Monday, June 13, 2011

Extending My Learning!

   I have expanded my learning by try to speak Arabic more.  Because i already understand Arabic it is very easy for my to be able to speak it.  Arabic was my first language and i could speak and understand Arabic but when i went to school in Southborough they spoke English...obviously.... So i lost my Arabic because i was at school more then at home so i was hearing English more and my ear was getting use to hearing English more then Arabic.  I really regret not keeping my Arabic so now i have been trying to speak to my parents more in Arabic and they do the same.  I pray with my mom during Ramadan and have slowly started to actually say the prayer with her.  Then i will soon learn to write it as well!

Some words i know how to say:
-Eat
-sleep
-different foods
-run
-come
-jump
-play
-times(still learning though)
-different activities
-different adjectives

*And a lot more average day words...but you get the gist of it*

Monday, June 6, 2011

                                                                  Amazing Explorations!
 
     Advances in knowledge and technology helped make voyage of discovery possible and their several motives for exploring the world overseas.  So much of Europe sent out ships for exploration and the main nations were Spain and Portugal.
     European monarchs and merchants wanted to break from the power Muslims and Italians had on trade.  To be able to do that they had to find a trade route to Asia.  Sailors also saw this opportunity for a chance of fame and glory and of course wealth.  Nations also wanted to claim the land for themselves because they wanted to lands riches.  The final one is the spread of Christianity to be able to bring native people into their faith.
     One of the important explorers of the age was Christopher Columbus because he discovered one of the most and well known places in the world and is also a very important place.  Another is John Cabot, the one who made England's first ever voyage of discovery.  John is important because this was England's first ever voyage of discovery which is a big step for many places if they were to discover.  This now probably encouraged England even more to make as many voyages as possible in order to discover more and gain something for their country.  Lastly, Giovanni da Verrazano, the man who sailed under the French flag.  He is an important explorer because he was the one who gave France its first claims of America.  Another explorer that i feel is an explorer that has done something very big is Francis Drake.  I thing he as done something very big because he has sailed around the world and also claimed part of hat is now California for England, ignoring Spain's claims to the area.
     All explorations, discoveries and colonies affected the economy of European nations.  Discoveries affected the nation because new discoveries meant more things for the mapmakers to work with.  This caused a very different view on the world.  It helped people pay attention to the ships and improve them to be better ships when it comes to sailing.  They were able to find new things that they had never knew about before.  New lands discovered might have provided them with different items like fish and goods that would be helpful for them, maybe spices since the Europeans were big on spices.  A very important thing that the European nations are getting out of their discoveries is trade.  With all these new places to buy and sell goods, the European nations are getting a lot out of their discoveries and newly discovered land.
 
     The new discoveries affected the relationships between European nations and other nations.  In both good ways and bad ways.  The goods things are that now with all this discovered land there was now more people to be business with like buy and sell goods.  Because of the exploration, more goods, raw materials, and precious metals began to enter Europe because of trade.  Bad things are that other nations now wanted their own share of the newly discovered land even though it isn't theirs to claim.  It also became a Capitalist Economy.  This happened because merchants began to trade a lot and were becoming very wealthy.  This wealth pay for more voyages and as time went on they were eventually able to open up trading companies.  And as this became more popular and was being used more often, so more of these trading companies opened.



                                          Life of the people during the Age of Exploration!

     My life might have been affected if i was living during the Age of Exploration because i would be able to take place and be able to celebrate the great achievement.  I might even have been influenced by this achievement to go off and maybe do it one day!  Life would also be much better for me probably around that time because we now have great trading and are now interacting with other nations as well!
     I might have taken advantage of these new discoveries maybe by if i was a merchant increasing prices and now because of all the trading now with different merchants in other nations and now would become very rich.  Also I might take advantage of it by sailing a lot more to discover more for both me and my nations, but mainly myself because of all the riches i would mostlikly receive.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Europe Transformed

There are many different things that contributed to the fall of Rome. The fall of Rome is still not completely clear on how it really happened. Even though it happened thousands of years ago, we still aren’t entirely sure. There are many ways that it could have declined and some are more curtain than others but one of the major factors that seen very clear to have contributed would be the high taxes and unstable prices because of the tough economy. The Roman people began to suffer because of the increasing taxes that many could not pay and because they could not pay they would either loss everything or you could be thrown in jail. This was not a good sign for the Roman Empire. Emperor Diocletian was hoping that if he passed a law that would insure that merchants and traders could not raise their prices on goods, this would at least help the citizens who are buying the goods. If any of the merchants were to raise their prices higher than the law then he or she would have to be punished. This punishment usually meant death. This also goes for the people that buy the good from the merchant that is selling the good that is overpriced. Diocletian’s plan did not turn out as he was hoping and instead of things getting better they just got worse.


