BIG HISTORYBy Tiffany JacobsHIST 140 #50607

What Do We Believe?

We each have our own truths and belief systems

We are willing to fight & some, to die, to maintain our belief systems

When a solution/belief suits us, we institutionalize it

Cultures try to adjust to constant change by implementing rituals and institutions

Institutions act as a safety barrier to change

How Do We Change?

It is human nature to question & the questioning will cause change to an institution

Questions can lead to new beliefs & solutions

Solutions result in innovations, and innovations shape cultures & spawn change

The day one questions is the first day the universe will change for them

Knowledge has the power to change beliefs

How Did We Get Here?

The world was small in the beginning Imagine a small tribe in Africa asked the

question “What’s over there?” This tribe from Africa traveled from

their home, all over the world, to South America.

It took over 35,000 years to make the journey

The world was populated as this tribe traveled the entire earth

Where/Who Did We Come From? We are all related and are separated

by over 2,000 generations of ancestors

Some cultures are more comfortable with this belief than others

There is no logical reason for divisions among us based on race or ethnicity

We all come from the same place and are made of the same DNA

Was it An Accident?

The world is perpetually unstable Some instability comes from human

actions and reactions Cultures are perpetually in flux due

to innovations, beliefs, and change Nature is an unpredictable force with

catastrophic events These forces impact the course of

humans

Did God Do This To Us?

Natural forces affect the world Volcanoes, floods, famines, droughts,

crop failure and storms created an apocalyptic environment

Human forces react to the natural changes

Empires collapsed, epidemics spread, religion was shunned/embraced

Unstable areas were destabilized and it altered the course of man

Why Are Some Better Than Others?

Some cultures have historically fared better than others

Some cultures have been annihilated “Innovation sustains success while

complacency leads to stagnation and decline.” ~B. Gates

The differences have nothing to do with race/ethnicity and everything to do with luck, chance, fate, or destiny… choose your belief

What’s the Difference?

Significant environmental differences were the key factors in prosperity & growth vs. decline & depravity

Continental differences affected the well-being of the populations: Variation and proliferation of plant and

animal life Ability to migrate and diffuse through the

land mass Larger population = greater innovation Unity had pros and cons for continents

What Was Going On?

1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue The world’s economy was centered in Asia Asia was strongly unified on many points:

Language, Territory, Rule, Exploration Europe had disunity on many points

Language, Territory, Religion, Innovations Religion was a hot topic even then

Jews were expelled from Spain Muslim desired to establish world-wide

caliphate Christianity was having growing pains

Why Did We Get Here?

Desire to innovate trade routes brought Spanish Exploration to the forefront

Trade was changing beliefs about commodities, “currencies”, and product trends

Countries that developed faster due to greater natural resources now had greater need for new & different products like coffee

Christianity may have been ‘saved’ by Spanish development of the New World