How the test went

Overall I thought I did pretty well on the test. Compared to the tests we have in class the multiple choice part was a lot easier. There was a couple that I was unsure about but overall I think I did pretty well. When I saw the dbq question I just burst out laughing because of the subject. When I was doing the dbq I kinda started stressing cause it took a long time. But once I got to the other two I sped right through them and I felt relieved that it was finally done. Overall I think I did a pretty good job and I am so happy it is finally over.

Communist Manifesto! That's fun to say...Manifesto!

Pros:
1. Equal obligation of all to work. Everyone pitches in and does their part for society. Their is not more burden on one person than another, so no one becomes angered about unfair labor.
2. Every child in public school is entitled to an equal and free education. Children are also taken away from the factory environment and are focused more on their education.
3. Abolition of Bourgeois property. Everyone is at the same place in society and not one person is ahead of the other. Everyone is equal!
4. Centralization of credit in the banks. State has control of everyone's money and makes sure that no one person becomes richer to an unfair extent than the other. Also centralizes government as a whole. All of the state's money is in one place.
Cons:
1. High income taxes. The government is already standardizing everyone's income, taxing people high could cause revolt.
2. Combination of agriculture and manufacturing industries. Too much for one combination. Also two very different areas of production to be grouping together.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance. No sense of family values. Money that would be inherited just flows back into the government and this could anger people.
4. Abolition of property and land goes to public service. No one has a sense of ownership or their own land. I feel like if everyone were to own an equal part of land it would be better than having the government own it all.

Leaders in Paintings...what else is new?

One of the main things in these portraits that we observed in class and that I also noticed at home was the presence of scholarly items, such as books, quills, or constitutions. This emphasizes how they were all thought of as educated and intelligent by the people they led and the artists that portrayed them. Also, along with high thoughts of their education, the artists also portrayed the leader's strength and warlike skills using swords in almost all of the paintings with the exception of one. The artists use qualities such as intelligence and education as well as distinct facial expressions to portray these people a certain way. An example of this is George Washington's content and calm nature or Murat's arrogant smile that show their pride of their winnings. By making these leaders look so proud and triumphant the artists have created a picture of what a good leader should look like, making all leaders from then on try to live up their standards. For example, George Washington's look carried on in almost all of his successors. The majority were white, educated, middle aged men. I think that revolutions such as the ones led by these leaders need a strong heroic figure because they take the "rebellion" factor out of the revolution and insert a liberating and justified factor into it. Because these leaders are portrayed as such honorable and heroic figures, I believe the artists are representing the opinions of the people throughout the revolutions that these leaders were apart of.

TED Talk

After watching the Ted talk I have to say I was very interested by what Niall Ferguson had to say. He went beyond the realms of formal and concrete thought and used a device we all know as an example to propose his idea...the smartphone. His whole lecture was about how Westerners became more prosperous than people of the east, and it did not end up this way because of empire or geography. He made his conclusion based on six things, which he calls the killer apps: competition, the scientific revolution, property rights, modern medicine, the consumer society, and the work ethic. I would have to agree with Ferguson's point of view because Europe was divided into very different empires in a small amount of space, while Easterners had very large amounts of space under one Empire. This created diversity and competition in Europe, which was not present in the east. Everyone had to fight to make a living and to own land which increase emphasis on the points of property rights and work ethic. In the east, the government controlled land ownership, income, and even testing for job placement so there was no competition, people just did what hey had to. After Ferguson then presents his belief as to why the West developed faster during what he calls "The Great Divergence", he brings up the issue that the east has entered back into the race again, and they are going for the win. He also mentions that the American who was 20 times richer than the easterner years ago is now only 5 times richer due to an increase in their work ethic and a decline in the West's. Even more scary, he says by 2016 China will top the U.S. for number one economy in the world. Overall, I believe he brings up some very good points and signals for the east to take action!

Ottoman, Safavids, Mughals and other stuff...

