2. Big History
Big History is a field of study that examines history
on a large scale across long time frames.
The field of Big History examines history from the
beginning of time to present day.
Coffee is an example of Big History, originating in
Ethiopia as early as the 9 th century. Coffee has been
grown on five continents and is consumed worldwide
today.
3. The Day The Universe
Changed
James Burke presents the idea “what
you think the universe is depends on
what you know” in the film The Way
We Are.
We have the right to question
authority and remove it from power
if we don’t like what it is telling us,
which is why we change.
If any good concept works well, we
hang onto it.
We institutionalize answers which
suit us so they won’t change, even if
we do.
4. The Journey
of Man
Spencer Wells, a geneticist, has traveled the globe
collecting DNA samples from men tracking the Y-
chromosome.
Y-chromosomes are markers or inherited mutations
which can be traced back to a common male, Adam, living
in Africa around 60,000 years ago.
Wells suggests that the San Bushmen of the Kalahari give
us a glimpse of what Adam and his fellow humans might
look like.
5. The Journey
of Man
Wells traced human migration from Africa through southern
Asia to Australia approximately 50,000 years ago.
His research found only 10% migrated to Australia while the
other 90% migrated through Eurasia.
He linked a single man’s DNA from Kazakhstan to Native
Americans, Europeans, Asians, Russians, and even some
Indians.
Wells discovered the Chukchi people of northern Russia
migrated over the Bering Strait during the last Ice Age 13,000
years ago and inhabited North America.
6. Journalist and documentary producer David Keys investigates a
major climatic change in the 6th century.
He teams up with paleoecologist Michael Baillie to study tree ring
grows which become extraordinarily narrow from 535 to 536AD.
Keys deduces from sulfur deposits in samples of ice from the Artic
and Antarctic that the event was caused by an enormous volcanic
eruption.
Narrowing his search to volcanoes along the equator, Keys
discovers a writing in China of a large bang in February 535AD
and uncovers the Krakatau volcano in Indonesia.
7. Keys and other scholars believe the massive
volcanic eruption lowered the Earth’s average
temperature and affected civilizations worldwide.
The bubonic plague thrived in fleas during the
cooler temperatures which was passed to rats and
eventually humans.
Keys suggests the Roman Empire’s greed for ivory
brought the bubonic plague on ships from Africa
killing millions and weakening the capital of
Constantinople.
He proposes the creation of Islam due to the
catastrophe by people migrating from Yemen north
to Mecca where the prophet Muhammad was born
to a well established family who provided to the
community during the harsh conditions.
8. Jared Diamond, professor of Geography and Physiology, sets out to
answer the question as to why the world has become so unequal.
Diamond met a man named Yali 30 years ago who posed the
question “Why you white man have so much cargo, and we New
Guineans have so little?”
He suggests geology is the most important factor as to why some
societies advance while others remain dormant.
Evidence of a structure used for storing grain around 11,500 years
ago was found in Jordan.
Storing food allowed inhabitants to stay in one location and establish
a society.
9. Around 9000 years ago began the first evidence of
animal domestication with 14 beasts of burden
being able to assist humans with labor.
Villages were able to grow bigger with farming
becoming more efficient with the assistance of
animals allowing specialists to help evolve new
technology.
Inhabitants in an area of favorable climate known
as the Fertile Crescent in Western Asia began
spreading their animals and crops along the same
latitude creating a population explosion along the
way.
Diamond learned the answer to Yali’s question was
geography, and New Guinea’s agriculture was never
productive enough to allow specialists to help
advance their society.
10. The World & Trade
During the 14th century, China had become the
most powerful empire in the world.
The Chinese produced paper, gunpowder, and
silk which was very attractive to Europeans.
The Muslims controlled the major trade routes
from Europe to the East and grew richer with
Europe’s desire for spices and goods.
Muslims were a triple threat to Christians;
religiously, militarily, and economically.
Marco Polo’s memoirs of China, who had visited
200 years before Columbus was born, inspired
Columbus to explore an alternative route to the
Orient.
11. The World & Trade
Horse and cattle brought by the Spanish and Christopher Columbus
helped to shape the destiny of America.
Horses allowed Indians to hunt more efficiently and helped lead to the
extermination of the buffalo.
Potatoes discovered by Spanish soldiers in the Peruvian Andes led to
Ireland becoming the first place in Europe to live on potatoes.
Tobacco grown in the Virginia colonies helped the region survive and it’s
sales in London was double that of Spain’s by the early 17th century.
Trade from the Old World to the New World grew exponentially creating
globalization.
