World History Fall 2018

I thought his explanation on why historians often only focus on Eurasia was also interesting. I always thought it had to do with white supremacy but it turns out that actually, during the Common Era, 85% of the world's population lived in Eurasia, so that's why historians tend to focus so heavily on it. Strayer wrote about Christianity spreading to Northern Africa and even specifically mentioned how Christianity "found an even more permanent foothold in the lands now known as Ethiopia" which I found interesting because I have several Ethiopian and Eritrean friends who are deeply Christian (more than my other Christian friends) and who put their faith in God before everything else. I thought it was cultural and had no idea that this goes back to the Classical Era! Lastly, I was saddened to read about the way Oceanic women were treated. Strayer described how women were treated as dangerous and were ISOLATED during childbirth and menstruation. I can't imagine a ...

I thought it was awesome that Strayer included a whole chapter on inequality. Not to impose my political views, but I am saddened by the current political situation with President Trump - especially as we see gender equality at the forefront of the news.

When I think of Chinese history, one of the first things that come to my mind are Confucius’ pacifist and accepting teachings. So I was shocked to learn that immediately before Confucius, Legalist philosophers were allowing China to run on a drastic, harsh system of rewards and consequences. The Legalists had an extremely pessimistic view of human nature, and almost, it seems, operated under an underlying belief that humans do not have positive intentions by nature. Strayer describes “most people, they believed, were stupid and shortsighted. Only the state and its rulers could act in their long-term interests” (150). As these philosophies were being used to govern China, Confucius was born and began forming his ideas. Confucius’ main political idea was the idea of “social harmony through moral example” (151). Confucius narrowed hierarchy down to relationships, and discussed how most relationships were unequal. The then advocated that if the person in “power” acted from a place of kin...