B. Scott Tucker

HIS 140

BIG HISTORY

PROGRESSION THROUGH KNOWLEDGE

• James Burke identifies that through the knowledge we have obtained over

the course of time we have changed history.

• Inventions + Innovation = Progress

• We are a society of constant change! We look to change on a daily basis,

we are not a dormant population.

• We (society) in totality are curious, we have the right to be curious.

• We ask questions and the discoveries/ answers found change outcomes,

change history.

INVENTIONS + INNOVATION = PROGRESS

• Good ideas from the past have been preserved, used as a foundation, and modified

to fit the structure of todays culture.

• “Culture reveals itself by what it does.”

ORIGIN THROUGH SCIENCE

• Dr. Spencer Wells, geneticist, using modern science to link modern day man to a single

human living 60,000 years ago.

• Using modern day technology, Genotyping was used to trace where modern day humans

first evolved, their migratory patterns, and the path they took to get to present day

locations.

• First human living in Africa 60,000 years ago.

• Lisango Bushman closest to ancestors.

NATURAL DISASTERS CHANGING HISTORY

• A scientific hypothesis was generated that in the mid 6 th Century a natural

disaster occurred that changed the course of history.

• Believed that it was an eruption of the Volcano, Krakatoa.

• Multiple Scientists, of different disciplines, throughout the world utilized

different methods to help support this theory. (Scientists and Historians used

methods from Tree Ring samples to collecting samples from the Volcano)

• This event drastically changed climate conditions around the world which

had a large chain reaction.

• Decreased temperatures, Decreased strength of the sun to heat and

evaporate the ocean surfaces, Decreased moisture in the atmosphere,

decreased rainfall, increased droughts.

• Climatic changes caused obscure migratory patterns to other lands due to

disruption in food supplies.

• Cooling Temps. Caused increased breeding grounds for Germs and

diseases. (Plague)

CONQUERING THE MASSES

• Jared Diamond shows how through technology, resource availability, and disease the

great civilizations of the Americas were decimated .

• Europeans achieved dominance due to multiple reasons:

• They had an abundance of plants and animals suitable for domestication (6 of

the 8 “founder crops”, and 4out 5 most domesticated animals.);

• The ease of transferring their animals, crops, and technology due to their land mass

orientation (East-West v. North-South, as in Africa and the Americas.)

• Diseases: (Measles, Smallpox, T.B. from cattle; Flu from pigs and ducks; pertussis from

pigs and dogs) wiped out approx. 95% of America’s pre-Colombian Population.

• Epidemic diseases originated in domesticated animals. Indians, not having domesticated

animals didn’t have the same immunities as the Europeans.

• Technology: Steel swords and gun powder far outmatched the primitive weapons used by

the Indian Civilizations.

THE GREAT DISCOVERY

• Christopher Columbus’s voyage that led to the “discovery” of a new continent changed

history forever.

• With Great Discovery came Great Destruction!

• This discovery opened global paths to help cultures and civilizations grow in many ways

to help them develop into what they are today.

• Pros:

• Introduce new plants, foods, and drugs via trade that provided economical and

cultural growth within societies. (i.e. potato, corn, chocolate, tobacco) (This goes

both ways)

• Exploration of new lands that allowed new plants/ foods/ technology to be

discovered. Allowed migration of Europeans and other cultures to the Americas.

• Introduction to new cultures.

THE GREAT DESTRUCTION

• Cons:

• “ Global trade not only created commercial networks, it also destroyed them.”

• With the arrival of the Europeans, their technology, and their diseases the Great

Indian civilizations (Aztec, Inca) witnessed monumental collapses either through

force or through epidemics. (Smallpox, Measles, etc.)