The Silk Road is a system routes that were used frequently for 2000 years for communication and trade among various states between China and Europe.
Named for the fact that silk was a major product being exported out of China into other parts of Eurasia, the Silk Road served as, not only a mode of transportations of goods, but also for sharing ideas between different cultures. As our Strayer text says, the spread of Buddhism is an excellent example of a cross-cultural connection.
Buddhism originated in India, then eventually spread by way of merchants and monks that would travel along the Silk Road and convert those that would listen to them and receive their message in cities along the way. After the religion became increasingly popular, monasteries were built along the routes in larger cities which then became multicultural hubs where learning and commerce flourished.
Not only did India share its culture and religion with surrounding regions via the Silk Road, but each culture injected its own unique ideas into Buddhism. Characteristics popular in Greek statues are seen in statues of the Buddha and many of the gods of cultures along the routes were eventually absorbed into the religion.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Cross Cultural Contact
It seems only fitting that eventually humans would get around to finding out there are others on the planet than just themselves. We are, after all, on a rather small planet. Thus, one is to conclude that this was going to happen soon or later. This only makes sense when one really takes into account the nature of the "beast," as it were. The Human Condition is indicative of many things, of which a curious nature is a part. However, with this contact comes both good and bad. The Good: we share different experiences, technologies, goods, trade, thoughts, ideals, and relationships. The Bad: war, disease, genocide, the lose of history and culture, and a whole host of human cruelty via misunderstandings and simple hubris.
This all aside, for the most part our connections, while they have brought massive amounts of pain and suffering, in the end serve to only bring us together as a human whole. Personal judgments notwithstanding, all of our historical contacts have yielded a wealth of information and economic growth - either good or bad, any variation is truly growth.
All of these things were, then, truly inevitable as the world is in essence a rather small place when in terms of its inhabitants. Thus, it was only a matter of time until the Silk Road and other trade routes emerged. It was only a matter of time before Universal Religions began to take root in lands that were not of their origin. It was only a matter of time before this natural occurrence of human convergence began its slow but consistent march to oneness in money, trade, commerce, and business.
This all aside, for the most part our connections, while they have brought massive amounts of pain and suffering, in the end serve to only bring us together as a human whole. Personal judgments notwithstanding, all of our historical contacts have yielded a wealth of information and economic growth - either good or bad, any variation is truly growth.
All of these things were, then, truly inevitable as the world is in essence a rather small place when in terms of its inhabitants. Thus, it was only a matter of time until the Silk Road and other trade routes emerged. It was only a matter of time before Universal Religions began to take root in lands that were not of their origin. It was only a matter of time before this natural occurrence of human convergence began its slow but consistent march to oneness in money, trade, commerce, and business.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
What is your quest? An insight of the Crusades
As we began discussing the silk road and how trade routes connected cultures in our World History course, I was thinking of a different type of connection between societies. War has often caused cultures to collide and sometimes that collision is welcomed, while other times, it is not welcomed and disliked. One of the events that truly led to the spread of Christianity throughout medieval Europe is the Crusades, and this blog post will give just a bit of insight as to what the crusades actually were and why they were fought.
Here is a pretty useful map that depicts where each Crusade was fought and the path that they traveled as they ventured across Europe in 1095. The Crusades spread from the furthest northern point in the Holy Roman Empire down into Constantinople and finally reaching even Jerusalem, where control of the country was taken away from the Muslims and it was declared a Christian country. In the map linked above, each line represents a different Crusade and the wide-scaled path that they took. In a time where travel was difficult between nations, especially in this region, this was a feat in and of itself.
The Crusades were a group of "invasions" that were sponsored by none other than the Pope himself--Pope Urban II. At this time, the Christian empire was under threat by many Muslim countries of the area. The Pope was urged to send out defenses to free one of the Muslim capitals, Jerusalem, from Muslim control, as well as to free other areas and Christianize them. In all, there were four different Crusades.
According to this useful website, the first Crusade was a success. Jerusalem was captured! The third Crusade is probably one of the most famous ones.
There, "The third ended in 1192 in a compromise between English king Richard the Lion-Hearted of England and the Muslim leader Saladin, who granted access to Christians to the holy places."
Other Crusade events led to the destruction of the once famous capital of Constantinople. Perhaps the least discussed Crusade, however, is that of the Children's Crusade. During this particular Crusade, a boy by the name of Stephen of Cloyes, who was said to only have been twelve, thoroughly believed that Christ had chosen him to help spread the religion to the world. This website explains that Stephen's Crusade was not the only Children's Crusade that was started during this time, and that other countries were quick to follow in suite. However, this particular website describes a popular belief that while the children who followed Stephen and Stephen himself were unheard of once they departed from France, it is rumored that the children were captured by pirates and were later sold into slavery, marking the decline of the popularity of the Crusades.
