Res Gestae Divi Augusti (The Deeds of the Divine Augustus)[1]is an account of the life and accomplishments of Caesar Augustus, the first Roman emperor. It was intended as a funerary inscription and was disseminated throughout the Roman Empire after the emperor’s death in 14 C.E. The author of Res Gestae was Augustus himself, and in …
Category Archives: Uncategorized
On Environment and Development
Geographic environment can have a vital impact on the manner in which cultures develop. In the western hemisphere, many Native American peoples developed cultures and societies directly influenced by the geography of their home regions. One way of determining the extent to which geography impacts the development of civilization can be gleaned by comparing pre-Columbian …
Source Analysis: Terracotta Army
Explanation: In the World History to 1500 class in which I’m currently enrolled, there are two source analysis assignments. Here’s the first, on the Terra Cotta Army of Qin Shi-Huang. I used Mary Lynn’s Rampolla’s guides for source analysis from her Pocket Guide to Writing History. ====== Discovered in 1974, the Terracotta Army of Emperor …
Chinese Dynasties: Qin vs. Han
It is difficult to isolate the primary reasons why the Qin Dynasty of China failed after only a few years while the subsequent Han Dynasty persisted for 400 years. However, it does appear as if one of the factors was the guiding philosophy of the rulers. Whereas the Qin Dynasty was guided by Legalism, the …
Final Exam: 1492 vs. the Present
Explanation: This was my final exam essay for my World History 1500 to Present class. Got an A! === In 1492, the world was bifurcated. On the one hand, the so-called Old World of Africa and Europe for the most part had interconnected economies through trade routes and maritime commerce, complex societies, and political systems …
On Atrocities
Armesto-Fernandez refers to the 20th century as a “century of atrocities” for quite literal reasons, with the author tying the term directly to the two major world wars fought over the course of the century. Certainly, if we examine the century chronologically, we can see that there was an uncommon amount and level of violence …
On Modernization
Introductory note: I have perhaps never written so many five-paragraph essays in my life… === Felipe Armesto-Fernandez is quite open in the textbook in stating that the term modernization is “strictly speaking, meaningless”[1] because its definition can change according to place and especially time. However, with regard to the nineteenth century, it can at least …
Mesopotamia vs. Egypt
Here’s the first discussion post for my SNHU-117 class. ==== One similarity shared by ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia was government in the form of monarchy. It is likely that they shared monarchy because they both were agricultural societies. The textbook authors argue that monarchy gave rise to surplus wealth, which in turn gave rise to …
On the Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution had an enormous impact on the world’s economies. However, it is clear from looking at the economies of the world today that some countries were impacted less than others, and some not at all. However, not all of the countries that did not industrialize failed in undertaking the process; rather, some of …
Work in Progress: Timeline of Sicilian-Arab Interaction
By of explanation, next week I’ll be starting a new course at SNHU — HIS-117, World Civilization, Prehistory to 1500. The term paper for this course asks that the student write a paper on intercultural interaction, so I decided to return to a topic I started researching a few years back in hopes of perhaps …
Continue reading “Work in Progress: Timeline of Sicilian-Arab Interaction”
Inevitable Historicity 