Another defeat of Rome would be the possibility of the wide spread of disease. Sicknesses could be very harsh in Roman times because of the fact that there were no cures or treatments to help sick people. The Roman Empire was also so widely populated that sickness and disease could spread quickly and easily throughout the Empire. One of the most precious things to Rome would most likely be its military and when their military collapsed in the fifth century things went downhill for Rome. Without their military Rome lost all protection, any chance of gaining any more land, or fight and the thing that would affect them the most would be the lack in protection because they were left extremely vulnerable to any enemies that would try to take any of their resources, land, or citizens. Another theory that historians believe is a reason for the collapse of Rome is the conversion to Christianity that when Constantine converted to a Christian it created an unstable component in the lives of the Roman people.



Even though all of these bad things happened to Rome and seemed to have been the cause of Rome’s defeat, the Roman Empire really began to crash when the once strong Roman Empire split into a Western and Eastern empire.

The life of the Roman people in Western Europe was much different. The citizens had a very difficult time adjusting to what just happed and trying to form a new life. Because of the fall of Rome this did not just affect the people in Rome but the people that interacted with Rome as well. Rome was the center of trade and now because of its collapse trade was never the same from that time forward. As Rome was lost so was its religion and because of the fall of Rome the church did not know what to do…and this marked the beginning of the Dark Ages.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Medicine

Muslims made their most important contributions in the medicine field. They learned a lot from the ancient Greeks, Mesopotamians, and Egyptians and improved this earlier knowledge and also translated Greek medical writing into aridic to help them expand their knowledge. They devoted lots of their time studing and researching about medicine and teaching soon to be doctors and scientists. Muslims had many advances in medicine. They were givin the first hospitals that were established so that they could treat their patients and by the 10th century Baghdad had at least five in their area. They could treat anyone who needed treatment, because the government paid all the medical expenses. They also had caravans to transported medical care to the people that lived in remote villages. The hospitals had many different medicines to treat different pacients and Pharmacists made hundreds of medications. Some to help take the pain away or put pacients to sleep before operations and to do that they would use drugs such as opium and hemlock. But, surgeons only preformed delicate operations as a last option. Because of the Muslim studies and research it has helped other doctors and researches create cures and continue working on different medicines. Like how Europeans later used the Muslim medician work and knowledge to teach their students. Medicine had a very long impact on scientific history because this knowledge was used to help improve the medical practices and was able to help create cures for todays deseases.



Mathmatics

Mathmatic studies were greatly advanced by Muslims and based their work from ideas from India and classical Greece. The scolars in Baghdad used important text from India and Greece and translated them into Aribic to help improve their studies and knowledge. But, they didnt just take them they also added their own contributions after adapting what they learned. One of these scolars was the "the father of algebra", Al-Khwarizmi, who worked in the house of wisdom for nine centuries. And the word algebra actualy comes from one of the books he wrote. Algebra is used to find unknown numbers in an equation. Al-Khwarizmi's algebra book was later translated into Latin and is one of the most important books mathmatics book in European universities. Another one of Al-khwarizmi's texts helped spread Aribic numerals in Europe but, this wouldn't have been able to happen if it wasn't for Indian scholars. Muslims learned their way of writing numbers, fraction, and decimals from the Indian scholars. This also helped with business and trade for Muslims because it made it easier for the people to be able to make calculations and check their work if they need to. But, the Muslims did somthing for the Indians in return by spreading zero, which is an Indian concept. In fact, the word zero comes from an Aribic word that means "somthing empty". Mathmatics had a very long impact on life because it is still a very important part of life, even today. Without numbers we wouldnt be able to express the amount of somthing and it also limits us for a lot of things. Without zero we wouldnt be able to write big numbers or expressing an answer because zero is very important when it comes to calculations. But, even in ancient times people used written symbols for numbers long before anyone thought of using zero.