Biography of Han Wu Di

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18rYhBDo2vc2UHgWMHVpBqHkguWAF8e0DkODusITZt68/edit?usp=sharing

Explain Everything - Han Wu Di

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88HOELweHXg

Kwame Nkrumah on African Unity

How does Nkrumah's call for African unity rather than fragmentation reflect the tensions between decolonization and the ongoing cold war?

Nkrumah's call for African unity reflects the tensions of decolonization because imperialist power has left Africa with little infrastructure which is necessary in unifying Africa through connected networks of transportation and communication. Also, because the pace of decolonization varies from state to state, many African states are not ready to unite yet because they are plagued in internal conflict such as civil war. Nkrumah also mentions the tensions of the ongoing cold war which provokes violence while he calls for peace in Africa when he says that "greatness is not to be measured in stock piles of atom bombs" (1112). He also mentions that Africa will emerge as a Great Power because its greatness "is not built on fear, envy, and suspicion, nor won at the expense of others" (1112). The "fear, envy, and suspicion" describe how the U.S. and Soviet Union viewed each other. Also, both nations used proxy nations to fight wars for them which connects to "at the expense of others".

Conclusion of World War II

Does the conclusion of the war address the causes you identified in your activity today?  Please list what the causes were that you identified (or feel free to just post your work from class) and then discuss whether or not the conclusion of the war resolved things or if it left items hanging for later resolution.

Causes of World War II

Unfair conditions of Treaty of Versailles for Germany leads to rise in German Nationalism
Italy wanted to take over Ethiopia as a display of power
Japan imperialized much of Asia and the Pacific

Resolved 

For Germany, the conclusion of the war resolved things because Germany ended up becoming an Ally. For Italy, they were never really an issue in the first place. For Japan, the Allies stripped away its colonies and reformed the government into a democracy.

Unresolved

The war did not solve the conflict between communism and democracy which is seen in the Cold War. The holocaust nearly wiped out an entire demographic in Europe.

Map of the World Before and After World War I

Amit Patel, Shams Shaikh, Gabe Arcaro, Ronak Patel, Mike Ackerman, Tim Sunnerberg
Change over time Before and After World War I

Continuity:
The major world powers remain world powers after the war
Why?
Because the major powers won the war
Evidence:
Britain
France
U.S.
European colonial superiority remained:
The colonial superior powers won the war so they remained superior
Evidence:
France and Britain remained colonial in Africa

Change:
Europe and many other parts of the world (middle east) split up:
Why?
The losing countries fell to nationalism and were split up by the winning countries
Evidence
Treaty of Versailles split up Austrio-Hungary
Map shows new countries and borders

Similarities and Differences in the Islamic Empires and Asian Societies

The Islamic Empires and Asian Societies were economically similar in that they both stagnated technological innovation. This similarity occurred because both empires wanted to prevent destabilization that was believed to be caused by change. The Islamic Empires and Asian societies were socially different in that the Asian societies did not value the warrior class while the Islamic Empires did. This difference occurred because Confucianism was entrenched in Asian society which promoted peace whereas Islam provoked military expansion.

Why are these Islamic Empires put together?

By putting together the Ottomans, the Safavids, and the Mughals, it suggests similarities between different empires. By doing so, it implies the chance for alliances in the future which is relevant today such as the European Union. It also implies that the empires are less important because all three are summarized in one chapter.

Aspects of Fabian Fucan's Attack on Christianity

The religious aspect of Fucan's attack is that he promotes Confucianism as well as Buddhism. The cultural aspect is that he always views them as inferior when he refers to Christians as barbarians. The historical aspect is that he explains that Christians took over the Philippines and Mexico in the past. The political aspect is that he believes the Christians will try to usurp every country and take them over. The social aspect is that he sees Christians as martyrs who were willing to risk their lives.

My awesome map of Ming and Qing China

POV of Qianlong's Letter

Qianlong's letter has a condescending tone. It has a condescending tone because the emperor was surrounded by eunuchs saying he is the best and because of his belief that China was economically self sufficient that did not need to associate with foreigners.

Why history has zero predictive value

Based on Ronak's blog post, he predicted incorrectly about the duration AND populations of the Ming AND Qing dynasties. Roank believed that because there was a trend of a dynasty with a long period followed by a short lived dynasty, he thought that this trend would continue. However, it did not because both the Ming and Qing dynasties had similar durations. For populations, he predicted steady population growth based on previous populations of dynasties. However, he predicted wrongly because the populations of the Qing especially increased rapidly.

Rachel believed that because of trade increasing with Europe, then innovation would also increase. However, this was completely incorrect because the Ming and Qing dynasties shunned innovation.

My Prediction

My prediction below was correct.

Political & Economic Change in the Ming & Qing China

Political

The Ming & Qing will continue to look inwards to its domestic affairs rather than foreign affairs. There will still be dynastic imperial monarchy and a bureaucracy to choose officials.

