Hello, everyone!
Today, I would like to talk about the civilization that isn't talked about enough in Western history books: the Mongol Empire. They were a very successful group of pastoral people that are most often painted as bad guys by the losers in history. This is because they didn't really write down history themselves, so we have to get it from unbiased sources.
So let's talk about the Mongols in a more neutral way.
This is Chapter 11, by the way. It's the last post of the year.
First, let's admire their equality toward women. Women were not treated very well throughout history, but in the Mongol Empire? They were also in battles! There was even a Mongol princess that had a huge winning streak when it came to wrestling. It must have been strange for a patriarchal empire to see women on the battlefield, but maybe that was one of the reasons why they won so many battles. Since women make up roughly half of the human population, why not have them conquer with you?
The Mongols really liked ruling China. They liked ruling China so much, they started their own laws to benefit the empire and oppress the Chinese people. The law discriminated the Chinese very clearly, so it's no wonder China tried to get rid of all evidence of Mongolian rule after the Mongolians stopped ruling China.
But you know what country was never under the influence of the Mongol Empire? It was Japan. The Mongols just couldn't win against Japan. The victory was so impressive to the Japanese that they invented a new word during the battle: kamikaze. It means "divine wind," referring to the typhoons that caused the Mongols to leave. Yes, the term was also used in World War II, but it wasn't referring to typhoons anymore.
Also, it was really impressive how the Mongols didn't convert people to their religion. Instead, they were very accepting of other people's religions. They also used shamans in their Mongolian religion, which had similar roles to fortune tellers (telling the future, talking to spirits, etc.). It's amazing how it didn't spread as they spread, as that's really rare in history not to see forced conversions while conquering.
Finally, the Mongol Empire encouraged trade with other countries. It was great that medical practices were spread throughout Eurasia, but it wasn't great that the Black Death spread throughout Eurasia. On the bright side, both things lead to Europe becoming really strong, which, like Mongolian trade, was a mixed bag. Coincidentally, both European colonization and Mongolian trade lead to the spread of diseases, but unlike Mongolian trade, the Native Americans did not benefit from smallpox.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Madison Rambles #14: The Different Civilizations + Columbus's Journey
Hello, everyone!
Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and discovered America after losing his way to India. That may sound ridiculous today, but people actually believed that a century ago. There's a lot of controversy over Columbus Day because it's celebrating the genocide of Native Americans, so we won't be celebrating Columbus in this post.
Instead, I'll talk about the different civilizations around Columbus's time, including the Native Americans. It's a late counter-Columbus Day, if you will.
This is Chapter 12, by the way. We'll get to Chapter 11 soon, don't worry.
So Christopher Columbus was a complicated figure, to say the least. He was certainly not the hero everyone portrayed him to be, but even today, Columbus Day is still celebrated. Still, even if he is a terrible person for enslaving the Native Americans and spreading plagues, he did represent a new era in history: colonialism. On one hand, the United States of America and Australia are successful countries due to colonialism. On the other hand, millions of people had to suffer, especially Native Americans and African people. No wonder America notoriously sugarcoats history (I even heard one of the reasons the Revolutionary War happened was because Britain started banning slaves).
China was going to go out to sea just like Europe, but they mysteriously stopped. Can you imagine what would happen if China colonized the world instead of Great Britain? Chinese, most likely Mandarin, would become the lingua franca, people would be complaining about the brutality of Chinese colonialism, languages would have to convert from their alphabet to Chinese characters often... someone should write a story on that. Though, considering China is becoming a world superpower again, I wouldn't be surprised that became the reality a century from now.
The Byzantine Empire was conquered by a 19-year-old Muslim. He had cannons, the Byzantine Empire had walls, and the Muslims managed to conquer the Byzantine Empire. That was the moment Rome truly fell: when a 19-year-old ruler told his soldiers to fire the cannons. It's the failures like these that make history entertaining, but at the same time, that conquer was brutal.
Finally, the Inca and Aztec Empire had something in common with the United States of America: the rags to riches story. It would go like this: people who lived very remote places quickly got an army together, conquered, and created a massive empire. They were run very differently, but it's amazing to see how developed they were. They even had artificial islands! They made fertile Sealand! I want to see those artificial islands and the crops on them right now.
Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and discovered America after losing his way to India. That may sound ridiculous today, but people actually believed that a century ago. There's a lot of controversy over Columbus Day because it's celebrating the genocide of Native Americans, so we won't be celebrating Columbus in this post.
