Shakespeare, Cervantes, and de la Vega

            William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes, and Gracilaso Inca de la Vega are very influential writers for their respected countries. Each writer took literature to a whole other level which would change the way people viewed certain languages, cultures, and types of literature. Shakespeare, Cervantes, and de la Vega would all become important role-models for almost all the books, stories, plays, poems, and songs that we have today.

            William Shakespeare, maybe the greatest poet and play-writer of the English language, is known as the father of the English language.  Shakespeare was such a skillful writer that he is a significant point in the history of literature. Most of his works were basically on human themes that will never be forgotten. In Shakespeare’s works he would use both medieval and classical literature, and that would form the modern day literature that we have today. With the success of Shakespeare’s works, he basically framed the evolution of the dramas and plays we have today. Shakespeare’s top six most popular plays, in order, are Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, and Julius Caesar. Romeo and Juliet set the grounds for a true love struggle between two people whom family doesn’t approve of. Even after the death of William Shakespeare, he still manages to have an impact plays, movies, and poems.

            Miguel de Cervantes is among the greatest novelists of the Spanish language. Cervantes influence has been so great that the Spanish language is sometimes called la lengua de Cervantes, the language of Cervantes. He is also considered the Prince of Wits and the father of the Spanish language. Cervantes notable works are Don Quixote, Viaje del Parnaso, and La Galatea. Cervantes novel, Don Quixote, is the most influential and important books in the history of novels, and had a tremendous effect on the development of prose fiction. Miguel de Cervantes is compared to such literary greats such as Greek poet Homer, Italian poet Dante Alighieri, and English play-writer William Shakespeare because of his eloquent style of writing and insight.

            Garcilaso Inca de la Vega was the first Andean mestizo to chronicle the history of his own indigenous people. De la Vega’s works wasn’t just mere historical chronicles, but they had enormous literary value. Garcilaso’s writings had eloquent testimonies of emotional and intellectual struggles that were faced by the hybrids of the Old and New worlds. He is known for his history of the Incas, The Royal Commentaries of the Inca, and General History of Peru. Volume I of one of his works is on the origins and rise of the Inca Empire, while volume II is the Spanish conquest of Peru and its aftermath. The first-hand information that de la Vega received were from his maternal relatives on the daily Inca life, which would be used to in his writings.

Life During the Black Death

            In 1346 a disease, later described as a calamitous disease, swept through Europe. Those who survived this plague benefited from an improved standard of living. Damaged farms were abandoned, and a more diversified agriculture developed. Also the birthrate increased and new universities were built to educate the post-plague generation.

            The Black Death lasted from 1346 to 1353, perhaps beginning in the area between the Black and Caspian seas. Nicephorus Gregoras, a Byzantine scholar, called it a “pestilential disease.” He also named its symptoms, “signs indicating early death, were tumorous outgrowths at the roots of thighs and arms, and simultaneously bleeding ulcerations.” Later many historians believed that the plague was caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis, which is the same organism that causes outbreaks today. Soon the plague would reach the Middle East, the North African coast, and Europe. Of all the areas infected, France and the Low Countries were hit the hardest. Fleas that were carrying the disease rode on the back of rats and also on boats that was carrying spices, silks, and porcelain.

            In the Italian city of Pistoia, the government decided that no one could leave the city and go to nearby Pisa or Lucca; also people from those cities were not allowed to enter Pistoia. The government basically set up a quarantine. They also declared that butchers and retailers of meat could not stable horses and mud or dung was not allowed in the store where they sell meat. The archbishop of York in England ordered that devout procession be on every Wednesday and Friday. Some men and women would travel from city to city to churches, where they would undress themselves and whip one another on the floor of the church.

            The people who survived the Black Death’s wrath benefited because there was a smaller population to feed, so less land was needed for farming. Farm lands that were abandoned were returned to pastures, meadows, or forests. Barely became the more profitable crop and some landlords switched from farming to animal husbandry. Peasants and urban workers were able to get better conditions or higher wages from their landlords or employers. With more money to spend people could afford a better diet that included beer and meat. Before the Black Death about seventeen couples per year would get married in Givry, a small town in Burgundy. After the plague, on average forty-seven couples there got married each year. With better jobs people wedded at an earlier age. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV chartered a university at Prague, the king of Poland founded Cracow University, and a Habsburg duke created a university at Vienna. They were left with a large amount of wealth and they wanted to be known as patrons of education, so they built new universities.