So, were the Crusades successful? They did gain control over both Constantinople and Jerusalem at given times, and these were two powerful cities controlled by two powerful Muslim empires at different times in history. It is said that the Crusades were only fought to take control of Jerusalem, but why did they continue after it was won during the first Crusade? If Pope Urban II's goal was met at the end of the First Crusade, why were there three other Crusades, as well as other Children's Crusades that followed? It was a wide-scaled attempt to spread Christianity throughout Europe. Christianity remains one of the leading religions of the West in today's society. I do not think that this would have been possible were it not for the "success" of the Crusades, but I leave that question open to the readers of this post. Were the Crusades successful? If so, what did they accomplish? What was the main goal of fighting the Crusades? Was it as simple as just trying to conquer Jerusalem, or was there more to them than that?
Here is a pretty useful map that depicts where each Crusade was fought and the path that they traveled as they ventured across Europe in 1095. The Crusades spread from the furthest northern point in the Holy Roman Empire down into Constantinople and finally reaching even Jerusalem, where control of the country was taken away from the Muslims and it was declared a Christian country. In the map linked above, each line represents a different Crusade and the wide-scaled path that they took. In a time where travel was difficult between nations, especially in this region, this was a feat in and of itself.
The Crusades were a group of "invasions" that were sponsored by none other than the Pope himself--Pope Urban II. At this time, the Christian empire was under threat by many Muslim countries of the area. The Pope was urged to send out defenses to free one of the Muslim capitals, Jerusalem, from Muslim control, as well as to free other areas and Christianize them. In all, there were four different Crusades.
According to this useful website, the first Crusade was a success. Jerusalem was captured! The third Crusade is probably one of the most famous ones.
There, "The third ended in 1192 in a compromise between English king Richard the Lion-Hearted of England and the Muslim leader Saladin, who granted access to Christians to the holy places."
Other Crusade events led to the destruction of the once famous capital of Constantinople. Perhaps the least discussed Crusade, however, is that of the Children's Crusade. During this particular Crusade, a boy by the name of Stephen of Cloyes, who was said to only have been twelve, thoroughly believed that Christ had chosen him to help spread the religion to the world. This website explains that Stephen's Crusade was not the only Children's Crusade that was started during this time, and that other countries were quick to follow in suite. However, this particular website describes a popular belief that while the children who followed Stephen and Stephen himself were unheard of once they departed from France, it is rumored that the children were captured by pirates and were later sold into slavery, marking the decline of the popularity of the Crusades.
So, were the Crusades successful? They did gain control over both Constantinople and Jerusalem at given times, and these were two powerful cities controlled by two powerful Muslim empires at different times in history. It is said that the Crusades were only fought to take control of Jerusalem, but why did they continue after it was won during the first Crusade? If Pope Urban II's goal was met at the end of the First Crusade, why were there three other Crusades, as well as other Children's Crusades that followed? It was a wide-scaled attempt to spread Christianity throughout Europe. Christianity remains one of the leading religions of the West in today's society. I do not think that this would have been possible were it not for the "success" of the Crusades, but I leave that question open to the readers of this post. Were the Crusades successful? If so, what did they accomplish? What was the main goal of fighting the Crusades? Was it as simple as just trying to conquer Jerusalem, or was there more to them than that?
Monday, October 26, 2009
Great Zimbabwe
After watching another time life video on lost civilizations in my history class, I have decided to look more into the ruins and history of the ancient city of Great Zimbabwe, located somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. This website says researchers though Great Zimbabwe to be built roughly 600-1000 years ago by local natives. Both this website and the video say it was thought for a very long period of time it was originally built by a "mysterious white race" - which was, as the movie pointed out, people who were hard pressed to believe Africans were capable of such things.
Great Zimbabwe is practically a fortress. With a radius of 100- 200 miles, (the website says its diameter is about the size of France), and it's made of stones with no cement. If my memory serves me correct, and I believe it does because this fact struck me as impressive, the outer walls alone were 16 feet thick and the website says about 10 meters high, with smaller structures and walls inside. The same website mentioned earlier also states:
"it is now generally accepted that the ruins of Great Zimbabwe reflect the Shona people, a Bantu speaking ethnic group, who reside in the region today."
Apparently the word Zimbabwe comes from the Shona people, and when translated means "houses of stone"
Just for an idea of how long the building might take, think about this. During the film, they touched on the rebuilding of the structure, and how it's done today like it was when it was first built. Large chunks of stone -(Again, if my memory is correct, I think they might have used granite, which is what one or two of the websites mentions as well)- are heated over a fire until extremely hot. Then, water is poured (with buckets, not with hoses or anything fancy) which causes the rock to crack. The smaller pieces ,or more manageable ones, are taken and hand chiseled down into large bricks, so the building of the structure took many, many generations.