I believe the authors of this textbook put the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals together in one chapter because of their common heritage. They all descended from Turkish nomads and they all followed the Islamic faith. However I don't think this was the best idea because there is a lot of bouncing back and forth between each empire and it becomes hard to follow and keep a clear train of thought. Also if each empire were to have its own chapter, we would be able to learn more about them as a whole rather than how they compared to the other societies.

I think this period of global interaction (1500-1800) was beneficial to the people involved. Societies across the world were changing for the better due to certain technological advances because of exchanges amongst different cultures. The only bad thing I took out of the several readings was the growth of slavery during this period of global interaction. Although in our society today we perceive slavery as a bad thing because of the racism that was coupled with it, during this time frame it increased labor. Overall the worldwide exchanges in this time frame helped create a boom in creativity and innovation and it was truly beneficial to the societies and people involved.

Links to xtranormal videos

This is the link to the video of Tokagawa and Daiymo:

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/13183730

This is the link to the video of Tokagawa and the Samuri:

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/13183680

Fabian Fucan and his Issues With Christianity

Well, to say Fabian Fucan hates Christianity is an understatement. He laments the fact the he converted and left the faith of Buddhism, which he is now following again. Fucan uses religious, cultural, historical, political, and social aspects to attack Christianity. Fucan states that Japan is the land of the gods. He also goes onto say that these gods protect their land, taking a direct shot at Deus(the Latin word for the Christian god). This statement includes both religious and cultural aspect because it addresses the religions gods and customs. Fucan also mentions that the Jesuits are trying to destroy Buddhism during their conquests and gain control of Luzon and Nova Hispania, which are the modern day Philippines and Mexico.this attacks the historical and political aspects of Christianity. Lastly, he attacks the social aspects of Christianity because he says that Buddhism is too strong to be taken over by Christianity. He says that unless the Christians are willing to invade they will not succeed in converting people. Overall, he is not a fan of Christianity and considers it a corrupt religion.

Chapter 26 Project

Here is our project on Chapter 26. I collaborated with Nadia and Bobby. We did the powerpoint in google docs.

Here is the link:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/pub?id=1AjL5Ugkrmz275quNBWVGvUhuBzoE-4r16ukPZP70o_M&start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

What truly is Capitalism...

Based on the reading and class discussion, I believe capitalism is a government system completely dependent on its economy and the competition that lies between certain merchants and business owners to manufacture the best product for the lesser cost. However it's more complicated that I previously thought. From the reading I learned that merchants developed a technique called supply and demand where they would buy a product of surplus with little value from one area and take it to sell to an area with high demand for the product, thus increasing the profit made by the merchant. Also, joint stock companies arose as a part of capitalism to eventually organize commercial trading on a larger scale than ever before in history. However, capitalism has its downfalls because while everyone had a desire to compete and earn money, the quality of the goods produced decreased because everyone was trying to create the most turnover the fastest and for the least amount of money. So while the quantity of everything was increasing, the quality was quickly declining.

Christianity and its different forms/Capitalism

I believe Christianity broke up into so many forms because of people who wanted to alter the faith for their own benefit. Christianity itself was a very powerful influence on the people of Europe as well as other places. As new leaders came about and realized the influence it had on their citizens, they thought what if I came up with my own sect of the religion that would give me the power and make people listen to me. By doing this they still kept their followers because it was technically the same faith, but they also gained more authority. So for own selfish reasons, people took the one faith that "God" designed and transformed it into many sects that benefitted their needs.
As for capitalism I am not quite sure as to what it is. I know it has to do with a government's economy, but that is pretty much it.

Since I don't have a twitter...purpose of the roads

Roman Roads: the purpose of the roman roads was to move their armies and trade products as well as communicate.
Persian roads: the royal road was built to facilitate fast communication throughout the large empire.
Incan roads: quick and reliable routes for civilian/military connections on foot. Purpose to boost communication, also aided caravans.

