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megan s

Ancient Chinese Inventions - Top Discoveries and Inventions of the Ancient Chinese - 1 views

ancienthistory.about.com/...Inventions-And-Discoveries.htm

Ancient Chinese Inventions

shared by megan s on 04 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Tea has been so important in China that even the story of silk includes a probably anachronistic
  • cup of it. Legend says silk was discovered when a cocoon fell from a mulberry bush into a cup of imperial tea. This is similar to the legend of the discovery of tea where an emperor (Shen Nung (2737 B.C.)) drank a cup of water into which leaves from an overhanging Camellia bush had fallen. Tea, no matter what country it comes from, is from the Camellia sinensis plant. It seems to have been a new beverage in the third century A.D., a time when it was still regarded with suspicion, much as the tomato was when it was first brought to Europe. Today we refer to beverages as tea even though there is no real tea in them. (Purists call them tisanes.) In the early period, there was confusion, too, and the Chinese for tea was sometimes used to refer to other plants, according to Bodde.
  • The principle behind gunpowder was discovered by the Chinese in perhaps the first century A.D., during the Han Dynasty. It wasn't used in guns at the time, but created explosions at festivals.
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  • Coca-Cola® Secret Formula Meet Dr.John S Pembe
  • megan s on 04 Nov 11
     
    This is a great website to learn a lot about Ancient China's inventions.
John Woodbridge

Possible Tomb of Chinese Tyrant Uncovered - 0 views

news.yahoo.com/yrant-uncovered-222029535.html

Ancient China

shared by John Woodbridge on 17 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Emperor Yang, also known as Yang Guang, is remembered as a fearsome and decadent tyrant. During his rule from 606 until his death at the hands of rebels in 618, he forced millions of laborers to take part in ambitious construction projects, such as building royal palaces,  completing of the Grand Canal and reconstructing of the Great Wall. Emperor Yang also launched costly military campaigns, including a failed conquest of Goguryeo, an ancient kingdom of Korea, which eventually led to the collapse of the Sui Dynasty.
  • Grave robbers seem to have looted the tomb in the 1,500 years since the emperor's death
  • inside the tomb, including a jade belt with gold details
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • An army of life-size clay warriors famously guards the city-sized tomb of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, who died in 210 B.C. The main burial chamber of Qin Shi Huang has yet to be excavated, but according to legend, it has rivers of mercury and a ceiling encrusted with gems. Archaeologists recently found the emperor's palace complex at the site near the city of Xi'an.
  • John Woodbridge on 17 Apr 13
     
    Description of burial practices of Chinese emperors
erick j

WHKMLA : Slavery in Imperial China - 0 views

www.zum.de/...hersheys5.html

shared by erick j on 17 Nov 11 - No Cached
  •   Slavery, or involuntary subjection to another or others, existed in every ancient civilization, such as Sumer, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, parts of the Roman Empire, and so on. People were enslaved for various reasons, including slave raiding, sale of insolvent debtors and capture in war; slaves commonly were recognized as property, assets that could be bought and sold. In the Chinese empire (c. 211 BCE - 1912 CE), slavery existed throughout all dynasties, although numerous aspects of slavery did not remain the same. The word "slave" itself changed many times, nubi () in the Han period, yinke () in Jin, booi aha () under Manchu rule, and so on. The function and position of slaves in Chinese economy shifted several times as well.             This paper will briefly describe the initiation of slavery before Imperial China, and proceed to analyze several aspects about slavery in each dynasty of the Chinese Empire; I will discuss the changing definition of a slave, how slaves became slaves, abolition of slavery and ways to gain freedom, and the degree of dependence or power slaves held in society. The paper is organized in chronological order, but details of slavery in several dynasties existing before Ming and Qing can be scarce due to the lack of attention slaves received prior to Manchu rule.
    • erick j
      erick j on 17 Nov 11
       
      Slavery has been most Chinese dynasties.
    • erick j
      erick j on 17 Nov 11
       
      I wonder what China would have been like without slavery.
lukas s

Ancient Chinese Inventions - Ancient China for Kids - 5 views

china.mrdonn.org/inventions.html

shared by lukas s on 01 Nov 11 - Cached
morgan g liked it
    • Garth Holman
      Garth Holman on 01 Nov 11
       
      The Chinese invented a great deal.  Look at this list. 
    • daniel e
      daniel e on 15 Nov 11
       
      This website has some good information.
    • andressa g
      andressa g on 15 Nov 11
       