Instead, I'll talk about the different civilizations around Columbus's time, including the Native Americans. It's a late counter-Columbus Day, if you will.
This is Chapter 12, by the way. We'll get to Chapter 11 soon, don't worry.
So Christopher Columbus was a complicated figure, to say the least. He was certainly not the hero everyone portrayed him to be, but even today, Columbus Day is still celebrated. Still, even if he is a terrible person for enslaving the Native Americans and spreading plagues, he did represent a new era in history: colonialism. On one hand, the United States of America and Australia are successful countries due to colonialism. On the other hand, millions of people had to suffer, especially Native Americans and African people. No wonder America notoriously sugarcoats history (I even heard one of the reasons the Revolutionary War happened was because Britain started banning slaves).
China was going to go out to sea just like Europe, but they mysteriously stopped. Can you imagine what would happen if China colonized the world instead of Great Britain? Chinese, most likely Mandarin, would become the lingua franca, people would be complaining about the brutality of Chinese colonialism, languages would have to convert from their alphabet to Chinese characters often... someone should write a story on that. Though, considering China is becoming a world superpower again, I wouldn't be surprised that became the reality a century from now.
The Byzantine Empire was conquered by a 19-year-old Muslim. He had cannons, the Byzantine Empire had walls, and the Muslims managed to conquer the Byzantine Empire. That was the moment Rome truly fell: when a 19-year-old ruler told his soldiers to fire the cannons. It's the failures like these that make history entertaining, but at the same time, that conquer was brutal.
Finally, the Inca and Aztec Empire had something in common with the United States of America: the rags to riches story. It would go like this: people who lived very remote places quickly got an army together, conquered, and created a massive empire. They were run very differently, but it's amazing to see how developed they were. They even had artificial islands! They made fertile Sealand! I want to see those artificial islands and the crops on them right now.
Monday, November 18, 2019
Madison Rambles #13: We're Finally Talking About China!
Hello, everyone!
Today, I'm going to announce that I'm doing these posts a little differently from now on. You see, the previous posts were long, talking about all of the previous sections and how I feel about them.
I'm not going to be talking about all the sections anymore. It took up to two hours to do, and honestly, that's not the kind of homework I want to do after a 30+ page reading.
So now, I'm going to make these blog posts more accurate to the title: I'm going to ramble. I'm just going to talk about my thoughts, regardless of section. Here I go...
By the way, I'm talking about Chapter 8.
Did you know that China did foot binding? The Chinese people would break a girl's foot, let it heal, and then break it again, going through the cycle until the girl's foot was small enough. It's very painful, and I'm glad it's not as popular anymore.
There was also the concept of "becoming Chinese," similar to the concept of "becoming American." That's because China was like the America of its time period! Even nowadays, China is starting to catch up to the United States. I wonder when it will overtake it...?
そして、中国の文化を覚えたかったので、日本人は中国に行きました。だから、日本語で書く時、漢字を使います！いいですね。しかし、漢字はすごく難しいので、漢検も難しいです。大変ですね…
(Also, because Japan wanted to learn about Chinese culture, Japanese people went to China. Because of that, when writing in Japanese, you use kanji (borrowed Chinese characters used in Japanese)! Isn't that great? However, because kanji are very difficult, the Kanken (a famous Japanese kanji test) is also very difficult. It's terrible, isn't it?)
Finally, let's talk about gunpowder, because China accidentally made it when they were making an elixir of life. It's great for fireworks... but it also helped to invent guns. And while that might have helped us in warfare, it also killed millions, if not billions of people. So it's really an ironic double-edged sword. And before anyone says that I'm using ironic wrong, an elixir of life that kills people is situational irony. There's no arguing that.
Today, I'm going to announce that I'm doing these posts a little differently from now on. You see, the previous posts were long, talking about all of the previous sections and how I feel about them.
I'm not going to be talking about all the sections anymore. It took up to two hours to do, and honestly, that's not the kind of homework I want to do after a 30+ page reading.
So now, I'm going to make these blog posts more accurate to the title: I'm going to ramble. I'm just going to talk about my thoughts, regardless of section. Here I go...
By the way, I'm talking about Chapter 8.
Did you know that China did foot binding? The Chinese people would break a girl's foot, let it heal, and then break it again, going through the cycle until the girl's foot was small enough. It's very painful, and I'm glad it's not as popular anymore.
