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It is also known as the Axis Date because the fundamental’s of the great world cultures are being defined. During this period of time, Alexander the Great conquered the Persia and became the Great King of Persiah Empire. After his death from a fever, his empire break into pieces almost immediately. As his followers divided and began to argue for power, classical Hellenism was modified by Asian influences and they became Hellenism. 500 A.D. is known as the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages is the name traditionally given to the period in European history from the fall of the Roman Empire in the west to the coronation of Charlemagne, or sometimes to the 10th century. The term has also been used to denote the entire Middle Ages down to the Renaissance. Modern historians avoid using the term because of its value﷓laden implications of barbarism and intellectual darkness. The role of the church during this time period was as a leader. The church took the leadership role because everyone needed something new. Church became international and a democratic institution. The medieval man felt that all men are equal in the sight of God and that all are equal in the sight of God and that even the humblest has an infinite worth. If a man had to work, this was not to degrade him but it was a source dignity. Having a job was to be able to take of his family and necessities. A person’s property and family was to be used to gratify God and not for self gratification. They believed that all people in all nations are part of a big neighborhood. 1000 A.D. is known as the Revival of Europe. The Dark Ages were over and Western Europe was prepared for its first great age of civilization. This time period showed a new power in Europe, greater than any other power before, the Church. The triumph of the Church was a very influential event doing this time period. This time frame was called the return of confidence because Europe had experienced advances in methods of agriculture and they now has confidence in their society, laws, philosophy and their mental powers. They had confidence in themselves. 1500 A.D. is known as the Rise of Europe. Europe took Chinese inventions and developed them to their full potential. They used the new ideas for overseas expansions, in return, this triggered more technological advances and changes. This caused a transition from medieval to modern civilization. The rise of the nation-state also was an important factor in the rise of Europe. European power rose to a new level of effectiveness and for the first time it gave Europeans a clear margin of superiority over the other great world cultures. European’s domination was challenged and rejected. Others felt that Europe’s domination left little to individual choice and destroys life’s richness and diversity. The two historical fault lines that run in Europe are significant because they stand for the lines that show where war and conflict was located. The Pre-1500 period was before the rise of Europe. The NW section of Europe was an underdeveloped area. The people of this time was looked down on as backwards, uneducated, inferior and they were called stupid. The two pillars that support western heritage are Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian. The Greco-Roman tradition is a combination of Rome’s belief in law and order and Greek’s belief in man. The notion of God was shaped with the help first of Platonic and then of Aristotelian categories. Because of Greek philosophy's bias toward transcendent, changeless, eternal realms of being, this religious tradition greatly emphasized the absolute nature of God: God was understood as pure act, utterly independent, changeless, nontemporal, and unrelated. The active, related, personal aspects of God manifested themselves chiefly in piety and through numerous angelic and saintly representatives. The Greco-Roman felt that man could control their own destiny. Their expression, “Man is the measure of things”, reflects their belief that one should not get caught in God. They believed that man should develop themselves. They felt that man could do it all it they want to. In my opinion, the Greeks were high on themselves and they didn’t put their faith in God because they didn’t know the real meaning of faith. They used the reasoning that things happened because they controlled it. When on experiences the benefits of their own faith, they quit going through that reasoning process. One will quit trying to figure out why or when. Sometime you will benefit from others faith. For instance, when you’re young and your mother receives a blessing, the children always benefits. When one experience it for themselves, you for the work reasoning. If something good or bad happened, they felt man was the cause. The Renaissance man felt they were the molders of their futures. They did not believe in the supernatural powers. They felt that the purpose of life is to develop their own potential. In Jewish and Christian belief, however, God is also in some way personal, righteous, or moral, concerned with people and their lives and therefore closely related to and active within the world and the course of