Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great

Wow. Today, I ran into Alexander the Great in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, he had some time to spare, so I got a couple questions in. Here's how it went:


Me: Wow! Alexander, it's wonderful to meet you!
Alexander: I know. It is.
Me:  Okay... well, tell me a little about yourself and your accomplishments!
Alexander: I was born in 356 BCE. Now, my dad was pretty intense. He took down Greece. The sad thing is, he got killed. Please, save me your condolences. I was taught by Aristotle, so it's not like I'm an idiot. Anyway, I got the power of being the King of Macedon. I got an idea of rolling into the Persian Empire and taking it down. So I did. I hated them with a passion; there was a long lasting feud between myself and their ruler.
Me: Was that difficult, taking them down?
Alexander: Well, it certainly wasn't easy. I started my conquest of Persia in 334 BCE. Now, I knew that I needed a plan, and a good one, at that. So, what I did was lure them out to where I had the advantage of environment, so then I had the upper hand. After they were out of my way, I felt much much better. By the end of my time, I had gone everywhere, far and near. I took over Egypt, and I also reached India in 327 BCE. I was pretty popular in Egypt, I must say.
Me: What were the effects of your conquests? 
Alexander: I started the first world economy. Without me, you'd still be living in your little town in the dark, not knowing what else is out there! This was also the first time the West spread its culture. Basically, we started to mix and blend a bit more. They say that I am the creator of the hellenistic culture, which is the mixing of all of the cultures together, like Greek, Egyptian, Syrian, and all of the other places that I rolled into. I'm sure, say, in 2010, there's going to be even more blending of the cultures.
I also had cities popping up wherever you look; of course, I liked to take a little of everyone's culture and throw it in. My cities were successful, complete with economic powerhouses that consisted of trade, art, architecture, and agriculture. We also made some advances in the science field. Women had more rights.
Me: Wow! You've accomplished so much! You must feel pretty good when you look at your reflection.
Alexander: You bet I do.
Me: Well, nice meeting you and thank you for your time!


Alexander the Great viewed himself as a god. Unfortunately, he passed away in 323 BCE at Babylon. He had a huge impact on the West, and we can still see the effects today.

Axis Age/Golden Age of Greece

Statue of Socrates

So today, I got the honor of interviewing a pretty cool guy by the name of Socrates. I must say, this guy really knows his stuff. It was life changing to chat with him. Anyway, here’s how it went:

Me: It’s fantastic to meet you, Socrates. To kick off of this interview, I want to ask. Thousands of people want to know this answer. How did you become so wise?

Socrates: I am the wisest man alive; for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

Me: Interesting...very vague. Nonetheless, words of wisdom right there. Well, tell me a little bit about yourself!

Socrates: I was born in 469 BCE in Athens. As a young boy, I was always interested in things. Quite curious. I have seen much.

Me: What kinds of things were going on in your past?

Socrates: I have seen everything from peace to violent warfare. First, we warred with the Persians from 546 – 479 BCE. The whole point of this was to punish Athens, and I still recall Damius, a Persian leader, launching a pretty gruesome battle in 490 BCE. Of course, we rolled in and won the war. From here, there was the Golden Age.

Me: Now, what exactly was the “Golden Age”? Why was it so important?

Socrates: The right question, young lass, is what wasn’t the Golden Age? During the Golden Age, our leader Pericles, who reigned from 460-429 BCE, achieved wonderful things. First, we achieved a direct democracy, which gave the people much more power..Not to mention how we advanced our culture! Us Greeks are huge on the theatre; plays were thriving! Sciences were improved as well, and of course, you can’t forget about philosophy! This is where people like me come in. Philosophers such as myself really study the meaning of life, the right method of conduct, and try to understand what makes our world goes ‘round. We pass on our knowledge by teaching others. Some other philopshers that I am familiar with are Aristotle and Plato. Now, Aristotle contributed a lot to mathematics as well as to the sciences. Plato made a lot of advances in the astronomy field.

Me: Wow! I’m impressed! Without the Golden Age, I bet those folks in 2010 would really suffer. They'd still be hunting and gathering! Hm, what happened to make all of this end?

Socrates: Sadly enough, in 431 BCE, we went into war with Sparta, our rivaling city-state. Now, these Spartans were not to be messed with. They were pretty hard-core, I’ll admit. For a long time, we were in war with them, which is what is now called the Peloponnesian War. This went on for quite some time, all the way to 404 BCE. The war went deeply against my morals, but I suppose it was unavoidable. Unfortunately, we lost. But by the end of this whole thing, we wore them down so far that Thebes rolls in and takes out the Spartans! So really, no one won the war.

Me: Thanks for informing me on all of this! Can you give me any advice?

Socrates: The unexamined life is not worth living.

Socrates died in 399 BCE. His lasting impacts on the world were the Socratic Method and his views on life. The Socratic Method is a way of teaching that includes making the student answer from his own knowledge in quetion-and-answer form. He, along with Plato and Aristotle, were Europe’s great contributions to the Axis Age.