I think the roman roads were the best because they took the initial developments of the Incan roads and improved them for the better.

Show me link

http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=nFAD63M

Pros and Cons to Griot Methods of Preserving History

Some pros to the way the griots spread their knowledge were:
•That it had sentimental value to both the people teaching and learning perhaps having a greater influence to its audience.
•it spread to a great range of people of different ages.
•Each family had a separate piece of culture that was original to them.
Some cons to the griots way of spreading knowledge were
•There was the possibility of the information getting lost in translation (huge game of telephone)
•If someone in the family were to pass away a piece of the history could vanish forever.
•the information could be misinterpreted or falsely understood because of certain people's opinions.

I think the griots way of preserving knowledge was very personalized and sentimental, which was good, but i still prefer the textbook way of learning. I feel like it is to easy for nformation to get changed around or for information to just suddenly vanish. The textbook provides permanent knowledge since it is written down, and people can interpret what they want from it and not have to memorize every single detail of their families history. I think what the griots did made them unique, but I cannot see it catching on to modern day society.

The Mongol Trial

I enjoyed the Mongol trial. I thought it was funny seeing my peers be questioned and how they reacted under pressure. The preparation for it was easy but time consuming. It required a lot of research and we had to anticipate what the prosecution was going to say so we would have a rebuttal argument ready. This I felt was the hardest part because we couldn't be 100% confident in our preparation because we couldn't predict everything the prosecution was going to say. I felt my role required the most preparation because I had to deliver two formal statements that reflected directly what was going to happen or what happened in the trial. I still have yet to deliver the closing statement, but I feel that it was much harder to write than the opening statement. This is because you are just introducing the case in the beginning and arguing your point alone. But with the closing statement you have to still support your argument while disproving the opposing sides argument. I think my opening statement was a little long but i was happy with the way that it was structured because I feel like it flowed from one topic to the other easily and introduced all necessary aspects to the case.
My view on the Mongols is that they were simply well trained warriors and not murdering psychos. I feel that any successful empire has had a similar story in that their militaries conquered a bunch of lands and killed opposing soldiers in the heat of battle. I think we should admire them for what they built. It was the largest empire in history basically stretching for all of Europe and asia. Why should they not be praised? Completely aside from this trial I would say that the Mongols are innocent and did not commit the charges of genocide, terrorism, or kidnapping.

Genghis Khan...psycho killer???

Despite his many brutal murders in life I somehow think Genghis Khan was a person and not a psycho violent killer. The part of the movie that convinced me that he thought about his actions was when he couldn't bear to kill his childhood friend Jamuka. I believe he was a person of honor and loyalty. When Jamuka's people turned him into Khan for their own survival, Genghis killed them because of their disloyalty and refused to kill Jamuka because of their old friendship. Even when Jamuka begged to be killed, Genghis refused to watch and showed he had some feelings about his actions. To be a psycho killer I think it requires that the person have no reasoning as to what is right and wrong, and I believe Genghis Khan knew what was right and what was wrong in this situation.

Project #6

So, the project went well. I don't think it turned out as good as I would have hoped, but in the future I already have ideas with more collaboration involved. I prefered this format of the project much more than my former idea, because I don't think my point wouldn't have gotten across as clearly. Also, I would like to reflect back on my research. I found that while looking through my book I could find really solid and truthful information, while on certain websites I wasn't too sure. But, the websites provide the convenience of finding it for you while searching through a full length text is not too much fun. I think I decided to display my understanding this way was because I wanted my project to be more technology oriented, and with my original idea it wasn't. As for the search engines, I really enjoyed sweetsearch. It had more intricate and detailed sites that I found quite informative. Other than that mish mosh of words I think that concludes my project. Here is the bibliography:

Websites
. "History Learning Site." Saladin. N.p., 2011. Web. 13 Jan 2012. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Saladin.htm>.

. "The Crusades." New World Encyclopedia. N.p., 2 Oct 2011. Web. 13 Jan 2012. <http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/The_Crusades>.

