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In Chapter 11 we look at the pastoral peoples of the world with a focus on those of the Eurasian steppe. Pastoral people by definition nomadic and draw their living from managing herds of animals. This lifestyle was a harsh one, filled with tough tasks, and war. War however enabled many pastoral peoples to become empires. From the early Assyrians who co-opted their pastoral neighbors use of chariots or the mongols whose superior riding ability was able to shock most contemporary armies. The culture of the pastoral people simply bred better warriors of the era, and their culture in fact may have produced more modern people. The pastoral life, draws few parallels to anything resembling modernity. Those who grew up in a rural area on a farm are the closest thing to it, as they learned the "early to bed, early to rise" lifestyle associated with livestock. However when that lifestyle is nomadic, and takes places within a semi permanent camp, life is abundantly more difficult. ...

The Mongolian Empire has for centuries been portrayed as little more than an overly successful group of horse riding warlords. While their abilities in mounted warfare are well documented and helped create their military success, they were far more than an empire on wheels. In fact Kublai Khan, the  grandson of the empire founder and architect Genghis, established the Yuan dynasty. During his time Kublai and his successors established an effective state with administrators, taxes and laws. The Mongolian people as a whole have been lumped together with their history of nomadic warriors. In truth, just one name really evokes thoughts of Mongolia. That is, Genghis Khan who established an empire by way of conquest that was the envy and the fear of the world. However, he also left behind a legacy of total war that employed not only a sack heavy with scorched earth tactics, but brutal near genocidal actions against the losing side. These brutal actions such as massacres, mass war, ra...

Global Christendom In Chapter 10 we look at Christianity in the lens of its expansion into the biggest religion in the world. With its various sects, and sub sects, it is a complex world of specificity, all built around the teachings of Jesus. Its initial spread was, by one of the very institutions that had tried to destroy it in totality. The Roman empire, had in fact killed the founder of the religion. However Constantine, A roman Emperor embraced the religion as his own, and in doing so set forth a path for Christianity to spread to every corner of the globe. Similarly when the Arab-Muslim Empire expanded its borders time and time again, the “christian world” began to contract. Physically no location on earth describes the complicated relationship of the Abrahamic religions as well as the “Dome of the Rock/ the location of the Second Temple.” The site where Abraham himself offered his son Isaac to god, and later generations built the first and second Jewish temples. In the se...

Chapter 9 Chapter 9 allows us to look closer at Islam as religious movement, and the foundation it is built upon. While we also examine the social consequences that have occurred as a result of said movement. A thing of note is that the book labels pre-Islamic Arab culture as “Bedouin” this is at best a half truth. As non muslim bedouins existed before and after the founding of Islam, and to this day still exist in a variety of middle eastern countries. However their lifestyles closest modern parallel is that of the bedouin people, who live and embody the nomadic ideals of a loyal, close knit, hospitality crazed, clan/ tribe or family. These clans controlled the Arabian peninsula, and its valuable oasis in piecemeal. The prophet Muhammad was able to unify these clans, and tribes through various forms of conversion, ultimating unifying the the peninsula. The man and the message to unify the peninsula, was the the Quran, and the man was the prophet Muhammad. Muhammad's messag...

Chapter 7 In chapter 7 we depart from our mostly Eurasian sphere of focus and instead now take a look at the civilizations around the world. More specifically in the Americas,Africa, and Oceania, as each birthed a variety of civilizations and societies. Like the Nubians of the Kingdom of Kush in what is modern day Sudan, or the Maya of central America. Each unique society was progressing on a similar timeline and scope as the those in Eurasia, however due to bias, and the historical precedent of undervaluing these civilizations were are just know learning as much as we can. Historic Africa is a complicated a muddied subject, that involves, war, racism, bias, and the unfortunate era of slavery. Followed by the equally exploitative eras of neo colonialism, and globalization, making it highly improbable to know African history the same as Eurasian beyond the oral histories of the surviving tribes. This largely ignores the massive impact of the geographic location on of Africa, whos...