaigns ever in recorded history was performed by Alexander the great who conquered most of the known world (at the time) and expanded the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire, taking cues from the advances of the Greek civilization created a monetary system, a senate, effectively gained and distributed resources and governed people using the rule of law. This was the first major society to combine all aspects which previous societies had parts of into one organized Empire and it was quite effective for hundreds of years but corruption and internal feuding caused it to implode.
Religious schools of thought also evolved from this era that is still abundant today. This includes the rise of Christianity as one of the dominant world religions, as well as Islam. In the period between the Neolithic and the dark ages a marked shift from polytheism to monotheism took place. This may be partly attributed to the weight of personal commitment required by most monotheist beliefs versus other common religions of the time.
After the fall of the Roman Empire the barbarians continued the warring and plundering for hundreds of years but after they organized they became the preamble to what is Europe today. Europe and Western Civilization as it exists today was heavily influenced by the Romans and their barbaric counterparts as can be seen in everything from language, law, and architecture in our own United States.
The discussion of early civilization is a constantly evolving one from the standpoint that archeological discoveries continue to be made. There is little doubt that each of the cultures we studied contributed significant pieces to the mosaic of history, but it is the cultures that were able to provide a steady stable society over a long period of time that allowed for further development and innovation. It is for this reason (and the fact that I admire the culture) that I credit the Egyptians as the major influence during this period. It is important to acknowledge that Egyptian pre-eminence was not constant during this time, but even with that acknowledgement the contributions of the Egyptian people and culture can be traced to the present day. The Greek Influence was important both as the cultural and theological foundation that Rome would later build on (or perhaps co-opt is more accurate). But Greek culture did not exist in a vacuum; it was influenced by the Phoenicians and earlier by the collapse of Minoan civilization. Phoenicians provided the mercantile expertise and the Minoans inadvertently provided a spot at center stage in the Mediterranean. When as Brian so rightly pointed out Thera exploded and ruined the Minoan cities and ports, the Mycenaeans only needed to take over in their place. Minoan culture was slowly merged and assimilated into the larger and now more powerful Greek culture. Minoan architecture gave way to Greek styles we now recognize in 18th century government buildings, and even innovations like indoor plumbing (which Minoans had and Mycenaeans did not) died and were “undiscovered” until ages later. I always like to play what if in situations like that, what if Thera hadn’t exploded? But the point of history, the real point, is that these things did happen. Perhaps they can be lessons to us in the present day, perhaps only warnings against the sin of Hubris. Real lessons of importance from the Greek culture include a balanced look at the human as a holistic being, athletes in Greek culture were often intellectuals as well, warriors were also poets. Humanity was valued, as were imagination and science. Striving for perfection along the lines of excellence as John Kennedy once said. Roman culture is something that can be examined in an almost psychological way, the step child of the Latin peninsula, dirty and crude rises, by banding together with outcasts from other nearby cities and states and defeats the Etruscans. After this defeat as Rome expands, she seeks an identity, and since the Greek culture is so close at hand (i.e. Sicily) it is only natural that they adopt the Greek Pantheon (albeit with name changes). Rome did plenty of borrowing from other cultures, but one contribution of Rome is at once inescapable and nearly transparent. The City. In the children’s book City, by David MaCaulay (sp?) the point is made fascinatingly well, Roman soldiers after a campaign would often be granted land in far off places, in order to survive, these soldiers organized themselves along the lines of the encampments (or Castra) from their legionary days. These camps had two main roads, one running North to South, the other intersecting it from East to West. The allotments were parceled out and the building of basic infrastructures began in earnest. The point of all of this is, that cities were built by the Romans in often inhospitable places, but because of their presence, locals came to them to trade, eat, sleep, work and live. The cities allowed these barbarians to become integrated into the Roman culture and society. Look at city names like Worcestershire, or Chichester, the cester or chester are adaptations of castra from the Romans. At one point, these cities were Roman outposts. If there is one solid contribution of Roman society it is building the foundation of the Empire by building cities. Unfortunately, when the Empire’s military glory faded, the people who were once happy to be Romans fell upon their masters like Caesar in the Senate. With so many enemies on all sides, it is remarkable that Rome’s decline was as slow as it was. The Holy-Roman Empire- Perhaps the only thing that could preserve Roman traditions after the collapse of the Empire in the East was the institution of Christianity. This would have been anathema to the original Christians to see the Empire they so despised propped up by their beloved faith. The Germanic cultures contributed their influences even before the Empire was established; Christmas Trees were part of barbarian tradition, as well as All Hallows Eve. Each was in its turn absorbed by the church, but as a last result after the church had failed to ban them. Still, our text cites a number of reasons that the Catholic Church, Germanic cultures and Greco-Roman heritage melded together to create a sort of proto-Europe. Here I am going to take some liberties and point out that a great deal of Europe’s problems stem from the direct influence of both the Pope in Rome and the Holy Roman Emperor. The machinations of these two offices were responsible for a great many wars in their time. From Rome’s collapse in 753 A.D. to the renaissance (when other people were deciding what wars to fight) Popes were responsible for at least 3 crusades. The papacy was not without significant contributions to society, but any of this must be balanced against the terrible cost in human life.
