India and Hinduism: Why it matters today.

We are continuing our study of the ancient world by leaving Europe and Africa and examining a region you may know less about; Asia- specifically ancient India and its Hindu culture and later Buddhism which begins in India. We will also talk briefly about the Gupta empire, the high point of native Indian culture. Please remember you are to read these links and watch these videos for class. Remember, the test your received was a "practice run" so that you are prepared for what is expected of you in the future. If you have not been keeping of with the information on the websites or your notes, it is your responsibility to change that behavior.
why does all of this matter any way you may ask? India is one of the most important economic blocs in the world, every day thousands of American jobs are being sent to India. In the future you will have to compete for jobs with people from India not just people in your neighborhood. You have to have the basic background knowledge about this important world culture if you expect to get hired by companies that do business overseas.

watch these videos to learn more about Hinduism
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RKE7enkhZyo
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lEJNbdn9t20&mode=related&search=
Gupta empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gupta_Empire
life and teaching of the Buddha "the enlightened one"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha

TEST on THURSDAY. Students in Africa study by streetlight

You have to see this, I'm enjoying teaching this world history class, but some students have been complaining about having to do readings and my high expectations for you. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that you can learn to understand and enjoy history. History is the story of humanity, in all its diversity. In America you have so many advantages that people in other countries don't have, remember that when you are studying for your test. We have gone over this information and I expect great things from you. Please read this article about what students in Africa have to do just to get an education and then take a moment to really think about how seriously you take the opportunities you have not just in history but in all of your classes.

Students in Africa study outside under street lights because there is little electricity in their homes. These students do not make excuses, they find a way. They realize that THEY are responsible for their education. Excuses and complaining get you nothing in life.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6990034.stm

Foundations of Sub-Sharan African civilizations West Africa (Nok), the Bantus and East Africa (Aksum)

Western (European) culture is based on the religion and ethics of Judaism and Christianity and the law, art, architecture, language and philosophy of ancient Greece and Rome. At the same time that Western culture was developing around the Mediterranean sea area, other cultures were developing in Africa. You have already read and learned about the importance of ancient Egypt and the Nile River Valley, but other cultures also shaped African society.
The Nok culture of West Africa along the Niger River is perhaps the oldest know advanced culture in sub-Saharan Africa. The town of Djenne-Djeno was an important trading and iron smelting area. The Nok displayed the five aspects of culture just as the ancient Romans and Greeks did, expect they used griots to to record information as they did not develop a written language.
Years later around present day Cameroon, the Bantu "the people" migrated from their traditional homeland and spread all through sub-Saharan Africa in search for new farmland. Today, almost 2/3 of Black Africans are descendants of these early Bantu travelers. Please remember that the Bantu are not one tribe, but instead a group of over 400 separate tribal groups who share a common background, language and ancestry. At the same time that the Bantu were migrating in the south and west of Africa, Semites crossed from Arabia to East Africa and develop the Kingdom of Aksum in modern day Ethiopia. Aksum will become a powerful Christian empire in Eastern Africa and will develop its own writing system under King Ezana.

see and hear Akon's video Mama Africa to gain a greater appreciation for the continent and its people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9YE8dHMxvw&mode=related&search=
learn more about the Bantu peoples of Africa and their contributions to world history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantu
Bantu are not the only peoples of sub-Sharan Africa, Semites (people related the the Arabs and Jews of the Middle East) intermarry with Africans and found the Kingdom of Aksum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSEUM8QUt3g

Fall of the Roman Empire: Why did it happen?

A Jewish convert to the new religion Christianity named Paul had was most responsible for shaping the beliefs early Christianity. A Christian Jew, Paul also had Roman citizenship therefore he was able to leave the land of Israel and spread the ideas and beliefs of Christianity throughout the Empire. Soon, Christian communities become established in many of the large cities in the Roman Empire. While the vast majority of Jews continued to follow the teachings of the Torah and practice Judaism in Israel, Christianity grows throughout the Empire.
The polytheist emperors of Rome worried that Christianity, which taught pacifism, would turn the emperor weak. The Roman Empire's leaders at first persecuted Christians out of fear. Later, under the Constantine in 321 the Roman Emperor gave up fighting against the Christians and adopts the religion as the official religion throughout the Empire. The Christians established the Catholic Church in Rome. All later Christian churches will eventually break off from this Church. Soon after Christianity is made the official religion of the Empire, the Roman Empire is destroyed by outside nations, by the Germanic tribes from the North. Historians have debated why the Roman Empire was destroyed for generations.
you will read some of the most logical reasons bellow.

possible reason for the fall of the Empire
http://killeenroos.com/1/Romefall.htm

The Roman Empire, Jesus and Christianity

the Romans were influenced through cultural diffusion by the Greeks. The Greeks brought their culture to Italy through their colonies. Eventually the city of Rome developed into a kingdom and takes over all of Italy. Later, the strong Roman army will fight with other peoples all over the Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Wherever the Romans go they bring with them their Roman culture, language (Latin) and way off life.
Julius Cesar a famous general will over throw the Republic and turn Rome into and empire. The Roman Empire will take over the land of Israel. The Jews don't like living under the Roman occupation. Some Jews leave and settle into different parts of the Empire and adopt aspects of Roman life, others stay true to their Judaism. A Jew named Yoshua (Jesus in English) begins preaching about God in Israel. Some Jews are drawn to his teachings. His teachings were based in Judaism. The Romans become worried however that this popular Jewish teacher may be trouble for them so the Romans had Jesus executed on a cross.
Christians believe that Jesus came back to life after he was killed and that he was the Messiah (the promised Jewish savior, in Greek he is called Christos or Christ) Jews recognize Jesus as a teacher but not the Messiah. Soon, Jesus' friends began meeting regularly to discuss the teachings of Jesus and to share his teachings with others. Early Christians eventual split off from Judaism and begin a new religion based on the teachings of Jesus and his 12 apostles and their writings , the New Testament. Christianity leaves Israel and travel quickly to many parts of the Roman Empire, which is why today Christianity is the worlds biggest religion.

the founding of ancient Rome
http://www.roman-empire.net/founding/found-index.html
the Roman Forum
http://www.roman-empire.net/diverse/rome-model-01.html
video
http://www.roman-empire.net/videos/index.html
Who was Jesus?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/jesus/
Early Christianity
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/jesus/

your assignment: PICK ONE you my write a 5 paragraph essay about either. what new information you have learned about ancient Rome. OR about what you have learned about Christianity. If you want to use other websites like wikipedia for information that is fine but no copying or you will not receive credit for the assignment.