history. The reflective troubles in this concept of God, the subject of debates throughout Western history, therefore, have a dual source: God, whatever he may be, is unlike ordinary things that can be described, and the notion of God includes certain dialectical tensions or paradoxes (absolute﷓relative, impersonal﷓personal, eternal﷓temporal, changeless﷓changing) that defy ordinary powers of speech and of definition. In approaching the divine, religiously or philosophically, one first of all encounters mystery and, with that, special forms or rules of speech﷓﷓a characteristic as old as religion itself. I feel that the Judeo-Christian believers knew about miracles. I think they had strong beliefs in the supernatural. They just had some doubts in God. They believed that God cared for us and he intervened in our lives. In my opinion, the concept of shepherd’s and peasants going to heaven while the kings and queens going to hell was derived from the Holy scriptures. I believe in God’s instructions that one should store his riches in heaven instead of earth. The poor tend to have stronger faith because they have to depend on God for all things. The poor can give fire-filled testimonies on how God has mad a way for them out of no way. If someone has everything he or she needs, they don’t know what its like to be without. If you have the money to pay all your bills on time and you don’t have to wait on a miracle from God, you don’t know what it’s like. I am not saying that if you’re rich, you won’t go to heaven. I am just saying that the poor will inherit the earth, this comes from the word of God. In the Bible it states that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. (Matthew 19:24) One must have faith in God and not in himself and his riches. St. Francis of Assisi’s attitude toward poverty and riches was very unusual. It never stated that he was a born again Christian but his actions said that he was. He felt that you must free yourself of all your worldly possessions. He sanctified poverty. He gave away all his possessions and he even gave up his shoes and walked around bare-footed. The history of the West from the 15th to the 20th century is characterized by revolutionary changes in the arts, in religion, in science and technology. Technology is the application of science, especially to industrial or commercial objectives. It is also the scientific method and material used to achieve a commercial or industrial objective. Science is to watch, recognize, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena. Such activities restricted to a class of natural phenomena. Such activities applied to an object of inquiry or study. An activity that appears to require study and method: the science of purchasing; knowledge, especially that gained through experience. The Greeks always asked why and how. Then they derived a theory to prove there opinions. They wanted to improve their technological knowledge to equal their other knowledge. The Greeks wanted to preserve their natural gifts so they could be worthy of their human nature. They wanted their minds to be as strong as their bodies, no more no less. They wanted their minds to equal their bodies. The first phase of this revolution is associated with the Renaissance, which began in Italy in the 14th century. Initially, the Renaissance was a literary and artistic movement that distinguished itself from the medieval past chiefly in its desire to achieve a more perfect imitation of classical antiquity. But the attempt to re﷓create the artistic forms of ancient Greece and Rome led to major innovations. In lyric poetry, drama, and criticism the Europeans equaled the ancients or excelled them, at the same time creating such new genres as the novel. The development of new and more sophisticated musical instruments raised music to a higher level, and secular music began to take on greater importance. In the visual arts, especially painting, the Renaissance masters exceeded anything dreamed of in classical times. Although the Renaissance looked to the distant past for its ideal, its rejection of the immediate past provided the impetus to move out in new directions, and the consciousness of a new beginning soon became the dominant theme of the age. The intellectual side of the Renaissance movement, known as humanism, was important because of its emphasis on human values and the dignity of the individual, which was to have a strong influence on later European thought. This burst of creative vitality cannot be explained by any one factor. Certainly it owed much to the flourishing urban culture of Italy, in which merchant patrons had the wealth and leisure to support the arts, and the motivation to compete with one another in doing so. But the atmosphere of freedom that fostered individual creativity was the product of older influences. The feudal system and the bodies of customary law going back to the early Germanic tribes had allowed for a concept of personal ownership beyond the control of princes and governments. The Christian idea of the value of the individual immortal soul also played its part, as did the tradition of a church independent of the secular state. A society in which power was dispersed among a number of