w. 50

Papers:

Barring any unforeseen problem, your papers will be returned during Tuesday’s lesson.

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Material that we have been covering in recent weeks is also covered in your book. I’ve noted below where in the book you can find information that I’ve discussed. Just browsing through these pages (where there are images and maps) can have a beneficial effect.

 I will also upload some files on Vklass that include slides I showed during class.

The spread of Greek culture by Alexander the Great – Chpt. 5, section 5, pp. 146–149.

I noted that Greek culture (science, technology, language, philosophy, art . . .) was spread to western Asia and northern Africa via Alexander’s armies.

The spread of the Roman Empire – Chpt. 6, section 2, pp. 162–163

The spread of Roman rule throughout western Europe provided a central political authority in Europe.

The fall of the Western Roman Empire - Chpt. 6, section 2, pp. 175–176

Split between Western and Eastern Roman Empires – Chpt. 11, section 1, p. 304–305

I didn’t talk about this that much, but here you’ll find a little info about when the split happened and about the differences between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox.

Effects of the fall of the Western Roman Empire – Chpt. 13, section 1, p. 353

Feudalism – Chpt. 13, section 2, p. 360-361

I didn’t talk about feudalism, but it is the basis of European politics in the Middle Ages

The expansion and organization of the Catholic Church – Chpt. 13, section 4, pp. 370–371

I noted that Christianity spread throughout Europe during the first half of the Middle Ages. So even though Europe was no longer unified politically, and people all over Europe spoke different languages, there was a unity of a sort via the religion they practiced. And this was all the more the case because the Catholic Church became a very structured organization. (Recall the pyramidal organization I presented.)

The Crusades – Chpt. 14, section 1, pp. 382–383

The book talks about why the Crusades occurred and some of the reasons people joined these military campaigns to take back the Holy Land from Muslims. My focus was on the effects of the Crusades, which is discussed in the next point (Renaissance).

The Renaissance – Chpt. 17, section 1, pp. 471, 472

The increase in trade and the introduction of new ideas re-introduced to Europe as a result of the Crusades is the basis for economic growth, a shift in values, and new intellectual pursuits in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. See p. 485 for “The Legacy of the Renaissance.”

Protestant Reformation – Chpt. 17, section 3, pp.488–489, 491

A new form of Christianity is introduced into Europe via the Protestant Reformation. Other churches also developed besides Lutheranism. For our discussion of Swedish history, we will focus on Lutheranism. And our focus will be on the ability of GV to take over the CC’s wealth (econ.), that the Swedish king became the head of the church in Sweden (pol.), and that Lutheranism put a focus on each person reading the Bible as a part of their spiritual development (social/educ.).

Scientific Revolution – Chpt. 22, section 1, pp. 623–628

The Sci. Rev. is of key importance because of the way in which Europeans start to look for answers to questions. Rather than depending only on the guidance of religious leaders and even texts from antiquity, people start using observation, experimentation, the collection of data, the use of instruments to make various measurements to get evidence in order to test ideas and find answers. This is important not only for advances in science and technology (for there can be no Industrial Revolution without science and technology), but it also provides a logical approach that will be used to answer other questions not related to the physical world (e.g., politics, human rights, behavior . . . ).

The Enlightenment – Chpt. 22, section 2, pp. 629–634. Also, see file on Vklass

There are many key ideas that are very important to understand:

-the idea of natural rights – p.630

-separation of powers (or the branches of power/government) – p. 631

-questioning the divine right of kings – p. 633

-effects of the Enlightenment (secularism, importance of the individual) – p. 634

w. 48

Here is the abbreviation/symbol table I showed you. Later today or tomorrow, I will post a summary from last week's lesson.

Here are some of the highlights of what we covered in class during w. 48:

We are working on getting a basis of European history so that we will be able to discuss Swedish history of the past 500 years. Once we get to Sweden want to be able to think about

-religion

-economics

-politics

-social issues

-military issues

Because we are going to be talking about how all of these issues are interconnected. So you will further develop skills in understanding and discussing processes of change and various causes and consequences.

