Ashford University History Byzantine Empire Paper

Answer the 1 question below and reply to each student.

Question 1:

Prior to completing your post, please review the following sources: The Anatomy of a Discussion Board, (Links to an external site.) the Critical Thinking: A Guide to Skillful Reasoning (Links to an external site.). and the HIS103 Research Guide: Library Resources and Primary Sources.

• You are the advisor to a now powerful ruler. You must pick a specific society that we are studying this week, as found in Chapters 5 and 6 of your textbook. You have been called upon to provide a report to your ruler on the state of the realm. Select at least three topics from the list below as the central points of your report, and, in a 300-word (minimum) initial post due by Day 3, address the questions within your chosen topics. Due to the amount of writing involved and to avoid timing out, or loss of data due to system crashes, it is recommended that you first compose your post in Word or another text editor, saving frequently, and pasting the text into the forum. Consult the HIS103 Empires of the First Millennium CE Tour (Links to an external site.) for additional sources. Here are some strategies to help bring your report to life.
• Describe the state of the finances or economic system (your understanding of the financial position or economic system of your society)
  • Does your target civilization have a monetized economy (which means they have and use coins), or is the barter system still the mainstay of the economy?
  • Is long-distance trade carried out for the sake of profit, or is it gift exchange?
• Describe the state of the armed forces. 
  • Is there a professional standing army? A volunteer citizen army? Mercenaries? Conscripted forces? Do you use land forces? Sea power?
• Describe the state of social relationships. 
  • Are they stable, unstable, or calm? Are there uprisings?
  • Is the social fabric of your realm roiled by constant ethnic strife?
  • You can include your understanding or opinion about the social and ethnic fabric of your society—its actual social structure or ideal social structure.
• Describe the ethics/values/religiosity (your understanding of the ethical or belief systems of your society).
• Is there religious unity or strife between different factions or faiths?
• Identify the available raw materials and resources (e.g., minerals, building materials, water, food supplies, etc.).
• Identify the aesthetic and intellectual achievements in the realm of fine arts, architecture, philosophy, literature.
• Evaluate gender relationships (meaning your understanding of the roles played by men and women—whether they were their actual roles, or just perceived roles).

Remember that you are making your proposal and debating with many advisors during an audience with a powerful ruler. Be persuasive by supplying specific examples that are drawn from course materials or sources produced by your own research to support your position. Cite and format all sources according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center, using both in-text citation and providing full references at the bottom of your post.

Student Reply 1:  Andrew

As the Germanic people are pushed further and further away from the old gods and closer to full baptism of the land, the reason this is beneficial should be considered. The Roman church is strong. The Roman church has infrastructure. The Roman church has a hierarchy. If we embrace Roman Catholicism, there is no reason we should not be able to take advantage of that. Now, granted, this is going to come with some drawbacks. The church isn’t dumb. It must recognize that the reason we are so fully embracing them is because of something beyond altruism. So the Roman church will need to see some type of benefit. The idea is if you bring two strong forces together who are in charge of different things, it creates a single entity that is all the more powerful.

               There has been talk of a vision where a Germanic king has his authority to lead legitimized by the head of the Roman Catholic church. It starts to bring into question, if your authority to lead is given by the pope, does that mean the pope can then take away your authority to lead? If that’s the case, or even the perception, doesn’t that ultimately put power into the hands of the church over the state?

               On the plus side, combining Germanic traditions with Roman law creates a type of synergy that allows everyone to keep any lingering feelings or loyalties about their heritage while creating a new community to be a part of. It helps with ways to govern day to day life as well as inheritance laws (Gregory-Abbot & Mahdavi, 2018). I suspect also, if you ever wanted to change the rules or push them in a different direction, you have much more freedom to do that as there isn’t necessarily a precedence.

               Regardless, there will still be persecution of the Jews. There are, “laws aimed at eradicating the Jewish faith,” which include, “prohibitions on the observance of Jewish rituals and holidays, as well as the forcible baptism of Jews” (Gregory-Abbot &Mahdavi, 2018, p. 5.2).

               In summation, there is religious strife. Although it seems like it could be worse. It seems to be more of a uniting factor than one that would ultimately divide. Religion in the area as a whole seems to be working to bring people together. It also seems have tangible benefits by way of its existing infrastructure. Lastly, the melding of Roman and Germanic customs and laws have become a stabilizing factor for the area.

References

Gregory-Abbot, C. & Mahdavi, F. (2018) World History: The Human Experience to 1600 [Electronic version.] Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/

Student Reply 2: Quinton

The prosperity existing throughout the territory of Danelaw remains beneficial and fruitful for you, my king.

First and foremost, the initial occupation of our forces among the four kingdoms previously constructed under foreign rule cements our place within this realm (Gregory-Abbott & Mahdavi, 2018). Since ransacking local villages and houses of their religious custom, our wealth increased at a steady pace. However, once the noble Viking warriors established dominance over the remaining Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, we receive mass amounts of tribute from Wessex for protection from other invaders (Gregory-Abbott & Mahdavi, 2018). Moreover, we brought silver bullion from our homeland of Scandinavia and adapted its versatility into the preexisting monetary system the Anglo-Saxons implemented (Kershaw, 2017). Utilizing our silver, we created minted coins depicting intricate designs to encourage trade and integrate into the present system. Due to the lucrative minting process, our Viking brothers and sister flourish within our new kingdom under your wise rule (Kershaw, 2017). Additionally, trading endeavors generated with the Byzantines in the Mediterranean and Arabs in the Middle East, as well as our fellow Viking settlements long Europe, promote a wealthy trading alliance stemming from timber, amber, furs, and slaves (Sorabella, 2002).

We are conquerors, originally coming to this land to tear down what was standing in an effort to rebuild the region in our image. Our accomplished military prowess only became enhanced through the advantages of our seafaring capabilities and longboats (Gregory-Abbott & Mahdavi, 2018; Sorabella, 2002). Due to the successful construction of Viking ships, we traveled to various regions to raid the locals and procure valuable objects while increasing our strength (Sorabella, 2002). The proud people of Danelaw earned the territory through land conquest of local military forces that swept the previous Anglo-Saxon kingdoms away, leaving one area standing to offer tribute and promote our expansion into other territories (Gregory-Abbott & Mahdavi, 2018; Sorabella, 2002).

Our battle regimen remains unified in common practice for the good of Danelaw as our battle brothers and sisters dominate the warzone (Hedenstierna?Jonson et al., 2017). Men and women contribute equally to the sustainment of our society through conquest and status conferred therein. Therefore, we honor our brothers and sisters who fight and die in battle without prejudice through burials and rites of passage into Valhalla (Hedenstierna?Jonson et al., 2017).

References

Gregory-Abbott, C., & Mahdavi, F. (2018). World history: The human experience to 1600 (2nd ed.). https://content.ashford.edu

Hedenstierna?Jonson, C., Kjellström, A., Zachrisson, T., Krzewi?ska, M., Sobrado, V., Price, N., Günther, T., Jakobsson, M., Götherström, A., & Storå, J. (2017). A female Viking warrior confirmed by genomics. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 164(4), 853– 860. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23308

Kershaw, J. (2017). An early medieval dual-currency economy: Bullion and coin in the Danelaw. Antiquity, 91(355), 173. http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford….

Sorabella, J. (2002, October). The Vikings (780–1100). The Metropolitan Museum of Art. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/vikg/hd_vikg.htm