There was also the concept of "becoming Chinese," similar to the concept of "becoming American." That's because China was like the America of its time period! Even nowadays, China is starting to catch up to the United States. I wonder when it will overtake it...?
そして、中国の文化を覚えたかったので、日本人は中国に行きました。だから、日本語で書く時、漢字を使います！いいですね。しかし、漢字はすごく難しいので、漢検も難しいです。大変ですね…
(Also, because Japan wanted to learn about Chinese culture, Japanese people went to China. Because of that, when writing in Japanese, you use kanji (borrowed Chinese characters used in Japanese)! Isn't that great? However, because kanji are very difficult, the Kanken (a famous Japanese kanji test) is also very difficult. It's terrible, isn't it?)
Finally, let's talk about gunpowder, because China accidentally made it when they were making an elixir of life. It's great for fireworks... but it also helped to invent guns. And while that might have helped us in warfare, it also killed millions, if not billions of people. So it's really an ironic double-edged sword. And before anyone says that I'm using ironic wrong, an elixir of life that kills people is situational irony. There's no arguing that.
Monday, November 4, 2019
Madison Rambles #12: Christian Division
Hello, everyone!
Last time, we talked about the second most popular religion in the world, Islam. Now, we're going to talk about the most popular religion in the world, if all groups are combined into one religion, Christianity.
I don't even think I need to explain what Christianity is. It's so popular, fiction references it constantly, whether it's Christmas, referencing the Holy Trinity, or even quoting directly from the Bible (and that's not even including the genre of Christian media, such as Veggietales).
So let's talk about the religion that represents nearly a third of the world, Christianity.
This is Chapter 10, by the way.
The Beginning of Chapter 10
Did you know that 60% of Christians come from Asia, Africa, or Latin America? I know; it's surprising how a religion that originated in Europe is mostly practiced in, well, not Europe. It shows the success in the spread of Christianity, rivaling even Islam. Though, I do hope most of that conversion was through personal choice and not through violent means...
Sometimes, "Christianity" is a bit too much of a broad term, because there are so many different types of Christianity. There's Eastern Orthodox, Catholicism, Protestantism, Anglicanism... there's a lot. And later on, we'll see how they sometimes don't get along very well.
Christian Contraction in Asia and Africa
In Asia and Africa, Christianity had to compete with other religions, most notably Islam.
In the Middle East, Islam stayed the dominant religion. While Christianity and Judaism were sometimes allowed to be practiced there, but they sometimes had to pay a tax. Occasionally, however, they faced violence, such as destroyed churches and having their crops burned. Religious freedom tended to vary depending on the ruler.
As for China, sometimes they allowed Christianity, and sometimes they didn't. Now, to my knowledge, Christianity can be practiced in China.
In Egypt, Christianity used to be the dominant religion until the Muslim conquest. However, today, roughly 10% of Egyptians identify as Christians, showing that it's very difficult to eradicate a religion from an area.
Byzantine Christendom: Building on the Roman Past
How did Christianity become the dominant religion? That would be mainly because of the Roman Emperor, Constantine.
However, by spreading Christianity throughout Rome, he ended up splitting the religion into two: Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism. This is because Rome was also split into Western Rome and the Byzantine Empire.
Eastern Orthodox and Catholicism did not get along well. They disagreed on several things, from where the Holy Spirit came from to even the importance of faith. This is most likely why the split is still here today.
By the way, did you know that Russia converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity in 988? It's still a major part of Russia to this day.
Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the Wake of Roman Collapse
So Western Rome fell. Whether you believe it was due to invaders, Christianity, or Rome getting too lazy, Rome is now a distant memory that no longer exists. That led to the Dark Ages of Western Europe, a dangerous time of no central government.
Feudalism was born because people needed protection from invaders. They would give the landowners certain materials, and they would get protection in return. Contrary to popular belief, serfs had rights, and in some cases, it was better to be a serf than an independent, free citizen.
And then there were the Crusades, the religious wars of the era. I remember my high school history teacher teaching about the First and the Third Crusade, because, in his opinion, those were the most important and interesting ones. The Third Crusade in particular was of interest, and he even taught the legends behind the Christian kings teaming up to take back the Holy Land.
Interestingly, he argued that the Crusades are still happening today. Whether he's right or what events he's talking about is up to you.
