Life of a Peasant in the middle ages

Peasants dining on bread

        Life of a peasant in the middle ages was a sad class to be born into.  Since upward mobility was minimal at best (the best one could hope for was to either buy ones nobility or to be married into it, a difficult task indeed), if one stayed a peasant, one could expect to stay one.  The living conditions were rough.

      For example, a house for a single family of peasants was one room.  All the cooking, eating and sleeping were done in that one room.  The family owned a single bed, everyone slept together. This meant that children learned early on about the “birds and the bees”.

      The house was also where one kept all the animals, such as pigs or cows.  This was good in the winter when it would get cold.  The extra warmth from the animals enabled everyone to be a bit more comfortable during the worst of European winters.

           Food was a bit more vegetarian than we may be used to.  Since a peasant could make extra money selling off his livestock, eating meat was considered a treat, one that was saved for special occasions such as Easter.

Finally, the clothing that a peasant owned was minimal.  One or two sets were usually the standard.  Since bathing was unheard of, and washing clothes time consuming and expensive, the same set of clothes was worn year round.

A detailed look at a peasant's home during winter.

The Inventions of Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci was, simply put, a genius of his time. From famous painter to lauded military engineer, Leonardo Da Vinci was ahead of his time in all respects. So it is with great luck that the most insightful pieces of his still survives today: his journals.

One of Da Vinci's designs for an ornithopter.

From what we can garner from the journals he left the world, Leonardo was fixated on flying. He created many designs to put man in flight including two very peculiar sketches that look surprisingly similar to modern helicopters. 

 

A helicopter?

 However, such thought in the renaissance made Leonardo wary of plagiarists so from what we can tell, he deliberately encoded and left out parts to his models as a form of patent protection. As a result, we may never know the true extent of his knowledge of flight, but Leonardo didn't just stop at flight. In his life Leonardo Da Vinci invented prototypes to armored cars, parachutes, automobiles, machine guns, and even a human-shaped robot.

Work of a Genius

 

 

So, one might be asking, how many of these things actually worked? Well, you might be asking the wrong questions, as while some of them are recreated from what we can see of the sketches, it's all about how a self-taught man in the dawn of the 16th century could think so far ahead as to be studied today.

Magna Carta

King John was born December1166.  He ruled England from April 1199 till his death in October 1216.  After losing England’s territories in northern France, King John spent the better part of a decade at war with King Philip Augustus of France to regain the lands.  His means of financing this war caused many of his English barons to draw up a list of demands by which King John was forced to sign.  On June 15^th 1215, the Magna Carta, or the “Great Charter”, was established. The Magna Carta was among the first documents ever to set limits on royal authority.  It also outlines the specific roles, responsibilities, and rights of individual citizens, specifically the right to trial by Jury.

Due to the King and Lords not adhering to the Magna Carta, a civil war broke out. The final draft was issued by King Edward I in 1297.  England used these documents in developing their modern day constitutional law.  An emerging republic in the newly founded Americas referred to the Magna Carta when developing the legal system they knew and wrote the constitution of the United States.  It was this single document that facilitated the development of  democracy in the world we now live in.  

How much would you have to spend to purchase the Magna Carta?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/magazine/06wwln-lede-t.html    

A little Magna Carta British Poetry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qqsZ_5W9eQ&feature=related

The Silk Road

The name `Silk Road' itself was not used until the 19^th century, coined by a German scholar.  It was not a single roadway but a network of crisscrossing paths that eventually connected the East to the West.  Harsh terrain and  problems with security kept the eastern routes from developing as fast as the western.

 

 Commodities such as gold, precious stones, and glass headed towards China while furs, ceramics, jade, bronze objects, lacquer and iron were brought into the west.  Silk was not the most heavily traded commodity, but one of the most remarkable.  Its soft texture and light weight was completely new to  Rome were it quickly became popular.  Throughout the regions the biggest impact the Silk Road had was the expansion of religion.  Buddhism came to China from India this way, Islam spread widely.  

The decline of the Silk Road had many contributors.  The Crusades, marauding barbarians, but over time the `Sea Silk Route' brought the biggest change.  The land route was less profitable (too many middlemen) and becoming more dangerous (Mongols).   Advances in seafaring and boat construction, emerging Asian markets to the south pushed merchants to abandon the Caravan and head to sea.  From its birth before Christ into the 13th-14th century The Silk Road has had a significant impact on the development of civilizations from both sides of the continent.

Early Civilizations of the Americas and Africa

Slaves in America

The great civil right leader, Malcom X, once made a statement in one of his speeches concerning the mistreatment of African American citizens in the United States. In that speech, he stated “we didn’t land on Plymouth rock, Plymouth rock landed on us,” referring to African American ancestors who were captured by the Europeans and forced into slavery by the United States. Although this is a very true statement, the African slaves did not ask to come here to the New World nor did they deserve the brutal and inhumane treatment that was brought upon them. However, I am one who believes that we must return to scene of the crime.

Slave hunters in Africa

      And the crime scene sometimes leads back to an African tribe ruler who calls himself, Grandy King George, one of the most powerful leaders of the Efik people. Grandy King George owned hundreds of slaves whom he employed to capture and trade for still more slaves in the African Interior. He sold these slaves to Captains of European slave ships. Grandy King George nearly monopolized the Old Calabar slave trade during the 1760’s, allowing him to live in luxury, surrounded by British trade goods such as gold-headed canes, fancy mirrors, lace-trimmed clothing pewter chamber pots. In others words, the Grandy King George was living large at the expense of innocent Africans. So I’m not sure who landed on Plymouth Rock or who Plymouth Rock landed on, But I believe that there were a mutual business partnership between the European and the Native of Africa.

