Hello, everyone!
It's time for one of the least Eurocentric blog posts. Today, we're going to talk about ancient Africa, America, and Pacific Oceania history. History books tend to neglect these civilizations with few exceptions, so I have learned a lot about these civilizations today.
We're going to be talking about the entirety of Chapter Six today.
The Beginning of Chapter Six
Native American people still exist today. History books tend to act like Native Americans disappeared in the 1800's, but that is far from the truth. Native Americans are still alive today, and have faced much discrimination since European colonization.
And the Native Americans aren't alone. Africa and Pacific Oceania also have their histories neglected. So how about we finally talk about their true history, so they don't feel excluded or discriminated against in the history books?
Continental Comparisons
So besides, "Europeans are biased," why do histories books neglect three continents' worth of history?
The book justifies this by saying that Eurasia was home to more than 85% of the world's population. This was mainly because of the lack of large animals to domesticate in those regions, so it was harder to have a large population in those areas.
Also, some of these places lacked a writing system, or tended not to write as much down as Rome or China. This meant that historians had less to work with, so they have less to put in the history books.
Honestly, that's a good reason for why we know less about these societies, but not why we sometimes neglect to talk about these societies. Because at the end of the day, this is world history, right? Even in my sixth grade world history class, the most we talked about Africa was Egypt and the other species of the genus Homo.
Civilizations of Africa
Did you know that Africa is not a country, but a continent? Sometimes, it seems like people tend to forget that. Africa isn't one country with one culture; it's many countries with many different cultures.
The Kingdom of Menroe was one such culture. Sometimes led by women, the Kingdom of Menroe was rich and had a strong military. Trade was strong there, and the civilization seemed unstoppable... until deforestation happened. Now, Nubia, the region it took place in, is part of Egypt and Sudan.
Then, there was Axum. Instead of focusing on hoe-based farming, they used plow-based farming. They eventually grew and became a major empire, after Rome and Persia. Christianity took hold there, and then... they also fell from deforestation. They also didn't take good care of the soil, and Islam altered its trade roots, so the civilization fell.
That means that the three major civilizations fell, showing how fragile they truly are. It's sad how we only talk about Rome and Persia, but not Axum.
Civilizations of Mesoamerica
The "New World" isn't quite new, as people have been living there for centuries. In fact, Christopher Columbus technically didn't discover it, as people were already there! Even if people said, "He was the first European to discover it," Leif Erikson beat him to it.
Anyway, the most prominent of these Mesoamerican civilizations was the Maya people. They made some pretty amazing discoveries in their lifetime! They could do complex calculations, predict eclipses, plot the cycle of the planets, make their own calendars... they did much more than we think! The Maya people still survive to this day, but some parts of their empire has collapsed. Even then, we need to give them more credit for their discoveries, instead of making fake conspiracy theories about the world ending because, "their Mayan calendar ended!"
I also want to give credit to the Teotihuacan, for having complex architecture and for creating impressive art. It's pretty impressive what these civilizations could do, and we don't give them enough credit.
Civilizations of the Andres
The Incas weren't the only civilization in the Andres.
There were also the village, Chavin de Huantar, which started a religious movement. There was also the Moche, that had the land ruled by warrior priests, and the Wari and Tiwanaku, two very separate civilizations.
Why weren't they really talked about? Well, they never really wrote anything down, so archaeologists have to use archaeological findings in order to find out more about them. So I'm a bit skeptical if shaman-rulers from Moche used hallucinogenic drugs for religious purposes.
But even if it's just speculation from archaeological findings, they must have had a lot of fun theorizing how all of those societies worked. And if they're correct...?
Alternatives to Civilization
Time to talk about non-civilizations! Since there are so many to talk about, I'll only briefly go over the main ones.
The Bantu was a culture that is strongly associated with a group of languages. Unlike civilizations, Bantu didn't spread by conquering, but rather, it spread slowly and naturally across Africa. This is very interesting, as typically, one would have to go out of their way to spread their culture. Today, Bantu languages are spoken throughout Africa, an impressive feat.
Then there are the Native Americans of what would become the modern-day United States. They didn't really have large domesticated animals, but they domesticated the most-used crop today, corn. There were also mound-building cultures in North America. Still, there was not one culture there, but many, many non-unified cultures in the Americas. So it would be incorrect to call them one culture.
Finally, there were the people in Pacific Oceania. They lived on many small islands, and yet their cultures had their similarities with each other. Also, English has lone words from some of their languages, such as tatau (tatoo) and tapu (taboo). And they're culture is still here today, alive and well. Disney even recently made a movie that starred Polynesian actors, Moana.
Wow, that was a long post. But I'm glad I got to learn about cultures that are different than mine, especially when the history books didn't really teach me about them!
Next time, we'll talk about trade and how other cultures trade with each other.
Until next time!
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