To tell the truth I’m not really interested in history of the modern world. World history is more of what I’m interested in. A lot of the things I was reading I really didn’t understand. Chapter one talked about the Neolithic contributions to the rise of civilizations. Mud bricks began being used as building supplies. Farming became more skilled because of the invention of many farming supplies. For example: grinding stars or sickles which were used for food processing. The use of exponents began being used during the Mesopotamian culture. This culture became more dominant because of its large growth in technology. The people showed pride in which they were. In the Near eastern civilization Egypt contributed a lot. They developed unified form of writing which spread to other cultures. Agriculture was a big deal; this meant that they could sell food to other countries. In the Hittite civilization they began to trade which increased the availability of food. They created military forces to protect themselves. During this time the Indo-European language was created. The Iranians created the Persian Empire. They rose because of their ability to breed horses. They were liberal which meant that they valued human rights. Chapter 4 Began talking about the geography of Greece. The geography of Greece consisted of 3000 islands. There are 9300 miles of coastlines. 83% of the peninsula was mountains. A polis is a city state. Who ever has the power governs it. For instance if governed by one man it’s a monarchy, power in the hands of best is and aristocracy, the rule of few is oligarchy, or a tyranny in which one man who gains the power through extralegal means. Chapter 5 talked about the evolution of Europe. Christianity was a part of European culture. It was a form of Judaism. Chapter 7 Christians believed in working together with roman cultures. All in all to tell the truth I learn a lot of stuff. I wasn’t really interested in any of the chapters except chapter 1. I really was interested in the Hellenistic period. It had more to do with the concerns of women. Woman began being educated and taking political roles. They began receiving credit and fame for things like poetry. In the Hellenistic religion they were allowed to worship their own god. To me that was important because everyone believes in different aspects of religion. Me personally I would rather worship who ever I want instead of being like everyone else and being forced to believe in certain aspects of religion that I really don’t believe in. their way of medicine was also very interesting to me. The things they did to cure certain illnesses were crazy. It makes you wonder what they would have done if you had just a common cold or even a headache.
15 comments:
I must be honest; I admit I don’t remember a lot in detail. I can say I enjoyed what I read about, I thought world history would be so boring and I would not be interested in it. The only two topics I remember for all the skimming is what I to the time to read about in detail. I had no idea that the problems with Iran and the surrounding country was so deep. I was intrans to when I saw the original name of Iran. I wrote a note to myself to look on line in great deal to find out more because I now have a need to know the whole background. The other was Christianity in Rome. This one blew my mind. The fact that world history and the bible are so entwined. I never realize that Rome was prime so to speak for Christianity. To know that at the time Rome have basically three religions base on paganism. These religions only served the state, and the great Roman Empire. That It did nothing to feed the soul. Put that with difference in status amount the people and you have people with a need for spiritual growth. When John the Baptist to of a Masaya. He made the spiritual and civil state very volatile. Now you add Jesus and the fact he said he was the Masaya. Remember that what was being taught by Jesus was radical. The there is a kingdom after dead. Now let creaser Kill Jesus and Rome of resurrection and the wick is light, now there is a explosion of Christianity. The box is open and there is no way to put the cap back on it. I see a template that has be used over and over again. Even today you can see how socail structures are a big influence on religious climate. The more the people are improvise the more religion has a strong hold and a abundance of religious unrest.
Quiz 1
Chapter 1 the most significant was the contribution of Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome to the modern world. It is very important for us to remember where our ideology and technology stem from. Everything from the alphabet to the advances in science that we continue to building thanks to the documentation left by ancient civilizations.
Chapter 4 this chapter intrigued me because it shows that not only do we as the modern world get our innovation from the ancient world but our nation is built on some of the same governmental concepts that were used in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. This chapter also shows us the beginning of the enlightenment period when people began to think outside of the box. Philosophy began to challenge people to see more than what was present in plain sight.
Chapter 5 was my favorite this is where you really learn about the rise and fall of Rome. Until I read this chapter I really didn’t know exactly how significant Rome was. Rome was the world and everything fell subject to the Roman Empire. I also found it impressive how long Rome maintained their status as the world empire. Not only did Rome sustain world domination, but they continue to pursue more countries and more power. Rome’s boat of victory was capsized because of internal deceit and greed.
Chapter 7 talks about the evolution of Europe. How European culture was influenced by Christianity which soon became the core of their society.
The subject that interests me the most was the Chapter 5 the rise of Christianity. The one thing that I never knew is that Christianity was once considered a form of Judaism and was separated when Paul began to preach a gospel that applied to all not just Jews. This really grabs me by surprise.
