AP World History With Steve

To start with, this is a good summary -- at least from 1812 (Napoleon's invasion) to the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.

(after you read the Napoleon section, click on "The Path to Revolution" and "The Soviet Era" links at the bottom of the page)

--


more to come soon.

See page 635. When thinking about China and the Manchu leaders' refusal to Westernize, consider this picture of the marble boat referred to in the middle of the page (left column).

In Brazil, there were Fazendas.

Brazil was also a major player in the slave trade, as the chart below shows:

Trans-Atlantic imports by region 1450-1900
Region	Number of slaves accounted for		%
Brazil	4,000,000		35.4
Spanish Empire	2,500,000		22.1
British West Indies	2,000,000		17.7
French West Indies	1,600,00		14.1
British North America and United States	500,000		4.4
Dutch West Indies	500,000		4.4
Danish West Indies	28,000		0.2
Europe (and Islands)	200,000		1.8
Total	11,328,000		100.0
Data derived from table II as presented in: The Slave Trade by Hugh Thomas Simon and Schuster, 1997, ISBN 0-68481063-8

chart source: http://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa080601a.htm

Apparently, as of 2004, Brazil still practiced a form of slavery.

The Ming dynasty took over for the Yuan Dynasty, which was part of the Mongol Khanates.

Here's some Ming Art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.

And here's a Ming China timeline connected with the same exhibit.

This essay about Ming China gives good context, as does this shorter article from Encyclopedia Britannica.

Here is some information about Matteo Ricci, the first foreigner to be admitted inside the Forbidden City.

The Straits of Malacca are worth talking about.

And the way that Europeans got there was the caravel ship (mentioned on p. 501)

For some reason, I became interested in cinnamon when I read this chapter (see p. 504). Apparently, the word, in Malay and Indonesian languages sounds like kayu manis and means "sweet wood".

I thought the Dutch monopoly control of the spices in the East Indies (top of p. 505) was kind of toubling -- it felt like the opposite of what we are trying to do today with endangered places such as rainforests.

When the book mentioned the Muslim-ruled southern island Mindannao, it would have been nice to provide a map.

Hi Morgan.

In your absence, Casey and I started talking about a possible field trip, to see Nelson Mandela's drawings, which are on display at the American Tobacco Building in Durham.

In class, Casey wondered who had been imprisoned longer -- Mandela or Jomo Kenyatta. Looks Like Mandela by more than a decade and a half :)

What matters here is less the time, and more the question of why each was imprisoned. For class Weds (assuming you are well enough) let's plan to have a quick discussion about those two leaders, and then look at Ch 22. Casey is preparing a talk on Japan (last 4-5 pages), so in the next chapter, you should plan to do the same...

Hope to see you Weds.

-Steve and Casey

I think we decided in class that we would read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe this module.

Here's a basic overview from Wikipedia.

Here's a guide from Encarta.

And here's An interview with Chinua Achebe that includes him reading some poetry (it begins after a brief instumental introduction to a program called "Cross-Cultural Poetics").

Let's aim to have regular discussions about this book online...