My Trip Around the World

On my first blog, I wrote that after reading the first two chapters, I found myself thinking I had traveled far and felt transported to another time. I found Strayer’s book more like a novel rather than a text book. Every time I finished a chapter, whether it would be on the Indus Valley People, Roman and other Empires, Silk, Sand and Sea Roads, slavery, or world of Islam, I felt as if I had been to these places. Over the weekend, I read the last two chapters (minus the Reflections on chapter 23) because I was not ready to end my “trip around the world”. But I could not say that I was done with all the reading, so I finally ended my “trip around the world” yesterday afternoon when I read the Reflections of chapter 23. I found Strayer’s “last” words to have struck an emotional chord with me and eloquently summarize my feelings about how I benefited from this class. “But historical understanding is always incomplete, relative, and subject to change. Nonetheless, the achievements of the historical enterprise are impressive and enormously enriching. Our subject – world history – makes us witnesses to the broad contours of the human journey and provide a context in which our individual lives can find a place and, perhaps, a measure of meaning. It serves to open us to and inform us about the wider world that shapes our daily experience. If we base our understanding of life only on what we personally experience in our own lives, we render ourselves both impoverished and ineffective.” (Strayer & Nelson, 1062) Even though there were times when I felt overwhelmed by all the reading we needed to get through in a single week, I know that I am a more enriched person after taking this class.

Communist Feminism: Who Would Have Thought?!

I really liked the piece on Communist Feminism in chapter 21. Who would have ever thought that “communist countries in fact pioneered forms of women’s liberation that only later were adopted in the West.” (Strayer & Nelson, 940). For a short period of time, women in Russia had legal and political equality: “marriage became a civil procedure among freely consenting adults; divorce was legalized and made easier, as was abortion; illegitimacy was abolished; women no longer had to take their husbands’ surname; pregnancy leave for employed women was mandated; and women were actively mobilized as workers in the country’s drive to industrialization.” Lenin believed that men and women should rule the state. Women organized themselves by forming a special organization called Zhenotdel and taught each other how to run day-care centers and medical clinics, publish newspapers and magazines aimed at female audiences, and provide literacy and prenatal classes. These women seemed to have been ahead of the curve! I love what Alexandra Rodionova said about herself, “This former illiterate working girl had been transformed into a person, powerful with the knowledge of her own rights, a consciousness of responsibility for everything happening in the country.” (Strayer & Nelson, 941). It is unfortunate that men fear women’s strength and intelligence. I wondered how women must have felt when Stalin came into power and abolished that special organization of Zhenotdel. Reading and writing about these women in Russia in the 1930s made me think of the class exercise Professor Andrews had us do last week. The lesson of this exercise bothered me. I could not imagine having the rights that I have as a woman be taken away from me. I would go into a deep depression, one from which I am not sure I could ever recover. 

Ode to Kartini

As I read the story of Kartini, I found myself agreeing with her beliefs. I loved what she said, “Are we fine women of no use to civilization?” Even though a lot has changed since Kartini’s time, in some countries and/or cultures men still believe that women are subordinate to them, do not deserve to have an education, and do not have a say in whom we should marry. I came from a country where men think women are to obey them and not think for themselves. While I personally would have had the opportunity to choose my husband, I was not encouraged to go to college and get an education like my brother did. I was expected to marry at a young age, obey my husband, not have an opinion of my own, and bear his children. Yes, you read that right. Once married, our children would not have been considered ours, but his. Kartini would say that this is unacceptable, and I would agree with her. I could not ever imagine what Kartini must have felt when she found out that she was to marry a much older and polygamous man. The thought of it makes me angry and sad. It also saddened me that her dreams of opening a school for girls were never realized while she was still alive. But the silver lining in this story is that we now know of her and that because her writings became known in Indonesia that a number of “Kartini schools” (Strayer & Nelson, 727) were established in her memory.

Need a Reason to Cry?

This week’s reading was a bit tough for me. I cried while reading these chapters and not because I am naïve, unaware of the violence in our world, have never heard of slavery, or I think that I am Mother Theresa (I, too, criticize people and call them names in my head). But these 55 words, which I had not read before, made me hurt all over: “There she no doubt saw the whips and leg irons used to discipline the captured Africans as well as the windowless dungeons in which hundreds were crammed while waiting for the ships that would carry them across the Atlantic to the Americas. Almost certainly she also caught sight of the infamous ‘gate of no return’.” (Strayer & Nelson 601). After I read this quote, I felt such sadness and such anger at the same time. Once again, I question those religious individuals who speak and/or preach about loving God. Who is this God we must love, devote ourselves to, kill for, eradicate, or displace those we conquer? No one has ever seen or heard this God ask these things of us. Strayer writes that not all slaves experienced the same oppression and/or mistreatment, that some were able to have decent living conditions, but a slave is a slave. No human being should ever be bought or sold and most certainly not tortured, raped, or discriminated against because of his or her skin color. Nor should a person from Africa be thought of as being of an inferior race or being anything less than human. (Strayer & Nelson, 624)

How Civilized Are We?

