Dear Queen Victoria...Opium Needs to Stop...

In his letter, Lin Zexu describe his feelings towards opium with the word "poison" multiple times.  He also explain his feelings with the use of religious beliefs.  He basically said that opium was killing people and that it smelled bad.  He also said that opium was upsetting the gods and Heaven, which indicates that he thinks there are many consequences to the drug.  He also says that the opium is a "evil."  His description of the drug basically shows he attaches "death" to the drug.  The punishments for the opium peddlers definitely support Lin Zexu's perception of the drug.  He said that any peddler is sentenced to death because of the drug.  This punishment is really harsh but it definitely reflects how he thinks that opium kills people and that he thinks it needs to stop to prevent innocent Chinese people from dying from opium.  In other words, the punishment got rid of opium peddlers and it prevented other people from getting addicted.  It would help China because people would not be addicts and they would be living in real life which helped China.   

Fucan's Relationship with Christianity

Fucan is pretty personal and wishes he never converted to Christianity.  He believes he wasted so much of his valuable for nothing because he never got anything out of it. He refers to it as the religion of the "barbarians" or the Europeans because they were seen as uncivilized to most of the world.  Fucan also refers to Buddhism as the "Great Holy True Law," which shows that he is convinced that Christianity is full of lies. He includes Confucian learning to emphasize the point that Christianity offers little truth and one must adhere to Confucian learning instead.  For this time period in Japan, Buddhism and Confucianism could be followed together while Christianity tells them they can only pick it.  Fucan focuses on the "native learning" that some Japanese people turned to so they could preserve traditional Japanese beliefs and culture.  Fucan includes the militaristic aspects of Christian followers.  He repeatedly says they destroy places and includes places that had been swamped by missionaries and military trying to overthrow countries.  

Ships, Slaves, Crew Members..the Battle

The crews of slave ships took great measures to ensure that maximum profits from their business of transporting human cargoes.  The ships themselves were overcrowded and people received little personal space to none.  The slaves were squished together so that the ship would hold the maximum number of people.  The crews gave the slaves food so that they wouldn't die of starvation.  If a slave refused to eat, they would go to great pains to get him to eat.  They would force-feed the slaves so they would not be losing profit.  If they refused to eat food, they would get punished so they wouldn't do it again. Along with the force-feeding and punishments, the ships had nets to prevent slaves form jumping off.  The crew also watched the slaves carefully to make sure they didn't attempt to escape  and if they did they would get punished.  Some of the slaves were chained as well to prevent them from escaping or committing suicide in a different way.  Basically, the crews of slave ships used many ways to make sure they didn't lose any bodies. 

Promotional Videos

I would assess the videos on information and engagement with the audience.  I think the information is the most important part of the video because false information would be lying and misleading.  The way the information is conveyed is also really important.  If the video isn't able to keep the viewer's attention, the information is useless.  The audience should be intrigued and they shouldn't get bored. I can't really think of anything that isn't really that important other than effects.  Those make the video interesting though so it kind of relates to how the information is portrayed.  But with that, I think Tj and Manas did the best because they weren't boring and they were convincing.  

Do I Buy It? Hmm...

No, I don't buy Menzie's argument that the Chinese were in the North America first.  Throughout the video, I was convinced that all his evidence was vague enough for him twist it to fit his theory.  I understand that he is trying to prove a point but most of this evidence seemed like they were mere assumptions that can't really be proven wrong.  He blatantly says what he thinks without really proving it.  The information before his statements act like they're supposed to prove his point, but they don't really.  Like when he was talking about a merchant, he said that the merchant had to be DiConti and all the information before it alludes to it.  However, there is no proof that the merchant was DiConti.  I also don't believe the maps he was using to find the islands.  They are probably really old and unreliable and those drawings may not be entirely accurate.  It seems like mere coincidence that the map drawing and the present-day drawings look similar.  I also don't believe what is submerged in the water.  I can't see what it is in the video and I don't know what it is.  And I am convinced that Menzie probably has no idea either, except he hopes it can help his theory. I guess I mostly don't buy his argument because he seems  a little bit desperate to prove his theory. 

Buddies!

I would think that Tahiti and Hawaii had good political, social, and cultural relations.  The two way voyaging signifies these relations between the two islands.  The people of Hawaii were not opposed to Mo'ikeha marrying two of their princesses.  If there were political and social issues then he would not have been accepted and the marriage wouldn't have happened.  Their cultures were probably similar because there weren't any problems with the marriage mentioned.  The Hawaiians also respected Mo'ikeha's other wives and didn't have some uproar about it.  To be honest, if I was one of the princesses, I'd probably be pretty mad but that seems to be culturally accepted in Tahiti and Hawaii. The Hawaiians also accepted one of the Tahitians' gods when Mo'ikeha's son came. Hawaii also seems more open-minded because it easily took Tahiti's hula dancing and drumming.  Overall, Hawaii and Tahiti seem like they would (metaphorically) sit at the same lunch table because they seemed to have good relations with each other. 

Materialistic Lifestyle (Without iPads?????)

Based on the "Capitulary de Villis", I would characterize that the conditions of material life in the Carolingian countryside is somewhat rough.  First of all, I think that these people who own all the stuff, which are most likely lords, are really materialistic and it surprises me.  It's mostly astonishing because I don't except people in this time period to be able to protect their stuff to the extent that we can today.  But that explains the conditions of material life.  Since stewards are basically told to do everything in this excerpt, I believe that keeping these materialistic possessions was difficult and tedious.  I think it was difficult because stewards are in charge of virtually everything here, which indicates how the lords probably needed help with organizing and keeping track of everything.  The excerpt also informs me that lords must have been really lazy or just too egotistic(vocabulary word!) to take care of their own belongings.  They basically sound like little children that need their mommys taking care of everything for them. Or maybe they were genuinely busy people who needed help, I don't know, but keeping track of food, materials, land and people seems really tedious and stressful and lords definitely didn't want to deal with that. Since this excerpt is basically a long, detailed "to-do" list, material life seems to be really difficult in the Carolingian countryside.  There's so many things that need to be accounted for that material life seems pointless and just too much work.  There were definitely people who wanted to steal the materialistic belongings because not everyone is a moral human being.  Thieves, robbers, murderers and other people probably wanted these objects and land that the lords possessed.  It was probably really hard for the stewards to keep track of everything and they were probably liable for anything that went missing or wasn't accounted for.  This shows how the lords probably wanted a form of insurance that their stuff wouldn't be messed with.  None of this seems worth it but clearly there were people who had the mindset of "Stuff! I need more stuff! Stuff makes me look rich and powerful! I like stuff!" Overall, the conditions if material life in the Carolingian countryside seem rough due to the difficulty of the stewards' jobs.