Elizabeth I and Akbar the Great

Jack Machulski           12/8/10                   Period B1

With their nations in the midst of a reform both Elizabeth I of England, and Akbar the Great had to deal with two different religions in one country.  In the long run Akbar’s was more successful and far more impressive.                                                                                                                                                                              While Elizabeth might not have done as good of a job as Akbar; she still did quite well.  When her late father Henry VIII died she inherited the throne.  Alongside being Queen she also had to run the newly found church, the Church of England.  England and a lot of Europe were already resenting the pope’s power and turning protestant.  This started a rift between the two sides and England was on the verge of a civil war.  Something needed to be done so she made the acts of supremacy which made her absolute head of the church.  Then she passed the bill of uniformity which forced all people in England, including Catholics, to attend an Anglican service every Sunday.  She tried to unify the nation by forcing everyone to go to one church.                                                                   Akbar the Great went about accomplishing this in a completely different way.  He was a Muslim ruler and he invaded then became the ruler of Northern India.  He believed in universal tolerance.  Since there was tension between the Hindus and the Muslims he needed to do something.  He decided to promote Hindus and people of other religions to the cabinet.  He even married Hindu women.  He showed his country that it is good to be religiously tolerant and led his country by example.                                                                                                                                                                      Akbar the Great was much more impressive than Elizabeth I.  First off, Akbar the Great led his country by example and made the country religiously tolerant; and Elizabeth I forced Catholics to go to mass every Sunday.  Second, Akbar the Great had to ease the tension of two very different religions.  The Hindus and Muslims were both extremely devoted to their faiths, and keeping a religious war from happening is no small task.  Especially since the Muslims invaded India and took over.  The Catholics and the Protestants were also devoted to their religions.  Although both religions are quite devoted, they are so similar that a compromise between the two is much easier to obtain.  The third thing that made Akbar’s feat so much more impressive was the scale of it, due to the size of his kingdom.  Queen Elizabeth I tried to do it with a kingdom of around four million.  Akbar was more successful and he was ruling a kingdom of around 100 million.  So in conclusion, Akbar the Great easing the tensions of North India was a much greater accomplishment than Queen Elizabeth I doing the same in England.

 

level 5…  i couldn’t finish up (lost my Han notes)

The Han Dynasty evolved in three main areas during its’ rule:  religion, governance, and economics.  In the beginning of the Han dynasty, religious practices included worshiping ancestors and making sacrifices.  Practices transformed when Taoist cults promised eternal life. Finally, towards the end of the dynasty, Buddhism travelled down the trade roads and into the capital Luoyang.  The Government also evolved over time.  At first it was a feudalistic government, next it went onto Confucianism, finally it moved into a Central Bureaucracy.  Another area which evolved was the Economy.  Most of the population were peasants so much of the economy was based around farming.

Christianity triumphs in the Roman Empire

Level 6:Eight Sentences – Opinionated topic sentence (i.e., argument), three different points with specific examples, secondary information, specific dates/key figures, specific vocabulary, appositives, insight, natural transitions that link to previous sentence, thoughtful conclusion.

Christianity triumphed in the Roman Empire because the new emperor (Constantine) accepted it as a religion, it became widely practiced by the lower classes which was the bedrock of the economy, and religiously because you could repent your sins and ultimately better your life after death.  During the beginning of the Roman Empire Christians were thought of as the enemy.  Their non pagan ways were not welcome in the Roman Empire.  Even the Emperor Nero who was at fault when the city burned blamed it on the Christians.  After a while the Emperor Trajan was the new emperor.  He became tolerant and decided not to persecute the Christians.  Then when Constantine rolled around he made it the religion of choice in Rome.  As Christianity expanded it became more accepted socially.  It had already been practiced in the lower classes and working classes in Rome.  The slaves practiced it and so did the soldiers.  Thos were two very big parts of the economy, and this led to many people converting to Christianity.  Lastly Christian was a good religion because it gave you the right to repent your sins, thus giving you control of your life after death.  Christianity developed from hated to widely practiced in the Roman Empire because of its spread, economically, religiously, and politically.

Comparing civilizations

I think that the best civilization in the world would have to be Greece.  They are the most respected culturally and had the best government.  They were not the best at everything though.

The Greeks were the best culturally, they had great festivals and rich history.  The cities in greece were stunningly beautiful and the architecture was magnificent.  They also had the best relationship with their gods.  While the hebrew’s god forced someone to sacrifice humans the Greek gods were very nice.  They were very human so people could relate to them and there was a god per city.

Their religion wasn’t as successful as Hebrew because the greek religion died when the civilization ended.  Though I think it is the most interesting religion it didn’t last very long because it died after the fall of Rome.                                                                                               They were not the nicest to women even though they had women goddesses and the patron god of their best city, Athens, was represented by Athena a goddess Mesopotamians treated their women better.  Mesopotamian women were allowed to own property and run companies.  Greek women were treated pretty well but didn’t have these freedoms.