Alex McBride
Quiz 1
9-11-2007
One thing that is interesting to me is how everyone was trying to conquer everyone in the early civilizations. It seemed like each civilization wanted to be the dominant one. Such as the Assyrians attacking Syria and Palestine, or the Romans and their struggles with the Barbarians. It makes you wonder why certain groups of people have so many problems with other groups of people. It’s not like you see groups of say, birds killing other birds. Birds go after their prey and stay away from their predators like most other animals but for some reason humans are predators and prey of…..other humans! It’s just a little hard to make much sense of it.
I also find it interesting how civilizations start. Like how each civilization develops language, customs, rituals, laws, culture, all that stuff. It’s like every group of people want to break off and do their own thing, but they end up not being so different from everybody else when you think about it. For example, no matter what your language is, there’s always a designated greeting when you meet someone, there’s always a designated word you say when you part with someone (in our case, bye!). Every language is different, but essentially everyone is just saying “hi” and “bye.” People choose to live their own way but we’re all very similar at the same time.
I also like to see how different civilizations will adapt to their surroundings. If they live near a river or body of water (such as Egypt being near the Nile River, they’ll most likely have a lot of farmland and such. The things that are abundant in their surroundings is what they most often profit off of. They could have enough supply for their own population and still have some to sell to other civilizations. It’s just pretty cool to see people interacting with each other and trading with each other. As much as you hear about war in history, it makes it pleasant to see humans coexisting with each other and interacting positively with each other for a change.
Most of what the book is talking about in these chapters are how civilizations “get onto their feet” so to speak. It’s just interesting to read about why groups of people do the things they do, and the motives for their actions as well. When you read about why people did “this” when “that” happened, how people deal with “this” problem by doing “this”, how people will sell what they have so they can buy what they need, it teaches you a lot about what’s going on in the world today and why all this stuff is happening. More people need to know about the past so they can help prevent all this bad stuff from happening in the modern days. To the people that think history is just the past and think they don’t need to know about it because they think it doesn’t relate to modern times: You’re a clown.
What I learned in these chapters is humans really don’t like it when other humans get in their way (a.k.a. exist). Humans will betray anyone they have to in order to get to the top. As long as there are people, there will be wars and power struggles. I like to hear about moments of war as much as I like to hear about moments of peace. It’s not like war isn’t going on constantly. There is both war and peace and it’s important to know about that.
The first significant aspect of world history started during the Neolithic period. This is where early civilizations finally started to live in towns. They created leaders in the towns, started a form of agriculture, writings, and improvements in tools. Also, they built Stonehenge, which has become a great gathering point to this day for some religions. Their culture was spread by the first conqueror names Sargon.
The Mesopotamian culture continued to improve on the basis set up in the Neolithic Period. They made vast improvements in math, medicine, and even religion. Different classes of citizens were created because they had nobles who ran the towns.
In Egypt, they started their culture a little different from the Mesopotamians. Instead of nobles, they had pharaohs, and slaves and worshipers created temples for them during their reign.
Many cultures and religions were started in the early times before 700 BC with many different aspects on life. The Ten Commandments were written, Jewish societies were born in Israel, and many civilizations fought for more land and goods.
During the Dark Ages, Greek culture spread throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Many Greeks wanted to get out of Rome and start their own paths of civilizations. They went on to create their own city-states, with the top three being Sparta, Athens, and Thebes. Their fast growth led them to seek land elsewhere, like Italy and Africa. Many conflicts between these city-states let to the Peloponnesian War. After the war, Sparta tried to create a Greek empire, but failed. This led to King Philip II conquering Greece and creating the Macedonian Empire.
After the wars and creation of the Macedonian Empire, all the cultures were at a standstill for a while. Apparently everyone was happy with their land and didn’t need much expansion at the time. As time went on, religions and cultures spread, with many civilizations going through many different religions until they found the one they liked. Euclid created geometry, which led to the calculation of how big the Earth really was.
The Roman Empire was founded somewhere around 750 BC. During its creation, it was under the control of the Etruscans. The Romans continued to invade Italy and claim it as their own. At first, they weren’t just conquering just to have land. They wanted to eliminate threats to their culture. The Punic Wars were a fight for Sicily against Carthage, and then the destruction of Carthage.
Christianity came and caused many problems for the Jews in Rome. The Romans were afraid of an overthrow of power from the Jews because of what the Messiah had told. Also, since the teachings from Jesus were basically Jewish, they had a reason to be nervous. Even though it wasn’t intended to be a threat to the Roman Empire, they thought it was, so he was killed. Christianity started to spread and became accepted by many countries and also began the rise of the Christian Church. It was finally legalized in 312. This began the rulings of Popes to run states. Their main goal was to enlighten their citizens with the teachings of Christianity.
