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.