World History

I thought it was very interesting that in the first century C.E., the Romans began to respect/claim that their deceased emperors were gods.   This new belief system caused a “religious cult” to form which helped boost the authority of the living rulers (pg. 123).   I have met a lot of brilliant people, some have a better way with words than the others which makes them appear even more wise because they have a certain confidence about themselves.   I wonder how many of people back then used their ways with words, stories, and charisma to make people think they come from a background of rulers which gives them more authority.   To put it simply, I wonder how many amazing bull-shitters there were back then.   This section also mentioned that because the early Christians refused to take part in this “religious cult” they were persecuted by the Roman authorities for a period. I liked the story about Trung Trac resisting the Chinese empire.   The Chinese Empi...

I found it interesting that 95% of time (history) was spent in the prehistoric era (Paleolithic and Neolithic).   It is incredible to think that people were able to survive during those era’s since they didn’t have the things as readily available as we do today, they had to create everything!   The book mentions that 3.5 million years ago the hominid species start changing and their brains grew larger.   2.3 million years ago the homo habilis began creating (simple) stone tools which made me wonder if the previous increase in their brain size had any relation to their generation of stone tools (pg. 3).   I never once stopped to think about how humans, animals, crops, etc. were able to increase in numbers overtime.   I never realized or even understood the enormous role that the Industrial Revolution (1750) played during this time.   These chapters have helped me to better understand the role it had and why it was considered the age of agriculture. ...