From these chapters, I would have to say that the most interesting part of it was the beginning of history during the Neolithic period when everything was first started. We moved out of caves, and went to create towns. I also like the Egyptian times where they had pyramids, even though their people weren’t treated fairly. From these points and on throughout history, humans began to evolve their culture and ways of life to continually improve. I also like the Greeks and Romans, especially the movies that were inspired during these times. This time has to be my second favorite time in all of history.
Early history brought us the Greeks, who through superior logic gained control of the largest empire the planet had seen to date. The Greeks used different forms of government throughout their history, experiencing everything from tyranny to democracy in it’s purest form. In the end it turned out, as it always has, that whoever held the power decides which form of governance to use. I think the Greeks were among the first societies to truly value knowledge in the arts and sciences, it is from them that great philosophers and poets rose to be truly admired by their own society. From Socrates to Sappho and many others before and after them, taught their own people and the many generations who were to follow that there was much more to life than simply surviving.
Following on the Greeks footsteps, the Romans grew into one of the greatest civilizations that we have ever known. Though their study of politics, use of religion and mastery of the sciences(which included some of the first indoor plumbing) grew the largest empire since Genghis Khan conquered Asia, though this greed for growth would also be their down fall. Along with their growth, Rome brought Christianity to the lands it conquered, which would turn out to be the most the religion would grow until the Gutenberg press would be invented a few years later. Other benefits that we would see from Rome included the use of laws by a governing body to restrict it’s leaders and the number of roads and trade routes that came from the expanision of the Empire.
The time period for chapters 1, 4, 5, and 7 is when the earth was much younger. The time periods stretch from the early civilization to the fall of Rome. What interest me about this time period is that man across the world had the same concept, conquer or be conquer. It was about power which led to most of their down falls. Most of all the groups of people grew so large until greed took over and cause civil wars amongst themselves. When a group stretch itself out to far where they can’t keep their own organization stable then there will be problems. For example, I think the Greeks were stronger and would last longer if they would of stay a polis that were ran by the people because during the Hellenistic period they went to monarchy. There was a kingdom ran by a king who cared more about his kingdom than the people. The more land the kingdom conquers means the more cities that they can build. Then within the kingdoms the cities will fight for border control so they won’t lose land or power from their neighboring city.
It happened in Palestine in the thirteenth century with the Hebrews when they separated into two halves once King Solomon died and they are still fighting over the land today.
It happened to the Greeks where they conquer land from the east to the west but couldn’t stop the cities within their kingdom from having civil wars. The same thing happened to the Romans their thirst for world domination cause their down fall because they couldn’t contain all the power struggles within their own organization. Once the Roman Empire began to drift apart they were easy pickings for the barbarians.
Hopefully our great nation can learn from the mistake of the earlier great civilization that greed/power can destroy any great nation.
Chapter 1
Starts with talking about the Neolithic period, this period was from 400,000 to 7,000 B.C.E. The people during this period live and survived in packs. They made there own tools and hunting weapons out of whatever they could find. This era was considered the Stone Age. They developed hunting and gathering of plants and animals. During this period they also developed writing. One of the things that intrigued me about this period was they where able to create something as powerful as the Stonehenge.
Next was the Mesopotamian Civilization. Writings where discovered from this civilization. This writings where studied to find out that they where sophisticated forms of communication. They developed school for education to help teach each other and trade learned skills.
The Mesopotamians developed religion based on the stars in the sky. They tried to understand the origin of the existences and many myths came from it. They developed medicine to heal there sick, and started developing mathematics. They maintained a class system consisting of nobles, free clients of nobles, commoners, and slaves. The king and people close to the king had rights to huge sections of land.
Chapter 4
There were a lot of important things about this chapter. First Sparta became the leading power in Greece. Philosophy became known with Socrates. Socrates had a predecessor named Plato. Hellenism being popular with monarchy style government.
The most interesting part of this chapter to me was conflicts. The Greeks rebelling against the Persian Empire. Also the Peloponnesian war began with Athens threatening Sparta.
Chapter 5
Key parts to chapter 5
• Conflict around the Mediterranean
• Founding of Rome
• Rome’s Development
• The Golden age
• Greeks Culture
• The end of the republic of Rome.
• Augustus’s settlement
• The Empire in conflict.
What I found most interesting about this chapter was during the crisis in Rome between 235 and 284 over 20 emperors where in and out of the throne. It was like a hot seat.
Chapter 7
Key parts to chapter 7
• Christian Church Blossomed.
• Christian believe working together with Roman culture
• Germanic Society began
• The second Rome
Constantinople became the greatest city in the Christian world during its peak before falling a part. Constantinople’s foreign trade was controlled by Jewish, Muslim, and Italian merchants.
Unfortunately what I know is based on notes. Some might say I didn’t read the chapters while other might say I didn’t understand what I was reading.