Toward that end, you need to have some basic outline of European developments. By week 50, I would like for you to be able to lay out on a timeline the falling historical periods and events:

Ancient Rome (republic and empire)

Middle Ages

Crusades

invention of the printing press

Renaissance

Protestant Reformation

Scientific Revolution

Enlightenment

Industrial Revolution

Note:

1)    most of those things are capitalized (both first and second word)  
2) many of those things overlap one of two of the other things. So when laying them out on a timeline, you have to show that they overlap by doing something like this:

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I discussed some elements regarding Antiquity because we refer back to Ancient Greece and Rome when discussing the Crusades and the Renaissance.

ANTIQUITY

-The civilization of the Ancient Greece was in its Golden Age in the 5^th c. B.C.E. (400s B.C.E.). This was the time of the Persian Wars, the Peloponnesian Wars, the Parthenon, the great dramatists such as Sophocles and Euripides, the philosophers Socrates and Plato.

-Alexander the Great created his empire the 4^th c. B.C.E. (300s B.C.E.). He was tutored by Aristotle. AtG loved Greek culture and spread it throughout his empire. As a result, much of the ancient world –– including texts of drama, philosophy, medicine, mathematics (which was primarily geometry), science –– were spread throughout lands outside of Greece. These texts were not only known but were in some case were further developed in Arabic and Indian societies. We brought this up because it is relevant to understanding the reconnection with culture from Antiquity that occurs as a result of the Crusades.

During the Roman Empire (from the 1^st c. B.C.E. to the 5^th c. A.D.), there was political unity throughout the empire, there was intensive trading within Europe, and there was intensive trading with people and societies outside of Europe.

During the 5^th c. A.D., the western part of the Roman Empire falls. As a result

-       there is no longer a central political governance of Europe.

-       Europe breaks into many small kingdoms. Occasionally a large kingdom appears, but until we get to the 1400s, these usually don’t last that long.

-       trade with Europe decreases dramatically.

-       trade with peoples and societies outside of Europe decreases dramatically. (The Vikings become important in terms of trade in Europe between 800 and 1000.) Once Europe re-establishes trade with Asia during the Crusades, there is no longer the same need for Vikings as traders.

During the Middle Ages

-       literacy drops significantly in Europe.

-       Christianity spreads gradually throughout Europe. It becomes what unifies Europe. (That is, there is no common political leadership, there is no common language among people). The Catholic Church develops a top-down organization. The monks become the primary scribes (people who write things) in Europe. And thus most texts are religious texts.

-       the Church becomes the source of most all knowledge and information.

-       human life is not valued. It is the afterlife that is of greatest importance. Man is understood to be full of sin.

-       Art reflects the desire to glorify God and His message. It is the spiritual message that is most important.

Crusades

-       These were the result of the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire (based in Constantinople), Alexius I, reaching out to the pope, Urban II (the head of the Catholic Church), to request “back-up,” if you will, to keep at bay Seljuk Turks who the emperor felt were threatening him.

-       Urban II went beyond the request and rather than sending an army, decided to try to call together soldiers from throughout western Europe, under his (the pope’s) leadership (not literally on the battlefield) to take back the Holy Land from Muslims (which was not was Alexius asked for). As a result, soldiers – or crusaders – came together from all over Europe to go fight non-Christians in the Holy Land.

-       What we care about is that there were multiple Crusades, starting in 1096 and ending in the early 13^th century, and as a result of Europeans going back and forth and back and forth and back forth and back and forth between Europe and the Middle East, Europe got

1)    renewed contact with culture from Ancient Greece and Rome

2)    contact with new goods and products (e.g., foods, textiles, luxury items) – which they rather liked.

-       Most important!!: Trade within Europe and with people and societies outside of Europe starts to increase. This increase in goods, in knowledge – and this increase in income that comes with the trade – creates major changes in Europe. And so we get a new name for this new period.

The Renaissance

-       The Ren. starts in Italy – because it is physically so close to all this back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth travel with the Middle East.

-       During this time, people gain a new world’s view. As a result of this change, man’s life on earth is valued in a manner it was not during the Middle Ages. There is a new appreciation for man’s accomplishments during life here on earth. As a result, we know the names of many individual artists, architects, writers, and others – which was not the norm during the Middle Ages.

-       After the Crusades some universities were started in Europe (Bologna, Oxford, Naples, Paris, Padua . . .). The focus of study was still very much focused around religious issues, but during the Renaissance, there is a greater and greater focus on knowledge connected with work from Ancient Greece and Rome.

