May Madness: Promotional Video

This is my promotional video for the May Madness competition. My ruler is Mehmed II. Good Luck to everyone participating.

Map of Imperialism

Why do most of the countries go after Africa and colonize there? About every place in Africa is colonized by some other country.

Does Australia play a big role in the trade networks?

If so many countries are in Africa, then why is it still underdeveloped when compared to other places?

White Man's Burden Response

Rudyard Kipling describes the native people very differently as opposed to the Europeans. He speaks so highly about the "white man" compared to the natives. Kipling at various times in the poem describes the natives as uncivilized and not culturally proper. He also believed that imperialism was greater than the government of the natives. The attitude that he shows during this poem is arrogance and this is directed towards the natives. He even tries to tell natives to renounce their current lifestyles and adopt the European ways ("white man's burden"). Kipling is illustrating that everything that the Europeans do is the proper style and nothing else works. Overall, Kipling is trying to support his opinion that all natives are foolish and need to be disciplined, while the Europeans are very advanced and ahead of everyone else. 

Lin Zexu's Letter To Queen Victoria Response

Lin Zexu conveys his distaste for opium by stating many negative aspects of it and the people who sell it. Lin says that opium causes all sorts of pain and problems for the Chinese people; even Heaven is affected by the use of opium. He is even more angry at the fact that opium usage has already spread to many of the provinces in China and nothing is being done to stop it. Also the traders of opium constantly sell opium in China even though there are laws that should prevent this from happening. The punishments inflicted on opium peddlers suggest that Lin's perception of opium's threat to China is a strong one because he believes that if the Chinese people who have interacted with this drug are setenced to death, then the traders who sell it should be killed as well. Lin explains that if there is to be peaceful trading between their countries, then everyone must obey the regulations that have been placed explicitly. 

Impact of the Industrial Revolution

From the Industrial Revolution, there came a lot of misfortune and bad circumstances. By changing the very concept of work, the social, political, religious, and economic aspects of people's lives worsened. In the case of economy, as technology becomes more integrated, there is less work because the machines alone are able do what various humans cannot. For example, in China, the working class lost value because of the better technology that replaced workers. For social aspects, the technology integration makes the family life worse. For example, families became less unified because the males needed to leave farther away from their homes for work. For political aspects, the change doesn't just occur in America, it happens even in places across the world. However, some places didn't have an Industrial Revolution and never developed. In Africa for example, since there wasn't any political unity, there wasn't any Industrial Revolution that occurred because government never stabilized as it did in the U.S. For religious aspects, the integration of technology made a lot of people from different cultures move because work required them to, which caused more diverse cultures to appear. Technology is a negative aspect because it makes the lives of people harder than it already is and it changes the structure of life. For example, you see women beginning to work in textile factories, which is a man's job. For the concept of wealth, land is no longer very important because of agriculture being controlled by a minority of people; this in turn causes the demand for land to decrease.

The Industrial Revolution was responded by in various ways. For example, the Luddites were shocked and afraid by the new advances of technology in the work places. They thought the new technology would become a major obstacle to the textile craftsmen. In class last week, we learned about the spectrum of positions that people were catogorized in. In this case of the Luddites, they would be placed in the reactionary category because they did not want change.

TED Talk: Response On Niall Ferguson

Niall Ferguson really interested and taught me many things that I didn't even know. The best part of his lecture was that he was able to keep everyone entertained while giving accurate information. The most important part of his lecture is when he speaks of the 6 six killer apps that include: competition, the scientific revolution, property rights, modern medicine, the consumer society, and the work ethic. The 6 killer apps are what allowed many civilizations to improve their economies and they sum up The Great Divergence. Now, The Great Divergence is the difference in GDP of various countries like America, China, India, and Britain. From this, Niall explained how in the 1500s, countries like China were more wealthy and grew stronger than a lot of other countries. However, through the 1600s - 1900s, the difference in GDP in various countries became drastically different. Niall explains that this occurred because of the economic and techological changes. For example, Niall says that the average American in 1970 is 20 times richer than the average Chinese and he says this all ties together with the lifestyle of the country and its people. Overall, Niall supported all of his statements with concrete facts and explained them in an easily comprehensible way.

Fabian Fucan Rejects Christianity Response

It seems as though Fabian has experienced a great deal of misfortune throughout his life. In the beginning of his life, he was supposedly mislead on the wrong religious path and this angered him greatly because he wasted so many years for nothing. He hated the faith of Christianity and tried to attack the teachings of it through his work, Deus Destroyed. Fabian said that Japan is the Land of the Gods and that the adherents of Deus are trying to convert the people there. He also believes that Japan's rulers have received their instructions for rule from their own gods such as Amaterasu Omikami; this supports the fact that Japan has its own cultural and religious aspects which shape its political structure. Finally, Fabian says that other countries such as the Philippines and Mexico have already fallen under the conversion to Christianity, but Japan will not fall because it's much more fierce. Overall, Fabian shows the spread of Christianity in many places and tries to prove that it's a religion of false ideals.

