The Greatest World Leader

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZQDlPn8hn4

- Explain Everything

https://docs.google.com/a/bps121.org/document/d/1xW1rkuyZ8so92XHO9mfibOhcml88gxy_A1imIHUw4x4/edit?overridemobile=true#

WW2: Its Cause & Its Ineffectiveness

WW2 didn't really solve any of the problems. Germany was still angry, only this time the treaty was not as unfair. Japan and Italy still wanted to expand but found out the limits to their power. So the issues of aggression and expansion were only suppressed and will probably need to be dealt with sooner or later.

COT Practice: WW1 (The Great War)

The Great War

Change:
The Great War causes a shift in power among the colonial powers.
- Germany's colonies in Africa are taken by the British or the Spanish.
- Britain becomes more powerful as shown by the additional territory taken in the Middle East.

The reason for this change is that the war resulted in a clear winner and a clear loser that resulted in one side relinquishing the power of their colonies.

Continuity:
The struggle between the colonial powers to control colonies across the world is present before and after the Great War.
- Germany's loss of territory is split between the major colonial powers to show the continued interest in controlling colonies.
- Africa's territory is split up between the major colonial powers before and after the Great War.
- the Indian Ocean Basin area is also split up between the major colonial powers

The reason why colonial powers continued to desire for control over colonies is because of the benefits like more natural resources, a larger trading network, and more taxes that come with colonies.

Empires: Islamic vs. Asian

One similarity between the Ottoman, Safavid, Mughals and the Tokugawa Japan, Ming, Qing China is that they all did not look for ways to improve their technology. They feared that change would bring political instability. They have this similarity because they could both saw other examples of Europeans and change that ended in the termination of a country.
One difference is the faith that they held, in that the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughals belonged to the Islamic faith, where as the Tokugawa Japanese, Ming and Qing people operated based on Confucianism. They have different religions/philosophies because of the different histories of they cultural area. The Islamic empires were founded by nomadic Turks who may have seen Islam first and believed it to be the true faith, where as the Tokugawa Japanese, the Ming and Qing would have seen their ancestors following Confucianism.

Empires: Ottoman, Safavid & Mughal

These three Islamic empires are placed together in the same chapter because of the shift of focus from individual empires that flourish or fall on their own to empires that impact on another. Before we have seen chapters divided by region, now multiple regions are placed together. Transportation and communication systems have improved and empires can more easily influence each other. Since empires are impacted more by their neighbors, they are placed together in the same chapter. This foreshadows the future where countries will have a big effect on their neighbors.

Fabian Fucan and Christianity

Fabian Fucan's attack on Christianity is a result of various reasons. Primarily his pride for his nation and his desire to see it live on in greatness drives his hate for Christianity. He sees the religion like an intruder that will sneak its beliefs into Japan and overthrow the empire. Historically, he has been taught that the white men brought demise to other empires and he did not want that for Japan. Socially, Christianity was not accepted and not popular. These are some of the reasons Fabian Fucan attacks Christianity so harshly.

#QianLongStyle

Qian Long has an arrogant point of view because he believed that he was the "Son of Heaven". As the "Son of Heaven", he believed that he was above all other monarchs and had god on his side, which would lead him to speak harshly to others without fear of retaliation.

Map of China: 1400s-1900s

Predicting the Fucture: Time Wasted? Or Time Well Spent?

Of course it's worth it! Predicting the future can benefit the world by providing insight on probable outcomes. The information can assist leaders in making decisions in order to avoid past mistakes.

Based on Cecilia's, Abhishek's, and my own predictions and outcomes, we can see time and time again, the probability of correctly prediction the future is high enough to prove useful. In Cecilia's prediction about isolationist policies due to the past of a dislike to new ideas, she correctly guessed that China would hold true to their "traditional TRADITIONAL" (as Cecilia says...) values. In Abhishek's prediction about China relying on itself for trade and economic development, he correctly guessed that China would stay isolated and decline because of it. My prediction about the political structure staying largely the same was correct as well.

China's Actual Alternate Reality: Politics

The political system of china is still a dynastic imperial family based structure, but the family is Manchurian, foreigners. Like the pattern in the past, the political system stay largely the same with an improvement, the "Son of Heaven" which gives the emperor more power.

China's Alternate Reality: Politics

Based on the patterns of the past political systems, it is about time for there to be an uprising that tears the system apart and rebuilds it in the same way. The political system will continue to be based on family and dynasties.