Economic

Both dynasties will continue to look inward and therefore there will be not so much economic innovation because there is a lack of foreign influence.

Chapter 21-26 Jeopardy Review Game

Link: https://jeopardylabs.com/play/apwh-chapters-21-26

Instructions
   You first must choose the number of teams participating and then hit "Start"

Graphs

The first graph shows a steady increase in population in Africa from 1500 to 1800. This seems contradictory to the slave trade which disrupted societies. However, it is surprising to see that population still grew and at a steady pace. The second graph shows a rapid increase in the volume of African slave exports from the 16th century to the 18th century. It surprises me that the graph makes it seem like a large amount of the population was whisked away as slaves but even the peak was only around 55,000 slaves compared to the population of 60 million total. The third pie graph shows that African slaves went to the Caribbean and Brazil while a fewer amount went to North/Central/South America. I also found it surprising how 50% of the slaves went to the Caribbean because it seems like a lot of people for not that much landmass compared to Central and South America. These diagrams do not really expand my understanding of the textbook's contents but instead reinforces it.

Social Hierarchies of South and North America

VoiceThread Review

It is much more difficult to use the app compared to the PC. Also, while playing the VoiceThread, it is difficult to determine who says what and when. One large problem is that I could not add comments or voice in the "creation" process in which I could only add the pictures. I could only add such things under "editing" mode which was confusing. Also, my fellow students and I have had trouble sharing VoiceThreads through the app and have had to resort to using the PC version in order to share our Voice Threads. Also, the search bar never was able to work. Our group even added obscure tags to our presentations and we still could not found ours. Aside from the negative, the app works with no crashing or other technical bugs.

Changes and Continuities in the Early Modern Era

2) Reflect on the contents of the essay. What will be new/change about the path of history in this coming era? What do you think will continue/stay the same?

One thing that will stay the same in this coming era is the transportation networks. From before, there was trans-Saharan trade, the Silk Road, and Indian Ocean trade. While this would continue into the next era, a change is the expansion of transportation networks. There would be new transportation networks in the form of sea lanes linking the Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and Pacific Ocean. Another change is the exportation of slaves to the western hemisphere. Another change is that Europe will begin to play a more prominent role in world affairs compared to their ancestors. 

Christopher Columbus

Why is there a myth about Christopher Columbus, and why do we have a holiday for him?

The reason why there is a myth that Columbus discovered the Americas was possibly to give credit to Spain over somebody else. Also, the myth of there being a difficult journey was probably created to create that sense that it was not an easy task to 'discover' the Americas. In addition, by making it seem like everyone else thought the world was flat whereas Christopher Columbus believed it was round, it makes it seem as though he was challenging established beliefs and trying to prove something but instead, his calculations on the size of the world was wrong. Based on some research, it is apparent that the United States wanted to identify Columbus over John Cabot, who discovered Newfoundland under England's name, as the one who discovered the Americas because United States was fighting against England.

Marco Polo & Ibn Battuta (Map on pages 568-569)

Based on the map, Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta would not be considered as typical people. For example, the sheer distance the two traveled from Africa and Europe to East Asia is abnormal. While it is typical of people during the time to engage in trade, those peoples's trade routes would be more regular or simpler. The map shows the two travelling everywhere as if they were in it for adventure rather than trade which is evident because the routes continuously switch from land to sea routes therefore limiting what one can carry to other places. They are not typical of today's people either. For example, tourists today would not visit so many places, but rather would visit a small region instead.

My awesome map of Oceania

Crusade Prezi

Bibliography:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vZ2JPRnhu8GSZEJj7lxLu1TZiYs26aq6WDritGPOt_A/edit

Prezi:
http://prezi.com/7dtj8lcrr6o4/crusades/?kw=view-7dtj8lcrr6o4&rc=ref-5488953

Instructions:
In order to view a Prezi on the iPad, you must download the "Prezi for iPad" app. This app is free and you can find it by simply searching the keyword "Prezi" on the app store.

Progress on Crusades Project 4

What problems occur(ed) with this choice? 

Some problems that occurred using Prezi are . . .

The lack of a fade-out animation makes it difficult to have characters have a conversion with each other through speech bubbles. Also, depending on the theme I choose, it limits me to what colors I can use in shapes whereas I can use any color I want with text. Some other difficulties are making sure the text was readable against the map.

Did it work as you envisioned? Why or why not?

Overall, my Prezi did work as envisioned. My goal at first was to move the camera through the path of each crusade, which I was able to do successfully. My second goal was to be able to use characters to convey their perspective on the crusades through speech bubbles which I was also able to accomplish, although with difficulty.