. "The Crusades." The Crusades. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan 2012. <http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/the-crusades.htm>.

. "The 8 Crusades Explained." listverse.com. N.p., 07 Aug 2007. Web. 13 Jan 2012. <http://listverse.com/2007/08/07/the-8-crusades-explained/>.

Books

Armstrong, Karen. Holy War: The CRusades and Their Impact on Toda'ys World. 1st. New York: DoubleDay, 1991. Print.

Bentley, Jerry H., and Herbert F. Ziegler. Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past. 3rd. McGraw Hill: New York, 2006. Print.

Biel, Timothy Levi. The Crusades. San Diego: Lucent Books, 1995. Print.

Konstam, Angus. Historical Atlas of The Crusades. 2nd. New York: Thalamus Publishing, 2002. Print.

Rice Jr., Earle. Life During the Crusades . San Diego: Lucent Books, 1998. Print.

Project #5

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Muslims-Reactions-to-the-Crusades-Support-Group/197352293694547?sk=wall&filter=1
This is the link for my facebook page for the project. I will post the bibliography in a little bit. Just a couple of complaints when using facebook but for the most part it was very user-friendly. 1. I think it thought I was trying to hack the system because it was constantly asking for verification. 2. I didn't care for having to switch back and forth between users. 3. There were a lot of preliminary steps in the settings to go through before I could get going. 4. It stopped letting me post pictures.

Otherwise I hope you enjoy it.

Project #4

Ok, so I've decided to do something diferent. My original idea didn't work out so well and I want my project to be more technology savy. After talking to Nadia and hearing her sucess with facebook I have decided to do something on facebook as well. My plan is two make four different users, one for each crusade I am doing then post status updates and have them interact with one another based on their thoughts throughout the crusade. The crusades I will be focusing on are the first, second, third and fourth crusades. After my research I feel that these crusades have the most to offer in my project, even though it was hard to give up the oppurtunity to mock children who forgot they needed a boat. Well its off to facebook from here. I will post the final product on the blog later along with my bibliography.

Project Post #3

When it comes to the collaboration part of the project I worked with Iselle, Bobby, and Nadia. I commented on some of their blog posts with websites I felt were helpful to me, and based on their research I think would be helpful to them too. These websites I found were from sweetsearch and bing. I tried to stay away from google just because I was curious what other sites had to offer. One particular site I found on Bing was an encyclopedia that was structured a lot like wikipedia, however, I felt like this website had a lot more in depth information while still maintaining the easy navigation that wikipedia uses. The website I found on sweetsearch differed a lot from sites that I would usually find on google. This was basically an index of all the crusades with basic information on the homepage. Then you could select which crusade you wanted to find more about, and it would bring up a very detailed and thorough page of what happened. Lastly, I went a bit oldschool for some of my sources. Like I mentioned before in my first blogpost about the project, I went to the Burlington Public Library to check out some books. What I like about these books is that every single one of them is different and offers something extra to my project, which is something that is sometimes overlooked when using websites. Websites can tend to be very similar and uniform in their presentation of topics. Where as the books I picked out have certain images and diagrams that enhance the material and make each source unique.

Project Post #2

So for the structure of the project I'm going to try and spike my creativity a little bit and do something  different. I find I work better visually so I am going to construct a four sided pyramid, one side for each crusade I'm doing. At the top of the pyramid will be the people who I believe "won" the crusade. By won I do not only mean physically beat the other side, but I mean who had psycological or geographical advantages over the other side. Then using my 3D diagram I will make a video explaining why I put everything there aand how this explains the Muslims reactions.

Project Post #1

Today I went to the Burlington Public Library to get a few books on the crusades to learn some more in depth information. I found several books, but the one that interested me the most was an atlas of all the crusades. It had large maps showing every individual movement, the people involved and the general locations affected. I think this will be most helpful in understanding the chronology of the crusades and assist in developing a conclusion on the Muslims opinion of them.