Week 4

The chapters for this week covered mostly Eurasia and Africa and finally got into the Americas during the 15^th century. The first chapter was focused on how the Muslim religion developed and what areas it had influenced. It went into how Muhammad in around 600 AD was starting his journey and to one day become the most single important person in the Islamic world. The Quran was discussed as well as some history of who Muhammad was and how he confirmed that church and state could not be separated. The Islamic culture saw that instead of many Gods like in Hinduism, there is only one God (Allah). Islam spread into much of the Middle East with the core (or capital) being in Mecca. Islam had such a big influence that it reached into Africa and well as Europe such as Spain. By 1500 it also came into some of China and Russia as well as reaching further south into Africa well into the Sahara desert. Due to its vast coverage it also took advantage of the trade routes of the time helping to expand its influence.

            The next chapter covered Pastoral people from about 1200 AD to 1500 AD. It briefly spoke of small clans in China and Turks and Arabs in the Middle East in Asia. However, this period was mostly popularized by the Mongols and the rule of Chinggis Khan.  I was very interested in this part of the book. I wanted to have a more clear view on how the Mongols went about their business and rose to power. What I found was they had a lot of smaller tribes around Mongolia and they did not have much togetherness until Chinggis Khan came around. He was the leader that brought them to see a new era with their people. I also found that their expansion was very rapid compared other empires before them. I guess when you are organized enough and rule by force as well as in a barbaric nature, you can get a lot done in a relatively short amount of time. I did not know before reading this chapter that the Mongol Empire expanded into Europe. It was not until the Ming dynasty that Mongol rule ended in China. This was also due to the plague that spread from Asia to Europe. An interesting fact with this subject was that the Mongols were also the first in biometric warfare. A dead human body that was infected with plague was used to be launched in a catapult by the Mongols. They would throw this body into a city infecting the population of that area with the plague.

            The last chapter for this week talked about the 15^th century. For some reason I was not as intrigued with this chapter. I’m not sure why but the most interesting thing I was regarding the Aztecs and the Incas. The Aztecs were inhabiting what is now Mexico and the Incas covered the western part of South America. This part of the world at this time was almost stuck in the Neolithic Era in my opinion.  They had some forms of civilizations but, did not have the technology that people in the eastern hemisphere did. However, this was the beginning of people from Europe and Asia coming over to the Americas such as Christopher Columbus and Hernan Cortez. Even though I was not as impressed with this part of history as other parts, I still think this was the beginning of a new era in the world as now the east and west hemispheres were finally connecting the world as one.