      This site really helped me!!!
  • The ancient Chinese invented many things we use today, including paper, silk, matches, wheelbarrows, gunpowder, the decimal system, the waterwheel, the sundial, astronomy, porcelain china, lacquer paint, pottery wheel, fireworks, paper money, compass, tangrams,   seismograph, medicines, dominoes, jump rope, kites, tea ceremony, folding umbrella, ink, calligraphy, animal harness, playing cards, printing, abacus, wallpaper, the crossbow, ice cream, and ... well, you get the idea.
  • The ancient Chinese invented many things we use today, including paper, silk, matches, wheelbarrows, gunpowder, the decimal system, the waterwheel, the sundial, astronomy, porcelain china, lacquer paint, pottery wheel, fireworks, paper money, compass, tangrams,  seismograph, medicines, dominoes, jump rope, kites, tea ceremony, folding umbrella, ink, calligraphy, animal harness, playing cards, printing, abacus, wallpaper, the crossbow, ice cream, and ... well, you get the idea.
rachel c

Inventors and Inventions from China and Taiwan - EnchantedLearning.com - 0 views

www.enchantedlearning.com/...china.shtml

shared by rachel c on 04 Nov 11 - Cached
  • Silk was first made by the Chinese about 4,000 years ago. Silk thread is made from the cocoon of the silkworm moth (Bombyx mori), a small moth whose caterpillar eats the leaves of the mulberry tree. According to Chinese legend, the first silk thread was made when the Chinese Empress Si-Ling-Chi was sitting under a mulberry tree and a cocoon fell into her tea; she noticed the strong, silky threads of the cocoon uncoiling. She then developed the use of silk. For more information on the development of silk, click here.
    • rachel c
      rachel c on 04 Nov 11
       
      china made silk and used it for many reasons
  • The kite was invented roughly 2,500 to 3,000 years ago. It originated in China, Malaysia or Indonesia (there are many claims to having invented the kite). Some people say that the earliest kites consisted of a huge leaf attached to a long string (there is a type of Indonesian leaf that is wonderful as a kite).
    • rachel c
      rachel c on 04 Nov 11
       
      the kite was important in history like what did it help?
  • For more information on this invention,
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • GUNPOWDERGunpowder was invented in China, probably during the 1000's. Gunpowder is composed of about 75 percent saltpeter (potassium nitrate), 15 percent powdered charcoal, and 10 percent sulphur. The Chinese used gunpower to make fireworks and signals, and later to make weapons of war.
ben m

Four Great Inventions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 1 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Four_Great_Inventions

shared by ben m on 04 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • The prevailing academic consensus is that gunpowder was discovered in the 9th century by Chinese alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality.[16] By the time the Song Dynasty treatise, Wujing Zongyao (武经总要), was written by Zeng Gongliang and Yang Weide in AD 1044, the various Chinese formulas for gunpowder held levels of nitrate in the range of 27% to 50%.[17] By the end of the 12th century, Chinese formulas of gunpowder had a level of nitrate capable of bursting through cast iron metal containers, in the form of the earliest hollow, gunpowder-filled grenade bombs.
    • ben m
      ben m on 04 Nov 11
       
      that is pretty cool its like if they had not of done that then we would not have the guns we have today pretty cool again
tabitha p

Slavery in China - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 1 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Slavery_in_China

shared by tabitha p on 03 Nov 11 - No Cached
    • Aden S
      Aden S on 03 Nov 11
       
      What was the total population of the Shang Dinasty
    • sarah l
      sarah l on 16 Nov 11
       
      i never thought that slavery could be so different all around the world
  • Slavery in China has taken various forms throughout history. Never as absolute as its Muslim or European models, Chinese slavery still often viewed its objects as "half-man, half-thing" (半人, 半物).[1] Slavery was repeatedly abolished as a legally-recognized institution, including in a 1909 law[2][1] fully enacted in 1910,[3] although the practice continued until at least 1949.[4]
  • Men punished with castration during the Han dynasty were also used as slave labor.[9
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  • Slavery was established in China by at least the Shang dynasty, at which point it has been estimated that about 5 percent of the population was enslaved.[5]
  • Deriving from earlier Legalist laws, the Han dynasty set in place rules that the property of and families of criminals doing three years of hard labor or sentenced to castration were to have their families seized and kept as property by the government.
  • As part of his land reform laws, Wang Mang either abolished all slavery[1] or trade in slaves.[citation needed] The swift collapse of his dynasty led to the restoration of both.
  • Aden S on 03 Nov 11
     
    Ancient Slavery in China
  • Brian K. on 03 Nov 11
     
    Slavery of China
  • colby w on 16 Nov 11
     
    Ancient chinese slavery information. I hilighted the first paragraph and its on wiki!
ryan s

Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History - 0 views

www.britannica.com/...article-24156

china

shared by ryan s on 17 Nov 11 - Cached
  • Slavery is known to have existed as early as the Shang dynasty (18th–12th century BC) in China. It has been studied thoroughly in ancient Han China (206 BC–AD 25), where perhaps 5 percent of the population was enslaved. Slavery continued to be a feature of Chinese society down to the 20th century. For most of that period it appears that slaves were generated in the same ways they were elsewhere, including capture in war, slave raiding, and the sale of insolvent debtors. In addition, the Chinese practiced self-sale into slavery, the sale of women and children (to satisfy debts or because the seller could not feed them), and the sale of the relatives of executed criminals. Finally, kidnapping seems to have produced a regular flow of slaves at some times. The go-between or middleman was an important figure in the sale of local people into slavery; he provided the distance that made such slaves into outsiders, for the purchasers did not know their origins. Chinese family boundaries were relatively permeable, and some owners established kinlike relations with their slaves; male slaves were appointed as heirs when no natural offspring existed. As was also the case in other slave-owning societies, slaves in China were often luxury consumption items who constituted a drain on the economy. Th
megan s

List of Indian inventions and discoveries - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/...ian_inventions_and_discoveries

Indian inventions

shared by megan s on 16 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Button, ornamental: Buttons—made from seashell—were used in the Indus Valley Civilization for ornamental purposes by 2000 BCE.[1] Some buttons were carved into geometric shapes and had holes pieced into them so that they could attached to clothing by using a thread.[1] Ian McNeil (1990) holds that: "The button, in fact, was originally used more as an ornament than as a fastening, the earliest known being found at Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley. It is made of a curved shell and about 5000 years old."
  • Calico: Calico had originated in the subcontinent by the 11th century and found mention in Indian literature, by the 12th century writer Hemachandra. He has mentioned calico fabric prints done in a lotus design.[3] The Indian textile merchants traded in calico with the Africans by the 15th century and calico fabrics from Gujarat appeared in Egypt.[3] Trade with Europe followed from the 17th century onwards.[3] Within India, calico originated in Calicut.[3] Carding, devices for: Historian of science Joseph Needham ascribes the invention of bow-instruments used in textile technology to India.[4] The earliest evidence for using bow-instruments for carding comes from India (2nd century CE).[4] These carding devices, called kaman and dhunaki would loosen the texture of the fiber by the means of a vibrating string.[4]
  • The words for "chess" in Old Persian and Arabic are chatrang and shatranj respectively — terms derived from caturaṅga in Sanskrit,[11][12] which literally means an army of four divisions or four corps.[13][14] Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape.[15] This game was introduced to the Near East from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education of Persian nobility.[13] Buddhist pilgrims, Silk Road traders and others carried it to the Far East where it was transformed and assimilated into a game often played on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares.[15] Chaturanga reached Europe through Persia, the Byzantine empire and the expanding Arabian empire.[14][16] Muslims carried Shatranj to North Africa, Sicily, and Spain by the 10th century where it took its final modern form of chess.[15] Chintz: The origin of Chintz is from the printed all cotton fabric of calico in India.[17] The origin of the word chintz itself is from the Hindi language word चित्र् (chitr), which means a spot
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  • Coherer, iron and mercury: In 1899, the Bengali physicist Jagdish Chandra Bose announced the development of an "iron-mercury-iron coherer with telephone detector" in a paper presented at the Royal Society, London.[19] He also later received U.S. Patent 755,840, "Detector for electrical disturbances" (1904), for a specific electromagnetic receiver. Cotton gin, single-roller: The Ajanta caves of India yield evidence of a single roller cotton gin in use by the 5th century.[20] This cotton gin was used in India until innovations were made in form of foot powered gins.[21] The cotton gin was invented in India as a mechanical device known as charkhi, more technically the "wooden-worm-worked roller". This mechanical device was, in some parts of India, driven by water power.[4] Crescograph: The crescograph, a device for measuring growth in plants, was invented in the early 20th century by the Bengali scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose.[22][
  • Perhaps as early as 300 BCE—although certainly by 200 CE—high quality steel was being produced in southern India also by what Europeans would later call the crucible technique.[24] In this system, high-purity wrought iron, charcoal, and glass were mixed in a crucible and heated until the iron melted and absorbed the carbon.[24] The first crucible steel was the wootz steel that originated in India before the beginning of the common era.[25] Archaeological evidence suggests that this manufacturing process was already in existence in South India well before the Christian era.[26][27][28][29] Dock (maritime): The world's first dock at Lothal (2400 BCE) was located away from the main current to avoid deposition of silt.[30] Modern oceanographers have observed that the Harappans must have possessed knowledge relating to tides in order to build such a dock on the ever-shifting course of the Sabarmati, as well as exemplary hydrography and maritime engineering.[30] This was the earliest known dock found in the world, equipped to berth and service ships.[30][31] It is speculated that Lothal engineers studied tidal movements, and their effects on brick-built structures, since the walls are of kiln-burnt bricks.[32] This knowledge also enabled them to select Lothal's location in the first place, as the Gulf of Khambhat has the highest tidal amplitude and ships can be sluiced through flow tides in the river estuar
  • location in the first place, as the Gulf of Khambhat has the highest tidal amplitude and ships can be sluiced through flow tides in the river estuar y
