Date post: | 17-Nov-2014 |
Category: |
Technology |
Upload: | blknkorbboy |
View: | 519 times |
Download: | 0 times |
Big History
History 140
July, 24,2011
Professor Arguello
by Ryan Babers
• Big History is looking at the past through all time scales
• Evolution of ideologies and studies from the Cold War & Space Race
What is Big History?
Coffee as an Example of Big History
• What is the origin of coffee? • Origins of coffee are connected to
many historic events:• Slave trade, Sugar plantations,
workers, factories, smuggling, climate change
• First coffee drinkers were Ethiopian • Dutch East India company• Planted beans where they thought it
will grow• Coffee break created to give
workers a break • Sugar important to sweetening of
coffee • Sugar comes from the sugar
plantations which slaves were used to work plantations
The Day The Universe Changed
• Humans as a whole are curious• “We” like to dismantle things to see how it works• Have changed and adapted to various situations, events• As a comparison, Westerners are bothered by curiosity and questions whereas
Easterners already have the answers and don’t change but rather live in the past (Like Buddhism, Islam)
The Journey of Man
• Geneticist and Anthropologist Dr. Spencer Wells traveled to Africa to look for the origins of man
• Facial features of various people around the world found in San tribe
• San tribe split from rest and traveled upland into Eurasia
• Information comes from blood that tells about the past, people carry chapter in their in our genes (DNA)
• Lucca first man to look at blood as a time machine to the past
• “Everyone is somewhat related”
• Family lines are traced through the blood line/type
• The tree is like the family which it has branches that resemble the generations and members of that family
Catastrophe!Catastrophe!
Catastrophe!Catastrophe!• Krakatoa is a massive volcano near Indonesia • About 535A.D. volcano erupted that sent ash and dust into the air causing
serious damage• Led to droughts, famine, and then floods• 542 A.D. first record of the bubonic plague that infected rats leading to outbreak
in humans• Keyes: “Outbreaks are related to climate change”• Climate change can alter history• Plague, rats driven toward cooler temperature, wet climate• Temps allow bacteria to flourish• Plague traced to African lakes where diseases are prominent • Ships could of brought disease to other places • Plague and constant siege by Avar barbarians brought Roman empire to knees
further destabilizing the empire.
Guns, Germs, SteelGuns, Germs, Steel
Guns, Germs, SteelGuns, Germs, Steel• Out of Eden:
• Local native Yali asks, “Why white people have so much goods but his people have little of their own?”
• New Guineans have ingenuity and smarts • About the have and have nots • Hunter gathering takes a lot of effort to feed
everyone• Site in Jordan over 11,000 years old found mud-
built homes with wheat and barley farms• First farmers of the world • Domestication• New Guineans been using one of the earliest
farming methods approx 10,000yrs• New Guinea crops less nutritious than other
crops• Europeans had plows whereas New Guineans
do not • Overexploiting crops and resources forced
migrations
• Conquest:
• The Incas (modern Peru) only had the llama as their domestic animal
• Geography which was a big part of accessing resources was mostly disadvantageous to Incas
• Horses and steel were technological advantages to conquistadors
• Swords became a standard of Spaniard conquistadors and was a sign of class & rank
• Spanish missionaries tried to impose their religion on the local populations
• Spanish conquest led to the destruction of the Inca, Aztec, and Mayan empires due to war, disease, and inferior technology
The World in 1492 & Columbus's The World in 1492 & Columbus's WorldWorld
• 1492 Christopher Columbus embarks on his voyage that would take him to the “new world” mistakenly
• Columbus is seen as a single minded, stubborn, but big thinker
• Marco Polo inspired Columbus’ expedition • Columbus knew that spices instead of gold and
diamonds were valued more• Amazed of far east treasures he sailed hoping
to find Asia where many sought after goods were
• Columbus thought the newly discovered Americas was Asia
• Muslims challenged Columbus and other European empires religiously, Militarily, and Economically
• Muslims respected trade and commerce which they controlled the Asian trade routes
• Columbus’ arrival to the Americas had brought the destruction of it’s inhabitants
The World & Trade: The European Voyages and How the World Changes
• Columbus brought horses to the new world• Some of his voyages took him to Trinidad and
South America• Goods such as wheat, root vegetables, and corn
are also imported by Columbus• Shortly after landfall Spaniard Hernan Cortez
makes launches his campaign in Mexico southward
• Horses and cattle brought to Americas and
adopted into Native American culture • Cattle ranched for hide rather meat• Potato had become food of Peruvians • Europeans profited from slave trade, plantations
which many slaves died from poor treatment• South American crops such as beans, cocoa,
and peanuts become a trading export to Europeans and the rest of the world