The Emperor has given a very liberal education to his fortunate and noble children, who, by virtue of his attention and care, have reached to the summit of perfection, and made great advances in rectitude, devotion, and piety, and in learning the manners and customs of princes and great men.
What does it mean by a liberal education?
When it was reported to His Majesty Aurangzeb, that in the reign of his father every year a sum of seventy-nine thousand rupees was distributed through the Sadru-es-Sudúr amongst the poor during five months of the year,
Which months of the year did this happen during?
During the last ten days of the month, he performs worship in the mosque, and although, on account of several obstacles, he is unable to proceed on a pilgrimage to Mecca, yet the care which he takes to promote facilities for pilgrims to that holy place may be considered equivalent to the pilgrimage.
Whomever wrote this clearly was trying to paint a very pretty picture on the leader. Either they are all complete lies, or he is unlike any other monarch in history.
He keeps the appointed fasts on Fridays and other sacred days, and he reads the Friday prayers in the Jámi’ masjid with the common people of the Muhammadan faith.
Why and when was it decided that Fridays were sacred days?
Much of the failure of the Mughal Empire is attributed to Aurangzeb’s leadership, which according to his critics, was intolerant, one-dimensionally fundamentalist (in the sense of his devotion to Islam), and uncompromising.
The Mughal Empire seems to be a big melting pot of different religions and cultures. This text proves what many wars and rebellions throughout the history of the world have shown time after time; religious intolerance and the need to be in complete control is a fool-proof way to ensure your empire's demise.
That the chamber of Amsterdam shall consist of twenty managers; the chamber of Zealand of twelve; the chambers of Maeze and of the North Part, each of fourteen, and the chamber of Friesland, with the city and country, also of fourteen managers; if it shall hereafter appear, that this work cannot be carried on without a greater number of persons; in that case, more may be added, with the knowledge of nineteen, and our approbation, but not otherwise.
These chambers honestly are filled with too many managers. They don't need that many managers to run those chambers. They could honestly survive with about 5 in each of them.
The Charter of the Dutch West India Company is a valuable historical document because it allows us to see how early modern trading powers like the Netherlands helped invent the mercantile system of commercial and state power.
This document really was a really powerful one when it comes to world history and it honestly really needs to be one that is talked about more than it is.
The Dutch created the first modern commercial bank (the Bank of Amsterdam) in 1609 and the first modern securities market (the Amsterdam Stock Exchange) in 1602.
I wonder how much differently these banks operated as the banks we have now. Technology plays a huge part in security and efficiency, so how was it handled back then?
growth in world population
personally, this was a big mistake
Part of this political system entailed the brutal suppression of Christianity, the expulsion of all Europeans from Japan save for a handful of Dutch, and a prohibition on all Japanese travel abroad. These “closed country edicts” would remain in force until the coming of the Americans with the mission of Matthew Perry in 1853 — 1854.
by being a closed country Japan was able to build from the inside and kept the people in line. their economy boomed and there was stability and peace.
Japan also saw the rise of a powerful military and political entity in the seventeenth century.
Its always so surprising to me how powerful Japan once was considering how small of a country they are.
Sugar required a great deal of labor to be grown and processed profitably.
The explorers found a way to make profit off the "new land" by way of sugar and felt like they could use the "savages" to help cultivate the land against their will and no one saw a problem with this.
savages
I never understood why they saw the Native people as savages when they killed most of them just by disease and then enslaved the rest.
The Qing established a relatively limited system of trade known as the “Canton system,” in which Europeans were allowed only a fixed period every year in which to trade and in which all trade had to be conducted with a licensed group of merchants known as the Cohong
It is interesting because when people think of trade and leadership people think of Europe not China, but this is before Europe gained control.
Despite the pomp and circumstance of the embassy, the Chinese ultimately rejected the British request, stating emphatically that the Chinese were not in need of any British commercial goods and that the British, if they wanted to trade in China, must follow the existing rules
It was likely that due to this attitude by the Chinese government they later fell behind in technological advancements
And the rest of the people for the most part cure themselves with herbs and sticks and other ancient methods, so that they live putting all their faith in these herbs and ceremonies, and die believing that they are saved; and this serves God poorly.
It is truly amazing the advances we have made in medicine throughout the years. Our modern technology is something that people of the 1500s desperately needed but most likely could not even fathom.
And we cannot reckon how great the damage is, since every day the mentioned merchants are taking our people, sons of the land and the sons of our noblemen and vassals and our relatives, because the thieves and men of bad conscience grab them so as to have the things and wares of this kingdom that they crave; they grab them and bring them to be sold.
This breaks my heart to hear one King begging another for some form of protection to stop his people from being abducted and sold into slavery.
And that, sir, arises from the great negligence of your highness’s officials toward us and toward shipping us those things. …
Well this opening paragraph took quite a turn! The whole beginning was kissing up to wanting to hear from the prince and then the end is basically slapping him in the face for neglecting them.
Each ending of a cycle meant great tensions and possible changes in the universe and could mean the end of the Aztec people as a nation — or even the end of humanity.
Maybe this could be a source as to why some people believe that every so often the world is predicted to end.
Although the Mexica, as the Aztecs originally called themselves,
Why did the Aztecs, or Mexicas as they were first, change their name?
This is the Hymn which they sang every eight years when they fasted on bread and water.
Was there a particular reason that they did this?
In many cases gods are interchanged with their human representatives, who function on earth.
How does one get to be identified as a god in human form? Did some people just say that they were one and hoped people believed them? Or were there specific requirements?
In order to appease the gods, the Aztecs built monumental temples, where they committed sacrifices; like most Mesoamerican gods, the Aztec gods fed on human blood.
I wonder how the people who were sacrificed were chosen? Were they criminals who were being punished? Or children, who were innocent in the eyes of the gods?
Many of the Aztec written codices were labeled as works of the devil and destroyed. Between 1540 and 1585 a Spanish priest, Bernardino de Sahagún, worked closely with educated Aztecs and compiled twelve books of information about their culture.
This seems to be a common thread in history, that important works of a culture are attempted to be destroyed, and managed to at least be partially preserved. We saw this in Unit 1 when a copy of the Classic of History was saved
It is referred to as the culture of the Olmecs,
Who were the Omecs and what was their culture like?
The Rig Veda Americanus is a collection of hymns addressing the pantheon of Aztec gods and presenting a small fraction of their mythology
This tells the readers what the section of the text is about and what it specifically is.