8 Reasons Why Athens is Great

    "Let me say that our system of government does not copy the institutions of our neighbors"

1.) Athens was unique in that they didn't copy their neighbor’s ideas.  Instead they made their own ideas and thoughts by themselves.

  “Everyone is equal before the law; when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which man possesses."

2.)    The Athenians were also the first to have a democratic constitution. A noble named Cleisthenes wrote this constitution. It was the first constitution ever written down. Because of the constitution everyone had the right to vote to choose their leaders.  Also they didn't care about the status of a person.  Instead they cared about the talents and intelligence of a person.

   “We are free and tolerant in our private lives; but in public affairs we keep to the law.

3.) In their private lives they could do anything they wanted inside their personal space.  But out in the public space they followed and obeyed the rules.

4.) Athens was better than Sparta because the Athenian children were educated and were treated better than the Spartan children.  In Athens they had an assembly and a Council of Five Hundred.

5) When Spartans invaded other lands they had allies to help them fight.  Athenian fought their wars by themselves without allies.  Athenians were the type of people who would not be defeated because they fought for their hearths and homes.

6.)  Philosophers and thinkers grew up in Athens.  In Athens people were very well educated while Spartans mainly focused on physical training.

7.) Athenians were wise and very knowledgeable. Also Athens had a democratic government which later affected our system of government today.

8.) Athens was open to the world.  Anyone could come and visit Athens.  They had open markets and they traded things with other countries.

Thoughts and Reflections: Thucydides

        The method he followed, as he himself informs us in the Methodenkapital  is either to relate his own testification or those of his first-hand eye witnesses, checking their validity by the way of comparison. The history he made use of set speeches some of which were delivered just before and others during war. And also he had made it a principle not write down the first story that came his way, and should not be even guided by his own general way. Also he would present himself at the vents which he have described or else he heard of them from eye-witnesses whose reports, he have checked with as much thoroughness as possible.  Thucydides wrote these for the Greeks.

Digital Scrapbook Entry #5: China

Current event: http://chinaag.org/production/china-agriculture-crops/silk/
Past event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_silk

"China Silk Production -  Major, Minor and Major Again "

     The mulberry silk moth is native to China and about 4000 BC the Chinese were the first to discover that the cocoon could be unwound into a long thread and used to make very fine cloth.  For many centuries silk use was limited to China.  Then starting around 500 BC the famous silk road was created and for the next thousand years China was mostly able to keep how silk was made a secret and had a near monopoly on the world's silk production.   An exception was about 200 BC Korea created its own silk industry thanks to a few Chinese immigrants who had settled there.  Finally about 300 AD, silk farming, or sericulture began to spread into India, Japan, and Persia, making silk a part of the history of those cultures. The Roman Empire knew the trading of silk. Despite its popularity, however, the secret of silk-making was only to reach Europe around 550 AD. According to a legend enshrined in silk history monks working for the emperor Justinian smuggled silkworm eggs to Constantinople in hollow bamboo walking canes. Thus during the sixth century China lost its monopoly on silk production and it's economy suffered from the loss of that export.  

     By the twentieth century Japan had become the primary producer of silk but during the Second World War silk supplies from Japan were cut off and western countries were forced to find substitutes. Synthetic fibers such as nylon began to be used in products such as parachutes and stockings, replacing silk. The continued rise in importance of synthetic fibers and loosening of the protectionist economy contributed to the decline of Japan's silk industry, and by 1975 it was no longer a net exporter of silk. With its recent economic reforms, the People's Republic of China has once again established itself as the world's largest silk producer. In 1996 it produced 58,000 tonnes out of a world production of 81,000, with India at 13,000 tonnes being a distant second. World silk production has approximately doubled during the last 30 years in spite of man-made fibers replacing silk for many uses. Thus starting in the late 1970's China, the country that first developed sericulture, thousands years ago, dramatically increased its silk production and has again become by far the world’s leading producer of silk.

For thousands of years China had a near monopoly on the production of silk but starting about 500 AD production gradually moved to other countries, especially Japan and India.  By the mid nineteenth century European silk culture was very important  but it went into decline from disease and also the opening of the Suez canal made it easier to import silk from the Far East.  Then by adopting modern methods of production for much of the twentieth century Japan had been the major producer of silk.  With the advent of synthetic fibers, such as nylon silk, became much less important in world trade and  China played a small part in the relatively small market for silk.  But by the 1980's China began to quickly modernize and Japan had almost stopped producing silk.  As a result China has once again, after 1500 years, become by far the most important producer of silk and silk products.

Citations:

• http://www.utsavpedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Murshidabad-Silk-Sarees.jpg
• http://www.utsavpedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Murshidabad-Silk-Sarees.jpg

Current Event Article:

 Market Intelligence on Chinas Culture
18 February, 2014 - 01:13 aprilholloway
Link: http://chinaag.org/production/china-agriculture-crops/silk/

Ancient Article:

History Of Silk
Wikipedia

Link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_silk

Thoughts and Reflections: "Two Ancient Cities"

       The cities of Athens and Sparta were bitter rivals in ancient Greece. Geographically they were very close to each other but had had very different values, lifestyles, and cultures. Where they differed was that while the Spartans had militaristic values, theAthenians were democratic. The Spartans emphasized mainly on expanding their power and gaining control over other kingdoms while the Athenians developed their infrastructure and built great buildings. Athens built up a great navy, while Spartans built a great military army. Athenians valued education far more than the Spartans. They understood the importance of growth and concentrated on growth besides on military strength. Both Athens and Sparta hold historic value for Greece and the world and Greece itself made great accomplishments. Athenians developed the world’s first democracy. Great Greek philosophers like Hippocrates invented scientific  medicine while Sophocles and Euripides were great playwrights and still read today. Euclid invented Euclidean geometry. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle developed the art of philosophy and the search for wisdom and truth. The Greeks created great buildings, and sculptures and columns. They gave us the Olympics. The senate and the house, the American type of government, were in invented in Greece. Also the jury system for deciding guilt or innocence using a jury comes from Greece. Greek architecture appears everywhere in America while Euclidian geometry and the scientific method are very important in America.