This document discusses key events and ideas in big history, including how questioning allows societies to evolve, theories about ancient catastrophes, the development of unequal advantages between regions due to geography and agriculture, and the global impacts of Columbus's voyages in 1492 which brought the Eastern and Western hemispheres into contact while also spreading crops, livestock, and disease.

1. Assignment 1
Big History
By Melissa Skarnas, History 140

2. The Day The Universe Changed

We try to take the universe apart to see how it works – we are insatiably
curious

We are what we are today because we never stop asking questions

Questioning is what lets us 'evolve' and our way of life is a 'question
mark'

Some cultures don't change (much) because they don't want to and seem
to live 'in history', not wanting to adapt and change

3. Catastrophe!

David Keyes – writer on history
and archaeology, developed a
controversial theory about ancient
catastrophe

Tree rings tell of climactic and
environmental changes

Ice caps can indicate possible
climate changes/incidents such as
volcanic eruptions and meteor
impacts

4. Guns, Germs, and Steel
Out of Eden

Professor Jared Diamond has spent 30+ years trying to answer “Why the
world ever became so unequal? How did these advantages develop in the
first place?”

Possibly boils down to geography and the fertility of the land itself. How
it was developed and provided nourishment

5. Guns, Germs, and Steel
Out of Eden

12,500 years ago, global
temperatures dropped and the
world once again became colder
and drier

Middle East suffered an
environmental collapse

People forced to move further and
further to search for food

Wheat and barley were hardy and
could be stored long-term
therefore allowing people to settle
down more.

6. Guns, Germs, and Steel
Conquest

Modern history has been shaped
by conquests: The conquest of the
world by Europeans

The Conquistadors led the way,
with a few hundred men who
came to the new world and
decimated the native population

7. Guns, Germs, and Steel
Conquest

'Secret' of European success:
Guns, Germs, and Steel

People of European origin have
pretty much remained in
dominance of the globe with the
combination of advanced
technology, military power, and
the medical & scientific side,
such as lethal microbes

8. The World and Trade
The World in 1492

Columbus's voyages to the 'new
world' had a more lasting impact
on Europe – greater than that of
the earlier Vikings

His voyages brought on the
unification of the globe into more
of a single human community

Columbus's voyages showed that
the globe wasn't just an ecumene
(great landmass) surrounded by
small islands and a vast ocean

9. The World and Trade
The World in 1492 (cont.)

The use of ship technology,
commerce, and firepower in
Europe, was a means to move
forward in exploration

China had the potential to expand
and take over exploration on a
greater scale than Europe,
however the prosperous economy
and a sophisticated level of
technology of their own gave
official little desire to look far
beyond their own boundaries

10. The World and Trade
The World in 1492 (cont.)

Cultivation of corn, rice and
wheat as 3 staple foods by the end
of the 15th Century

The Americas, the Mediterranean
community, and China accounted
for three-quarters of the globes
population due to the 3 staple
foods

11. The World and Trade
The World in 1492 (cont.)

1492 the Eastern and Western
Hemispheres come into contact
with each other

Crops and livestock (horses, pigs,
steer) are carried across ocean
which provides additional food
sources

Disease also brought over with
people and livestock