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 group with little resources and fewer people can overtake an entire nation. That’s what I thought of Chinggis Khan too. His family was so poor, but he rose to the top. If the Mongols didn’t kill so many people, this would be my favorite bedtime story. In a perfect world, they would’ve interacted kindly with other nations and be recognized as equals without having to plunder.
It was difficult to read quotes about the Mongols’ brutality. I think that at least, the number of deaths through brutality wasn’t as bad as the deaths due to Black Death. It’s still hard to imagine that in such a short amount of time, such a significant percentage of the population was decimated.
Another thing I liked was how the end of the chapter compares the Mongols to the Europeans. It was a good comparison that I didn’t even think about throughout the chapter, but the parallels are prominent: warfare, disease, etc. It’s like it’s preparing us for what’s to come in the next chapter (which is probably true). Now I’m expecting to read how Europeans plunder, steal, and exterminate.
If anything, I think the focus of this chapter is “In what ways did the Mongols connect different parts of Eurasia?” It often talks about which cultures the Mongols adopt, which ones they choose to leave alone. This chapter looks to the future and how Mongol rule influenced later exchanges between nations, which I liked. That will probably be on a test or something.


Reflection on the Frosh Sem Conference:
I greatly enjoyed last Thursday’s Freshman Research Conference. There was a good variety of presentations, so I was never bored. I especially liked how one class was very interactive. We got to draw, eat gummy bears, and meditate. I also got to see some good presentation skills that I can refer to in the future. A lot of the students had very loud voices and didn’t need to use the mic, which surprised me. I should practice projecting soon. I think one of my favorite presentations was when we got to draw while the presenter sang. She had a very nice voice and drawing was very relaxing. I also liked the presentation on the Pursuit of Happiness. That’s something I think about once in awhile, but I didn’t want to take the class because I thought it would be too difficult of a concept to grasp. The presenters did well. I expected a presentation on that topic to be unorganized and unfocused, but I was pleasantly surprised.
I think our class did okay. Some of my friends presented and I know it was hard for them, but they did very well, considering that they were very shy and reluctant to go up at first. Our content was good in my opinion. Spending time in class to share research and prepare really paid off. Since we had to condense all of our research as a class into 12 minutes with only 5 people presenting, it took a lot of collaboration. I was happy that I got to help the presenters in a way by providing notes on what to say and coaching them.

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day! :)

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