Chapter 3 Journal Commentary
So, as I've previously mentioned, History has never been one of my strong points. Chapter 3, while interesting at best, did have me flipping pages back and forth to the map illustrations just so I could visualize exactly where all of the cities and empires that the chapter was referring to were situated.
The text begins this chapter with the Persian Empire, which was the largest and perhaps greatest of empires that ever existed. The map depicting the area that this empire encompassed was amazing. The Persians, ruled by a king, were able to acquire more and more land through their conquests making them unsurpassable.
The Persians created a successful system of government that was the foundation for future administrations to follow. There were officials that ran certain departments, so to speak, such as tax collecting, record keeping, etc. It is from here that I can see the origins of the systems we have in place today. They also tried to promote the customs and traditions of the peoples that lived in the areas that they conquered. I'd deduce that this contributed to their power and enormous land masses. Trying to keep their citizens content was a strategy that proved lucrative.
I was able to grasp the influx of the Greeks influence and how they differed from that of the Persians. The Greeks let the male citizens decide matters of policy while the king in Persia was the one in control. The Persians in their quest for more lands kept moving forward to capture and dominate the Greek city-states. Battles ensued and the Greeks held their own. But even with this victory, the Greeks had battles within their own cities, with Athens wanting to remain superior. The Athenians were defeated by Sparta. I believe that these stages of conflict among themselves caused a weakening of their forces, which then led to Macedonia taking control.
We are then introduced to Alexander, the son of King Philip II, who was the ruler of Macedonia. As revenge for the previous Persian takeover of the Greeks, young Alexander directed a crusade against the Persian Empire which resulted in its defeat. Even with all of these back-and-forth battles from all sides, the victories and defeats that resulted, the Greek culture continued to permeate throughout the world.
The comparison was then made between the Roman and Chinese Empires. Before sounding like I'm just paraphrasing the chapter material instead of giving my own commentary, I'll just say that there were differences and similarities in these two regions. What I found interesting was that originally, they both appealed to the supernatural in the practice of their religions. This is what caused Christian persecution by the Romans since Christians only worshipped God, alone, and not multiple gods or viewed deceased emperors as worthy of worship. Coincidentally, Christianity became the religion of choice in Rome and Buddhism in China. From then on, there were more differences than similarities between these two empires and eventually, their collapse was inevitable. The past seems to be clear that this is the cycle that existed then and continues to exist in the present time. "History repeats itself" is a common adage that continues to hold the test of time.
The text begins this chapter with the Persian Empire, which was the largest and perhaps greatest of empires that ever existed. The map depicting the area that this empire encompassed was amazing. The Persians, ruled by a king, were able to acquire more and more land through their conquests making them unsurpassable.
The Persians created a successful system of government that was the foundation for future administrations to follow. There were officials that ran certain departments, so to speak, such as tax collecting, record keeping, etc. It is from here that I can see the origins of the systems we have in place today. They also tried to promote the customs and traditions of the peoples that lived in the areas that they conquered. I'd deduce that this contributed to their power and enormous land masses. Trying to keep their citizens content was a strategy that proved lucrative.
I was able to grasp the influx of the Greeks influence and how they differed from that of the Persians. The Greeks let the male citizens decide matters of policy while the king in Persia was the one in control. The Persians in their quest for more lands kept moving forward to capture and dominate the Greek city-states. Battles ensued and the Greeks held their own. But even with this victory, the Greeks had battles within their own cities, with Athens wanting to remain superior. The Athenians were defeated by Sparta. I believe that these stages of conflict among themselves caused a weakening of their forces, which then led to Macedonia taking control.
We are then introduced to Alexander, the son of King Philip II, who was the ruler of Macedonia. As revenge for the previous Persian takeover of the Greeks, young Alexander directed a crusade against the Persian Empire which resulted in its defeat. Even with all of these back-and-forth battles from all sides, the victories and defeats that resulted, the Greek culture continued to permeate throughout the world.
The comparison was then made between the Roman and Chinese Empires. Before sounding like I'm just paraphrasing the chapter material instead of giving my own commentary, I'll just say that there were differences and similarities in these two regions. What I found interesting was that originally, they both appealed to the supernatural in the practice of their religions. This is what caused Christian persecution by the Romans since Christians only worshipped God, alone, and not multiple gods or viewed deceased emperors as worthy of worship. Coincidentally, Christianity became the religion of choice in Rome and Buddhism in China. From then on, there were more differences than similarities between these two empires and eventually, their collapse was inevitable. The past seems to be clear that this is the cycle that existed then and continues to exist in the present time. "History repeats itself" is a common adage that continues to hold the test of time.
Comments
Post a Comment