Origins of Judaism and the Jews (Abraham to Moses and the eviction from the land of Israel)

In class yesterday we talked about the origins of the Jewish people. Though Jews make only a tiny fraction of the worlds population, but their influence on Western civilization has been great. For most of early mans history people were polytheist, worshipers of many different Gods. According to Jewish tradition around 1948 BCE a man in Mesopotamia received a revelation from what he understood to be from the "One God." Abraham brought the world the idea of monotheism.
Through the covenant the these ideas about ethical monotheism challenged and would eventually change the way people thought about religion. Moses is remembered as the greatest leader of the Jewish people when he led his people from slavery in Egypt and for teaching the Jewish people the Torah. Eventually, the Jewish people founded a country, Israel and built a temple to their God in Jerusalem. Years later, the Jewish people will be uprooted from the land, first by the Babylonians, but in the end they would return to rebuild Jerusalem and its temple.
Then the Roman Empire that you will read about next eventually in the year 70 will destroy the Jewish temple at Jerusalem and force all the the Jewish people out of Israel.
Jews are scattered all over the world, most Jews will eventually go to Europe and bring their religion and culture there and but some Jews go to other parts of the Middle East and Africa. Where every they go, Jews brought the ideas of monotheism with them. The land that was Israel is renamed Palestine and eventually Arabs will move in and take over, but we will deal with that episode in history at a later time.

(Important: Your personal religious beliefs are not on trial in this paper) what I want to know is according to these sources or others that you may have do you think that Judaism has had an effect on world culture and if so what has that effect been. Want you to write a five paragraph essay detailing what that effect has or has not been using facts from these or other readings to form a clear argument. Have a good weekend.

read more about Abraham, father of monotheism
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/abraham.html

read more about Moses, important figure in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/moses.html

See sites of Jerusalem
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/State/JERUSALEM.htm

see a reconstruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod%27s_Temple

optional: this is the link to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Israel
http://www.imj.org.il/

Egypt and Mesopotanian ideas influence the Greek city states, which in turn become the foundation of Western Civilization

You have learned about man's earliest movements out of Africa and the development of civilizations along rivers. Human communities eventually develop agriculture. With abundant food, people no longer had to be nomadic and instead could settle in permanent villages. The need for water for crops meant that these communities formed around river valleys.

We have talked about river valley civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia (Iraq), Indus (India), and China. While all of these cultures are very different from on another in many ways, all of these river valley civilizations develop the five aspects needed for civilization. These should be in your notes, they may be on the test. In additional these different cultures all learned about new ideas from the cultures around them and incorporate those ideas into their cultures through cultural diffusion.

While ancient Egypt and Mesopotamian Ur developed into important cultural centers, other cultures began to develop in Europe. The Greek civilization took took early complex societies to the next level of development. The Greek city-states (most importantly Athens and Sparta) developed the foundation of Western Civilization. Greek language, religion (the gods and goddesses of mythology), sports (the Olympic games), arts, music, science, and government would have a great effect on the our world today. The city of Athens was the first to develop democracy (demos=the people, aucrocy=government)--citizens using voting to decide their leaders. In so many ways, many of modern America's institutions and culture are based on the early Greek model.

Get to know more about the Ancient Greeks: click and read about Athens, Festivals and Games, Daily life, and Gods and Goddesses (remember, the Greeks, the Egyptians, and Sumerians were polytheists)
http://www.ancientgreece.co.uk/

Learn more about Democracy in the Greek city-state of Athens:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekdemocracy_01.shtml

Compare and contrast ancient Greek Democracy versus modern American democracy:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekdemocracy_03.shtml

This YouTube clip examines the rule of athletes, specifically boxing (remember, the Greeks invented the Olympics to honor the god Zeus):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yshV0LERye0

Write a one page page 5 paragraph paper explaining how the Greeks have influenced our American society. You can compare and contrast the differences between these two us and the Greeks. Feel free to give your opinion about which society you'd rather live in and way and why. While you are encouraged to express your opinion, make sure that you base your ideas on facts taken from these sources or others that you may find yourself on line.

River civilization: Egypt and the Nile river

The agricultural revolution and domestication of animals led to settled village life mostly along rivers, since farms need a steady source of water for crops. Societies with a dependable source of food experience population growth, which makes possibel the creation of the worlds earliest cities. Egypt is one of the first of these river valley civilizations.

Read about life along the Nile river and Egyptian civilization:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section3.shtml
Watch these be prepared to talk about what them in class:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w1x8nVD4xs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZKMzU207MM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czISLzICp9s

Early humans leave the lakes region of Africa

Welcome to Mr M's school blog. You can use this blog to know what is going on in class, what readings need to be done, and links to websites that you will need to read for class.

www.historyguide.org/guide/study.html
1.2 why study history

www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/2chapter1.shtml
Be sure to read origins, homo sapiens out of Africa, from hunting to farming, and skills and tools. It would be in your best interest to print these out and bring them to class, be prepared to discuss what you have learned.