Albert Hofmann says. The Neolithic period from 7,000-3,000 B.C. was a prehistoric time where people followed herds to keep safe from natural disasters and predators, while always searching for food. Sumerians was the first civilization to create a form of writing, which was spread to the Mesopotamian culture. Once again about Mesopotamian, it was a transformation of the people of Eurasia and Africa. Where they would acquire to do just about everything required for everyday living. I read briefly about the Rome and their many ups and downs. During the “up” points Rome was so powerful they’d take over other countries like Italy. And that’s just about all the time I have.
I think what interest me in history most isn’t who took over this land or that, or how a colony of newbie’s became epic. It’s the smaller more meticulous things like the rules of nature through which one group might live their lives. It’s the missing hand you might get from striking your father, or how the father might sell his wife to pay off his debt that interest me more.
Cough. Cough. Curve
During the early Neolithic period of time, cultures started to advance technology in building things from mud like buildings, Crop and farming tools like sickles, art, weaponry, and artifacts. These developments all helped in the rise of western civilization. Then, the Mesopotamian culture became dominate throughout the east because of developments in writing and astrology by the Sumerians. During this time people started increasing their level of organization and nationalism throughout their civilizations, expanding from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Helping to contribute to the development of the eastern civilizations, Egypt developed a unified system of writing, hieroglyphs, which started to spread to other cultures. Egyptians also helped to start religion through Polytheism; belief in many gods. The first ideas of profit came from the Egyptians trading their leftover crop resources to other cultures who didn’t have those resources. The rise of Mesopotamia through trade routes and sharing of cultures was a major development for this time period. Through trade, education was shared, languages were formed, and the beginning of the importance of diplomacy was established. From this point, Hebrews settled into Palestine which eventually lead to the now established religious beliefs and even the Bible. Along with the increase in trade came the increase in technology for transport and war machinery. Wars were started because cultures desired to expand and conquer. One of these empires, Persians, started from a small civilization and expanded their control to include Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran, and Western India. However, the Persians did not destroy the civilizations; they merged cultures with the civilizations they conquered. The Greeks were another culture that also desired to control the land. They helped develop the polis and the basic political forms by which it was governed. The merging of cultures from the East and West helped shape the development of economy, religion, philosophy, science and medicine. Along with the Persian and Greeks, the Romans also desired to expand. Rome achieved greatness because of their ability to mix traditions, beliefs and customs from the cultures they conquered. Alexander the Great was a major factor in why Rome rose to greatness. They were a civilization of Empires, from their roman empire to the Christian empire. Rome had advanced legal institutions and governing rules, which is one of the reasons why they eventually fell. The corruption of officials and emperors trying to rise to the top, lead to civil wars and conflict. Eventually Rome tried to restore the Republic, which led to the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman world. Rome eventually fought against the Barbarians, a branch of their own who split when Rome was falling. Once Christianity started to spread, it started to develop attitudes toward classic culture and Germanic people. This attitude was one of destruction and assimilation. Christianity strove to be the only religion and get rid of others who contradicted their belief. What interested me the most from these chapters was how easily empires rose and fell. It was easy for these Empires to conquer other civilizations, but when it came to controlling them once they had conquered they fell apart. It may have been the leadership not being able to develop a strong political system, but maybe it was because of the merged cultures countering each other. Maybe the civil conflicts between merged cultures negate the possibility of merged civilizations to thrive for very long?
Quiz1
During these ancient periods of life there were a lot of changes over their early civilizations. People were just trying to get situated as far political, transportation, and religion. Each group of people, civilization or culture learned how do things like trade with others. That was very important because some cultures needed different things but could not find objects or food they needed. For example if there were a civilation that lived near the river they could easily capture fish and could trade it with a civilation that lived the wooded area for some bear meat or fur. So that technique could be very valuable and useable as it is in today’s society. Language and writing was also a taught as a trade because you needed to educate especially with mathematics. There were also teachings on science and astronomy during these times this is where the constellations where named for the groups of stars. To go along with that religion was also taught as far primary gods, goddesses, and proper burial.
World history, when pertaining to the human race, can only go back as far as we have a written record. Prior to the Sumerians inventing a primitive form of writing the only way for historical events to pass from one generation to the next was through the oral tradition. Over the hundreds of thousands of years we’ve been on this planet it has been a significantly small sliver of time that we’ve had a rich understanding of history as these tales and legends prior to the written language were easily modified and embellished, with entire events most likely left out due to some random hatred or bias from one person or culture to the next. We do know, however, that humans were a hunter-gatherer society, roaming far and wide to follow food sources or escape danger, until the end of the eighth millennium B.C.E.