Jesus, Christianity vs Muhammad, Islamic

Jesus and Muhammad are very similar in how they played a pivotal role in their religions growth. When Jesus was first born, people at that time looked at the rulers as the only people that can talk to God. In Muhammad’s case, majority of the people living in Arabia, Saudi Arabia, were polytheists, believed in many gods, while he recognized one God, the same one worshipped by Jews and Christians.

Jesus started spreading his words by being a teacher and healer during the reign of Tiberius. Instead of Jesus writing down his words from God, he told stories and parables that challenged his followers to reflect on what he means. By not writing down any of his words, when people would tell of him to others his words and deeds would be varied. After the death of John the Baptist Jesus started spreading his words around the countryside of Judaea, telling people God’s kingdom was coming and that they need to prepare spiritually for it. When Jesus took his message to the Jewish population in Jerusalem, his followers began the Jesus movement because of his miraculous healings and exorcisms along with his powerful preaching’s. The Jesus movement was not yet Christianity, but rather a Jewish sect. Fearing that the works of Jesus might ignite a Jewish revolt against the Romans, so Roman governor Pontius Pilate ordered the crucifixion of Jesus in Jerusalem. After the Jewish community had lost its religious center, Christianity began to separate from Judaism and gave birth to a new religion. Two decades after the crucifixion of Jesus, his followers spread his teachings beyond the Jewish community to the wider Roman world, especially Paul of Tarsus.

            Muhammad was a merchant – turned – holy – man form the city of Mecca. With a combination of persuasion and force, Muhammad and his co-religionists, Muslims (“those who submit to Islam”), converted most of the Arabian Peninsula to Islam. Islam, which stands for “submission to God,” was created by Muhammad. Islam was first a religion for the sedentary city dwellers, but soon found its way to the nomads. But before all of that took place, Muhammad would leave his house and spend a few days in a cave, where he would have his prayers and contemplation, a type of piety similar to that of the early Christians. One day Muhammad heard a voice and had a vision that called unto him to worship Allah. The Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, was created in the seventh century, where the messages Muhammad was hearing was written down in. These messages were told to be God’s revelation told to Muhammad by Archangel Gabriel, then recited to others by Muhammad himself. The Qur’an contained all the foundations a Muslim men and women should live by. At that time, Islam didn’t have any priests or sacraments, but later authoritative religious leaders came to be. By Muhammad coming out and saying that the people should abandoned the worshiping of all other gods and start worshiping his god brought him a conflict with the leading members of the Quraysh tribe, controlled the Ka’ba and was wealthy. So these people insulted Muhammad and harassed his followers.

Life After Alexander the Great

            Alexander III, son of Philip II and Olympias, conquered the Persian Empire, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Gaza, Egypt, Bactria, Greece, as well as India. He got the name Alexander the Great by conquering so many areas while in his twenties. By having such a big of an empire, people from other parts of the world could have contact with one another which would change the world in the future.

            After the death of Alexander the Great his commanders Antigonus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy divided his empire between the three. Yes Alexander had a son but he was killed along with his wife and mother. Antigonus took control over Anatolia, the Near East, Macedonia, and Greece; Seleucus got Babylonia and the East as far as India; and Ptolemy was left with Egypt. With the separation of the kingdoms comes the beginning of the Hellenistic Age, which is a mixture of traditions from the Greeks and Near Eastern such as politics, literature, art, philosophy, and religion. With the ability to come in contact with other parts of the world, some areas began to become accustomed to the other customs and practices.

            With Antigonus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy in control of their kingdoms, royal wealth, stress on private life and emotions, and interaction with various people are what influenced the Hellenistic culture. The kings had scholars lead developments in art, literature, science, and philosophy. The interaction between the Near East and Greeks were done with language and religion. The kings had all of the literature done where only the “intellectual elite” could read, while the gap between them and the uneducated grew. The Hellenistic kings had famous people come to their place and make books, poems, and sculptures just to boost their reputation. Wealth played a big part when it came to the arts, people wanted to show that they had the same taste as their kings. New philosophies, Epicureanism and Stoicism, came to during this time as well. They were separated into three areas, logic, ethics, and physics.

            At Alexandria science, mathematics, geometry, and medicine all developed and benefited from being separated from philosophy. While the scientific field was taking form in Alexandria, changes in Greek and Egyptian religious views grew. New cults formed that focused on people and luck. Ruler cults praised their kings and their sons and looked at them as gods.