Review Game (Ch 21-26)

http://jeopardylabs.com/play/chapters-21-26

Slaves out of Africa

The first chart shows a steady increase of population growth in Africa from about 32 million in the 16th century to about 60 million in the 19th century. The second chart shows a fast increase from close to zero up to more than 50 thousand number of slaves exported from the 16th to 18th century. The third chart shows that most of the slaves went to the Caribbean, about half that amount went to Brazil, and the rest of the slaves went to America. Chart #1 shows a steady increase in population growth which is only somewhat surprising because the slaves lost to the Western Hemisphere were mostly males and the loss of males in a community usually shows a dip in population growth. Chart #2 supports the increase in slave trade mentioned in the book. Chart #3 is a bit surprising in that I did not expect close to half of the slaves to be shipped to the Caribbean, since the slave trade was made to sound like a more evenly distributed commodity in the Western Hemisphere. I do wonder what years were the destination of the slaves recorded, because this chart is not given a time period. These charts seem simple, but they can help to solidify the general principles from the book concerning African slaves.

Edit. Chart #3 can be explained by the high percentage of slaves who died and needed to be replaced.

Social Hierarchies

Spanish vs. Portugal Colonies

The economic and political changes from the indigenous people, to the early conquests, to the later more established colonies were different for the Spanish and Portuguese colonies because of the potential profits and the geographical nature of the area. The economics were different in that the Spanish desired precious metals for profit where as the Portuguese created sugar plantations. The Spanish colonies' economy was largely based on a substance that would run out. The Portuguese colonies' economy was mostly based on sugar plantations that used slaves to work. These differences meant that a different political system was needed in order for the Spanish and Portuguese to get what they wanted.

Voice Thread Review

Christopher Columbus: myth versus reality

There is a myth about Christopher Columbus because American's wanted a hero. They wanted someone who they could identify with as a hero of their country. Other older countries like
Britain, France, Spain and Italy had their own heros and great men and women. America had none of their own, that's why we, Americans, have a holiday to celebrate a man's birth who really isn't really worth celebrating.

Post Classical to Global Connections

In the Post Classical Era, many societies were focused on fixing their own economy and social structure. Once they were generally stabilized, opportunities to expand their influence and knowledge presented themselves, and I expect that the Global Connections Era will be about connecting these societies and showing the influence they had on each other. I expect technologies, religion, agriculture, and ideas to diffuse throughout the world. With this new spead of idea, I think that countries will continue to have internal problems.

VoiceThread: Me as Omar

(Omar the First of the Maldives in Ibn Battuta's group)
https://voicethread.com/share/4083511

Ibn and Marco in Ch 22

I think Ibn and Marco were atypical of the people from their time period. In the maps, their travels cover Europe, Asia and Africa. The sheer quantity and distance of their travels are atypical. During their time period, a single person would not travel that far. First of all, they would have no reason to and secondly, there would not be easy ways to travel that far. Good or trade items may pass from one end of the world to the other end, but through many middlemen. Wether Ibn and Marco traveled for trade or not, or for trade and other reasons, this amount of travel was a typical to their time period.
Ibn and Marco's are still atypical of the people now a days. They are less atypical, but still different. A typical person of this time period would not travel that extensively, and if someone were a world traveler, they'd travel the whole world, not just Europe, Africa and Asia. Another interesting aspect is the type of transportation; now a days it would be more likely that these travels would be made by plane, and thus Ibn and Marco's land and sea route are atypical.

Map of Oceania

The Crusades Project: 0 days left...

I choose to display my understanding of the Muslim perspective on the Crusades with this representation of a Muslim family because it makes sense that if I can show how a Muslim would describe a crusade and their reaction to it, then I have shown my understanding of the topic. This choice included problems with making the family work. How could three family members be at three different crusades and still be a part of the same family? What reasons did these Muslims have to travel? These questions provoked the bit of creativity in me to create a story (like the African griots!) Some of this project did not go exactly as I envisioned... Known as the video part. As I recorded the different parts of the video and began to review each part, I realized that I might be limiting my audience's understanding due to the lack of clarity... Well... I tried my best. That is all.

Click here for my project!

The Crusades Project: Works Cited

"The Children's Crusade." The Children's Crusade. HistoryLearningSite.co.uk, n.d. Web. 10 Jan. 2013. < http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/childrens_crusade.htm >.

"Crusades." Gale Student Resources in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 10 Jan. 2013.

MacLehose, William F. "A Tender Age" Gutenberg-e.org. Columbia University Press, n.d. Web. < http://www.gutenberg-e.org/maclehose/maw04.html >.