Around 7,000 B.C.E. humans began to change in probably the most significant way in the entire history of our race. The Neolithic people of the time began to farm, to plant and grow and harvest food instead of relying solely on the environment around them for sustenance. This one seemingly simple change has completely shaped the world and everything that has happened since. No longer are humans roaming in disorganized tribes, following game trails and hoping they can survive the winter. Starvation, while still a very real threat, is no longer creating an environment of “only the strong survive”. Now the creation of coherent, well organized villages and communities centered around farms and agriculture is spurring the advancement of the human race. Better tools and weapons are being developed, humans are starting to live longer, fuller lives, able to spend more time discovering and creating rather than running and foraging. Agriculture allowed humans to settle and begin evolving complex societies.
With society came conflict, laws, religion, and division. Humans have always been competitive, even in the times of roaming the plains. Territories would have been staked out, hunting grounds “owned” by specific tribes or individuals, and crossing into one of these areas would most likely have meant death. With the rise of civilizations and society the same thing occurred, it was just more organized and it involved more intricate situations and larger numbers of people. Only the largest and most rapidly advancing societies could survive and prosper in these harsh times, such as the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians. Many groups rose and fell over the years, but it wasn’t until the Egyptians that a truly massive society staked its claim on the Earth and left its mark for all future societies to see.
The Egyptian society came into power around 3100 B.C.E., originally a large collection of randomly scattered tribes along the Nile in northern Africa, a single great God-King, a pharaoh, rose to power and united the peoples into one large culture. The Egyptian culture was wildly polytheistic, having hundreds of gods relating to nearly every imaginable part of the nature surrounding the area, from the plants to the floods and the stars. Chief among the gods was the pharaoh, the mortal incarnation of the father of the gods. Many large facets of the Egyptian way of life centered on serving the pharaoh and honoring the gods. Many of the pharaohs constructed vast cities and monuments, mostly to honor themselves. Sites such as the pyramids still stand in testament to the pharaoh’s immeasurable power over the people of Egypt. Like all great civilizations though the Egyptians were doomed to fall, and around the twelfth century B.C.E. their empire was crushed by outsiders from the rest of Africa and the Near East.
During the time of the Egyptians, not too far to the north another society was coming into power. The Minoans and the Mycenaeans were establishing vast cities and trade routes all over the Greek peninsula and the Aegean Sea. They traded heavily with each other, Egypt, the Near East, and various cultures all around the Mediterranean. The Greeks were not ruled by a God-King like the Egyptians, rather they were a collection of dozens of individual kingdoms, with each having its own ruler and each wanting what the other had. The fragmented society of the early Greeks led to vastly different societies developing and constantly warring with one another. Shortly after the “Dark Ages” in Greece, which occurred immediately after the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures imploded, the Greeks developed a tremendous system of law and architecture that persists to this day. The Greek philosophy of law and governing was very powerful, leading to three major city-states developing around 800 B.C.E., Athens, Thebes, and Sparta. Each of these states was similar, yet vastly different.
The Greek culture during the time of these city-states developed rapidly. Democracy was sought after by many Greeks, while some preferred a rigid militaristic society. Art and philosophy were highly regarded, religion became more refined and celebrated, and the fledgling steps towards large metropolitan settlements were taken with the Greeks developing powerful architecture and civil structures such as fountains and sewers. Amid this cultural blooming war was always a present entity. The Greek societies expanded heavily and very rapidly during the fourth century B.C.E. Alexander the Great took the Greek civilization to the very edge of the known world and conquered anyone and everyone in his path. Upon his premature death the Greek society fell in upon itself, he had spread Greek influence so far and so thin that it absorbed or was taken over by many regional cultures. Chief among these was Hellenism, which rose to dominance rapidly and forever changed the way of the Greek people.
Hellenism brought back the monarchy, establishing a central king in place of democracy. The Hellenistic kings introduced large economic advancements and many social reforms, the most significant one being an impressive increase in the social standing of women in the Greek culture. There was still a huge dependency on slave labor though, with many of the kingdoms relying heavily on local mines for iron and rare metals. During this time trade routes matured and spread far and wide in the wake of Alexander’s conquest. Many large and significant trade routes were established between the Mediterranean, the Near East, and the Far East. The opening of these trade routes naturally led to the introduction of many varying cultures, including the Romans to the west.
During the tail end of the Greek culture, the Romans were rising to power in Italy. They were a hugely militaristic society, founded in mystery and expanded with the sword. For a brief period they were ruled by the Etruscans, but in 509 B.C.E. they overthrew the Etruscan king and established Rome as a republic. They rapidly, and efficiently, conquered the Italian peninsula, and then moved on to taking over the entire Mediterranean world. The Romans absorbed many of the cultures they conquered, but the most significant among these was the Greeks. The Romans borrowed heavily from the Greek people, “stealing” many of their forms of art and architecture and expanding them wildly. Greek art and medicine and law were also further advanced by the Romans, leading to the most significant society in the history of mankind. The expansive power and rapid development of the sciences by the Roman state pales only in comparison to more modern cultures, many of the Roman discoveries and creations were barely improved upon for thousands of years.
