Millennium: Century of the Stirrup

CNN’s Millennium has done a mediocre job thus far with Century of the Sword, only slightly redeeming themselves with Century of the Axe. Though each have good qualities and faults, all the segments have good image/sound quality in common. CNN is consistent with their imagery and the good connection of the video to the information being shared. Also, the segments keep getting better and better the further they go.  Century of the Sword was by far the worst in nearly all aspects that are portrayed expertly in Century of the Stirrup. As a whole, CNN’s Millennium is not a consistent history of the last 1000 years. The part when they were covering the beginnings of the Mongols and horse domestication was interesting and well constructed. The speaker is slow enough to understand, but just fast and clear enough to prevent boredom from the viewers.

Century of the Stirrup is constructed better than Century of the Sword pertaining to transitions, as well. The information connects to the title, and ties together to form a concise, thought-out history. Century of the Stirrup focused on the Mongols, understandably the largest continuous land empire in history, Millennium covers the empire very well. Also, Millennium included the effects of the Mongol empire, which was something the previous two segments were lacking. Viewers can understand and retain the information given in the video better than the information given in other segments because of the web they form with strong, solid transitions.

Finding a middle ground between entertainment and education has proven to be quite difficult for the Millennium program thus far. The storm scene is dramatic enough to be popular for television, yet it doesn’t take away from the narrator, which is a job well done on behalf of Millennium.

In specific, the emphasis on trade in the Mongol empire was conveyed perfectly. Generally, people, especially the people of Western culture, have preconceived notions about the violence of the Mongol empire, and not the trade and progress as well. Xanadu, the capitol city of the empire, was a hub for trade and the passing of ideas. Another thing that people would not know about the Mongols that Century of the Stirrup included, was the religious tolerance for conquered peoples. The segment went into great detail on the effects of the Mongol empire on the world, which is something we are looking for in AP World History. The world view is set up so it’s easy to understand, a plus for students and teachers alike.

Though focused on the Mongol empire, the beginnings of Japanese culture are also included in Century of the Stirrup. When the Mongol navy was destroyed by a typhoon on the way to conquering the small country, the Japanese people felt a sense of individuality that they haven’t previously had. Almost completely based off of Chinese culture, the defeat of the Mongol navy jumpstarted the development of Japanese culture and its separation from the Chinese.

Overall, the Century of the Stirrup deserves an A for fantastic transitions, visual and sound quality, as well as understandability. The Century of the Stirrup is memorable in its information, and I look forward to later segments if they keep following this trend.

Millennium: Century of the Axe

Nicole Gaudette and Claire Liebmann

Although vastly improved, CNN Millennium still has a long way to go. Although much better than the Century of the Sword, the Century of the Axe was nothing special. CNN did not make any gaping mistakes, but the episode was very basic with little to no elaboration of detail or effort. Although the episode states a central theme focusing on how civilizations challenged nature and refashioned hostile environment, each segment lacks anything more than a vague connection to this idea.
The first episode is a good overall picture of the civilization that flourished in Chaco Canyon, but lacks a clear collection to the overall theme. The arid climate in the South West of the United States and an almost perpetual state of drought does not really connect to the idea of using trees to shape their buildings. Most dwellings were made of adobe or carved out of the ground. Kivas and adobe dwellings had very low wood consumption, and although Ponderosa Pines were important, they were not leaned on heavily as a necessity. The segment then goes on to touch on the irrigation in the area- possible the most important part in the episode and yet a topic that had very little time devoted to it. Water was a valuable commodity, and for the people of Chaco Canyon, learning to use every drop they could was the most important part of daily life. The same perpetual drought that limited the amount of trees in the area, reducing vegetation to scrub, elevated water to a constant obsession, and forced the people to adapt their environment to their best advantage. This is reversed in the second segment- when the point is almost lost in their elaborate descriptions of trees. Although CNN touches briefly on the affect that Gothic architecture had on the world, it is not deeply delved into, and it seems that the scriptwriter was too lost in descriptions of the architecture and huge forests in Europe to focus on the overall effect of this work.
This vagueness was continued into the segment on Italy, which seems that it was misplaced. Suited more to the Century of the Sword than Century of the Axe, and focusing solely on warfare, with no mention of a connection to the overlying theme at all.
However the third segment was the best of all, focusing on how the civilization saw their conquest of nature, how it affected the world around them, and how Lalibela’s vision remolded nature. The segment even manages to weave political and architectural aspects into the work and is the best product of this episode.
Australia, on the other hand, was, if anything, a counter example to the theme. Explicitly stated in the introduction, CNN is trying to show how civilizations challenged and refashioned nature. By contrast, the segment on Australia was about how the tribes left no mark on the land, how they bent to Nature’s will, and cooperated instead of conquered the environment. This was a very well done segment, but had no connection to the point and was a better rebuttal to the point CNN was attempting to make.
As a part of Millenium, the episode is the best yet. However, as an episode on it’s own, Century of the Axe is at a solid B+ in our eyes, because it still cannot seem to make a connection to a central theme, and misses essential points and information that leaves the audience unsatisfied.

Improvements in Agriculture

Pottery:

Aside from it’s practical purpose of holding and storing water and food, the development of pottery advanced the importance of art in a culture. Different cultures have distinct, different designs on their pottery, helping to give the culture a sense of identity.

