History is the story of human existence, therefore we can learn how to be better human beings than the human beings that have come before us. We can learn more about ourselves and what makes us human by analyzing historical figures. At the beginning of this semester I thought that I had some great answers for the question about why it is important to study world civilizations. I now find that I only scratched the surface in my first essay. I had some very cliche reasons for studying or teaching history but now I have a deeper connection to history that will allow me to pass that connection on to my future students. What I have realized is that history is a gift for all. It is not a document or object, it is a representation of all of us.
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Wang Anshi was a human who came up with some reform ideas for China that challenged Confucian ideals. Some of his ideas were to control prices and stop monopolies. He had good ideas in my opinion but the Confucian elite did not want to lose power so they said that he lost Heaven’s Mandate because natural disasters were occurring. They undid his reforms. In this case, the Confucian elite are the “bad guys” but they can justify their actions by saying that Wang’s ideas did not bring stability to China. Also what made the Confucian elite human was that they made a decision out of greed and desire for power and wealth. The same things that make us bad or good also make us human. This means that we are all human because we have badness and goodness within us. It is funny how humanness can bring about positive changes or negative changes. Pope Urban II was the head of the Western Church in the 1000’s and his plan to make the Holy Land Christian was one major cause of the Crusades. European Christians acted on the pope’s promise of eternal glory in heaven by leaving their homes and going to the Holy Land. Pope Urban II wanted the Islamic Turks to be driven out of their land so that Christianity would be “the” religion of the Holy Land. The question is, why would thousands of European Christians go along with this plan and support him? These people were promised wealth and territory and glory in the kingdom of heaven. They were only human and the offer they were given was quite alluring. They followed in the path of the pope in the name of God and used the rationalization that they were only doing God’s work. This rationalization caused centuries of fighting between Christians
Wang Anshi was a human who came up with some reform ideas for China that challenged Confucian ideals. Some of his ideas were to control prices and stop monopolies. He had good ideas in my opinion but the Confucian elite did not want to lose power so they said that he lost Heaven’s Mandate because natural disasters were occurring. They undid his reforms. In this case, the Confucian elite are the “bad guys” but they can justify their actions by saying that Wang’s ideas did not bring stability to China. Also what made the Confucian elite human was that they made a decision out of greed and desire for power and wealth. The same things that make us bad or good also make us human. This means that we are all human because we have badness and goodness within us. It is funny how humanness can bring about positive changes or negative changes. Pope Urban II was the head of the Western Church in the 1000’s and his plan to make the Holy Land Christian was one major cause of the Crusades. European Christians acted on the pope’s promise of eternal glory in heaven by leaving their homes and going to the Holy Land. Pope Urban II wanted the Islamic Turks to be driven out of their land so that Christianity would be “the” religion of the Holy Land. The question is, why would thousands of European Christians go along with this plan and support him? These people were promised wealth and territory and glory in the kingdom of heaven. They were only human and the offer they were given was quite alluring. They followed in the path of the pope in the name of God and used the rationalization that they were only doing God’s work. This rationalization caused centuries of fighting between Christians