HST 2020 World History, Summer 2013
Instructor: Patti Andrews, Notre Dame de Namur University
Student: Cathi Thoorsell
Ways of the World, A Brief Global History, Robert W. Strayer

Part One:                    First Things First: Beginnings in History

Robert Strayer’s teaches history in his text, “Ways of the World” by first defining some facts.  The years of creation of the world are set out like a picture from beginning to end, defining scientific principal, which seem beyond human comprehension, and developing a mutual understanding of the past. The author paints a landscape, which describes geographic and cultural details establishing a framework to understanding early civilization.  Providing an essence of a common culture, Stryer’s writing style paves the way for my mind to grasp that unimaginable: a flash of heat, or a big bang, where matter manifest into to highly creative and prosperous societies, developed over time, which formed our history.  Understanding context creates excitement. The use of common terms, in describing unbelievable accounts of the manifestation of humankind, provides a sense of human development and world history. Human creation and social achievement is formed by a step-by-step understanding of where we come from and where we are now.  Comparison, connection and change – the three C’s which define this study of our humankind’s origins  A look into humankinds’ first taste of ideologies, the birth of social class, common cross-cultural encounters, and the legacy of these changes and their impact create the story of our ancestors.  It is the understanding of these embodiments which form the picture of world history. 

13.7 Billion years ago - The Big Bang: An amazing discussion of the discovery of an event discussed as if scientific study painted a landscape of the development of the universe and everything we know as real. 

12.0 Billion years ago to 1.3 Billion years ago - The stars formed: galaxies and creation of the solar systems, formation of the earth. Life on the planet came from the interaction of gasses and matter uniquely charged with influences which gave way to oxygen on earth. 

658 million years ago to 164 million years ago - From here it is a step forward from worms, fish, reptiles, trees, and dinosaurs. The large dinosaurs’ skeletons were exciting in museums. Dinosaurs looked huge, kind, humble and not fragile.  It was always a stretch of my mind to think of what caused their extinction.  The question of the same fate: could the extinction of the Dinosaur also cause the demise of humankind?  Humans are inquisitive enough to consider that Dinosaurs were real.  Science states around 164 million years ago Dinosaurs were in several varieties and cohabited on the earth.  Today, they are no longer exist on earth. We better look at the science of what happened to them.  Humankind has an opportunity to look at all the species on this earth, inquire into the benefit of each, and controlling the influence of each.  History of the world teaches the story of humankind.  It is up to each human to learn the story of the world and use opportunity to benefit the world. 

2.7 million years ago – humans – or human like creatures.  How many species of humans are there, were there and what defines this?  DNA can now be analyzed and I wonder what mine will tell of my ancestors.  Are they so different from yours?  DNA is unwrapping history like a present of our past.  Science can only benefit humankind if we learn from our past, and prioritize our social and environmental needs over individual greed. 

250,000 years ago Homo sapiens first emerged.  The first 150,000 years of human experience was in Africa.  Paleolithic era or “old stone age” people were on earth and lived until the Ice Age. 

100,000 years ago, settlements planned around seasonal game.  Paleolithic art suggest migration, hunting and family cultures where were cultural universal themes during the Paleolithic era. After the ice age formed land bridges the opportunity to travel was defined and global nomadic resettlement.

12,000 years ago – Agriculture gave us the roots of civilization during the Neolithic / Agricultural Revolution era.  Humankind refined technology to travel and farm. The domestication of animals and tools provided dominance over the environment and social leaders formed small cities and infrastructure. The migration of people allowed the growth of a wide variety to harvest, to store and increase trade. Development based on the evolution of power over plants and animals.  We have over 200,000 plant species and only several hundred of those are domesticated, and five of those supply half of the calories for humankind consumption these days.  Much like the Neolithic / Agricultural Revolution, current global food production companies still genetically modify ears of corn, still try to meet the demands of growing populations, still try to survive an unknown future.  Looking at the era of the Neolithic / Agricultural Revolution, social similarities are too obvious to overlook: the need for clean water, controlled irrigation, clean farming, high performance fertilizers, food production, security of the boarders, control of the religion and political forces, domestication of plants and animals, all utilized to provide people prosperity without illness.  Society still strives for deliberate dominance over environment to enhance food production.  Prosperity in society is still judged the same as during the Neolithic / Agricultural Revolution era.  The literate are honored, the rich given power, and the inequities among same-clan members remain in our culture today.  Often the details of cultures are vastly different but if you look at what evolved out of the Neolithic / Agricultural Revolution it is apparent that there was global expansion of wealth, dominance over people, plants and animals, establishing a set a pattern of domestication by dominance under the guise of prosperity.  The Neolithic / Agricultural Revolution brought humankind into a place of deliberate domestication. The progress of this era was extensive and spread globally.  Genetic engineering is over 6000 years old.  Corn was first domesticated during 4000-3000 B.C.E.   When corn was less than inch, Neolithic / Agriculture revolution, it was manipulated from harvest to more than six inches by the year of 1500 A.D.  Corn is now over twelve inches long and used as a staple in feeding the world globally.   