  • Incense clock: Although popularly associated with China the incense clock is believed to have originated in India, at least in its fundamental form if not function.[33][34] Early incense clocks found in China between the 6th and 8th century CE—the period it appeared in China all seem to have Devanāgarī carvings on them instead of Chinese seal characters.[33][34] Incense itself was introduced to China from India in the early centuries CE, along with the spread of Buddhism by travelling monks.[35][36][37] Edward Schafer asserts that incense clocks were probably an Indian invention, transmitted to China, which explains the Devanāgarī inscriptions on early incense clocks found in China.[33] Silvio Bedini on the other hand asserts that incense clocks were derived in part from incense seals mentioned in Tantric Buddhist scriptures, which first came to light in China after those scriptures from India were translated into Chinese, but holds that the time-telling function of the seal was incorporated by the Chinese.[34] India ink, carbonaceous pigment for: The source of the carbon pigment used in India ink was India.[38][39] In India, the carbon black from which India ink is produced is obtained by burning bones, tar, pitch, and other substances.[39][40] Ink itself has been used in India since at least the 4th century BCE.[41] Masi, an early ink in India was an admixture of several chemical components.[41] Indian documents written in Kharosthi with ink have been unearthed in Xinjiang.[42] The practice of writing with ink and a sharp pointed needle was common in ancient South India.[43] Several Jain sutras in India were compiled in ink
  • Indian clubs: The Indian club—which appeared in Europe during the 18th century—was used long by India's native soldiery before its introduction to Europe.[45] During the British Raj the British officers in India performed calisthenic exercises with clubs to keep in for physical conditioning.[45] From Britain the use of club swinging spread to the rest of the world.[45] Kabaddi: The game of kabaddi originated in India during prehistory.[46] Suggestions on how it evolved into the modern form range from wrestling exercises, military drills, and collective self defense but most authorities agree that the game existed in some form or the other in India during the period between 1500-400 BCE.[46] Ludo: Pachisi originated in India by the 6th century.[47] The earliest evidence of this game in India is the depiction of boards on the caves of Ajanta.[47] This game was played by the Mughal emperors of India; a notable example being that of Akbar, who played living Pachisi using girls from his harem.[47][48] A variant of this game, called Ludo, made its way to England during the British Raj.[
  • Ruler: Rulers made from Ivory were in use by the Indus Valley Civilization in what today is Pakistan and some parts of Western India prior to 1500 BCE.[64] Excavations at Lothal (2400 BCE) have yielded one such ruler calibrated to about 1/16 of an inch—less than 2 millimeters.[64] Ian Whitelaw (2007) holds that 'The Mohenjo-Daro ruler is divided into units corresponding to 1.32 inches (33.5 mm) and these are marked out in decimal subdivisions with amazing accuracy—to within 0.005 of an inch. Ancient bricks found throughout the region have dimensions that correspond to these units.'[65] Shigeo Iwata (2008) further writes 'The minimum division of graduation found in the segment of an ivory-made linear measure excavated in Lothal was 1.79 mm (that corresponds to 1/940 of a fathom), while that of the fragment of a shell-made one from Mohenjo-daro was 6.72 mm (1/250 of a fathom), and that of bronze-made one from Harapa was 9.33 mm (1/180 of a fathom).'[66] The weights and measures of the Indus civilization also reached Persia and Central Asia, where they were further modified.[66] Seamless celestial globe: Considered one of the most remarkable feats in metallurgy, it was invented in Kashmir by Ali Kashmiri ibn Luqman in between 1589 and 1590 CE, and twenty other such globes were later produced in Lahore and Kashmir during the Mughal Empire.[67][68] Before they were rediscovered in the 1980s, it was believed by modern metallurgists to be technically impossible to produce metal globes without any seams, even with modern technology.[68] These Mughal metallurgists pioneered the method of lost-wax casting in order to produce these globes
  • Simputer: The Simputer (acronym for "simple, inexpensive and multilingual people's computer") is a self-contained, open hardware handheld computer, designed for use in environments where computing devices such as personal computers are deemed inappropriate. It was developed in 1999 by 7 scientists of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, led by Dr. Swami Manohar in collaboration with Encore India, a company based in Bangalore.[69][70] Originally envisaged to bring internet to the masses of India, the Simputer and its derivatives are today widely utilized by governments of several Indian states as part of their e-governance drive, the Indian Army, as well as by other public and private organizations.[71][72] Snakes and ladders: Snakes and ladders originated in India as a game based on morality.[73] During British rule of India, this game made its way to England, and was eventually introduced in the United States of America by game-pioneer Milton Bradley in 1943.[73] Stepwell: Earliest clear evidence of the origins of the stepwell is found in the Indus Valley Civilization's archaeological site at Mohenjodaro in Pakistan.[74] The three features of stepwells in the subcontinent are evident from one particular site, abandoned by 2500 BCE, which combines a bathing pool, steps leading down to water, and figures of some religious importance into one structure.[74] The early centuries immediately before the common era saw the Buddhists and the Jains of India adapt the stepwells into their architecture.[74] Both the wells and the form of ritual bathing reached other parts of the world with Buddhism.[74] Rock-cut step wells in the subcontinent date from 200-400 CE.[75] Subsequently the wells at Dhank (550-625 CE) and stepped ponds at Bhinmal (850-950 CE) were constructed.[75] Stupa: The origin of the stupa can be traced to 3rd century BCE India.[76] It was used as a commemorative monument associated with storing sacred relics.[76] The stupa architecture was adopted in Southeast and East Asia, where it evolved into the pagoda, a Buddhist monument used for enshrining sacred relics.[76] Toe stirrup: The earliest known manifestation of the stirrup, which was a toe loop that held the big toe was used in India in as early as 500 BCE[77] or perhaps by 200 BCE according to other sources.[78][79] This ancient stirrup consisted of a looped rope for the big toe which was at the bottom of a saddle made of fibre or leather.[79] Such a configuration made it suitable for the warm climate of most of India where people used to ride horses barefoot.[79] A pair of megalithic double bent iron bars with curvature at each end, excavated in Junapani in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have been regarded as stirrups although they could as well be something else.[80] Buddhist carvings in the temples of Sanchi, Mathura and the Bhaja caves dating back between the 1st and 2nd century BCE figure horsemen riding with elaborate saddles with feet slipped under girths.[81][82][83] Sir John Marshall described the Sanchi relief as "the earliest example by some five centuries of the use of stirrups in any part of the world".[83] In the 1st century CE horse riders in northern India, where winters are sometimes long and cold, were recorded to have their booted feet attached to hooked stirrups.[78] However the form, the conception of the primitive Indian stirrup spread west and east, gradually evolving into the stirrup of today.http://en.wikipe
kaitlyn o

