Big Era 5 Key Theme 6 Science, Technology, and the Environment

The Big Five Era 

Humans and Ideas

There were a couple of major cultural developments that shaped the Big Era five, but the driving force behind it was humans and ideas. Anytime you have cultural differences it is because someone has a different idea than someone else. A major one of these ideas throughout the population was a difference in religious thinking. There were a number of different belief systems widespread including Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam. The other cultural development focused on consolidating scientific and technological traditions within complex societies and the new ideas spreading quickly across Afroeurasia.

The Big Five Era was started around 300 to 400 CE and the ancient world of Afroeurasia and its large political units came to an end. The next twelve hundred years of the Big Five Era brought lots of modern inventions and cultural changes into being. The population of the time was four million people globally thought to be linked to innovations in agriculture as well as more people from Europe to Japan being given land that they could use to grow sustenance. The larger empires of South America, West Africa and Mesoamerica came into being. Between 1000 and 1500 CE there was the emergence of the Indian Ocean focuses on long-distance commerce in Afroeurasia, and there was a universal message of comfort in allowing the religions to agree to disagree.

The Environment, War, and Black Death

The environment during the Big Five Era was changing rapidly and brought on drier conditions and declined the productivity of the farmers. Another issue this caused was plague and disease. The Black Death spread quickly through Afroeurasia taking out a considerable large percent of the population. War became a widespread mission with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of the Gupta Empire in India. In Europe the early Russian empire rose to power and the Aztec and Incan empires grew in America. War also reached new levels of violence with the use of the crossbow, and catapult among other new weapons. Despite the war economic growth was still steady from 700 to 1500. Commerce by sea was the most popular way for merchants to trade. The Big Five Area brought a lot of cultural advances and events that shaped the history of the world.

Chandragupta Maurya gained control and began conquering the surrounding kingdoms. His conquests led to the founding of India’s first empire, the Mauryan Empire, located near the Ganges River in northeastern India.The Maurya Empire was ruled by the Mauryan dynasty from 321 to 185 BC.

HUMANS AND HUMANS

Chandragupta then defeated the invasion led by Seleucus I, a Greek general from Alexander's army. Under Chandragupta and his successors, internal and external trade, agriculture and economic activities,expanded across.

The crusades brought big changes for Europe. The political system in Europe changed from feudalism to monarchy. 
The economic system went from the manorial system, where manors were self-sufficient and didn't trade, to the revival of trade throughout Europe. 
The social structure went from a structured society to a society with a new class, the middle class, and the decline of serfdom. All these changes were very big for Europe.
The political system changed in a big way in Europe after the crusades. Before the crusades, the political unit was the manor and was ruled by lords. You were loyal to the lord who owned your land. After the crusades, feudalism became weaker. The kings who led the crusades got more power. They began to form countries and impose taxes. 

There are several major Han dynasty inventions that have been famously known. These inventions have in one way or another shaped the way our world is lived in right now. The first and probably the most popular is the paper. 

It was during the Han dynasty that the cast iron processing was perfected.

Furnaces which are able to convert iron ore into pig iron and later into cast iron were operational in China during the Han dynasty period.
This helped vastly in the improvement of weapons, tools and domestic wares.
More importantly, it paved the way for the creation of new agricultural tools which in turn helped increase the agricultural tax revenue of the empire.

Also the Han dynasty, come up with the invention of silk, and they thought that could be marketed as an expensive piece of article.

Silk business created a lot of revenue for the people of the Han dynasty. The Han dynasty inventions are solid proof of the intellectual of the Han dynasty people.

HUMANS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Qin Dynasty took place between 221 BC and 206 BC, and was ruled by emperors Yingzheng and Hu Hai. Emperor Yingzheng, also known as Emperor Qin Shi Huang, overthrew the warring states of Han, Zhao, Wei, Yan, Chu, and Qi, establishing the Shaanxi Province city of Xianyang as the Qin Dynasty capital. This was the first time in Chinese history that the country was centralized and unified, and this dynasty affected the development of the many dynasties that were to follow.

HUMANS AND HUMANS


Shi Huangdi unified China with the help advisors, Hanfeizi and Li Si. Both men helped found the school of legalism, which was a method to controlled people by using strict laws based on rewards and punishment. To prevent rebellions, he seized all private weapons.Then divided China into 36 districts and appointed loyal officials to govern the districts. Shi Huangdi suppressed all criticism of his rule. Qin policies unified and strengthened China. Over time the peasant became fed up with the harsh government revolted and founded the Han dynasty.



HUMANS AND IDEAS

Emperor Qin made many changes during his reign: the Chinese government, culture, and economy.

Shi Huang Di standardized the different laws, writing, coins, and weights and measures used across China.Before the Qin Dynasty a system of standard of different laws,writing, coins and wights did not exist. Emperor Qin called for an established system. He also proclaimed Qinzhuan as the standard style for written characters.

Much of Emperor Qin’s work during the Qin Dynasty helped to develop the country’s economy. Building of the Great Wall of China began during his reign. He also builded the famous terra-cotta warriors that guarded his grave. 


KEY THEME 6

By conquering new land the Qin dynasties were able to spread new ideas and their culture beliefs throughout China and even across the world. Some of the inventions during this period are even used today.