W. 47

FRIDAY - Nov. 24

Today we started working with a new unit -- European History (whoo-hoo!!). We will work in particular with the the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution,  and the Enlightenment -- so that we can then work with Swedish history of the past five hundred years. Our focus there will be trying to understand how different types of developments influence one another, so that we can understand processes of change and causes and consequences more clearly. For example, we'll discuss how religion was important to economic and political developments. And we'll see how military successes can be connected with Sweden's economic development and international relationships.

We worked with timelines, and the first step is understanding how timelines work and the whole B.C.E / C.E. (or B.C./ A.D.) divide.

And the second step is to try and understand what a century is, so that it makes sense that the year 2017 is in the 21st century, not the 20th century.  Here are a couple of slides to help make sense of this:

We then looked at a timeline that I had drawn on the board. These are time periods and historical events that you need to be able to lay out on a timeline. These are basic building blocks that we will be using to understand European history.

Roman Empire
Middle Ages
Crusades
Renaissance
Martin Luther and Protestant Reformation
Scientific Revolution
Enlightenment
American and French Revolutions
Industrial Revolution


Last but not least, I recommended that you start listening to the Trojan War Podcast (done by Jeff Wright). The first ten episodes are all about Greek stories leading up to the war. I think you'll really enjoy it. Give it a whirl.

w. 40

Here are videos pertaining to NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
NATO

 

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I showed parts of this film about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

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This film is about the 1968 Prague Spring

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I probably won't have time to show this video, but it has to do with the Solidarity movement in Poland in 1981. This was another movement intent on bringing reforms to a communist government -- this time in Poland. Moscow threatened with Warsaw Pact troops, which were mobilized and brought to the Polish border, but the government was able to control the situation by instituting martial law. Nonetheless, the movement, which started in the docks of Gdansk and was led by one of the workers, Lech Walesa, eventually did manage to bring enough pressure on the government to negotiate for change.

weeks 38 + 39

W. 39
On Tuesday we spent most of the time talking about the Berlin Wall, which went up when? . . . .
Yes, in 1961 -- NOT in the 1940s!

Here are films that we looked -- plus some we didn't have time for:

"Walled In" (it describes the physical make-up of the Berlin Wall as well as the border between East Germany and West Germany):

I cannot find online the exact other film I showed regarding the history of the Wall: "The fall of the Berlin Wall : from divided Germany to reunification," also by Deutsche Welle. But there are many YouTube clips that were used in that film. And there are many, many YouTube films on the Berlin Wall.

I also showed a short clip regarding the Chinese police attack on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, June 1989:

Here is a film of President John F. Kennedy's speech given in Berlin in the summer of 1963. Just below you have the text of his speech:

Remarks in the Rudolph Wilde Platz President John F. Kennedy West Berlin June 26, 1963

I am proud to come to this city as the guest of your distinguished Mayor, who has symbolized throughout the world the fighting spirit of West Berlin. And I am proud to visit the Federal Republic with your distinguished Chancellor who for so many years has committed Germany to democracy and freedom and progress, and to come here in the company of my fellow American, General Clay, who has been in this city during its great moments of crisis and will come again if ever needed.

     Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was "civis Romanus sum." Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner."

     I appreciate my interpreter translating my German!

     There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.

     Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us. I want to say, on behalf of my countrymen, who live many miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, who are far distant from you, that they take the greatest pride that they have been able to share with you, even from a distance, the story of the last 18 years. I know of no town, no city, that has been besieged for 18 years that still lives with the vitality and the force, and the hope and the determination of the city of West Berlin. While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your Mayor has said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together.

     What is true of this city is true of Germany--real, lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. In 18 years of peace and good faith, this generation of Germans has earned the right to be free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace, with good will to all people. You live in a defended island of freedom, but your life is part of the main. So let me ask you as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today, to the hopes of tomorrow, beyond the freedom merely of this city of Berlin, or your country of Germany, to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the wall to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind.

     Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades.

     All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner.”

Here is a short film I did not have time to show. It is narrated by a journalist for The Economist, Thomas Hoepker, who lived in East Berlin during part of the Cold War: "Live Behind the Berlin Wall"

W. 38

We focused primarily on the Truman Doctrine (TD)  and the Marshall Plan (MP). We also did a little map quiz of parts of Europe during the Cold War. If this quiz didn't go particulalry well, I encourage you to work on strengthening your map IQ. There will likely be a new quiz coming up. :)

Sides and documents for the TD and MP are posted on Vklass. You will need these when you work on your assignment.