Rickard J. "Sixth Crusade, 1228-1229." Sixth Crusade, 1228-1229. N.p., 24 Mar. 2001. Web. 10 Jan. 2013. < http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_crusade6th.html >.

Robinson, Richard M. "Fourth Crusade." History Net Where History Comes Alive World US History Online Fourth Crusade Comments. N.p., 31 July 2006. Web. 10 Jan. 2013. < http://www.historynet.com/fourth-crusade.htm >.

"The Sixth Crusade." The Sixth Crusade. Joax, 28 Nov. 2008. Web. 10 Jan. 2013. < http://www.medievality.com/sixth-crusade.html >.

The Crusades Project: Comments

Hi Tim,
I noticed that you are working on the Peace Crusade like me. I hope you had better luck than me in finding information about it. At first, results popped up that were not related to the Peace Crusade, rather about other crusades for peace. If you add the year 1229 to the search, the results are more relevant. Here's a link (http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_crusade6th.html) to a concise article that even includes how to cite it (bonus!). Good luck with your rage comics and don't be afraid to create your own rage faces.
Sam Lee

Hi Lawrence,
I'm working on the Peace Crusade and the Children's Crusade too! Sounds like a good plan to go with a diverse set of crusades to show the most understanding of the Muslim's perspective on the Crusades.
Sam Lee

Hi Allie and Becki, (I commented on Allie's comment on Becki's blog post)
I’m working with the Peace Crusade too! Another helpful hint to finding information about it is to add the year 1229 to your search keyword, it yields more relavent information.
Sam Lee

Hi Pearl,
I’m also working on the Children’s Crusade. Here’s a link that might be helpful. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/childrens_crusade.htm
Prezzi presentations are lots of fun! Their user interface is mostly intuitive and with more experience you’ll learn to love them.
Sam Lee

The Crusades Project: 1 day left

Researching that should've began long before... -.- Per Mr. Whitten's recommendation of sweetsearch.com, I began my research on that search engine then compared it to results in google. I found that sweetsearch.com generally has more credible sources than google. This helps in the credibility of my project and the correctness of the information that I used to create my script. During research, the main problem I encountered was finding direct relevant information about the crusades that included the impact they had on the Muslims.

The Crusades Project: 4 days left

If my idea works... I plan on focusing on #5 Fourth Crusade (1201-1204), #6 Children's Crusade (1212), and #8 Peace Crusade (1229). These crusades occurred relatively close to each other and there's a good chance that a Muslim family may have experienced all three crusades. My idea is to have a script and potentially a video(cartoon?) of a Muslim family gathering where they talk about the crusades. The idea is to have a family of three: a father(for the Fourth Crusade), a mother(for the Children's Crusade) and a son(for the Peace Crusade). To make this work, the first step is to research, figure out how each member of the family could have been in the "right place at the right time" to get the "average" Muslim view of each crusade.

The Crusades Project: 7 days left

Funny how people desire freedom, then when they get it, they don't know what to do with it. For now, I have read and reread the "rules" or instructions for this Crusades Project and with these rules in mind I will be prepared to tackle what lies before me. My plan is to find out about these crusades then determine the best medium for demonstrating my understanding of the
Muslim perspective of the Crusades.

Bias Authors: Map of Africa

This textbook's map makers choose to represent Africa in the way that they did, with an minimal key, inaccuracies, and lacking religion, because they were biased and only showed their perspective, of a poor needy Africa that is isolated from the world. The map makers probably didn't give it a better key because they thought what they had was sufficient. Not all kingdoms are given color and space possibly because they thought some kingdoms more important than others (or they began at the top of the map and never finished...) Religion isn't shown because of the difficulties that come with showing religion. In a given region not everyone will have the same belief, and even if they do all have the same belief, the time period of the belief would have to be considered as well. This omission of information especially in the area of trade routes, which should be in and out to many other countries, reinforces the stereotypical American's view of Africa as a poor, needy, isolated Africa. After adding information to the map, our understanding of Africa is closer to the reality.

The Medium for My Story

Ideally a picture book. Yes, those books with pictures (and some words) that we used to love when we were little kids. Why did we love them? That would be because they captured our attention and told a story, with colors and images, that was easy to comprehend and remember. That's the way I would like my story to be remembered. This is a combination of the style of the griots of Africa and a boring textbook; I would have the interesting factor with the pictures and a few words like the boring textbooks to go with the pictures. I would prefer a mix of the two methods because I think there are pros to each method; the pictures can be understood by every nationality and a picture is worth a thousand words, then the words can provide more depth.

PostClassical Map of Africa