An area which I think the Greeks were undoubtedly better than every other civilization was in there government.  They invented democracy which is the government many 1st world countries have today.  They had elections with officials and a leader that ruled the city.  There government was efficient and fair and it started the basic government we use today.

Greece had the best culture, relationship with there gods, and government.  They also had some of the toughest warriors (Sparta), and the greatest thinkers and philosophers (Socrates, Plato).  This makes me think Greece was the all around best civilization.

Matrix/Plato’s Cave post

The Matrix is a really cool movie.  The entire movie is about a really cool concept that we might be in a dream world.  That where we are is not real, the air we all breathe is not real, these keys i’m typing on are not real.  Though it might just seem like a cool movie it also quite symbolic.                                                                                                                                                     Lets start with Morpheus.  In the beginning he offers Neo two pills.  You can take the red one or the blue one.  He chose the red one and opted to see the matrix.  First off Morpheus’s name in Greek means the molder or creator.  He is the molder and creator of the matrix… coincidence right!  Wrong.  The writer in this movie has used deep symbolism (most of it refers to the bible) to turn this movie from not just a watching movie… but a thinking movie.  Keanu Reeves symbolizes how chill and relaxed history is.

The Plato cave story is also interesting.  It is a story how 4 people are placed in a cave and cant move their heads.  Then one of them is released, they go and see the real world instead of the cave.  When he comes back he is laughed at, by all of the people.  This story relates to a large amount of great thinkers in ancient history.  Take Galileo for example.  He was such a smart guy, he had been thinking about how the earth moves.  As we know now the earth does orbit around in space.  This is ancient civilizations so you know if it goes against something in the bible then you should die.  It symbolizes how people have such a problem with change.  When people try to change someones perspective they are often ignored or ridiculed.

Creation Myth

I think that this shows how primitive the world used to be.  How instead of an almighty god creating the world a big fight happened and he threw the body and that made the heavens and earth.  It is like if God went blood thirsty.  Marduk kills the fits goddess and makes heaven and earth.  He divides her like a shell fish, which is a weird comparison but it shows how powerful Marduk is.  Not only can he kill a huge goddess but he divided her and made heaven and earth.  He assigned jobs to all of the gods and was chief god.  The god sanctuary which is kind of like olympus.  He became kind of like supreme king of the universe.

A Comparison of Adam and Eve, to Shamhat and Enkidu

These powerful texts are from different cultures, but they are very much the same.  They try to show how men are superior and women kinda messed everything up.  They are very much the same because both of them were created by a powerful god.

Enkidu was raised by animals and wasnt exposed until he slept with Shamhat.  Adam was living a peaceful paradise like life until Eve screwed everything up by feeding him and apple.  God cursed both Adam and Eve and gave Eve awful birth pangs.

Genesis Chapter 2/3

Adam and eve shapes the way that most Christians, Muslims, and Jews see women.  They are all male based religions.  In Christianity women are not allowed to preach in church.  In some Islamic countries women are not even allowed to show their face and they must wear a burqa whenever they go out.  I dont know alot about the Jewish religion but I can guess that it is also matriarch.  How did this happen?  In the “original” Adam and Eve, Enkidu was created by a woman god so how did the 3 most practiced religions in the world become so matriarch?

Well the second story in the bible is adam and eve.  Adam is created first before Eve.  Then Eve messes everything up by eating from the tree of knowledge.  And god curses both Adam and Eve.  When he curses them he says that Adam now has power over Eve.  Since alot of the people take the bible very literally that might be why these religions became so male based.

This conversation was discussing what Shamhat was.  If she was just a tool or did she have power.  And how Enkidu (is that how you spell it)  went from an animal drinking out of the watering hole to drinking wine.  We also discussed the similarities between Adam and Eve and the Epic of Gilgamesh.  How both Adam and Enkidu were made out of clay.  But Enkidu was made by a goddess and Adam was made by a god.

Sins of scripture blog post

I think women are equal to men.  That was obviously not what they thought in ancient civilizations.  It is stated that god designed the world to be male dominant.  I dont fully agree with this though.  If he really wanted it to be fully male dominant why did he create females in the first place?  With his godly powers he could have made a way for a male to get other males pregnant but he didn’t.  So I think god wanted males to be superior but not be fully dominant.  I do see how such a low opinion of women started though.  Back then alot of the jobs were farming and building and jobs that needed heavy lifting.  Since womens naturally smaller stature they probably couldn’t do the heavy lifting to do those jobs.  Gilgamesh is positive towards women.  When Enkidu who is living with wild beasts is seduced by temple prostitute Shamhat he is changed.  He ends up becoming great friends with Gilgamesh who is a King.  Instead of women screwing it up they actually helped.  This text views women positively because many of the gods in Sumer were goddesses.  They were definitely well viewed in Sumer.  They could own property and run businesses so i think that is why this story is positive towards women.