Ancient Chinese People - History for Kids! - 1 views

www.historyforkids.org/...index.htm

shared by kaitlyn o on 03 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Chinese people have always put a lot of emphasis on everybody acting the right way for their position in life
  • people thought your most important relationship was with your family
  • When girls grew up, they got married and left the house they had grown up in to go live in their husband's house, with his family
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Many Chinese people were slaves. Most people who were slaves worked in the fields, the same as free people. Some of them worked as servants in rich people's houses. The Emperor owned hundreds of slaves, and some of them worked for the government, collecting taxes or building roads. Some people were born slaves, because their mothers were slaves, and other people were sold into slavery to pay debts.
  • Cameryn C on 03 Nov 11
     
    ancient slavery
jessica q

http://mysite.cherokee.k12.ga.us/personal/matt_bartula/site/World%20History%20Notes/1/A... - 0 views

mysite.cherokee.k12.ga.us/...Ancient%20China%20notes.ppt

shared by jessica q on 04 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • jessica q on 04 Nov 11
     
    ancient chinese dynasties and achievements
kota k

History of Chinese Technology - 4 views

www.engr.sjsu.edu/...china.htm

china history technology impact

shared by kota k on 01 Nov 11 - Cached
  • earliest printed book, AD 868
  • We don't know exactly when paper was first used in China but evidence from archaeological records indicate that it was prior to the first century AD.  In China, the most common source for paper was the bark of the paper mulberry tree (Gies & Gies 1994 p 182
  • There is not doubt that the Chinese invented gunpowder
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • ability to magnetize iron by placing it near a loadstone was known to ancient civilizations
  • applied this principle of magnetism to create the compass
  • In technologically development, the story is much different (see Burke (1978) for more descriptions of these innovations).  There have been many Western innovations that have their basis in China, particularly those in printing (paper, block printing, and moveable-type printing), agricultural technology (irrigation systems), mechanical engineering (clockwork, iron, and lead manufacturing, efficient harnesses), and martial (gunpowder, the precursors to the barrel gun, and cannons) technology.
    • kota k
      kota k on 10 Nov 11
       