The horrors slaves faced if they defied their master.

 

Early Christianity

Early Christianity

The arts nature and transmit the beliefs of the christian faith.

Early Christian style of art.  Christian recognized that art could help illustrate followers.  Art become an important instrument of theology.

When Christianity was made an official state religion, the need for churches arose.  Derived from the Roman basilica and was established by the fourth century.  Old St. Peter which destroyed in the fifteenth century.

Just a Jews believe they are God's chosen people and Muslims their holy book, the Qur'an is the word of God.  Christians believe Jesus is God  and savior, they will share eternal life with him in heaven.

One element of their faith is the belief that jesus rose from the dead after being crucified by the Romans.

Jesus was born in Judea a land under the political control of the Romans during the reign of the emperor Augustus.

The Public ministry of Jesus began when he was thirty years old, with the performance of his first miracle, the changing of water into wine, at the marriage feast of Cana.

 

Jesus Teaching can be reduced to two essentials:  to love God above all, and to love others as one loves oneself.

Posted by lanruby11 at 8:57 PM 0 comments

Achilles-More than a Man?

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Achilles-More than a Man?

Achilles was the Hero of the Trojan War- the greatest warrior of Homer's Illiad. He was less than a God but more than a Man. This person is considered a Demi-God. He was invincible in battle and no one could kill him. He only had one weak spot. The Achilles Tendon was his weak point where if that was to be injured then he would die. The reason for his heel being so weak was because when Achilles was a boy his mother dipped him into the River of Styx and the only part of his body that did not go into the water was his heel. The water was a shield for Achilles. Achilles fought many men and was undefeated, he had a great life with women, wine, food, and anything he desired because he was the most feared soldier. While fighting the Trojan War, Achilles was killed by Prince Paris. Prince Paris was an excllent archer. He shot Achilles straight through the heel and Achilles fell that night. The was the last battle he ever fought.



This statue represents Achilles and he is leaning to his weak spot..the Achilles Tendon

Team 2: apupello

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great

Alexander was the son of King Phillip II of Macedonian, a loving son that looked up to his father as a great worrier and King, one of whom he admired and emulated. Alexander was born in 356 B.C in Pella, where he was very well loved and cared for as a child. He was born into a life of luxury and wealth, with immense high expectations of him. At the age of 13 his father hired one of the greatest Greek philosopher and teacher Aristotle, who would become Alexander’s greatest mentor. Aristotle give him the best training in literature and rhetorical questions which stimulated his interest in science, medicine, and philosophy, all of which became of importance in Alexander’s later life and allowed him to be as successful as he was. 

At the age of 16 King Philip II left Alexander to rule Macedonia, soon after invading Thrace to which Alexander had to defend against rebels trying to over through them, he assembled an army which destroyed the opposition in swift, decisively tactics and with precision; where he captured the Maedi stronghold, and immediately rename it to Alexandropolis. In 338 B.C at the age of 22 King Phillip gave his son a commanding post among the senior generals, a great achievement for Alexander who was known for having a good reputation and high expectations even during the time the Macedonian army invaded Greece.

Soon after accomplishing this task and winning the war with great bravery and glory, Alexander’s family suffered a big split when his father married Cleopatra; forcing Alexander to flee with his mother to Epirus. Alexander returned to his father after constant pleading, but he stayed very much distrustful and uncomfortable during that time. Not to long after his return King Phillip II was assassinated resulting in heavy speculation that Alexander was involved in his father’s killing. Many thought his mother was the one behind it all, but in the end Alexander became King. As King, Alexander immediately ordered the killing of his step-family ceasing any chance of a successor to claim his throne and assassinating all his enemies.  The death of King Phillip created instability in all the conquered nations. Alexander began a campaign that would stretch farther than his own father ever dreamed of; creating the greatest empire. Alexander went on to conquer and surpass a few countries that his father couldn’t for instance: Macedonian, Greece, Granicus, Egypt, and Babylon just to name a few, an empire that stretched all the way passed Persia into India. Alexander’s men were feeling fatigued, yearning to go home even though they conquered city after city, but Alexander was able to persuade them to continue on. Unfortunately tragedy will continue to follow Alexander, for instance, one night after a drunken brawl with provocative words from Cleitus stating Alexander was responsible for the murders of Parmenio and Philotas. He went further by ridiculing Alexander for claiming to be "son of Ammon" and for denouncing his own father Philip II. This provoked Alexander to lose his temper, snatching the spear from one of the bodyguards standing near him and killed Cleitus with it. Although he mourned his friend excessively and nearly committed suicide when he realized what he had done, Alexander began fearing his paranoia and dangerous temper. Alexander also went on marring a Persian noble-woman, an act that would solidify previous marriages between soldiers and native women giving them extravagant weddings. This resulted in a political slap to the face to the society of Greece that he claimed to have dearly loved. Alexander also had planned for an Arabian campaign, but he resigned due to a bad fever he contracted after attending a private party thrown by his friend Medius of Larisa. The fever worsened each day enabling him to not being able to move or speak, keeping him in bed. His soldiers from Macedonia were allowed to past by their leader for one last time before he died. Alexander the Great never met his death in a glorious battle like he wanted; instead he died on June 7, 323 B.C on his bed at the age of 33. Alexander, the Macedonian King, who never lost a fight from the ages of 22 through 33, a great king who conquered all of the Persian Empire, died without designating a successor to his Empire. 

                                           Alian Pequeno-Gimenez