World History Blog

In chapter 4, Strayer discusses three different solutions to how China can come back together from the violence and turmoil. One solution would consist of many rules or laws that enforced punishments if necessary. The other solution consisted of using moral examples of superiors. Finally the last solution consists of doing the opposite of what Confucius thought was the solution. India created their own religion, called Hinduism, and it grew with their civilization. The nations in South Asian were transforming into a more philosophical religion instead of the ritual sacrifice. The Buddhist challenge gave restrictions and opportunities to women. I thought it was really cool that Hinduism had ancient texts that told stories between humans and deities that taught moral obligations. Persia was looking for a religious outlook in Zoroastrianism and Judaism. Zoroastrianism includes human free will, struggle of good versus evil, a savior, and judgement day. Judaism included migration and exiles...

After reading The Superior Man , I think that our leaders should really listen to XVI.24 and XIV.29. XVI.24 states that the superior man is always moving forwards while the mean man doesn't move or moves backwards. This is very important because as a nation we want to continually move forward to become better. In XIV.29, the master talks about how the superior man lets his actions speak for him instead of his words. Meaning that he says one thing but then he makes sure that his actions follow them up. This is important in a nation because we need a leader that is going to do. a leader who just says things but doesn't follow up is someone who shouldn't be in charge.

In the Intro to Part Two , Strayer talks about how many different civilizations emerged after the first one. States and empires developed, enlarged, and collapsed all the time. Even though there were many civilizations being created or destroyed all over the world, many of them were the same. Meaning that men were treated superior to women, there was a divide between the elite and everyone else, and slavery was still in practice. Strayer also mentions that there was no technological or ecumenic breakthrough like the Agricultural Revolution.The only main change that occurred was the increase of the population; it gradually grew but in 500 B.C.E, it really started to grow rapidly.  Chapter 3, State and Empire in Eurasia/North Africa , talks about how 2 different empires were close to each other and how they were always at war with each other. It then goes on to talk about the collapse of the empires. When Strayer was talking about the Persian and Greek Empires, I thought that to...

The documents at the end of chapter 2 were very informational because it gave me a greater understanding of the different kinds of art work in the Indus Valley civilization. Other kinds of archeological discoveries that would be helpful in furthering my understanding of Indus Valley civilizations would documents that contained writing about the every day life or about their religious beliefs. Something that has a direct interpretation because art work can be seen in multiple different perspectives but writing is concrete. I really liked getting to read more about the Indus Valley civilization because they were larger than Egypt and Mesopotamia but Indus Valley civilization doesn't receive the same recognition as Egypt and Mesopotamia does.

In chapter 2, Strayer talks about the emerging of new civilizations and how they formed their own cities and states. I really liked how Strayer included "A map of time" on page 61 that shows what happened during the years of B.C.E. I enjoyed reading about how important Mesopotamia was to the evolution of people and the urban life. I wasn't surprised when I was reading about how men are held in higher regards to women because I've read about it before and it was how the country was ran for thousands of years. I thought that it was really cool that some of the first civilizations created their own states around large territories. I really liked the "snapshot" on page 78 because it was interesting to see how they used drawings to communicate with each other. Even though all of these countries had the same features, they were not ran the same. For example, the environment in Egypt allowed for the people to grow more crops because the water from the Nile River wo...

The ending of Chapter 1 was very interesting. I was intrigued when I was reading about how they transformed into an agricultural era. I like reading about where each animal or plant was from and how not every country had what the others had. I really liked how Strayer emphasized the impact of domestication of the plants and animals that took place. It is amazing to think about how changing one thing, like agriculture, can change the way people live. For example, the beginning of agriculture made the people settle down in one place instead of being nomadic. It was amazing to read about how agriculture changed over the years and how much it was used to survive. I liked how back then they didn't worry about if someone was a male or female because they just needed them to do their job and get the food needed to survive. Everyone was treated equally and I believe that that is something in our world today. I thought it was cool how some places could survive without a leader/chief, but in...