      Intermediate Reading level
  • kota k on 01 Nov 11
     
    Intermediate Reading Level
oscar121

Facts About History of Ming Dynasty Clothing FashionMing Dynasty Historical Details Pro... - 0 views

www.mdhist.com/4020

history ming dynasty

shared by oscar121 on 13 Jun 20 - No Cached
  • oscar121 on 13 Jun 20
     
    Ming dynasty people wear Chinese clothing/
Livi E

Silk Road - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/Silk_Road

shared by Livi E on 15 Mar 12 - Cached
  • refers to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world
  • Extending 4,000 miles (6,500 km), the Silk Road gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade along it,
  • silk was certainly the major trade item from China, many other goods were traded, and various technologies, religions and philosophies, as well as the bubonic plague (the "Black Death"), also traveled along the Silk Routes. Some of the other goods traded included luxuries such as silk, satin, hemp and other fine fabrics, musk, other perfumes, spices, medicines, jewels, glassware, and even rhubarb, as well as slaves.[4] China traded silk, teas, and porcelain; while India traded spices, ivory, textiles, precious stones, and pepper; and the Roman Empire exported gold, silver, fine glassware, wine, carpets, and jewels.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • The Mongol expansion throughout the Asian continent from around 1207 to 1360 helped bring political stability and re-establish the Silk Road (via Karakorum). It also brought an end to the Islamic Caliphate's monopoly over world trade. Since the Mongol had dominated the trade routes, it allowed more trade to come in and out of the region. Merchandise that did not seem valuable to the Mongols was often seen as very valuable by the west. As a result, the Mongol received in return a large amount of luxurious goods from the West.
  • The 13th century also saw attempts at a Franco-Mongol alliance, with exchange of ambassadors and (failed) attempts at military collaboration in the Holy Land during the later Crusades,
  • Some research studies indicate that the Black Death, which devastated Europe in the late 1340s, may have reached from Central Asia (or China) to Europe along the trade routes of the Mongol Empire.[28]
    • Shira H
      Shira H on 04 Apr 12
       
      Great site for quest 10 . Lots of information.
    • Shira H
      Shira H on 04 Apr 12
       
      Has lots of information . Great site for quest 10 .  China trade silk and teas and porcelain. 
    • Livi E
      Livi E on 04 Apr 12
       
      this paragraph says a lot of the answers for question 3
mukul g

Society of the Mongol Empire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 1 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Society_of_the_Mongol_Empire

Quest 10

shared by mukul g on 16 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • During the Mongol Empire there were two different groups of food, "white foods" and "brown foods"
  • "White foods"
  • were usually dairy products and were the main food source during the summer. The main part of their diet was "airag" or fermented mare’s milk, a food which is still widely drunk today.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • "Brown foods" were usually meat and were the main food source during the winter, usually boiled and served with wild garlic or onions.
  • The Mongols had a unique way of slaughtering their animals to get meat. The animal was laid on its back and restrained. Then the butcher would cut its chest open and rip open the aorta, which would cause deadly internal bleeding. Animals would be slaughtered in this fashion because it would keep all of the blood inside of the carcass. Once all of the internal organs were removed, the blood was then drained out and used for sausages.[2]
  • Genghis Khan authorized the use of paper money shortly before his death in 1227. It was backed by precious metals and silk.[6]
  • During the winter sheep were the only domestic animal slaughtered, but horses were occasionally slaughtered for ceremonies.[3]
  • The Mongols rarely slaughtered animals during the summer but if an animal died of natural causes they made sure to carefully preserve it.
  • During the winter the Mongols would also go ice fishing
  • Meal etiquette existed only during large gatherings and ceremonies. The meal, usually meat, was cut up into small pieces. Guests were served their meat on skewers and the host determined the order of serving. People of different social classes were assigned to different parts of the meat and it was the responsibility of the server or the “ba’urchis” to know who was in each social class. The meat was eaten with fingers and the grease was wiped on the ground or on clothing.
  • The most commonly imported fare was liquor
  • The Mongols used Chinese silver ingot as a unified money of public account, while circulating paper money in China and coins in the western areas of the empire such as Golden Horde and Chagatai Khanate
  • Under Ogedei Khan the Mongol government issued paper currency backed by silk reserves and founded a Department which was responsible for destroying old notes.[7] In 1253, Mongke established a Department of Monetary affairs to control the issuance of paper money in order to eliminate the overissue of the currency by Mongol and non-Mongol nobles since the reign of Great Khan Ogedei.
  • mukul g on 16 Mar 12
     
    Tells you about the daily life of the mongols which come in quest 10. 
Garth Holman

Daily Life, Kids, Toys, Bone Games - Mongols, the Felt Tent People, For Kids - 0 views

mongols.mrdonn.org/dailylife.html

quest10 mongols nomads

shared by Garth Holman on 02 Apr 12 - Cached
    • Shira H
      Shira H on 02 Apr 12
       
