What caught my eye?
Persian Empire - other than being an impressive empire- no surprise - I have seen some movies like the Prince of Persia. How they mourn when the king died. Persians were expected to shave their hair in mourning and the mains of horses were cut short. But what is even more interesting is the fact that the king had ordered a high ranking nobleman to death because the person had interrupted the king while with his wife. WOW! Talk about walking on thin ice! It wouldn't matter what you did. If the king was in a bad mood you are in a no win situation. Better cross your fingers and hope the king will spare you.
Persian Empire seem to be more over the top, elaborate. They had the elaborate irrigation system going on but I wander if the Maya's irrigation system was as elaborate has the Persian's. They make a comment that the Mayan's had a sophisticated system but I am not clear as to what context compared to the Persian's. But comparing the Persian Empire to Classical/Greece. Greece was a smaller civilization where they were smelting metal (silver, lead and copper).
Greeks - not surprise - more internal conflicts and warfare but with all that drama they found a way to temporarily look away from their conflict to participate in the Olympics together. Despite their conflicts between the city-states, Greeks weren't really fighters. They expanded by settling in places not to conquest and create an empire. In addition, "the wealth and well-born men had the rights of full citizenship and then eventually the lower class and farmers were able to obtain rights. Then there was Solon who made a change. He pushed Athenian politics to democratic direction. Debt slavery was abolished, access to public office was opened to a wider group of men, and all citizen were allowed to take part in the Assembly" - stated in the text book. Amazing how this was already in development. A democratic belief. To add, Alexander promoted interracial couples. How did we manage to take a step backwards if people were already moving forward with citizenship rights and fairness and freedom of choice?
Chinese & Roman Empires - These empires seem to have a more universal attitude. Its all about them; they are the central piece of it all. China had a way of influencing people even if they were taken over. People would continue to practice how the Chinese did because it was more efficient in their eyes. It seemed that people in China had more chances in a political involvement than in a Roman empire because the roman empire expectation was that you had to be from a lineage; have the bloodline to rule. Chinese empire was good at getting people to assimilate to their way of doing things where it seemed like to me that the Roman empire was more by force. Because the Chinese empire were able to do this - other people adapted the Chinese way (influence - like I mentioned before) to get people to do what they want them to do. It was if they had better control over people.
Gupta & Mauryan Empires - small but efficient. These empires may have controlled less area but they were more efficient but unfortunately it appears that these empires were not long-lasting despite their impressive empires similar to the Roman and Chinese Empires.Gupta empire with the "free hospitals"; a flourished culture with the arts and sciences. Successful trade China. With Buddhist and Hindu culture rooting during this time the caste system was still defined. How did this caste system continue to develop even with the influence of Buddhism? India continued to comply with the caste system whereas the rest of the world was working towards social order.
Socrates - my dude who answers a question with a question. Who questioned assumptions and challenged ideas "about the importance of wealth and power in living well" - in the textbook). He was executed because he was accused of corrupting the youth. Basically, a person who was looked as a teacher that guided individuals to think for themselves and question anything was killed because people were afraid of change. Afraid of things not being in order the way they felt it should be. Not being able to change your mindset. There is nothing wrong with change but people till this day have a issue with change and sometimes are too scared to face it because of the unknown and uncertainty.
Africa & Americas - True or false, Africa's population size based on % of the total world is more than the Americas? True. Based on the text (from 400 B.C.E to 1000 C.E) , p.264 Africa ranges from 10-15% of world total versus Americas ranges from 5-7% of world total. The Americas consist of North/Central and South America. Africa held a lot of people in just one continent. AMAZING! The Americas (all 3 combined) are half of that. Why is that? Part of it could be because of the environmental piece that was stated in the text. Africa being more of a tropical setting in certain areas whereas Central/South America experienced earthquakes, droughts and floods. Over time these environmental experiences will cause a civilization to no longer exist.
Niger River (West Africa) - Cities without states. Everyone had their job they didn't need a state system to define their well being and how to establish a lifestyle. This was evidence that cities could flourish without having a state but basically having an understanding of what is needed to work together and stay alive. Cities without states along the Niger River to Mayan where they had leaders in their cities. This cause numerous internal conflicts and warfare between cities because there was no one ruler, a central leader. However, despite their issues, they managed to pull together the Mayan solar year which is more accurate than our calendar we use today. Why are we using our calendar and not the Mayan one?
Speaking of calendar, The Mound builders. It was said in the text that the some of the mounds were aligned with the moon which allowed the prediction of the lunar eclipse. Was this by accident? Just imagining we already had the brain power back then, what took us so long to get to the modern era? Going back in time, seeing how math and science played a big role along with politics and philosophy. With such brain power and yet the urge to control it all and conquer it still took me by surprise to read about the Chaco. Chaco highly skilled astronomers and became the dominant center for production of turquoise ornaments did something I would have never imagined. Following the trend of all the other cities and empires we read about. There was always some sort of internal conflict and some case of warfare whether it was hard core or a slap in the face. I wouldn't think this civilization would have encountered cannibalism. In the text, there speculation as to why this occurred and one of them being, there was a drought? Regardless what the cause was, this led the civilization to an abrupt end.
Terra Cotta Warriors - Fascinating. Amazing how our imagination is when we think of the afterlife. He was definitely going out going / going into the afterlife guns blazing. I did see some of the warriors when they came through San Francisco. Very impressive.
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Chaco Civilization:
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