w. 46 - Start of new unit

Because this past Saturday (Nov. 9) was the thirty-year anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, there have been many articles on the Wall, East Germany, the Stasi, and other topics related to the Cold War.

I hope that you are reading and tuning in to these stories and programs. You'll see that you have the ability to understand and analyze these reports on a whole new level versus where you were two months ago. But you'll also have a better ability to understand how the Cold War is connected to our world today.

One Washington Post article I read had to do with the continued work of trying to put back together documents of surveillance records that the Stasi attempted to shred before their headquarters and archives were taken over after the Wall came down. When the people stormed the Stasi buildings, there were 16,000 (!!!) bags of torn up documents. After a while the Stasi's shredders had jammed, so people were trying to tear up papers by hand. Often the documents were only torn into two pieces. But other times they were torn into many pieces.

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We're starting a new unit on SWEDISH HISTORY.

I first presented events in Swedish history of the last 300 years connected to democratic politics, individual freedoms, and a few other things that can be connected to those issues. I presented these first, because these are some of the issues that you'll want to connect to when you put together different versions of Sweden's history.

So when we get to the end of this unit, you can look back at this first timeline and you should be able to offer an explanation of how it was Sweden developed in a this way. Why were so many democratic institutions and personal freedoms developing in Sweden? They certainly weren't developing in most countries at the same time. In fact, there are still many countries in the world today where there is still no press freedom (or where it isn't protected), where homosexuality is still illegal (and in some countries punishable by death), where workers have no strong organizations protecting their rights, where freedom of religion (and forget freedom from religion) is not an option.


We then grappled with the concept of centuries. One of the difficulties comes from understand that the first hundred years 1–100 constitute the 1st century. And, in following, the years 101–200 would then be the 2nd century. And so, by the time you get to the year 2019, you see that we're in the 21st century.

Then we also talked about Roman numerals -- because you come across Roman numerals in history.

1 = I
5 = V
10 = X
50 = L
100 = C
500 = D
1000 = M




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EUROPEAN HISTORY


Then I presented a long timeline reaching back to 500 B.C. and the beginning of the Roman Republic.

Our main focus in this unit will be from the 1400s/15th c. forward, but I will regularly refer back to some earlier events. It will take a few lesson before we actually start talking about Sweden. First we will discuss:

the fall of the Western Roman Empire - quickly
the Crusades - quickly
the  Renaissance - quickly
the invention of the printing press in Europe - quickly
the Catholic Church - more in depth
Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation - more in depth
the Scientific Revolution - more in depth
the Enlightenment - in depth

then we'll move to Gustav Vasa and the changes he brought to Sweden.

For all of the things outside of Sweden, we'll use our normal history book. For things inside of Sweden, we'll turn to Swedish history books.

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Here is the Roman Empire at its largest:

You see that it includes most of western Europe -- in addition to Turkey, much of the Middle East, and northern Africa. You have a similar map on p. 171. At this time, Ancient Rome traded actively not only within its own borders, but with lands as far away as China.




Here is a map (p. 175 in your book) of the empire as it came under attack in the 4th and 5th centuries:

The light purple is the Western Roman Empire. It falls apart and comes under the control of many different groups. Gradually, most of western Europe will become a hundreds of small, independent kingdoms cut off from one another. Trade will be minimal.

The dark purple is the Eastern Roman Empire, which was led from Constantinople (today Istanbul). It stayed together for another 1000 years (!).




I'm not sure I'm going to have time to show this in class, but here is the opening scene from the movie "Gladiator." What I find instructive about it is the difference between the Romans and the "barbarians" or "Germans" -- the invading tribes.

Look at the armor the Romans wear. Notice how much care has gone into making their protective clothing both functional and beautiful. Look at the sophistication of their weapons. Then look at the Germans. They are wearing simple animal hides. Their weapons are simple as well. But eventually there were SO MANY invading tribes at some many points along the empire's borders that the empire could not protect itself any longer. The Roman Empire had become too large and unable to keep itself together.



CRUSADES

Here is a map of the Crusades (p.383 in your book)

The importance for us: As a result of the Crusades, western Europeans come in contact
- texts from Ancient Greece and Rome. This means they come in contact with ideas and writing connected to

• mathematics
• various sciences, including astronomy
• medicine
• drama
• poetry
• history
• philosophy
• art
• Greek and Roman mythology
• political thinking
• the importance of the individual

Additionally, they came in contact with a variety of goods (products) that were not available in Europe because trade had decreased so drastically since the fall of the Western Roman Empire, including

• a variety of foods, including spices 
• textiles
• precious jewels and metals 
• paints/art materials

 As a result of the Crusades, trade in western Europe will revive. And Europe will start on a development in all areas

• science
• arts
• banking
• political thinking
• philosophy
• literature
• history
• the study of languages
• technology
• . . .