       Mongols were traders and herdsmen. Herded sheep and traded horses with ancient chinese and persians. 
  • Mongol Kids: From a very early age, kids were taught to respect their parents. They were taught survival skills - how to collect dry animal dung for firewood, how to milk cattle, how to use a bow and arrow, and how to cook and sew.
  • Puzzles were popular. Games included archery, horse racing, wrestling, and guessing games.
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  • Good Behavior: The most important things Mongol parents taught their children had to do with behavior. Everything they did, including the toys they gave their children, and the stories they told, were designed to teach their children to be ethical, honest, and skilled - to have good behavio
  • Although the Mongols were nomads, they still had a royalty of sorts - chieftains, and later khans. These were the leaders of various tribes. In ancient times, a tribe did not necessarily travel together. But they did get together at festivals, and in times of need.
  • The Mongols were traders and herdsmen
  • The Felt Tent People because their homes were round tents made of felt.
  • They did not live in towns. The Mongols were nomads. They traveled in small groups composed of perhaps only two or three families.
Yuke Z

Medieval Warfare - 1 views

www.medievalwarfare.info

medieval warfare

shared by Yuke Z on 25 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • New weapons technology prompted new defensive technologies, for example the introduction of cross-bows led quickly to the adoption of plate armour rather than chain mail.
  • Siege Towers Battering Rams Cats and Weasels Chemical, Biological and Psychological Warfare Mining: undermining castle walls
  • Siege Towers
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  • One way to foil the approach of a belfry was to have sloping castle walls. This forced the attackers to cover a greater distance from the top of the belfry to the top of the castle wall. This was one of the benefits of a talus.
  • This gave the ram much greater travel so that it could achieve a greater speed before striking its target and was therefore more destructive.
  • Some battering rams were supported by rollers.
  • a battering ram is just a large, heavy log carried by several people and propelled with force against the target, the momentum of the ram damaging the target.
  • defenders attempted to foil battering rams by dropping obstacles in front of the ram just before it hit a wall, using grappling hooks to immobilize the log, setting the ram on fire, or sallying out to attack the ram. Battering rams had an important effect on the evolution of defensive walls - the talus for example was one way of reinforcing walls. In practice, wooden gates would generally offer the easiest targets.
  • Greek fire was a burning-liquid used as a weapon of war by the Byzantines, and also by Arabs, Chinese, and Mongols. I
  • As a defence, water alone was ineffective. On land sand could be used to stop the burning . Intriguingly it is also known that vinegar and urine were effective
  • Medieval warriors also used basic biological weapons, for example catapulting dead and diseased animals into a defended fortress to help spread disease.
  • For example would have mad armour suitable for a man of several times normal size. He would then leave a few samples laying around the scene of his victories against the Persians. After he had gone Persians would find this armour and were were soon spreading stories of Alexander's superhuman giant soldiers.
  • Other examples of psychological warfare include making loud noises (an old Celtic practice) and catapulting the severed heads of captured enemies back into the enemy camp.
  • Defenders in castles under siege might prop up dummies beside the walls to make it look like there were more defenders than there really were. They might throw food from the walls to show besiegers that provisions were plentifu
  • A"mine" was a tunnel dug to destabilise and bring down castles and other fortifications. The technique could be used only when the fortification was not built on solid rock. It was developed as a response to stone built castles that could not be burned like earlier-style wooden forts.
  • Medieval Battle Equipment & Weapons
  • Wet animal hides were highly effective against burning arrows
  • Yuke Z on 06 Mar 12
     
    Weapons
sarah l

List of Chinese inventions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 3 views

en.wikipedia.org/...List_of_Chinese_inventions

shared by sarah l on 14 Nov 11 - Cached
  • China has been the source of many significant inventions, including the Four Great Inventions: papermaking, the compass, gunpowder, and printing (both woodblock and movable type). The
    • maddy m
      maddy m on 14 Nov 11
       
      The ancient China inventions have helped a lot today. I don't know where we would be without some of the inventions of China
  • Gunpowder
  • Compass
david n

