THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MONGOLS!!!

Before Strayer, I believed that the Mongols were a group of uncivilized baboons that terrorized the people they conquered and didn't have any moralistic values. I now know that they were in actuality an alternative society that was quite successful in their drives for expansion because of their incredible army and the timing of their conquests on China. They may not have had the right technology or resources to accomplish what they wanted but they were able to because of their leader and their organized way of training their forces. They were a society that believed more in equality of men and women and because of that, their women had greater opportunities to be successful in society and they were allowed to learn how to ride horses and fight. I think it would have been a liberating experience to be a Mongol woman during that time because they got to experience a very different lifestyle from their other counterparts in different civilizations. The Mongols were important because they had extensive trade networks and they brought Eurasian civilizations closer together in doing that. They sent their talented workers and educated people out to other cultures to bring in ideas and to also spread their own. They may have broken some morality clauses along the way but the Mongols made a lasting impact that is important to be talked about.

China's Renaissance: Real or Not Real

Many would argue that China's renaissance period was different from the actual period that occurred in Europe because of its effect on China and the time of the events when in reality, the two were the same. Europe's Renaissance or "Golden Age" was at the same time as China's and they both shared similarities in how their civilizations grew. China's occurred because of the Tang and the Song dynasties which established enduring patterns of Chinese life, with excellent poetry, landscape paintings, and ceramics coming out of this time period. They built infrastructure with major ministries in personnel, finance, rites, army, justice and public works. China went through a renaissance because their economy boomed, they created the wheelbarrow and gunpowder which were both revolutionary technologies for their civilization as well as on a global scale. There was also a rebirth of seminal thinking ideas which is characteristic of a renaissance period.

Igbo and the Iroquois

While the rest of the world is becoming caught up in their new advancing civilizations, there were still groups of agricultural societies that decided to stay secluded and not follow the changes of everyone else. The Igbo peoples were one of those groups that chose to not develop into a small state like their neighbors. They focused on other ways of maintaining the social order but they still traded amongst themselves and other distant peoples. The Iroquois people were also a group that were interesting because after conflict arose with five of the clans, they came together and created a governing organization to solve future disputes and set reparation payments. It is also good to note that in the Iroquois people, their lineage was matrilineal, couples lived with the women's family, women could control agriculture and property and they selected leaders. The Iroquois people really understood the powers of women!

Roles of Women in Islam

In the Quran, women were seen as equal to men in their spiritual life. They began to lose their rights and freedoms though when the Arab Empire grew drastically and the civilization began to flourish. It is the common belief that they were repressed by their religion but the fact that it was actually the Middle Eastern culture is surprising. It then led to the changing of Islamic law and women were seen as "weak, deficient, and a sexually charged threat to men and social stability." Some Sufi orders were a blessing to  women though and gave them more opportunities outside of the home. The Shia allowed them to visit tombs of major Islamic figures and socialize with women beyond their family. They are still extremely repressed but there are some groups that recognize women's role in society.

WWJD?

The Crusades in my opinion were a pretty awful thing for the Christians to do to expand their land and try and convert others because they showed violence and cruelty and gave Christianity a bad name. They killed thousands of people because they said that they were doing "God's work" but I don't think that any god would condone that many losses of innocent lives. The men that participated in these crusades were sick and twisted because I don't know how a sane person could walk "ankle deep in blood" without freaking out or feeling guilt for their deeds. The fact that it did not even have a lasting impact on the region is the part that angers me the most because it shows that their actions were for nothing and they could have spared many lives. Its shameful to me that they believed what they were doing was right.

Expansion of Rus

I found it really interesting that a group of Slavic people were the ones that had the most significant expansion of Orthodox Christianity because I do not think that I have ever thought about Christians in that area of the world. Its effects brought together all of the diverse peoples of the region and made it available to more interaction with other civilizations while giving religious legitimacy to its rulers. It must have been a big change to the people because it caused the civilization to grow and become more important in status. I can only imagine how it might have felt for my leader to decide to bring our region together under one religion when I had been used to the diversity and being able to have the freedom to choose what I wanted to believe in. He could have been understanding and let everyone keep their own beliefs or it could have been the opposite and force everyone to follow Christianity. There is not much information on which situation occurred but I know that the region went through a lot of changes during that period and hopefully it ended well for Rus' people.

Silk, Sea or Sand: The Development of Trade in Third-World Civilizations

Trade was important to these new civilizations because it shaped daily life, affected their working lives by making them specialize in making products for sale outside of the region, distinguished elite groups by their luxurious foreign possessions, transformed political life and allowed for the spread of religious ideas, technological innovations, disease and plants and animals. I feel like it was also important because it brought different cultures together and allowed them to grow and develop new ideas. It made life easier for some populations because they now had access to products they needed to live better lives and gave them more opportunities in growth. This chapter discussed three different trade routes- The Silk Roads across Eurasia, The Sea Roads across the Indian Ocean, and The Sand Roads across the Sahara. The Silk Roads moved luxury goods, Buddhism through the activity of merchants (changed as it spread), and unfortunately diseases which had devastating consequences because the people had not developed an immunity to the foreign diseases they came in contact with. The Sea Roads were the world's largest sea-based exchange and communication system that operated based on the monsoons and had transportation costs lower than Silk Roads because they could put larger and heavier items on boats than camels. The Sand Roads allowed the North African and Mediterranean world to connect with interior West Africa and they traded gold, salt, and slaves with the West African empire. All three of these trade routes were important because they connected people across long distances.