I noted that I forgot to talk in class about the Soviet response to the MP. I will bring that in next week.

There are many different videos and podcasts that discuss the Cold War, and the Marshall Plan in particular. Unfortunately, many do not have subtitles. Here's one video, which is part of a larger documentary on the Cold War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQHEMG6zt8I

There is a History of the Cold War podcast, which seems to be very fact-based, but I have not listened to that much of it. Naturally, a podcast has no subtitles. (Sometimes it is possible to find transcripts for podcasts, but not that often.) For the History of the Cold War podcast, you'll need to go to the early episodes to get to the material that we've been discussing.

w. 37

w. 37

This week I haven’t had as much time to work on the blog. Here’s a quick rundown of what we did this week.

Friday

You started with reading the beginning of chapter 33 (pp. 965–967). If you didn’t finish reading and/or you didn’t understand some of the material, you want to ask for help. When you are working in groups you want to take advantage of having classmates who can help you. Often, hearing how a classmate interprets the material can be very beneficial. It can help you find new words, phrases, and explanations for understanding the issues we’re discussing.

You also want to think about being active in looking up words that are new to you. Writing down these words can help you remember them. And this training will not only help you in this class, but it can help you in your English class (duh!), högskoleprovet (both the English parts as well as the Swedish parts, which has REALLY HARD WORDS), and it will definitely  help you when get to college too. (Did you know that A LOT of your college material is going to be in English? ’Fraid so.)

We looked at eastern Europe (I asked about capitals. I wanted you to focus on what countries are in eastern Europe), talked about the Iron Curtain, and then I briefly introduced the Truman Doctrine. We’ll talk more about this on w. 38. I gave you a small excerpt from the speech Truman made, which talked about two “worlds” or societies. And then I gave you the following list.

1.	-  a judicial system (courts/domstolar) that is independent from the government or any single political party
2.	- an independent news media (not controlled by the government or a single political party)
3.	- a TV channel that delivers propaganda for the government
4.	- independent publishers (förlag), where the publishing of books is not subject to government approval
5.	- the ability to move freely within the country
6.	- a secret police that has the right to take you into custody in secret
7.	- elections where the winning candidate has won by 99%
8.	- the ability to check out books from the library without fear that the government will know what you’re reading
9.	- the ability to exhibit art or perform music or drama of all kinds without getting approval first from the government
10.	- the ability to send material to others without fear that the government will intercept it
11.	- the threat of imprisonment or other punishment (e.g., being sent to labor camps) as a consequence of criticizing the government or ruling party
12.	- the threat of not getting a job, a promotion, entrance into school — for yourself or your family — as a consequence of criticizing the government or ruling party
13.	- a school curriculum (läroplan) independent from political parties
14.	- the opportunity to run for political office without fear of intimidation (hotelser)
15.	- the right to import literature, films, and music from other countries
16.	- the right to practice a religion, including attending church and participating in religious ceremonies
17.	- an educational system where entrance to programs and determination of grades are based on performance (how well you perform on tests and in courses) rather than on connections (knowing the right people) or bribery
18.	- forced-labor camps where people can be sent — and likely tortured — as a way to encourage people to not cross the government

You were to think about the issues in the list in connection with the two worlds, but you were also supposed to think about them in connection with society today.

Tuesday

We focused on issues connected to the U.S. and the Soviet Union coming out of the war. Below I’ve written some of these points in brief, but they aren’t going to mean anything without your notes. But if you are uncertain what we discussed or why it’s important, that’s something you want to ask about:

-       the need to re-build Europe after WWII

-       the geographical importance of Germany. (It’s in the middle of Europe!)

-       lessons learned from WWI

-       the division of Germany between the U.S., GB, France and the Soviet Union

-       why the Soviet Union didn’t want help from the U.S. in rebuilding (see additional capitalism & communism points below)

-       the introduction of a new currency into the American, British, and French sectors of Germany

-       the Berlin Blockade & Airlift (see YouTube clip below)

LIBERAL CAPITALISM	COMMUNISM
- embraces free trade (that is, it is easy to trade because there are few tariff barriers) - few obstacles to the free flow of capital and goods - embraces civil liberties - embraces individual freedom	- hostility toward world capitalist system and international economics - wants to abolish market economies - interests of the Soviet Union go ahead of interests of the individual - working class is heroized (treated as heroes)