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Ch 15

Science and Enlightenment! *Skip to the end of the summary to view comments* Summary of My Understanding of the Birth of Modern Science Science altered ideas about the place of humankind in the cosmos and challenged the teaching of the church. It originated in Europe because it was a reinvigorated and fragmented civilization. Institutions were independent. This arose from the idea of a corporation: a group of people with rights to regulate and control its own members. The most important institution to the birth of science was the university. Its autonomy allowed its members to create its own curricula centering on the natural sciences. These universities relied heavily on the teaching of Aristotle. Another reason why Europe was able to develop science is because it drew extensively on knowledge of other cultures, as the center of a massive exchange of information It started with Copernicus’ discovery that the sun was the center and that other planets re...
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Chapter 12: 15th Century

Worlds of the 15th Century The section I found most interesting was the one comparing China and Europe. I feel that many of the characteristics that they are different in have been present for a long time: China Europe Confident in their presence in the larger world Knows that Islam is a threat to them Liked receiving other countries’ products, but did not believe they needed others’ help to survive Actively conquered other peoples to gain resources needed for survival Had power and resources to construct gigantic fleets for maritime voyaging Could only support a few ships to explore the seas Access to Indian Ocean trade and had a booming economy Wanted badly to have trade with other nations, but were not as successful as China Unified Independent states - no central political authority Having points of comparison helps me remember key features about both nations. In my opinion, China was definitely more powerful and capable than Europe during ...
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Chapter 11 & Frosh Sem Research Conference Reflection

Chapter 11: Mongols: One thing I liked about this chapter is how it shows multiple sides of the Mongols and tries to be unbiased in presenting them. They were fairer to their women, and there was less hierarchy (although it increased later on). The book also tries to explain the Mongols’ motives by saying that the Mongols tried to exterminate cities because they recognized that their numbers were small and that rebellions could easily affect them if they didn’t decimate a considerable portion of their population. It reminds me of that saying that the best bad guys in movies aren’t bad for no reason. They need a good backstory. The Mongols had a really good backstory: being the underdogs and being underrepresented in earlier historical eras. I don’t think we’ve spent entire chapters talking about pastoral peoples. We’ve only spent chapters talking about the rise of civilization and agricultural peoples. In a twisted way, the history of the Mongols is an inspiring story about how a ...
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Chapter 8

Chapter 8: China For this blog entry, I decided to do more bullet notes, but I wrote a reflection on my blogging style at the end and some thoughts about the chapter. Unified China Collapse of Han dynasty → unification under Sui dynasty Under Tang and Song dynasties, had a golden age of arts and literature 6 majors ministries accompanied by a Censorate Revived examination system Rapid growth of population, agricultural production, and urbanization Improved infrastructure and industrial production: mostly through coal Revived Confucianism: patriarchal restrictions on women: foot binding Property rights and education still expanded for women China and Nomads Nomads to the north considered barbarians by China China needed nomads for horses and hides (and b/c they controlled part of the Silk Road); Nomads needed China for agricultural products China thought they were the “middle kingdom”: center of the world and believed everyone else was lo...
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Christendom

Christendom I often get annoyed at the book because it gives me too many details when I want it to give me something easy to memorize instead: a trend. I like trends because they make things easier for me to read. Since we already have to learn about different countries and time periods, it would really be easier on my brain if the book focused on the countries’ one unifying trait. This chapter did not do that at all. It talked about Christianity contracting and expanding in different parts of the world, but it was very specific. For example, it was specific of why Christianity was still alive in some nations, but still very diminished. It went into what kind of form it took in that nation, and how long it lasted, with a time period included. The book is very meticulous about which facts it includes. In this chapter, pg.420 was one of the pages that stood out to me because of the quote that I read: Westerners “tore children from their mothers...and defiled virgins in the holy...
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Islam

Chapter 9: Islam Islam’s impacts on Each Afro-Eurasian Civilization: Civilization Extent of Conversion Reasons for Conversion & Impacts India Mostly Northern India No more than 20-25% of the population (minority) Not many converted because the prevailing polytheistic Hinduism was so different from the strictly monotheistic Islam; minority Muslims lived separately Some converted because they thought of Islam as more egalitarian than Hinduism Sikhism formed: blending of Islam and Hindu elements Anatolia By 1500, 90% became Muslim Turkish Islam Was previously governed by Christian Byzantine Empire, so the monotheism was not new to them They had a small population, so it was easier to influence Christianity was already decaying and could make room for Turkish Islam Africa Usually for the upper classes; lower class not forced to convert North Africa already Islamic West African cities became major centers for Muslims...
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