Olaudah Equiano

From the reading of the passage, I can say that there was massive cruelty in all of this slave trade business. There wasn't any type of freedom or anything for the slaves, just sickness and suffering. The crews of slave ships took drastic measures to ensure the maximum profits from the business of transporting human cargoes. They did things like forcing slaves to eat by tying them up and hurting the ones that tried to escape the ship. However, there were many slave deaths that occurred during the first trips of bringing slaves over seas, but crews tried to decrease slave deaths with them still being in captivity. Basically, the crews did whatever they could to ensure that the slaves could be sold for money to various other places.

DBQ Response

The DBQ was unlike the other two essays in my opinion. The other two types of essays mainly had to deal with information that you needed to know beforehand, but in this essay, all the information is presented. I think it's pretty hard to deal with as of the moment because i'm not familiar with how to approach it. Also, putting passages together from the DBQ packet is quite hard because you need to understand them enough to support your argument (thesis). Finally, the last hard part of the DBQ is the time limit. This essay requires that you read information instead of using prior knowledge. This means that you'll be using up time to read and interpret the information before you actually write it up. Overall, I hope to be able to write the DBQ properly and get some high points on it.

Improved Map of Africa

Promotional Videos Response

I would assess the gold and silver aspect of the Europeans coming to the new world. Everyone from Europe wanted gold as it was the most precious metal that anyone could possess. However, when they saw the incredible amounts of gold in the South American continent, they knew that the jackpot had been found. Gold wasn't valuble in South America, but the Europeans were able to do so many things with it such getting wealthy and rising up in the social hierarchy. The most important aspect to this project is the ability to gather people up and have them do what you tell them. If you can convince others of the greatness from the new world, then you've successfully completed the task. The least important aspect is trying to make the video too comedic; too much comedy defeats the purpose of the argument. I believe everyone did a wonderful job with their promotional videos, but Paul's and Twinkle's stood out the most in my opinion. Their video stood out because they addressed each aspect of their topic in a very smooth and understandable way.

James Loewen: Chapter of Christopher Columbus

I don't find James Loewen's argument on Christopher Columbus convincing at all really. In all honesty, after reading his works, I realize that Columbus wasn't as great as everyone thought he was. People believed that he was this kind, hearted adventurous fellow, but in reality, he was the opposite. For example, he mistreated various amounts of people from both genders, male and female, when he reached certain places like the Carribean. Also, the very fact is that Columbus is supposedly the first person to reach the Americas, but this is just a speculation. After all, Zheng He and his fleet were also others who supposedly might have beaten Columbus at this game of hide and seek 70 years prior. However, Zheng He's expedition seems more legitimate because there is more information that supports his than Columbus'. Columbus' claims and supports were mainly backed by the Christian faith and there wasn't really concrete evidence of his achieving the Americas first.

Bentley and Ziegler present Columbus much better than what Loewen accuses textbooks of doing. They are much better because of their strict adherence to not their or anyone's beliefs or opinions, but mainly solid facts and evidence. They don't sugarcoat achievements and make people such as Columbus look even better than what he is.

Menzies' Argument of Zheng He

I believe Menzies' argument that Zheng He's fleet made it to North America because he explains it properly through evidence. Menzies' uses various old maps and sources from 1421 to evaluate where Zheng He's fleets went and why. He's able to come to a conclusion that Zheng He came from under South Africa and was gradually dragged by the wind currents northwest. From there, Menzies proclaimed that Zheng He's fleet split into two factions. One faction went north and the other went south. For example, one of Menzies' evidences is that the island of Bimini has a landscape called the "shark mountains" and contains the wrecks of chinese junks (ships). Menzies uses not only tools and sources to investigate into this argument, but he also experiences these places himself by going to them. 

Mo'ikeha's Journey

The political, social, and cultural significance of the two-way voyaging between Tahiti and Hawai'i was large. All three of these aspects are connected and affect one another. The social and political aspect would be that Mo'ikeha was allowed to marry both of the sisters, Hinauu and Ho'oipoikamalanai, which in turn granted him the status of ali'i nui of Kaua'i. When they had children, Mo'ikeha sent one of his sons, Kila to Tagiti to find his elder half-brother. After finding him, they set out to Hawai'i with other men. The cultural aspect of all of this is that in Hawai'i, there were things that were different, such as hula dancing. Overall, the two-way voyaging had cultural, social, and political significance that benefitted the citizens of both Tahiti and Hawai'i. 