centers permitted greater freedom of action than one dominated by a monolithic or despotic authority. Also associated with the Renaissance were a variety of technological innovations that played a key role in the emergence of the modern world. These involved the adaptation of such inventions as the compass, gunpowder, and printing, which originated not in the classical past, but in China. Applied science helped to advance seamanship in Portugal through the efforts of Prince Henry and his successors. The first two were essential to the great enterprise of European discovery and expansion that began in the mid﷓15th century. In the years between 1440 and 1540, European mariners and explorers demonstrated for the first time the real dimensions of the globe, circumnavigating it, establishing trade links across the Pacific, and bringing vast new regions into contact with their continent. The Portuguese were the first pioneers; Spanish, French, Dutch, and English seamen followed. Italians such as Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci sailed with these western﷓facing peoples as captains or pilots. Renaissance hero was painters and Christian hero were biblical figures that we read about in the Bible. Michelangelo’s David was painted in the nude, in my opinion, because in the Renaissance their projects were designed to reveal hidden mysteries of the soul. They were structured to delight the eye with striking colors and forms. The past of the Greek and Romans lives with us today in our language, architecture and our ability to rule with an even-handed justice. Our words are derived from the Latins and the forms of our letters are from Roman. It is impossible here to list all the achievements of Western medical science, but the major ones can at least be indicated. Beginning in the 19th century, a series of breakthroughs in research laid the groundwork for revolutionary changes in the treatment of disease. Pioneering work was done by the French chemist Louis Pasteur, who established the basic principle that infectious illnesses are caused by microorganisms, and by the German bacteriologist Robert Koch, who developed methods to be used in linking specific organisms to particular diseases. Surgery was revolutionized by William Morton, an American dentist who discovered a safe and effective form of anesthesia, and by the British surgeon Joseph Lister, who showed that infection could be prevented by using antiseptics to control bacteria in the operating room. Once these advances were made, diseases that had ravaged human and animal populations throughout history began to be brought under control. Discoveries of the part played by the mosquito in transmitting malaria, the rat in transmitting plague, and the tsetse fly in carrying sleeping sickness, as well as the use of vaccine against smallpox, were crucial in the conquest of those scourges. Especially important in eliminating harmful microorganisms was the development of antibiotics﷓﷓notably of penicillin and streptomycin﷓﷓in the 1940s. Americans have been influenced by Europeans political institutions, ways of earning a living and cultural traditions. American crops such as tomatoes, beans, peppers, squash and pineapples are staples throughout the world. An obvious result of the Reformation was the division of Western Christendom into Protestant and Catholic areas. Another result was the development of national churches; these strengthened the growth of modern national states, just as, earlier, growing national consciousness had facilitated the development of the Reformation. The Reformation came to blend the Greco-Roman with the Judeo-Christian. One of the most characteristic European political institutions is the nation﷓state, which developed over a period of centuries from the late Middle Ages until the era of the French Revolution, based initially on loyalty to a particular monarch or dynasty, and later on the union of a people with a common language and traditions. England, France, and Spain had achieved nationhood by the 15th century; the Netherlands, Sweden, Prussia, and others followed in the 16th and 17th centuries. Out of this process came the doctrine of nationalism ﷓﷓the belief that every national group is entitled to independence and self﷓determination﷓﷓which became one of the most powerful ideological forces of the 19th﷓ and 20th﷓ century world. The bases of the Greek philosophy is something that has shaped and reshaped many attitudes in the past and is shaping attitudes of today. They were based on convictions that we take so much for granted and that we don’t pay enough attention to each other. We think of ourselves and we don’t try to help our neighbors. The Greek law was intended to improve the lot of mortal humans, the law was based on population consent so that it couldn’t be changed without the population’s vote and that it would protect all citizens regardless of statue. The fall of the Roman Empire led, in most views, to the fairly rapid atrophy of the state method of governance and finally to feudal fragmentation. The plaque and military matters also led to the fall of the empire. To be sure, the church, which long claimed that the Emperor Constantine had donated the Western Empire to