2,500 years ago – Birth of Buddha and Greek Civilization.  2000 years ago – Birth of Jesus.  500 years ago – Artec and Inca Empires.  October 22, 1734 - (1734-11-02)November 2, 1734 the life of Daniel Boone, explorer, most famous of my ancestors.  1950’s – present, the life of author of this blog and student of World History.

Chapter 1.  First Peoples: Populating the Planet, to 10,000 B.C.E.
Paleolithic, trance dreams, dream time, Venus figurines (25,000 years ago, female sexual statures with curves were sexy and ornate, indicating women as cherished art forms and sexual refinement), social cultures of hunters and gathers, social and political resolution styles, sharing common goods and power: the leveling of wealth.  This was an exciting and long part of human history, not the cave man, but real family humans with lucid dreams.   

Chapter 2. First Farmers: The Revolutions of Agriculture, 10, 000 B.C.E-3,000 B.C.E. 
Neolithic / The Agricultural Revolution, a time of great migration and innovation.  Sophisticated social changes occurring globally defining food production, economic growth and social dominance. Herders and famers, grown from the ancestors of hunters and gathers, gave raise to animal husbandry, genetic engineering, textile development, metal work, technological and urban advance of waterworks and ultimate  power.  Advance farming techniques, control over the environment by gaining control over the resources, allowed for successful migration of crops and humans.  This transformation was global and provided settlements to become prosperous.

Chapter 3. First Civilizations: Cities, States, and Unequal Societies, 3500 B.C.E. – 500 B.C.E.
Civilized people are refined, organized, develop infrastructure, create pyramids, build temples, support palaces, write literature and read poetry, create complex calendars, define social class, revere the privilege, while creating slavery and the birth of large-scale warfare.  During the First Civilizations, social ethics are entering humankind and the social norms are determined by cultural conditioning from leaders who control economic and spiritual mindsets.  There is state oppression and inequalities formed in cities, controlled by statesmen, who systematically minimize the equality of woman and others.  Power goes to the leaders of the state, or the Kings, who teach they are acting from teaching of a God, that will offer eternal life – if you allow yourself to be dominated and allow the domination of others.  Early civilization tax, support wars, and have epidemic disease control concerns. Members of these societies want to lead, others destine to follow.  Many believe in a future, some plan an escape.  Early civilizations reflect many of the same human traits of the global societies of today: from family to farms, birth to death, marriage and ceremonies, sexual conquest and the laws of betrayal, choices evident throughout our history.

Part Two:       The Classical Era in World History 500 B.C.E. – 500 C.E.

Chapter 4         Eurasian Empires, 500 B.C.E. – 500 C.E.
The distance of time and place left a void of understanding of how people lived in our first urban societies 2500 years ago. Persian Empires and the Greek Empires are societies felt foreign to me. Where civilizations were strong and growing having in place kings that controlled and citizens that were dominated, depicted humankind was successful at urban development and lacking basic understanding of morality and humanistic kindness.  Civilizations formed as large societies with economic development. Most leaders were killing and conquering neighboring lands to fuel their empires. Social integration was by force. The imperial states displayed brutality on others to gain land, slaves and cultural exchange. Great Greek rational thinkers discussed democracy and freedom as an ideal to social change, they challenged humans to think logically.  Socrates, a philosopher in Athens, Greece, questioned what citizens thought about the state of democracy in Athens, classical era. Socrates wanted the citizens to think about the government’s agenda of the accumulation of wealth over wisdom, and to discuss the world with logic and rational thinking, and to question authority.  His outspoken teaching style, which was critical of the Greek government, made him feared by the authority.  Discussions of what constitutes a good life threatened these rulers. Socrates was sentenced to death by the same Athens’ government which he taught others to question.  The death of this well known Greek thinker, communicator to the commoner, had to be known to many as inhuman.  Socrates death drew attention to the inequity of the leaders. His death left commoners thinking about justice, and what part they each played in civilized humanity.   

Chapter 5         Eurasian Cultural Traditions, 500 B.C.E. - 500 C.E.
The culture of the Classical Era is still an influence on modern man today.  The classic thinkers and philosophers are studied for their wisdom of social order and mystical beliefs.  The religions founded during this time are still followed today with societies still studying Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism.  The Old Testament recorded social traditions and this legacy is still a global ideology which causes conflicts to this day.  War was the way to power but war also brought social chaos.  Leaders looked for ways to provide social order, as chaos proved to be expensive and inhuman.  China codified rules and laws outlined to control social disorder through a system of Legalism, a state mandated way of rule of right and wrong, in an effort for equity and justice. The actions and consequences were outlined to make individuals accountable for social actions.  China was harsh in its punishment which was state mandated but inequitable.  Brutality made the practice of Legalism impossible to enforce since inequality was built into China’s social structure.  