Search Engines

Today, I mainly used SweetSearch. I had never heard of it before but it is good to use because you know all the results are from reputable sources unlike Bing or Google which were the other two search engines I used for this project. I feel that I was able to do my research quicker on my last crusade, the Peace Crusade, with SweetSearch over Bing and Google. I also tried to use google.jo but I found that the results were very similar with normal Google.

To Tim

Dear Tim,

Thanks for that information-rich link on the third crusade. It appears to be a reputable source because it is from a college professor.

To Shams

You click "Add frame" and choose invisible frame. Keep in mind that you'll have to copy everything in your old frame and paste it into the new frame because when you delete a frame, everything inside it also is deleted.

Progress on Crusades Project 3

How do you hope to accomplish your goal?

I have chosen to make a Prezi for my project and I plan to take advantage of the pathing of frames in Prezi to make it go through the path of each Crusade and then focus on the perspective of the crusades of three generations of fictional characters from the same families (since there is at least a 120 year gap between the First and Peace crusade).


How and where are you finding your information?

I mainly have used Bing, Google, and the ABC CLIO database.

I have find a few links that will help me on my project such as:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1k.asp#The First Crusade

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2000/472/bk2_472.htm

http://ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/Feature/Story/1744581?cid=1744582&terms=first+crusade

The ancient world history database has good information on the crusades although you will have to look deeper to find evidence on how Muslims would have felt or events from the crusade that would provoke a type of response.

Also, a man named Fulcher of Chartres was a first-hand witness of the events of the crusade.

http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/sterk/Practicum/fulcher.pdf

Page 91 (according to the actual book pages) has a description of the bloodiness of the siege on Jerusalem

Is one search engine proving to be more useful than another?

The only other search engine besides Google that I have used in this project is Bing. I find the results on Bing to be relatively on par with Google. Using Bing while searching for the Muslim perspective on the Crusaders, a book name came up as a related search titled "The Crusades Islamic Perspective" and there is a sample of the book on Google Books here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=UalnoF5MBHMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

However, I feel that the related search terms with Bing are more helpful in research over Google's related search terms.

What problems are you having with finding the information?

It is hard to judge whether or not a site is a trustworthy source since the author may have a bias in favor of the Muslims during the crusades or of the Christians. There are also many Christian-related sites with information regarding the crusades that come up with using Google and Bing which makes finding good information harder.

Why have you chosen to display your understanding in this way?

I feel that Prezi is a great way to visually present information and it will benefit me more in the future when I need to look back on the crusades if I have an interactive presentation that can be viewed from any computer or on the iPad with the Prezi App

To Nick Fahey

Dear Nick Fahey, 

That Prezi looks quite spiffy. There is a template that gives you a colorful background of the world instead of that bland white one you are using.

To Nick Fahey

Dear Nick Fahey, 

I like your idea of using Prezi for this project. I think I will also use Prezi as well.

Progress on Crusades Project 2

I did not do any work on the crusades project yesterday because I was preparing the CCOT essay on Africa.

However, today, I decided that I will be doing the First Crusade (1096), the Third Crusade (1182-1192) and the Peace Crusade. The reason why I choose these specific three is because each of these crusades result in contact with Muslims rather than some of the other crusades which failed to even make any contact with Muslims whatsoever or had no impact on them.

I have not decided on the medium I will do my project through but I am considering either a Prezi presentation with a map of the Mediterranean region in the background while the pathing follows the same path of the crusade or some form of a rage comic. Or I could combine both . . . I have visited a few blogs and I have seen a that Nick Fahey plans on using Prezi while Matt Martin and Tim Sunnerberg plan to use memes. Harsh Dedhiya informed me that he will be using storytelling software from xtranormal.com which is something I may do as well.

In terms of information gathering, I plan on using Google and Bing and perhaps different language versions of each to get a different perspective on the crusades. I also plan on taking advantage of the ancient historical databases provided by the library.

Progress on Crusades Project 1

I have begun to brainstorm ideas for the crusades project.

Critique on Map of Africa

Why did the textbook company omit these details from its map?

The textbook company omitted these details from the map in order to simplify the map. The map would be too cluttered if they were to include all of our additions. Perhaps the textbook company was trying to make Africa look more primitive, isolated, and presented as an importer only on purpose.

What is the impact of those omissions and your additions?

The impact of those omissions makes the reader believe that there are no existing city-states outside west Africa. Also, they make the size of city-states or land features unknown as well as not showing the existence of trade routes going out from Africa and what is being traded on those trade routes. The map also does not tell the reader about the religions in Africa. The additions add the city of city-states such as Zimbabwe, Kongo, and Axum. It also labels the major religion of the region and shows that not all of Africa is Islamic. It also shows the goods being traded in both directions.

My awesome map of Africa

How I would want my story to be told

I would want my story to be told as a riveting tale or as a song instead of a list of bullet-points or plain facts in a textbook. The reason why is because more people would remember me if I they knew my personality behind my name. Also, people are more inclined to remember oddities in my story or a catchy song.