the papacy, inherited Rome's universalist pretensions. But these pretensions animated the activities of the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire as well, and three authorities could not be universal at the same time. In any case the church rarely tried to pass for a state, given its view that temporal power is lower than spiritual power. In Determined Monarchia Dante Alighieri put forth the doctrine that the Republica Christiana ("Republic of Christendom") is jointly governed by a temporal Holy Roman emperor deriving his authority in unbroken descent from the Roman emperor Augustus and by a spiritual pope deriving his authority in unbroken descent from Saint Peter, and that both authorities should operate harmoniously (within distinct spheres) to produce peace and concord. It was an exceptional, theoretical effort to recover both Romes﷓﷓the Roman church and the Roman state. More reflective, perhaps, of the realities of medieval fragmentation and of the devaluation of politics generally is Saint Augustine. His Civitate Dei argues that the Roman state, for all its glory, owed its unity to slaughter and to bloodshed, and that in such a state even a well﷓meaning judge will sometimes, out of ignorance, torture the innocent in his sincere effort to produce justice. For Saint Augustine, necessity required that the misery of this mortal state be restricted by a legal order that makes feeble stabs at justice; but it is only in the Heavenly City that wretchedness will end. In the 5th century the empire was divided between east and west. The Eastern (Byzantine) Empire, with its long tradition of civilized and urban life, proved the more durable, surviving for another millennium. Rome was the capital and their language was Latin. Their language was Latin Christian-Roman Catholic. In the western half the Roman system gradually disintegrated and was substituted by a collection of kingdoms ruled by various Germanic peoples: the Goths occupied Italy and Spain; the Franks, under the Merovingian kings, established themselves in Gaul; and Britain was conquered by the Anglo﷓Saxons. The collapse of the Roman Empire in the west led to a synthesis of Latin and Germanic elements that was to be the basis of medieval European culture. The capital of the part was Constantinople and their language was Greek. Their religion was that of Greek Orthodox Christians. The Romans date their founding as far back as 753 B.C. Rome was a small community. The inhabitants were Latins mixed with Sabines. The Greeks made a lasting influence on the Romans. Rome sought a savage struggle for mere survival. In desperate war after war, finally in 272 B.C. they became the unchallenged masters of all Italy south of the Po Valley. In 202 B.C. the Roman empire began. The empire consisted of some three hundred magistrates and ex-magistrates. They were a people struggling for survival with little interest in philosophic speculation or in the search for beauty. They experienced immense volume of trade and great prosperity. North America became Christian because they needed a new outlook. Christianity made them feel as if they had a sense of belonging to the rest of the world. Vladimir of Kiev’s converting to Christianity had some long-term affects. It led to the development of a common language, law and art form. Kiev was the birthplace of Russian nationality. Khan was the leader of the Mongols. The Mongols agreed to permit Alexander to remain as prince and the Russians felt this was a slap in the face. They felt their fellow Christians had turned on them in a time of need. This put Russia under their yoke. This made Russia remain numb and they were ready for a uprising. As the yoke was lifted, this was not felt by Russia. Moscow became powerful enough to lift the yoke. Russia began to expand eastward and conquered Asia. Since Russia was able to be superior to Asia, this led to superiority over other land. It was shown that Russia was greatly separated from Europe in the industrialization field. They were way behind in this area. The slave of Africa was a great resource for Europeans for years. Slavery was an accepted institution in Africa and had been long before Europe. African slave trades were totally different from that of Europe because Europe was very cruel to their slaves. They would work their slaves to death before they would be nice to them. What ever was more profitable was the goal of the Europeans. The open of plantations in America was a real stimulus to the slave trade. The plantations created an urgency for labor needs. Millions and millions were imported to America. Many of the imports were due to casualties of mistreatment. Our fore fathers experienced the cruelty of barbarians. Barbarians are members of a people considered by those of another nation or group to have a primitive civilization. They were of a fierce, brutal, and cruel person. The ugly side of the barbarians are there cruelty, insensitive, uncultured person and uncaring nature. The best adjective that I can think of to describe them is to call them a boor. They burned homes and left children and families homeless time and time again. Bibliography: Word Count: 3483
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