In further reading of the website I posted in a link earlier, I read that the population of the civilization was estimated to be around 1,000, until the outer dwellings were taken into account, and was then re-estimated to be roughly 18,000 people.
In continuing my investigation and research, Wikipedia also stated that the complex was broken into three basic places:
"Hill Complex, the Valley Complex and the Great Enclosure. The Hill Complex was used as a temple, the Valley complex was for the citizens, and the Great Enclosure was used by the king."
Also, Wikipedia and both other sources touch on the trading of the civilization. Archeologists found shards of glass, and other artifacts from places like China, Persia and India, suggesting that our lost civilization was also a large trading community as well.
Wikipedia also says that:
"The site was not abandoned but rather the court of the king moved further north as his empire declined in order to gain more direct access to trade revenues. The Great Zimbabwe was left in the care of a local tribe."
I have yet to find this in any of my other sources, nor do I remember it being said during the film, so the truth of this statement can be debated.
Sadly, the ignorance of earlier treasure hunters has almost completely destroyed the ruins. In an attempt to prove the existence of the "mysterious white race", many layers of African artifacts were trashed in the attempt to reach the bottom layer which was assumed to hold proof that this "white race" had an early influence in Southern Africa (They found no such evidence).
Also, in a rabid thirst for gold, many treasure hunters tore apart the remains, destroying monuments erected for kings. It is thought the city had power which "derives from controlling the trade in gold." (Which would explain the destruction of the city in order to find gold, something I just put together).
From researching various websites, there seems to be very little exact information on the ruins and civilizations of Great Zimbabwe, but there is a basic idea which I outlined in my post. From the pictures (in the links below) you can see that it was once a majestic place.
Aerial shot of the ruins
Inside the ruins
Closer up aerial shot
In case you wanted to read for yourself here's the websites I used:
Geocites
History world
Wikipedia
Great Zimbabwe is practically a fortress. With a radius of 100- 200 miles, (the website says its diameter is about the size of France), and it's made of stones with no cement. If my memory serves me correct, and I believe it does because this fact struck me as impressive, the outer walls alone were 16 feet thick and the website says about 10 meters high, with smaller structures and walls inside. The same website mentioned earlier also states:
"it is now generally accepted that the ruins of Great Zimbabwe reflect the Shona people, a Bantu speaking ethnic group, who reside in the region today."
Apparently the word Zimbabwe comes from the Shona people, and when translated means "houses of stone"
Just for an idea of how long the building might take, think about this. During the film, they touched on the rebuilding of the structure, and how it's done today like it was when it was first built. Large chunks of stone -(Again, if my memory is correct, I think they might have used granite, which is what one or two of the websites mentions as well)- are heated over a fire until extremely hot. Then, water is poured (with buckets, not with hoses or anything fancy) which causes the rock to crack. The smaller pieces ,or more manageable ones, are taken and hand chiseled down into large bricks, so the building of the structure took many, many generations.
In further reading of the website I posted in a link earlier, I read that the population of the civilization was estimated to be around 1,000, until the outer dwellings were taken into account, and was then re-estimated to be roughly 18,000 people.
In continuing my investigation and research, Wikipedia also stated that the complex was broken into three basic places:
"Hill Complex, the Valley Complex and the Great Enclosure. The Hill Complex was used as a temple, the Valley complex was for the citizens, and the Great Enclosure was used by the king."
Also, Wikipedia and both other sources touch on the trading of the civilization. Archeologists found shards of glass, and other artifacts from places like China, Persia and India, suggesting that our lost civilization was also a large trading community as well.
Wikipedia also says that:
"The site was not abandoned but rather the court of the king moved further north as his empire declined in order to gain more direct access to trade revenues. The Great Zimbabwe was left in the care of a local tribe."
I have yet to find this in any of my other sources, nor do I remember it being said during the film, so the truth of this statement can be debated.
Sadly, the ignorance of earlier treasure hunters has almost completely destroyed the ruins. In an attempt to prove the existence of the "mysterious white race", many layers of African artifacts were trashed in the attempt to reach the bottom layer which was assumed to hold proof that this "white race" had an early influence in Southern Africa (They found no such evidence).
Also, in a rabid thirst for gold, many treasure hunters tore apart the remains, destroying monuments erected for kings. It is thought the city had power which "derives from controlling the trade in gold." (Which would explain the destruction of the city in order to find gold, something I just put together).
From researching various websites, there seems to be very little exact information on the ruins and civilizations of Great Zimbabwe, but there is a basic idea which I outlined in my post. From the pictures (in the links below) you can see that it was once a majestic place.
Aerial shot of the ruins
Inside the ruins
Closer up aerial shot
In case you wanted to read for yourself here's the websites I used:
Geocites
History world
Wikipedia
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