Chapter 6         Eurasian Social Hierarchies, 500 B.C.E. – 500 B.C.
The Caste system in India distributes humans in a social structure that indicates they should be shelved for production and punitive placement.  The citizens are controlled in an economic and social system that is derogatory, discriminatory and limiting.  Herding of humans gives the government power to protect its own class elitism, establishes authority over migrating groups into India, and provides placement of social status of all citizens.  This system is still in place today, proof that humans are happy adjusting to their place as it and find it difficult to challenge to authority of what may be their natural destiny.  India is populated with citizens who find harmony in inequality. With a history of cultural beliefs defined in Hindu philosophies, the act of disobedience would not be good for spiritual progress.  India’s social system has supported this Castes system and it manifest into social mainstream today.  Slaves are in these early societies but Indian tried to provide a human treatment of slaves through the Caste system where they lowest class was disbursed among the Varna and slaves could inherit and earn money.  China had a society with one percent of the population as slaves, Greeks had one third of their total population as slaves, while Roman Empires had forty percent of the population as slaves and the treatment of human as animals was barbaric.    

Chapter 7         Classical Era Variations: Africa and the Americans 500 B.C.E-1200 C.E.
The expansion of humankind into the Americans with math in Peru, and an agricultural revolution in the Mississippi River Valley, portrayed expanding humanity and cultural diversity into civilizations.  Large and expansive social movements developed farming and industrial development from Africa to the Americans. A complex urban economy was evident as artifacts showed music, art, rituals, and cultural events to be global.  

Part Three:     An Age of Accelerating Connections 500-1500

Chapter 8         Commerce and Culture:           500-1500
At the time of post-classical era, trade routes emerged which linked societies and cultural providing progressive and economic diversity. Three major economic zones developed, the most famous was known as the Silk Road, and has existed for over two-thousand years.

The Silk Road was a trade route across Eurasia linking several routes across the land between Arabia, Persia, India, Turkestan and China.  People crossed in camel driven caravans, and later horses, carrying products to trade with citizens of other cities and other countries.  Consumer items of raw materials, artifacts, medicine, spices, food items, and weapons, were traded with others providing economic develop and a prosperous commerce to the region.  Cultural exchange was most successful when the large and powerful states secured the terrain for the merchants and travelers of the Silk Road.  The Sea Road and the Sand Roads were progressive and dangerous routes of trade.  The Indian Ocean was the route to exchange between China and East Africa tied together by merchants who visited urban centers along the Indian Ocean bringing trade and economic development. The Sahara linked North Africa and the Mediterranean and is referred to as the Sand Road.  The Sahara had valuable resources of copper, salt and gold.

Resources and the diversity of exchange brought development into urban and rural regions. Trade offered an opportunity of civilizations to thieve socially, culturally and economically. Commodities were traded along with religious ideas and artifacts.  Diseases that traveled these routes were also exchange. Diseases caused an estimated 10,000 deaths per day die in 534 C.E. in Constantinople, the capital city of the Byzantine Empire.  Between 1346 to 1350 one third of the population of Europe died from the Black Death, a plague carried from China to Europe. This exchange of diseases also carried immunities and common medical remedies, marrying the separate cultural believes into a thriving and expanding diverse prosperous civilization.

Chapter 9         China and the World: East Asian Connections 500-1300
The Tang dynasty (618-907) hard work was the foundation for the prosperous Song dynasty.  It was the Tang dynasty which had a civil engineering system sophisticated enough to build canals, with 1,200 miles of length, providing water to the northern and southern parts of China. The canals provided infrastructure to China.  The canals were combined with waterways, a route to trade China’s vast resources.  Providing economic trade and prosperity to over 30,000 miles waterways, combined with China’s population growth, a successful economic civilization developed in advanced agricultural developments and sophisticated enterprise. It was this foundation which provided for the “Golden Age” of the Tang and Song dynasty (960-1270) extending power via trade with central China.  Their system of government, states with ministries, is similar to the cabinet and state structure of the United States.  These two dynasties were prosperous and growing in population, with about 120 million people by the year 1200.   The most urban country in a post-classical era was China and the city of Hangzhou was the capital of the Song dynasty.  Hangzhou had an estimated population of more than a million people.  Other civilizations took pride in trying to reproduce the Golden Era in their own countries by learning from China.  Korea had influence from China and was able to maintain independence but used the tribute system of China to gain a gentle political subordination.  Not everyone wants to be controlled by China. The Trung Sisters of Vietnam in 39 C.E. set the tone for revolution by rebelling against the Chinese stronghold into Vietnam.  The Trung Sisters committed suicide when they rebel forces were taken over, but Vietnam remains an independent and separate state from China. China continues to have cultural and economic influence on global civilizations.

This dynamic relationship between China and the rest of the world continues to exist today.