Chatpers 7, 8 and 10

I find our pace of life and the way in which we can receive almost any product to be pretty much instant! 
 
The way in which humans are able to interact and connect with one another has been more and more accelerated and advancing.  Strayer says, "The exchange of goods among communities occupying different ecological zones has long been a prominent feature of human history.  Cross lands and highlands, steppes and farmlands, islands and main lands, valleys and mountains, deserts and forests - each generates different products.

Each country has a specialty and or specific goods that another country might desire or simply cannot produce as well or sufficiently.  A country might want a certain product even that much more, becoming a very desirable trade.  And in many ways this has made our country's people spoiled because certain products are more prestigious to obtain such as luxurious items. 

Strayer mentions, "long distance trade also enabled elite groups in society to distinguish themselves from commoners by acquiring prestigious goods from a distance -- silk, tortoishell, jade, rhinoceros horn, or particular feathers.  The association with faraway or powerful societies, signaled by the possession of their luxury goods, often conveyed status in communities more remote from major civilizations." (pg. 316)

With trade, came a variety of goods coming in but also the spread of other good and bad things as well.  Some were unpredictable and even unknown.  People were in contact with each other more, so you had the spreading of bacteria and germs leading to diseases and new sicknesses from other countries to contaminate new lands. 

Communication also helped to spread different words of spiritual and religious beliefs, new technology and new ideas also began to spread out from the original thinkers and location(s).  It's amazing that a religion would spread from one large country to the next.  Buddhism was one great example Strayer mentions in the book. 

The more I read about China, the more I see it to have order and discipline.  Looking for certain achievements and accomplishments during its Song Dynasty.  Being the 1st country to print and develop the first books was astonishing to read because it encouraged education.  It also opened its door to schools for its mass population of people.  Marco Polo called China, "The best ordered state in the world." (pg. 368). 

The people were also advanced in cultivating its food as well.  The Chinese people were able to grow sustainable rice which was resistant to drought, a kind of rice original to Vietnam.  China was also seen to have fine taste in music and other hobbies.  The foot binding was new to me.  Some people from other part of the world began to admire and view as a noble people. 

It's also interesting to read that as the Western part of the world was developing, the Chinese, Indian and Islamic countries were and had been well established.  The West still had some catching up to do!  "Muslims who encountered Europeans saw them as barbarians" (strayer).  It's amazing the power that rose so quickly and took over by Europe...eventually catching up to the rest of the established world.  And how Christianity came to evolve it's self into such a "right way of thinking."