Global History & Geography Final Exam
Part II: Enduring Issues Essay
Throughout history, many communities and societies made their own technological advances. Some medical advances, others transportation advances, etc. All still play an important part in the development of human civilizations over time. However, an Enduring Issue that has appeared throughout time is cultural diffusion and technology. Through cultural diffusion, these new technologies were shared with other communities which helped them advance, but that was not always a good thing. Kingdoms with this new, advanced technology found it easier to conquer others to spread their own agendas and expand their own Kingdoms.
One of the most technologically advanced groups historically
…show more content…
Being such an advanced society, many people sought trade with them on multiple occasions in hopes to take their ideas and make their civilizations as great as Islam’s. In Document 8 it says, “During the Crusades, European contact with Muslims and Byzantines greatly expanded… All at once, Europeans acquired a huge new body of knowledge. This included science, philosophy, law, mathematics, and other fields. In addition, the Crusaders brought back to Europe superior Muslim technology in ships, navigation, and weapons.” European crusaders came into contact with Muslim culture which included: advanced science, math, laws, machinery and other systems that were more advanced than anything Europe had ever seen. They took these ideas and brought them back to their own society, spreading Muslim culture further throughout the world. While the Europeanas, in this example, are taking relatively good things from Muslim culture like science and navigation, the diffusion of these advanced systems were not always used in such ways. An example of this comes from the Muslims themselves in Document 4 when it says, “Departing from the policy of Sunni Ali, Askia Mohammed sought to make all of the empire [of Songhai] one big Muslim community… he remodeled his empire along Islamic lines as far as possible. Legal and social reforms were introduced, Islamic judges were appointed in all the large districts of the empire, and justice was administered according to Muslim principles rather than traditional African laws.” Askia Mohammed used his power and technology to reform Songhai into a Muslim community through and through. They changed laws and principles of already established communities and forced them to conform to Muslim ones. This cultural diffusion is a worse version as it is being used to unfairly reform societies who may not have agreed or believed in Islam, but were forced to conform to its rules