World History Blog

In chapter 6, Strayer talks about how several important second-wave civilizations developed outside of Eurasia. Many of them continued to influence the cultures of societies of today. The people that developed alternatives to civilizations have made contributions that deserve a place in the account of human history. On each of the different continents, there were agricultural revolutions, complex societies, and uneven distribution of humans and animals. Each continent also had their own variation of metallurgy and literacy. In Africa, Meroë was continuing to live in civilization in Nile Valley. Axum was the emergence of a new civilization that had a very productive economic foundation because they used a plow-based farming system. I thought that it was cool that people from the Sahara would move to the areas around the Niger River so that they can have more access to water.  In Mesoamerica, the Mayans had writing and warfare. They had urban centers, mathematics, and astronomy. The ...

In chapter 5, Strayer talks about how the Chinese society was shaped by the actions of the state. Later on, Confucius picked officials based on merit and morality. I didn't like the fact that schools only taught those who were potential officials. It wasn't surprising to me that the wealthy landowners were basically able to run the nation, and that majority of the population were peasants. Merchants were very disliked by the China people because they were considered dangerous and manipulative. India is similar to china in the sense that it was hard to move social classes and birth determined your social status. However, India was different from all other civilizations because their society was organized by the caste system. The Caste as Varma was basically a social pyramid that separated each of the societal sections. The Caste as Jati was the subsections of each of the Varma sections. Inequality wasn't the only major problem, slavery was starting to rise. Slaves were typic...