Zheng He

Replica of one of the boats

The great Zheng He died today; I heard the news. It's 1435, and he passed away in China.
The Ming Dynasty has been ruling us since 1368, and restored Chinese culture after the Mongol invasion. It means "brilliant", which is pretty cool.
But let's go back to Zheng He. In 1405, he commanded the first of seven expeditions he would make to explore the outside world. He explored Africa as well as many other places outside of China. Some even say he discovered the Americas, but he didn't get the credit. When the fleets got back, the Ming destroyed and banned the building of the ships. Scholars didn't have interest in the outside world. This strict Chinese tradition eventually led to China's downfall. This was pretty important because he started a bit of dislike for Western culture as well as the outside world; Zheng He also started interest in the outside world from the common people.

Mongols take China

Mongols attacking

I just paid my tributes to the Mongols, and I am extremely grateful to be alive right now. :O
Let me tell you what happened recently; it's pretty crazy!
In 1206,  a guy named Genghis Kahn united all of the nomadic people who called themselves the Mongols. Now, this guy is not so nice. He has this belief that you must have committed a sin if he harms you or your city; he would be the punishment.
Anyway, he rolled into China. These people didn't even have a dominant culture to ours, but they had one thing that was so powerful it took us down. They had archers on horseback, and they could pick you off before you even knew what was going on. Besides China, they rolled across most of Asia only to be stopped at Ain Jalut. They even achieved the only successful winter attack on Russia. Once they were in power, they weren't all that bad, so many say. I am just afraid of them.
Genghis died in 1273, but his grandson, Kublai Kahn, wasn't done with China yet. He was what they called the 5th Great Kahn, and he conquered Southern China. He wanted to preserve Mongolian culture, and only wanted Mongols in high governmental positions or the army. The only issue with that was that there was too few Mongols, and a large amount of China. In 1271, the Yuan Dynasty was established. Kublai wanted to learn different cultural approaches, so he invited many to come. For example, Marco Polo came from Italy and wrote a book on Chinese culture. These records sparked interest in the riches of Asia.
The Mongols were important because they reshaped Chinese culture, and created one of the largest empires on History. They also revolutionized war strategies by inventing the stirrup, and the archer on horseback.

Sung Dynasty

Chinese rice field

In my opinion, this was the best dynasty I've ever lived in. Starting in 960 CE and ending in , it was the high point of Chinese civilization as a whole. Our capital is Lin'an.
Industry, technology, art, and architecture all were enhanced during this period. As I write this, I can look at my mechanical clock, which was something that is new to us. It's pretty exciting for everyone. Recently, gunpowder, block printing, and a moveable type have been invented as well! The creation of paper money has also happened recently! This will make trading so much easier! It's a big economic step for us, and trade is flourishing. Spices are a big part of trading for our country.
Another thing that was established in this empire was the idea of two crops of rice per year. This created surpluses, which allowed people to pursue other things, like commerce, education, and arts!
The Chinese people are quite content right now, including myself.
The dynasty lasted for a long time, but it ended in 1279 CE. It had a long-lasting impact on the world through its many inventions and advances in civilization!

Tang Dynasty

After the Han Dynasty came to an end, our country was thrown into confusion. We were unorganized for quite some time! However, our country wasn't hurt by it; Buddhism was still spreading, trade was still occurring, and the Chinese weren't dying out. We were ruled for a short time from 598-618 during the Sui Dynasty, but that didn't last long. One good thing that came out of the Sui Dynasty was the Grand Canal, which was pretty cool.
However, we needed a ruler, and we soon had one: Li Yuan, the first Tang emperor, who came into power at the start of the dynasty, which was 618 CE.
Some refer to this as the Golden Ages of Poetry. I can't say I disagree with them. Amazing poets like Li-Po and Du Fu come from this time, and their works are just fantastic!
During this dynasty, we expanded our borders, restored the Han System (Confucian), rebuilt bureaucracy, and increased some taxes. The last part I am not so happy about, but the emperors can't please everyone!
Our economy was one of the most advanced in the world; trade is wonderful for us!
In 907 CE, this empire fell, losing the Mandate of Heaven. This dynasty was pretty important for us because we unified China after centuries of disorganization. We also made some great additions to our art and poetry, which is really important to us! :)

Buddhism comes to China

Buddha

As we all know, Buddhism is pretty important. My man Buddha achieved Enlightenment, and started a religion that many people have converted to; it is a spin-off of Hinduism. 
But, how it got to China is pretty unclear. We know that the date of it was during the Han Dynasty, but there's only rumors of how it happened.
What I heard from town was that our emperor Ming Ti had a dream and sent people down to the Silk Road to try to see what it meant. When they returned, they had a picture of the Buddha and some texts.
The first Buddhist community was said to have come about around 150 AD. From then on, it spread like wildfire!