Joan of Arc Short Bigoraphy

Joan or Arc, Born in 1412, was a major figure French history. She was one of the reasons that France was able to win the siege of Orleans, and then, win the hundred years war.  Joan or Arc was about twelve when she was said to have been called by god to give back the land that was rightfully France' s which was now under British control due to the Hundred Years War. She then was able to get into a French military base where she was able to accurately   predict a battle near Orleans which would be later called, the siege of Orleans. She then impressed King Charles VII and she asked him if she could go to the battle herself. She went, and famously won the battle for the French. At age 19, she would be captured, sold to the English, and finally, burned at the stake. She was able to accomplish so much in such a short life and boy she changed a lot of things. If it weren't for her, France may have never won the Hundred Years War and France would look very different than what it looks today. She definitely impacted Europe on a major scale and in a positive way too.  

Renaissance Fair Relfection

I had many new experiences during the Renaissance Fair. For example, one of my new experiences was learning new dances and being able to remember and perform them. I’m not the kind of person who likes to dance so learning dances like these was a brand new experience for me. Another new experience for me was playing the recorder. Before this unit, I had only played one instrument and that was the guitar for school as well so, playing the recorder in the Renaissance fair was also a new experience. The Renaissance fair took a lot of planning and hard work from all of the students and teachers. We were required to memorize lines we were given for our play, “Midsummer Night’s Dream” written by William Shakespeare. We also needed to know how to play the recorder, an instrument that we had been using for a period of time before the Renaissance fair. Also, we needed to know how to perform our dances and in what order they would be in. Finally, we had to be aware of what order all of this went in on the night of the Renaissance fair. Experiencing the Renaissance fair was something completely new for me. I have never been to a Renaissance fair so when I first heard about it, I wasn’t sure what to think about it but, after be able to be a part of one, I ultimately decided that it was a very interesting event to experience.

Charlemagne Short Biography

Charlemagne was King of the Franks for fifty years. He is well known as the king who united almost all of Europe's small provinces into one, big kingdom. Charlemagne first became sole emperor in 771 after the death of his brother, Carloman 1, who he had been co-running his kingdom with after the death of their father.  Once he was under rule of the Franks, he began expanding his empire by first conquering all the weak states around him and then using his armies to attack and conquer stronger ones. In 800, Charlemagne was crowned emperor of Rome by pope Leo III after his takeover of Italy. In all, Charlemagne ruled for over fifty years and died in 814 but his legacy long lived on after his death.

Feudalism and the Manor System, Why Poor Peasants Remained Poor

Feudalism- Was a form of government in medieval Europe. In this  form of government, land was owned by either a king or a lord but was being operated by vassals. In return, the kings or lords would offer them their loyalty.

The Manor System- The Manor System was how a feudalistic government's economy was run. The economy was a based on a Manor, an estate that included farm fields, pastures, and in some cases, entire villages.

In Medieval times, peasants were very poor. Almost all of them worked on farms for vassals or, they owned little plots of land but were forced to give half of their crop to a vassal or their lord. Because of this, many peasants lived their entire lives with very little money. In a sense, peasants were born into what seemed to be a dead end job with little or no chance of breaking away from the fields or manors and moving up in the social class. I think that because of this, they believed that they were going to have to live out their lives working tirelessly day-in, day-out for their lord.

 

Presentation Summary

My presentation was about the conquests of the Muslim Empire. I went over all the major points. I went told them when the Muslim conquests began which was in 632 after the death of Muhammad. Muhammad had successfully spread the new religion Islam throughout the Arabian Peninsula. Now that the Arabian Peninsula was united under one religion, they could now fight together and spread their religion to new lands. Under the first four caliphs, the Muslim Empire spread through Egypt, and most of present-day Libya. They also managed to move the empire North into what is now known as the Middle East and Armenia. Then, under the new Umayyad caliph, they were able to expand the empire further west across the rest of North Africa and what is present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were also successful in taking control of southern Italy, and almost all of Spain. They also caused a great territorial loss to the Byzantine Empire and would eventually take down it's capital, Constantinople, and rename to what it's known as today, Istanbul. During the Muslim Empire's conquests,  three major empires the Sassanid, Persian, and Byzantine Empires all fell to the Muslim Empire.

How did Geography and Trade Contribute to the Growth of the Muslim Empire?

Geography and trade were major contributors in the development of the Muslim Empire. If you look on the map in our second section of reading, you can see that the capital of the Muslim Empire, Baghdad, was in between both India and the Mediterranean Sea. This was a perfect location for trade since traders coming in from India and the Mediterranean could now have a place to trade their goods. Baghdad's location was also great for place for Islam to spread. Since Baghdad was right at the heart of all trade in the Muslim Empire, this was a place where people of many cultures came together and traded goods. Ideas could be spread at these markets and thus, a perfect chance for Islam to spread to new regions of the world. The Muslim Empires geography was also a main factor in many of the achievements of the countries golden age. For example, mathematics flourished during the the golden age of the Muslim Empire because of trade and the spread of new ideas. Without trade, the Muslim people would have never learned about the Indian peoples idea of the number zero, nor would have they been able to learn about the so-called Arabic numerals from the people of India. So, these are a few ways as to how geography and trade contributed to the growth of the Muslim Empire.

Sanit Petka Chapel Reflection

On Wednesday, February 2nd 2011,  the 8th grade took a field trip to Saint Petka Chapel at Kalemegdan. At the chapel, we were instructed to look at all the wonderful mosaics that decorated then inside of the chapel. We then had to choose one to sketch and study. The mosaic I chose was one that pictured both Saint Sava and Saint Simeon. I focused mainly on the half the included Saint Sava. In the mosaic, Saint Sava is holding a book with a cross on the cover. I would assume that it is a bible but I can not be entirely sure of this. In the mosaic, Saint Sava appears to be located on a hill in the middle of nowhere. His feet are also not touching the ground as if he were floating in mid air. Also in the mosaic, their is a symbol that was in the shape of a two headed eagle. I assume that the symbol is a christian symbol but it could easily also be an eastern orthodox one too. The other half of the mosaic that I chose to sketch included Saint Simeon. He was much the same as Saint Sava except for the different looks, and instead of a book, the was holding a cross. I think that our trip to Saint Petka's chapel was a great learning experience for me. I had no previous knowledge of mosaics in Serbia so it was great to go out and look at some for school.

Question 7

I think that the Roman Empire was advanced than the Greek and Byzantine empires. Most people who would hear this question would think that the Byzantines where more successful because they had both Roman and Greek influence. But I think the Roman empire was the most advanced because they managed to extend their empire further than the Byzantines and we able to maintain it until the empire fell. The Byzantines couldn't manage this because after Justinian the Great's death, they were not able to keep their newly conquered empire under control.