Plows:

Pulled by oxen or other domesticated cattle, such as horses or donkeys, or even man powered, the plow allowed more land to be tilled more efficiently and in a shorter amount of time. It was basically the perfect thing: less time spent, but more produced.

Woven Textiles:
Used for clothing, and transport. More layers lets people go farther North, but the thin material allows for comfort in hot areas. Bags can be used to carry almost anything more easily.

Metallurgy:
(noun)
the branch of science and technology concerned with the properties of metals and their production and purification.
Better weapons, better tools. Basically, learning to use metal is good.

Wheels and wheeled vehicles:

Could be the most important thing to ever be invented. Allowed travel and transport to happen more efficiently.  Heavier goods and people were moved over a larger distance in less time. The wheel is the bottom concept for almost all of our modern transportation vehicles.

Hindu-Arabic Number System

The Hindu-Arabic number system is the system that the world uses globally. Children learn it at a very young age. It makes building, architecture, science, trade, and economics easier to calculate and understand. Engineering became revolutionary when numbers because easy enough to record, and make products the same size, every time. Imagine doing your math homework in Roman Numerals. Yeah. Difficult.

The Hindu-Arabic number system included the concept of zero, along with the Chinese. (I don’t know who had the concept first, but “zero” is present in both systems.) Building anything would be insanely hard without a comprehensible number system. For something that needs to be a precise size every time. This enables masters to leave apprentices instructions with little wiggle room for mistakes.

Millennium: Century of the Sword

For a program that promises to try and present a global perspective, CNN’s Millennium has done a poor job thus far. Titled Century of the Sword, The program was built on extremes- possessing both bad and good qualities. The episode focused primarily on only one or two points in each civilization, and these were typically drastically different from each other. They consistently did not tie in with the title of the episode, and ended vaguely and abruptly.
Perhaps the best evidence of this is the segment on Japan, which followed the author of The Pillow Book. Accented with quotes and artistic footage, the segment was visually appealing, but had no point and was not connected to the culture, nor did it touch at all on religion or politics. In addition, it was shown through an individual’s viewpoint, and certainly did not present a global perspective on Japan at all. However, these flaws continue to flourish in other segments of the show as well. For example, the section on Europe and Christianity showcases a close-minded portrayal of Europe, especially considering a rather narrow view of paganism. Christians in Europe are cast as the only source of civilization in an otherwise barbarian-littered landscape. Pagans are shown as the enemy to pacifistic and beneficial Christian settlers. This ignores political struggles in the rest of Europe at the time, as well as Viking invasions that permeated Europe throughout most of the 11th century. As in the Japan segment, the way that CNN’s Millennium focuses narrowly on certain vague events and depicts specific religious groups is not a global perspective.
Also, concepts easily explained and understood in one or two sentences were mentioned vaguely and never fully developed. For example, Millennium has a segment on the Islam religion during the 11th century. The first few moments of the video holy wars and violence were mentioned; yet the video went on to explain nothing about it, instead switching topics completely to agriculture and architecture in Spain. The transitions were rocky and difficult to keep up with while watching the video.
In addition, CNN did not focus on presenting to its predominate audience when picking information to include in the show. Time limits and appeal are, understandably, a constraint when creating the show, yet cutting out nearly all politics in favor of architectural and cultural feats was not a good decision. The main audiences are people who love history: historians, teachers, and maybe a student or two. All those these people love history because of the politics and movements of people. While it is understandable that they chose more widely appreciated topics, the appeal is somewhat lost on those who are mostly going to be watching Millennium.
It can be said that the episode can be used to augment the study of world history, and yet even this outlook is doubtful. The show is cryptic, leaving sentences unexplained and thoughts half formed. It does a poor outlook of providing a global outlook and connecting the episode together.
Outside of content, CNN did a beautiful job in the entertainment value of Millennium. The quality and consistency of the video and audio feed is spectacular and captivating. The pictures run smoothly and the transition of images, if not ideas, was done wonderfully. In particular, one transition in the segment on Spain talked about the fountains of water in the great palace and shifted focus using the same idea to talk about how water was used in irrigating crops and agriculture. By far, the best transition in the show, it was executed without a hitch.
However, this cinematography does not cover up the blatant lack of appropriate focus, information, and global perspective in Millenium, and leaves the show at a solid B minus in our eyes.

Claire Liebmann & Nicole Gaudette

Out-of-Africa

The Out-of-Africa theory is pretty straight forward. All humans originated in Africa. Here’s a map to visualize the migration.

Why did humans come out of Africa? Probably because of the little water found on the continent. The huge desert that covers the Northern half of the continent provides poor soil for grazing, so all the herds left and the people were left without food. The sun was enough to kill a man, without enough water or rain. Also, crops couldn’t be domesticated because there wasn’t enough water to grow crops.

Egypt in the Nile River Valley

Egyptians worshipped the sky god, Ra, because of the sun’s enormous impact on Egypt. The River Nile, flooding regularly, made them believe that they were pleasing the gods. The gods were good to them. The afterlife became a major belief of the Egyptians. As a result, they built the world famous pyramids as huge tombs for their rulers, or pharaohs. They filled the pyramids with riches, statues and servants and guards, and anything the departed might need in the afterlife.