I think it's crazy to think that even this long ago Native Americans were seen more as a resource then as people, as their value in the fur trade was seen as the main reason that they were not exterminated or enslaved like other native people.

It is very impressive to me that China has been such a world power for how long they have been. They were one of the first real world powers to ever exist and even to this day they are seen as a top world power along with the United States.

I never knew that the Philippines were named after the Spanish King Philip II and that it was made up of thousands of islands, I thought it was a lot smaller than that. However I did know of its importance to the Spanish as it was one of the territories fought over during the Spanish American War.

Looking at this now, I can't help but think of how it could've been very inefficient to rely on goods from trade that would take this long to obtain. Getting to the Mediterranean Sea from the Indian Ocean at this time would have taken an extremely long time as it would require going all the way around the African continent, and it would take a very long time to get to the bottom of the continent from both sides.

I've never really considered how the cultural changes that came from the Scientific Revolution actually could've potentially led to difference in class such as hierarchies and political systems. I've only really thought of it as a cultural change and never really considered how the changes in culture can impact government decisions.

I think it's interesting that Africa had a lot of strong Christian empires in ancient times, I always have viewed Africa as a continent that has been a predominantly Islamic continent with many different countries so the idea of unified Christian empires is fascinating to me.

Even though I am religious and Christian, I think it's interesting to learn throughout history how Christian beliefs have impacted the way that empires view everything that they are doing, even if it maybe morally wrong. God says not to kill, but here their success in wars shows them how powerful their God is.

I think it's fascinating to see how Christianity was able to spread so fast from the Middle East all the way to Europe and Asia and how long it was able to retain it's power in those areas.

It is shocking to me that even this long ago that Indians were seen as people in the bottom class, especially considering that they largely remained in the bottom even after the United States became a country.

It will be interesting to see how the future is impacted by the changes in the climate that is currently obviously a problem but has not yet had massive impacts like other climate issues in the past.

One of the earliest themes that I have discovered early on in this course is the power behind mapmakers and how important mapmaking was throughout history.

I have always found it interesting that historians tend to praise some leaders of the older empires such as Alexander the Great or Julius Cesar, but don't feel nearly as fond about recent leaders who have attempted to create an empire such as Hirohito or others who have attempted to do so.