1. Big History By: Maria Vassilakis History 140 Professor Arguello

2. How History Began James Burke documented a video called, “The Day the Universe Changed.” Everything has to come from something, and everything stems from a question. A lot of history dates back to ancient Greece, and Burke mentions a few philosophers. Thales existed between 624-546 BC, and is considered to be the first philosopher. He is the father of science and in mathematics, Thales used geometry to solve problems such as calculating the height of pyramids and the distance of ships from the shore

3. Continued… Another renowned philosopher was Socrates. He raised question, which in the end was the cause of his death. As Burke mentions, when we ask questions, it changes things. He brings the past history and ties it in with the present. I also feel, what if we never had people like them, that posed questions and went after what they wanted. Where would we be today, if it weren’t for them?

4. Spencer Wells Spencer Wells is a Geneticist who spends his life traveling the globe taking blood samples from men and women in order to unravel the secrets of the human story. We all share a common ancestor, but the question is who are our decedents? Wells travels to Africa, where he believes we have descended from a single man from Africa about 60,000 years ago. The male line gives you the best view of the routes followed The tribe we come from is called the, San Bushman.

5. Continued… Wells, says we come from black people, and although our skin color is quite different, the reason for that is, when we started moving toward the Northern Hemisphere, the sun isn’t as strong. “Because the sun helps us to synthesize Vitamin D, which we need to grow strong bones, we had to lose some of our pigmentation to allow enough sunlight through.” Parts of the San Bushman tribe moved out of Africa and is said to have immigrated past India to to Australia

6. Oh what a catastrophe! The catastrophe was an important date in the history of the past 2000 years. It has laid the foundation of the world today. David Key has tried to pose a new hypothesis on the global awareness What really caused the “Dark Ages?” In this documentary, briefly mentioned is the history of the dinosaurs and what really happened. Scientists have researched for years and they have concluded, that it would have been impossible for an asteroid to have wiped out the dinosaurs. The event must have been a lot bigger. Also, a lot plagues or diseases could have been the reason.

7. Continued… Climate has everything to do with the way people live and how they live and how they will survive. Cool climate and rainfall is said to increase plagues. Animals such as pigs or rodents harbor diseases, which can carry to the humans. Disease would spread worldwide from Ethiopia to as far as China.

8. Guns, Germs, and Steel “Guns, Germs, and Steel”, was written by Jared Diamond, in which he explained why some countries were more prosperous than others. Of course, climate played a major part in agriculture and how people survived. A man named Yali, who was a New Guinean politician, was very curious why his people were never successful. The Europeans had dominated their land for 200 years. Yali had asked the famous question, "Why do white people have so much cargo, but we New Guineans have so little?" It’s not the matter of education or power, but simply opportunity and geographical placement

9. Continued… “In early human history, technological advantages were built on the availability of certain plants, animals and geographies.” A productive farming system produces food surplus, which “allows some people to leave the farm behind and develop specialized skills – such as metal-working, writing, trade, politics, and war-making.” Animals of course, increased the productivity of farming, but again, people had to be careful, because some animals carried diseases could wipe our their contaminated crops and people. Today, different countries around the world have grown and developed more technologically speaking. As we all know, Japan and now China have roared back as economic powers.

10. World and Trade Christopher Columbus was lived from 1451-1506. He as an explorer, colonizer, and navigator. Everyone believed the earth was flat so wanted to sail the world and find out if that really was true. Columbus had settled many places and introduced a lot of different things, such as crops and animals He had brought over horses to Indian tribes in North America. Specifically, Columbus brought over wheat, sugarcane, animals, and many more. Europeans came into North America and pushed the Indians into reservations.

11. Continued… As trade became more efficient, potatoes, sweats and cigarettes became huge products of trade. For example, chocolate has become a world phenomena. In 1502, Columbus had stumbled in to a Mayan canoe and unbeknownst to him held something very valuable. Mayans had collected these beans which were known as, “ka-ka- wa” and later changed to “cocao.” Cocao was considered to be a stimulant, a hallucinogen, or an aphrodisiac. The cocao beans were on demand and were so valuable, they were even used as money. Cacao became so popular, it spread to Venezuela to the Philippines. Finally, chocolate became domesticated by women and their children and drank, “hot cocoa.” Hot cocoa was first invented in 1828, by Van Routen. It lead to the consumption of more and more sweets in the 19th century and finally