Xavier's Blog

Christianity was huge throughout the course of History. All around the world there were different versions and somewhat "worlds" of Christendom. Because of this, differing nations would come to have different interpretations of the Religion. This was based on people's experiences, the place in which they lived, and the socio economic class that they were in. This lead to mass conflict and disagreements between societies and civilizations. These issues throughout history have somewhat never been fully resolved and are still prominent in societies around the world in contemporary society today. Rome is a significant marking of the Christian Culture with some of the biggest foundings and advancements happening there. In early Rome there was no central government and because of this rendered itself open to invasion from rivalling civilizations. Rome expanded Christianity and founded some of the most iconic concepts in the Religion today, such as the Pope and the Churches ...

This chapter concerns civilizations in the Paleolithic era. Australia, The Americas, and North Africa had bustling civilizations but remained behind other civilizations in terms of domestic revolution and advancement. Australia for example remained gatherer hunters until the 18th century. The Americas and North Africa had many smaller civilizations within that were more advanced with things like agriculture and building. At this time Islam was growing and the population of Muslims rose rapidly. During this time China was still recuperating and strengthening itself economically after the fall and dminish of the Mongol empire. It is recognized that China had and still does have the power to become a powerhouse on the world stage. In this era China were threatening because of their extremely large and advanced military. Although the Europeans ruled the ocean and the majority of maritime activities, China were still dominant. 

The underlying theme of this chapter is the evolvement and revolution of the domestication of certain civilizations. It is noted that 4000 BCE was around the stage when "Pastoral economies" were developed and proven to be effective. The notable advancements would be the movements of people from frm lands to bigger urban cities in pursuit of careers such as merchant banking and trading. An interesting civilization in this era was particularly the Mongols. The Mongols had many interesting cultural concepts that were vastly different from others. Some of these concepts are: The Mongol were not heavy on violence and were much  more people orientated. The Mongol empire came to acquire the largest land based empire of any civilization in history.  Mongol Women were equal to men in regards to work and the actions in which they could commit. 

In this chapter Muhammad is emphasized greatly as influential leader and person for the people, and most profoundly as the receiver of Quran. He embodied the five pillars of Islam and was the messenger between the Islamic God Allah and the Muslim people of the land.  Muhammad had the idea of a perfect community and tried to empower his people around him to reach his goal. His goal of a perfect community was one of equality amongst all, and banishing ideas of tribal, ethnic, and racial identities. Muhammad was iconic because this was made possible by connecting the people by commons beliefs as opposed to territory, language, or tribe like many other civilizations were doing at the time

I think that the topic that is most prevalent in this chapter is that of Social Hierarchies in China. The main them of the chapter was that of who was better at providing certain services or being the better leader, and the other side was that of who had more money and power. It is interesting to think that these logics was what influenced society and in which leaders they appointed for many years, and subsequently paved the way for civilization as we are used to it today. The social classes are also very distinct and therefore interesting, how there can be such a contrast between the richest rich and the poorest poor and yet living harmoniously to me is an amazing aspect of the cultural back then. 

In this chapter trade and the exchanging of goods, commerce and culture of money was the most common theme, the trading of goods in this mainly focuses on the 3 main routes that travel across the mediterranean sea. These are called the Silk Road Sea, the Red Sea, and The Indian Ocean.  Because of the extremely different climates and environments of these geographical locations on earth it was recognized that needs for other resources were needed, and instead of migrating civilizations could evolve and gather what they need in order to exchange something of value for something of value with another society.  The silk road was what connected CHina and India, this brought upon the exchanges of Buddhism and Hindu practices.  This is evident that trading brought around more than just the exchanging of goods and services, it allowed interactions with different cultures and thus the sharing of ideas, religion, philosophies,...

This chapter was mainly concerning analyzing the new civilizations planet as a whole. This was the time were the agricultural revolution was happening and was the driving force creating both civilized and complex societies. Of course there were different socio economic classes and some groups were very different to others, some more progressive and civilized than others, some far wealthier than the poor. By this time most cultures had developed writing and speaking mechanisms, each specific to their specific region, land, and religion. There were record numbers of migration around the world at this time (Not including the US) The importance and somewhat fear of Religion in some senses, was reciprocated worldwide. Many societies and cultures had varying levels of commitment to the Religion, each having differnt beliefs, practices and even gods. (Mohammed, Jesus, Buddha etc.)

Slavery is a big factor that plays an interesting role in the well the societies would lead to develop. Slavery was only in specific areas and regions because some slaves had certain rights that would protect them, the issue with this was it was loosely enforced as slaves were still not considered human. One of the biggest barriers that early civilizations faced was that of being able to move around freely, what we call today as social mobility. It was almost impossible for an individual to be able to change their socio economic class, whatever family status they were born into they would more often then not live and die that same status. Only some could afford things like education without taking things like loans or receiving scholarships.  \

Every single one of the individual human advancements contrasted with one another somehow, Egypt and Mesopotamia were known as the 'essential' ones, despite the fact that there were other empires or civilizations over history who had been a lot bigger. By 1700 B.C.E the Indus Valley had been in decay, which was a major difference with the focus of Indian and South Asian human advancement. Because of the decrease in the Indus Valley, and the move for the other two, it lead to all particular memory of the Indus Valley to disappear. It was also next to impossible to be able to interpret the writings that they had left behind, For example, the seals they would discover would have pictures of drawings, which is the thing that they would take look at since they couldn't figure out what the title was. Monarchs had continued to cast the most power of new emerging civilizations and women still had no power, this was a time of extreme growth for civilizations and population boome...

Some of the first and most well known human advancements are the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Norte Chico eras. The Egyptians and Mesopotamians  had not many works of art and ancient relics revealed. Another gathering that happened in the early periods of human progress and advancement was the Indus Valley community emerging. These individuals are mainly referenced to having great measures of innovation comparable to any other human races at the time.  For example, they had specific construction and even engineering styles, like proper exact measurements so that structures would align, and even created the concept of bricks being all one size. Gradually the possibility of fairness in started to shrink away. At the point when that happened the chain of importance was let go and was instead replaced with the values of "riches, status, and influence". What also became prevalent in this day and age was the idea of Patriarchy, and that men were far superior to females.