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.