Early Rome was a polytheistic culture like the ones before it, but Christianity easily took hold during the earliest years of the first century. The severity of Roman rule was resented by many and stirred up revolutions and resistances with political and social uprisings. The most prominent “new” religion in the area at that time was Christianity, and it spread rapidly throughout the Roman Empire. Around 300 C.E. Emperor Constantine declared Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, leading way to the acceptance of one of the largest religions of the modern world.
Throughout the next 500 years Christianity grew exponentially. It far outgrew Rome, living well past the fall of the empire. The Christian Church became a new power in the world, supplanting many of the cultures in the region and completely rewriting the way of life for millions of people. The religion spread life wildfire, making its way to the Middle East, down into Africa, and covering all of Europe with its influence. During this time many of the foundations were laid for medieval European culture such as the replacing of classic cultures and ideals with Christian practices and rules, the stark change in architecture, and the attitude towards science and philosophy. Another culture developed during this time however, the Byzantine Empire.
The Byzantine Empire developed from a part of the Roman culture that drifted East and established itself as a power resistant to nomadic invaders. They preserved some of the classical and intellectual ideals of the civilizations that preceded it. They valued education very highly, placing knowledge and advancement above many other facets of daily life, even developing ideas in tandem with other nearby cultures like the Arabs.
(I ran out of time! E-mail: brines4183@students.ecpi.edu)
Oh yeah, what interests me most: All of it really, although I've always loved Greece and Rome. The enormous change in humanity from loose tribal societies into rigid military societies is fascinating. We are all inextricably tied to what happened during those times, our country's founding fathers modeled the constitution on the best of the best ideas and philosophies and political ideals of the time.
The most significant aspects of world history as recorded in our textbooks is the development of technologies and societies from the multiplex of nomadic tribalism to state and empire building. The time period from pre-7000 BCE to 400 CE held the most significant and permanent influences on modern civilization. From the development of agriculture, writing, and spoken languages that helped to bind tribes into fledgling societies where people were forced to confront problems and create solutions to sustain their group cohesiveness as well as to survive.
Many if not most of the cultures exercised the use of war as a methodology to capture and control resources to build and grow societies. Much of the bounty of war came in the form of human slave labor that was used effectively to do everything from build the wonders of the world to farming. During this period were the developments of the first states or sovereign entities which had many different forms of government as people and leaders experimented with different ideologies whilst still practicing the art of war. The Greeks termed this the polis, or city-states that performed the first forms of diplomacy where they would band together on a temporary basis to confront enemies of a polis or a neighboring state. This period also contains the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. One of the most expansive military campaigns ever in recorded history was performed by Alexander the great who conquered most of the known world (at the time) and expanded the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire, taking cues from the advances of the Greek civilization created a monetary system, a senate, effectively gained and distributed resources and governed people using the rule of law. This was the first major society to combine all aspects which previous societies had parts of into one organized Empire and it was quite effective for hundreds of years but corruption and internal feuding caused it to implode.
Religious schools of thought also evolved from this era that is still abundant today. This includes the rise of Christianity as one of the dominant world religions, as well as Islam. In the period between the Neolithic and the dark ages a marked shift from polytheism to monotheism took place. This may be partly attributed to the weight of personal commitment required by most monotheist beliefs versus other common religions of the time.
After the fall of the Roman Empire the barbarians continued the warring and plundering for hundreds of years but after they organized they became the preamble to what is Europe today. Europe and Western Civilization as it exists today was heavily influenced by the Romans and their barbaric counterparts as can be seen in everything from language, law, and architecture in our own United States.
The discussion of early civilization is a constantly evolving one from the standpoint that archeological discoveries continue to be made. There is little doubt that each of the cultures we studied contributed significant pieces to the mosaic of history, but it is the cultures that were able to provide a steady stable society over a long period of time that allowed for further development and innovation. It is for this reason (and the fact that I admire the culture) that I credit the Egyptians as the major influence during this period. It is important to acknowledge that Egyptian pre-eminence was not constant during this time, but even with that acknowledgement the contributions of the Egyptian people and culture can be traced to the present day.
The Greek Influence was important both as the cultural and theological foundation that Rome would later build on (or perhaps co-opt is more accurate). But Greek culture did not exist in a vacuum; it was influenced by the Phoenicians and earlier by the collapse of Minoan civilization. Phoenicians provided the mercantile expertise and the Minoans inadvertently provided a spot at center stage in the Mediterranean. When as Brian so rightly pointed out Thera exploded and ruined the Minoan cities and ports, the Mycenaeans only needed to take over in their place. Minoan culture was slowly merged and assimilated into the larger and now more powerful Greek culture. Minoan architecture gave way to Greek styles we now recognize in 18th century government buildings, and even innovations like indoor plumbing (which Minoans had and Mycenaeans did not) died and were “undiscovered” until ages later. I always like to play what if in situations like that, what if Thera hadn’t exploded? But the point of history, the real point, is that these things did happen. Perhaps they can be lessons to us in the present day, perhaps only warnings against the sin of Hubris. Real lessons of importance from the Greek culture include a balanced look at the human as a holistic being, athletes in Greek culture were often intellectuals as well, warriors were also poets. Humanity was valued, as were imagination and science. Striving for perfection along the lines of excellence as John Kennedy once said.