Caste system in India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Caste_system_in_India

shared by david n on 16 Nov 11 - Cached
  • Traditionally, in north Indian society, the political power usually lay with the Kshatriyas, the economic power with the Vaishyas and Shudras, while the Brahmins, as custodians and interpreters of Dharma, enjoyed much prestige and were given many advantages by society, even though they were economically poor. Practicing Brahmins, were in fact prohibited from owning wealth
  • The Indian caste system is a system of social stratification and social restriction in India in which communities are defined by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups called Jātis.
  • The caste system played an influential role in shaping economic activities,[16] where it functioned much like medieval European guilds, ensuring the division of labour, providing for the training of apprentices, development and protection of intellectual property and, in some cases, allowing manufacturers to achieve narrow specialisation and global monopoly. For instance, producing each variety of cloth was the specialty of a particular sub-caste, but the weavers of Dhaka produced the renowned muslin that was in demand internationally. It has been suggested that the majority of people tend to be comfortable in stratified endogamous groups, as they have always been, since ancient times.[17]
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  • There have been challenges to the caste system from the time of Buddha,[25] Mahavira and Makkhali Gosala. Opposition to the system of varṇa is regularly asserted in the Yoga Upaniṣad-s and is a constant feature of Cīna-ācāra tantrism, a Chinese-derived movement in Asom; both date to the medieval era. The Nātha system, which was founded by Matsya-indra Nātha and Go-rakṣa Nātha in the same era and spread throughout India, has likewise been consistently opposed to the system of varna.
  • david n on 16 Nov 11
     
    Very cool article!
Kalina P

Cold War - History.com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts - 0 views

www.history.com/cold-war

cold war history

shared by Kalina P on 20 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • “containment.”
  • President Harry Truman (1884-1972) agreed. “It must be the policy of the United States,” he declared before Congress in 1947, “to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation…by outside pressures.”
  • deadly "arms race
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  • Soviets tested an atom bomb of their own. In response, President Truman announced
  • that the United States would build an even more destructive atomic weapon: the hydrogen bomb, or "superbomb." Stalin followed suit.
  • the nuclear age could be. It created a 25-square-mile fireball that vaporized an island, blew a huge hole in the ocean floor and had the power to destroy half of Manhattan. Subsequent American and Soviet tests spewed poisonous radioactive waste into the atmosphere.
  • ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation had a great impact on American domestic life as well. People built bomb shelters in their backyards
  • attack drills in schools and other public places
  • Cold War was a constant presence in Americans’ everyday lives.
  • first man-made object to be placed into the Earth's orbit.
  • Sputnik
  • 1958, the U.S. launched its own satellite, Explorer I, designed by the U.S. Army
  • Space Race was underwa
  • creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a federal agency dedicated to space exploration, as well as several programs seeking to exploit the military potential of space. Still, the Soviets were one step ahead, launching the first man into space in April 1961.
  • U.S. would land a man on the moon by the end of the decade. His prediction came true on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission, became the first man to set food on the moon, effectively winning the Space Race for the Americans.
  • hearings designed to show that communist subversion in the United States was alive and well.
  • forced hundreds of people who worked in the movie industry to renounce left-wing political beliefs and testify against one another. More than 500 people lost their jobs. Many of these "blacklisted" writers, directors, actors and others were unable to work again for more than a decade
  • include anyone who worked in the federal government. Thousands of federal employees were investigated, fired and even prosecuted. As this anticommunist hysteria spread throughout the 1950s, liberal college professors lost their jobs, people were asked to testify against colleagues and "loyalty oaths" became commonplace.
  • military action of the Cold War began when the Soviet-backed North Korean People’s Army invaded its pro-Western neighbor to the south
  • but the war dragged to a stalemate and ended in 1953.
  • . The Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis the following year seemed to prove that the real communist threat now lay in the unstable, postcolonial "Third World" Nowhere was this more apparent than in Vietnam, where the collapse of the French colonial regime had led to a struggle between the American-backed nationalist Ngo Dinh Diem in the south and the communist nationalist Ho Chi Minh in the north. Since the 1950s, the United States had been committed to the survival of an anticommunist government in the re
  • new approach to international relations.
  • Cold War heated up again under President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004). Like many leaders of his generation, Reagan believed that the spread of communism anywhere threatened freedom everywher
  • nstead of viewing the world as a hostile, "bi-polar" place, he suggested, why not use diplomacy instead of military action to create more poles? To that end, he encouraged the United Nations to recognize the communist Chinese government and, after a trip there in 1972, began to establish diplomatic relations with Beijing. At the same time, he adopted a policy of "détente"–"relaxation"–toward the Soviet Union. In 1972, he and Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev (1906-1982) signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), which prohibited the manufacture of nuclear missiles by both sides and took a step toward reducing the decades-old threat of nuclear war.
  • , he worked to provide financial and military aid to anticommunist governments and insurgencies around the worl
  • redefined Russia's relationship to the rest of the world: "glasnost," or political openness, and "perestroika," or economic reform
  • the Berlin Wall–the most visible symbol of the decades-long Cold War–was finally destroyed, just over two years after Reagan had challenged the Soviet premier in a speech at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." By 1991, the Soviet Union itself had fallen apart. The Cold War was over.
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