The West in Comparative Perspective
Just like some U.S. presidents, nobody expected Europe to be the winner of so much of late world history. Even in the 1500's, they just started colonizing the New World and catching up to China and the Islamic World.
So what happened? They learned from other cultures.
Europe went back to Greek texts and learned how to think critically about the world around them. They learned medical knowledge and math from the Islamic world. They even copied some of China's technology, such as paper.
In the end, Europe became dominant in the world. It's descendant, the United States of America, is now a global superpower that rivals China. So it's worth it to learn about the past and to learn about other cultures, because they may have some useful knowledge that people could learn from.
Last time, we talked about the second most popular religion in the world, Islam. Now, we're going to talk about the most popular religion in the world, if all groups are combined into one religion, Christianity.
I don't even think I need to explain what Christianity is. It's so popular, fiction references it constantly, whether it's Christmas, referencing the Holy Trinity, or even quoting directly from the Bible (and that's not even including the genre of Christian media, such as Veggietales).
So let's talk about the religion that represents nearly a third of the world, Christianity.
This is Chapter 10, by the way.
The Beginning of Chapter 10
Did you know that 60% of Christians come from Asia, Africa, or Latin America? I know; it's surprising how a religion that originated in Europe is mostly practiced in, well, not Europe. It shows the success in the spread of Christianity, rivaling even Islam. Though, I do hope most of that conversion was through personal choice and not through violent means...
Sometimes, "Christianity" is a bit too much of a broad term, because there are so many different types of Christianity. There's Eastern Orthodox, Catholicism, Protestantism, Anglicanism... there's a lot. And later on, we'll see how they sometimes don't get along very well.
Christian Contraction in Asia and Africa
In Asia and Africa, Christianity had to compete with other religions, most notably Islam.
In the Middle East, Islam stayed the dominant religion. While Christianity and Judaism were sometimes allowed to be practiced there, but they sometimes had to pay a tax. Occasionally, however, they faced violence, such as destroyed churches and having their crops burned. Religious freedom tended to vary depending on the ruler.
As for China, sometimes they allowed Christianity, and sometimes they didn't. Now, to my knowledge, Christianity can be practiced in China.
In Egypt, Christianity used to be the dominant religion until the Muslim conquest. However, today, roughly 10% of Egyptians identify as Christians, showing that it's very difficult to eradicate a religion from an area.
Byzantine Christendom: Building on the Roman Past
How did Christianity become the dominant religion? That would be mainly because of the Roman Emperor, Constantine.
However, by spreading Christianity throughout Rome, he ended up splitting the religion into two: Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism. This is because Rome was also split into Western Rome and the Byzantine Empire.
Eastern Orthodox and Catholicism did not get along well. They disagreed on several things, from where the Holy Spirit came from to even the importance of faith. This is most likely why the split is still here today.
By the way, did you know that Russia converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity in 988? It's still a major part of Russia to this day.
Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the Wake of Roman Collapse
So Western Rome fell. Whether you believe it was due to invaders, Christianity, or Rome getting too lazy, Rome is now a distant memory that no longer exists. That led to the Dark Ages of Western Europe, a dangerous time of no central government.
Feudalism was born because people needed protection from invaders. They would give the landowners certain materials, and they would get protection in return. Contrary to popular belief, serfs had rights, and in some cases, it was better to be a serf than an independent, free citizen.
And then there were the Crusades, the religious wars of the era. I remember my high school history teacher teaching about the First and the Third Crusade, because, in his opinion, those were the most important and interesting ones. The Third Crusade in particular was of interest, and he even taught the legends behind the Christian kings teaming up to take back the Holy Land.
Interestingly, he argued that the Crusades are still happening today. Whether he's right or what events he's talking about is up to you.
The West in Comparative Perspective
Just like some U.S. presidents, nobody expected Europe to be the winner of so much of late world history. Even in the 1500's, they just started colonizing the New World and catching up to China and the Islamic World.
So what happened? They learned from other cultures.
Europe went back to Greek texts and learned how to think critically about the world around them. They learned medical knowledge and math from the Islamic world. They even copied some of China's technology, such as paper.
In the end, Europe became dominant in the world. It's descendant, the United States of America, is now a global superpower that rivals China. So it's worth it to learn about the past and to learn about other cultures, because they may have some useful knowledge that people could learn from.
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