Roman culture is something that can be examined in an almost psychological way, the step child of the Latin peninsula, dirty and crude rises, by banding together with outcasts from other nearby cities and states and defeats the Etruscans. After this defeat as Rome expands, she seeks an identity, and since the Greek culture is so close at hand (i.e. Sicily) it is only natural that they adopt the Greek Pantheon (albeit with name changes). Rome did plenty of borrowing from other cultures, but one contribution of Rome is at once inescapable and nearly transparent. The City. In the children’s book City, by David MaCaulay (sp?) the point is made fascinatingly well, Roman soldiers after a campaign would often be granted land in far off places, in order to survive, these soldiers organized themselves along the lines of the encampments (or Castra) from their legionary days. These camps had two main roads, one running North to South, the other intersecting it from East to West. The allotments were parceled out and the building of basic infrastructures began in earnest. The point of all of this is, that cities were built by the Romans in often inhospitable places, but because of their presence, locals came to them to trade, eat, sleep, work and live. The cities allowed these barbarians to become integrated into the Roman culture and society. Look at city names like Worcestershire, or Chichester, the cester or chester are adaptations of castra from the Romans. At one point, these cities were Roman outposts. If there is one solid contribution of Roman society it is building the foundation of the Empire by building cities. Unfortunately, when the Empire’s military glory faded, the people who were once happy to be Romans fell upon their masters like Caesar in the Senate. With so many enemies on all sides, it is remarkable that Rome’s decline was as slow as it was.
The Holy-Roman Empire- Perhaps the only thing that could preserve Roman traditions after the collapse of the Empire in the East was the institution of Christianity. This would have been anathema to the original Christians to see the Empire they so despised propped up by their beloved faith. The Germanic cultures contributed their influences even before the Empire was established; Christmas Trees were part of barbarian tradition, as well as All Hallows Eve. Each was in its turn absorbed by the church, but as a last result after the church had failed to ban them. Still, our text cites a number of reasons that the Catholic Church, Germanic cultures and Greco-Roman heritage melded together to create a sort of proto-Europe. Here I am going to take some liberties and point out that a great deal of Europe’s problems stem from the direct influence of both the Pope in Rome and the Holy Roman Emperor. The machinations of these two offices were responsible for a great many wars in their time. From Rome’s collapse in 753 A.D. to the renaissance (when other people were deciding what wars to fight) Popes were responsible for at least 3 crusades. The papacy was not without significant contributions to society, but any of this must be balanced against the terrible cost in human life.
To tell the truth I’m not really interested in history of the modern world. World history is more of what I’m interested in. A lot of the things I was reading I really didn’t understand. Chapter one talked about the Neolithic contributions to the rise of civilizations. Mud bricks began being used as building supplies. Farming became more skilled because of the invention of many farming supplies. For example: grinding stars or sickles which were used for food processing. The use of exponents began being used during the Mesopotamian culture. This culture became more dominant because of its large growth in technology. The people showed pride in which they were. In the Near eastern civilization Egypt contributed a lot. They developed unified form of writing which spread to other cultures. Agriculture was a big deal; this meant that they could sell food to other countries. In the Hittite civilization they began to trade which increased the availability of food. They created military forces to protect themselves. During this time the Indo-European language was created. The Iranians created the Persian Empire. They rose because of their ability to breed horses. They were liberal which meant that they valued human rights.
Chapter 4 Began talking about the geography of Greece. The geography of Greece consisted of 3000 islands. There are 9300 miles of coastlines. 83% of the peninsula was mountains. A polis is a city state. Who ever has the power governs it. For instance if governed by one man it’s a monarchy, power in the hands of best is and aristocracy, the rule of few is oligarchy, or a tyranny in which one man who gains the power through extralegal means.
Chapter 5 talked about the evolution of Europe. Christianity was a part of European culture. It was a form of Judaism.
Chapter 7 Christians believed in working together with roman cultures.
All in all to tell the truth I learn a lot of stuff. I wasn’t really interested in any of the chapters except chapter 1. I really was interested in the Hellenistic period. It had more to do with the concerns of women. Woman began being educated and taking political roles. They began receiving credit and fame for things like poetry. In the Hellenistic religion they were allowed to worship their own god. To me that was important because everyone believes in different aspects of religion. Me personally I would rather worship who ever I want instead of being like everyone else and being forced to believe in certain aspects of religion that I really don’t believe in. their way of medicine was also very interesting to me. The things they did to cure certain illnesses were crazy. It makes you wonder what they would have done if you had just a common cold or even a headache.
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