After reading Chapters 9, 11, and 12, I cannot help but think that we, as people, have become extremely violent toward one another as we have supposedly become “more civilized.” Even though I have lived through a civil war and understand why my countrymen fought against each other to overthrow a dictator, I cannot ever support the ideas behind wars and most certainly do not support the killing of innocent people. Muhammad, for example, claimed that God spoke to him over a period of 22 years. He fought many wars and was not only a religious figure, but he was also a military leader who would harshly suppress, exile, enslave, or even kill those who opposed him. We then have Chinggis Khan, who is believed to have been an excellent military leader. But from my point of view, he was a despicable human being who is said to have used a form of psychological warfare. “Whoever submits shall be spared, but those who resist, they shall be destroyed with their wives, children and dependents … so that the others who hear and see should fear and not act the same.” (Strayer & Nelson, 471) These are just two examples of two human beings who would not think twice about taking a life if that life did not serve their political or religious agenda. There were other rulers, kings, and emperors before and after Muhammad and Chinggis Khan who have used violence in order to gain power. Perhaps the civilization we are forming now could use a “time-out,” take a deep/closer look at the age of agriculture, and in some wishful thinking way go back in time to avoid such violence. If we all came from one place, aren’t we killing our own family members?

The Roman Empire and Christianity

I found the Political Life in Western Europe in Chapter 10 very interesting because the Roman Empire ceased to exist after 476 when the German general Odoacer overthrew the last Roman emperor in the West, but yet those who came after general Odoacer formed a series of regional kingdoms that continued to use and enforce the Roman laws. Many of these kingdoms were influenced by the Roman culture and even fantasized of re-creating the unity of the Roman Empire. For example, Charlemagne, who ruled the Carolingian Empire, behaved so much like an emperor that on Christmas Day in the year 800 the Pope crowned him as the new Roman emperor. Charlemagne’s kingdom did not last after his death in 814. However, Otto I of Saxony found himself as the next Roman emperor and once again the Pope crowned Otto I and his empire was known as the Holy Roman Empire. Another interesting fact I learned in Chapter 10 (which was briefly mentioned in Chapter 4, page 179) is that the Catholic church not only modeled its hierarchical organization after the Roman Empire (Popes, Bishops, Priests, and monasteries), but that it also took some of its political, administrative, educational, and welfare functions. (Strayer & Nelson, 427) Given our current political situation, I hope that our country maintains the separation of Church and State; that it does not go back to ancient times when the Church and State were intertwined, in which men of the cloth dictated how politicians should rule their cities. Moreover, I would like for religious organizations to stay out of politics. Religious men are no better than politicians.

Christianity & Slavery

For the third week in our World History class, we had to read four chapters on the of topics the rise and fall of the Persian, Greek, Roman, Chinese, and Indian empires; religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Confucianism, and Zoroastrianism (I had never heard of Zoroastrianism, even though it shared similar beliefs with Christianity and Judaism such as Judgement Day, God and Satan, resurrection, and the arrival of a savior); Society and Inequality; and lastly Civilizations of Africa, Mesoamerica, and the Andes. However, the one thing that got to me was the chapter on Society and Inequality because it discussed slavery.  But what really got to me was the quote, “Christian teaching held that slaves should be ‘submissive to [their] masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh’.” (Strayer & Nelson, 206) I do not mean to offend anyone reading my blog, but I am sorry, WTF?!!!

As someone who grew up Catholic, I was never taught that God would want to treat any of its children harshly or even enslave them. So, for Christian teachings to tell their believers that they must submit themselves to their masters as if their masters were God is just preposterous! The quote above reconfirmed the conclusion I came to some 20 years ago: that religion is a manmade set of beliefs. I firmly believe that Christianity was created by men who wanted to gain (and keep) power and have control over those who were impoverished or did not know any better. After reading about how civilizations began and the rise and fall of the Empires listed above, I wondered if anyone in those days who considered himself a man of God would have asked a King or an Emperor to submit himself to him because he was a “man of God.” My guess is that he would not have, because Kings and Emperors had money and power. I strongly believe that Christianity, in particular, is only interested in money and power.