Muslims and Christians: A Reflection

I read about the Muslims and their views on the Europeans. I believe that there could never be a positive/complimentary view of the Europeans because of their differences in what they believe (religion). First off, in one of the documents, it said that Christians were hypocritical and ironic because of their so called "purity". They said that they believed in being pure, but many of them sought only for themselves. For example, there were many women who became prostitutes; this doesn't symbolize purity. Another thing is that there was already too much fighting that happened between the two races. So much hatred had already built up to a point where negotiations were meaningless, they were made only to be broken. Besides, the Muslims would've never treated the Christians as equals because their (Muslims) technology was more advanced. There was just too much havoc and hatred between the two races for any profound peace to occur. 

Map of Sub-Saharan Africa

The Griots: Learning Style

I believe that everyone has their own preference when it comes to learning any type of information. Some people may be visual or auditory learners, but others may be different! Honestly for me, I believe that the style of learning that the Griots conducted in would be not very useful to me for history. I'm a visual learner and not an auditory learner; I just cannot listen to someone orally tell me something and hope to memorize it. I need to be able to look at the words or whatever I'm learning and memorize that way. Especially the history I'm currently learning in class would require a great deal of memorizing and I just need time to visually understand it.

Essay Reflection: Part 2

I believe that the shape which defines the progress of history up to this point is circle. I believe history is a circle because it is perpetual when it comes to mistakes. Since a circle keeps flowing 360 degrees perpetually, I think it symbolizes how people over the course of history keep repeating the disasters that befell other civilizations; they are not learning. However, in this circle, there are certain points when leaders show determination to fix mistakes and improve their empire/kingdom/country. Even if rulers somehow are able to improve the status of their controlled areas, there will be a time when some bozo (bad) ruler will reign and neglect the important issues, thus leading their territory to decline and eventually collapsing. In conclusion, all these events with the bozo and good rulers all fall within that circle of history and will always repeat itself unendingly. 

Essay Reflection: Part 1

https://docs.google.com/a/bps121.org/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aoe8edAVb2X8dFkyUHhWTTZJSVhyVWoyRnFER2E2eGc#gid=0

Honestly, the progress with my essays over the past couple months have been the constantly low. It seems that I do well in organizing my essay getting a good opening thesis up, but I fail to explain my answers. I may have a good argument, but I cannot back it up with proper evidence. I think that a good approach to this problem is getting a good general idea of the region i'm discussing in whatever time period it is in. When I can get a good idea of each theme from that region, then I can start looking at in depth information. My problem was that I developed a superficial understanding of the region at hand and never fully interpreted it, I jumped into the deep information to quickly. I believe knowing this will give my essay more accuracy and help solve most of the problems.

The Mongol Trial - Near The End

Not much happened today, just Mike and Nikhil saying their concluding statements, which were excellent. Other than that, we just had a discussion about the overall nature of the trial and the Mongols.

The Mongol Trial - Work Content

Today (1/14), was the prosecutions turn to attack us and I wasn't called up to be interrogated by them. There really isn't much to work on now because all that's left in the trial is the closing statements. Overall, I believe my team (Defense) did very well.

The Mongol Trial - Work Content

Today (1/13), was the second day of the trial. Today I was called up as a witness and explained my story. Now, I'm getting ready for tomorrow just in case of being called up by the prosecution.

The Mongol Trial - Work Content

Oops, I forgot to say what happened last Thursday and Friday, but here it is!

Thursday (1/9), was a final preparation day for me, just getting everything ready. Friday (1/10) was the first day of the trial and I took notes of what other people said.

The Mongol Trial - Work Content

Today (1/8), I made some more questions and answers that the lawyers could potentially ask me. Other than that, getting mentally prepared for the trial...

The Mongol Trial - Work Content

Today (1/7), I rewatched the video: Khan of Khans and I made some more questions/answers that could potentially be asked to me.

The Mongol Trial - Work Content

Today (1/6), in class and at home, I made a list of questions and answers that could potentially be asked to my character (The Mongol Warrior).

The Mongol Trial - Work Content

Instead of doing a daily update of my work on the Mongol trial, I decided to wait near the end of vacation to update my status. I'm on Team Defense, so here goes:

12/23 - 12/27: Looked up information regarding the Prosecution team's people. I researched Guillaume Boucher, Abbasid Caliph al-Mustasim, Pope Innocent IV, and got some information about other general people such as the European citizen.

12/28 - 1/1: Now, I started looking up my own team's people and how they could play against the Prosecution. I researched mostly the ones with the asterisks on them: Subedei, Ogodei, Hulegu, Mongke, and Kublai considering how these are the more important witnesses in the trial. I also researched some of the other people for defense such as Yelu Chucai.

1/2: This was the most important day because it revolves around my own character: The Mongol Warrior. I researched greatly for this one.  

1/3 - 1/4: I finished the videos: World Conquerors, Tartar Crusaders, and Khan of Khans. Also, I finished reading chapter 18 of Traditions and Encounters.