How did the Romans manage to effectively combine their whole empire into one unit?

I believe the Romans managed to effectively combine their empire into a whole unit because of their wars, the Pax Romana, and their roads and seaways. The Romans had many battles such as the battle with the Etruscans and the Carthaginians. After winning these battles the Romans captured their land, and used it for themselves. Nobody later captured their area back. After all these battles, and all these cities captured the Romans entered a time of peace called the Pax Romana. During this time the Romans made their roads and seaways which connected their city together making it easier for people to travel. Also during the Pax Romana, Romans got their crops in their city so they could stock up on money, and they got their money faster with the roads and seaways. After entering the time period of the Pax Romana, and stocking up on crops and money, i believe thats how the Romans effectively combined their city into one unit.

Blog Entry #6

How would an Athenian of the 5th Century BCE criticize our present-day representative democracy? (or.... how would they approve of it?

An Athenian of the 5th Century would say to our present-day representative that their ways are unruly. In our present-day government, we have one person to decide and rule over us. In Athenian democracy they have more than one person to rule, distribution of power; A president for 3 months then they would switch off. The Athenians would criticize this method because the person in power could be corrupt and nobody could do anything about it because he was already elected and for 4 years a that. In Athenian democracy it would three months and nobody could mess anything that much. The Athenians would approve of the idea that everyone is equal, even if they are not wealthy. Overall they would approve of the present-day democracy, because it's a democracy and everyone is equal, and that everyone is allowed to have a say in something that is happening in their city.

Mayan Values Exemplified in Modern Society

Many mayan values are exemplified in modern society today. As I have learned from my classmates presentations there is a lot of examples of Mayans in modern society. We take a lot of their findings and ideas and we took from it and expanded on it. It was basically the foundation of our life. For example, ball games. The Mayans played a game that is very similar to basketball. The game had a hoop, a court, stands, and a team. Another example is food. Mexican food and chocolate is some things from Mayan that really stand out to me in the modern society. I know that a lot of people like chocolate and a lot of people like Mexican food. There are many different Mexican restaurants and many varieties of chocolate. This shows how we expanded on the Mayans findings. We also have architecture, religion, the calendar. It is hard to imagine if the Mayans weren't in existence on this world, because if they weren't here we might not have had all these great things in our society.

Blog Entry #4

Choose two of the Chinese Philosophies and make a comparison and/or judgment about their effectiveness in maintaining order.
Legalism and Daoism:

Legalism and Daoism relatively different Chinese Philosophies. These Philosophies have different laws, goals, and overall methods of life. I believe that the biggest difference between the two are the laws. Daoism is least strict since it has no laws, it believes that all people are for themselves and will do what they believe is right. Legalism, however, is very different, any wrong move and you would go in jail, or maybe losing your hand. The laws are very strict and this helps the ruler maintain order. I believe that if you're a Legalism ruler that it would be very easy to maintain order because of the harsh rules, since everyone really knows the laws and their punishments then it would really make the citizens listen and be scared you. If your citizens are scared of you then it means that they know who is in control. Daoism, I believe, it is hard to control order because you would need to get everybody's attention. It's difficult getting everybody's attention since everybody is free-spirited and does what they think they should do. In conclusion, I believe it's hard to maintain order in Daoism, but easy in Legalism.

Blog #3

What is the most effective way for a ruler to maintain order?

I think that the most effective way for a ruler to maintain order is to put make laws for people to live by. What I mean by making laws is the like the laws we have today in the modern world, for example, if you steal you should get punished. I don't think that there should really harsh laws for people that do a small crime. I think the punishment should be prison or maybe that person can't get something they want for a specific period in time. When they do something horrible like killing a person then the punishment should be prison for 5 years. Some people just don't want to do obey the laws and risk getting punished, such as when you steal there is a risk of going to prison. There are many laws in the society and the most important laws are the ones that people know. So in conclusion I believe there needs to be laws for a ruler to maintain order.

Blog #2

I agree with Jared Diamonds thesis. I agree that in the Middle East there was geographical luck. You had to be lucky to evolve and develop in a place where you could have good crops, domesticated animals and a good climate to help with the crops. The main crops where wheat and barley and those crops where full of protein and in most places they didn't get enough protein. There were 14 animals that could help with crops and everybody life and 13 of them came from the middle east. The climate was rain and sun which helped with plants. You could also use more information because they could have had a year of good luck then bad, and another place had good luck but nobody has discovered it yet, so that means you need more information. In conclusion they were lucky.

1. Advantages and Disadvantages of Farming

The advantages of farming is that you could get fresh produce such as tomatoes and lettuce, you could use animals like horses to help you out in the process. But all of this comes at a cost. The disadvantages of farming is that all this is very costly, buying the seeds, the soil, water, the animals that help you out, plows, and etc. It could cost a lot of money it you get a large farm. Another disadvantage of farming is that if you live in San Francisco and there is always fog and rain and not enough sun the plants could die. Some other advantages of farming is that you could save animals such as goats, sheep or cattle. If we would have hunted these animals for food they could become endangered and lost all the benefits they bring like wool for clothes.