Responding to Blogs
Submitted by bradb on Fri, 04/06/2007 - 07:59
One of the goals of journaling in this class is to introduce you to and give you practice in the expectations of academic discourse. Responding to classmates' journals/blogs/essays as described below will not only do that, but it will help you develop ideas for essays later in the class. In journaling, responses tend to fall into one of the three types. What we are shooting for when we talk about academic discourse, is the third type of response. Those are the responses that will earn you full credit. With each assignment you are expected to respond to at least three entries posted by your classmates; at least one of your responses should be a response to one of the responses to your journal.
- Affective Responses are expressions of personal views and/or responses. These sorts of responses tell the reader what the writer thinks about the topic, nothing more.
- Cohesive Responses will contain the elements of an affective response while also trying to acknowledge the presence or work of others but without seeking any feedback or contribution from the original writer or other readers.
- Interactive Responses contain elements of both affective and cohesive responses while actively and explicitly seeking feedback and responses from other writers while incorporating thoughts, passages and ideas from the writer they are responding to at the very least, and other responses as well. To take advantage of the medium (the blog) they will also provide links to those comments or ideas that add to the discussion, whether part of the class blog or material found elsewhere on the internet.
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Courtney Brooks Summary
INTRO: Have you ever experienced a situation that the odds are not in your favor? Where one wrong step or move in war can mess everything up? In the book “Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies,” by Jared Diamond this is a totally opposite situation. The Spaniards were highly out number by the Inca tribe but they able to pull through due to their advanced weapons.
SUMMARY: In chapter 3 “The Collision of Cajamarca”, begins to describe where and what had happened to the native americans, and how they became isolated in the old world. The Inca tribe had not been disturbed for many years until the King of Spain and King Charles saw the chance to take their land and convert them to Christianity. A group of 168 conquistadors were sent to befriend and conquer over 80,000 native americans. The Governor talks about how to capture the tribe leader known as Atahuallpa and to slaughter as many indians as they can. There was more then 7,000 indians killed including Atahuallpa and more injured in this battle. Diamond explains how horses and new weapons in the new world had a huge impact in defeating such a large army with almost no men. Although the spaniards had won the battle they had yet won the war as diamond continues on. Diseases had a huge impact in killing not only indians but almost everyone who was effected from influenza, small pox, measles, ect. In the end the Europeans had more effects then just getting land, learning advanced weapons and traveling diseases in the new world.
RESPONSE: How did the Spaniards win? I still can not wrap my head around the differences in numbers between each side. In my eyes this shows how the higher quality of weapons and armor has a huge effect on the outcome of a battle, but also how a long term like diseases that effect everyone in the end.This proves how even from then to now we are always progressing in military tactics. This story was a perfect example of the fight, thrill and devastation of war through out history.
CONCLUSION: Diamond proves to the reader how deceiving numbers can be against advanced weapons in a war. Even though the Indians had over 10x the amount of people of the Spaniards, they were not as equipped and didn’t have the advanced weapons to compare. In the end being unorganized and not prepared led to the defeat of the Inca tribe.
Response to Courtney Brooks
I noticed there were a few spelling and grammar errors, but this is to be expected in a draft and I'm sure they can be polished off with some revision.
Other than the spelling errors, I also noticed a few errors in how you recounted the Pizzaro's ambush of Atahuallpa. For example, in your summary you said, "There was more then 7,000 indians killed including Atahuallpa and more injured in this battle." to me, this implies that Atahuallpa was killed in the ambush when in fact he was captured and held for one of the largest know randsoms in human history. It wasn't until the Spaniards recieved a very, very large amount of gold that they executed Atahuallpa.
Furthermore, you also said in your conclusion, "Even though the Indians had over 10x the amount of people of the Spaniards, they were not as equipped and didn’t have the advanced weapons to compare. In the end being unorganized and not prepared led to the defeat of the Inca tribe." I would contest that although having more advanced weapons was a great advantage to Pizzaro's men, it was not what won that battle. I think what won that battle was shock and awe, pure and simple. The combination of the sound of trumpets (an instument never heard by the Incas), the gunfire (a weapon never experienced by the Incas), and the charging cavalry (an animal never seen by an Inca which must have been quite frightening)was enough to turn that encounter into more of a horrible, bloody massacre than any sort of "battle".
INTRO:3
SUMMARY:2
RESPONSE:3
CONCLUSION:2
Draft
Guns, Germs, and Steel
By
Joe Parham
Intro:
In the history of mankind we find that certain population shifts have occurred around the world in which, has defined our current view of societies as we know it today. In Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel: The largest population shift ever, he describes that the colonization of the New World by Europeans was a direct result of the conquest of most of the Indian societies in the America’s. In one such event, the Spanish conquistador Francis Pizarro, being the first to encounter the Inca emperor Atahuallpa, in the town of Cajamarca on November 16, 1532, was one of the most horrific collisions between Europeans and the Natives of the New World that have ever occurred.
Summary:
In the third chapter,” Collision at Cajamarca” of Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Spanish invading force was led by Pizarro, who symbolized the Holy Roman Monarch Charles I of Spain and brought only a force of about 168 soldiers. Atahuallpa, who was esteemed as a sun god, had an army of about 80,000 soldiers and was Inca emperor over millions. Interestingly, Diamond explains that within a few minutes of the two leaders gathering, Pizarro captured Atahuallpa, in which, was a pivotal move for the Spanish to conquer the Inca Empire. Pizarro, then proceeds to hold Atahuallpa prisoner and demands one of history’s most prestigious ransoms ever recorded: The sum of gold in a room 22 feet long and 17 feet wide with a height of over 8 feet tall, was paid but Pizarro killed the Inca Emperor anyways.
The findings of that day were recorded extensively by six Spanish participants including his brothers Hernando and Pedro:
Pizarro captured some local Indians and while torturing them to obtain information, they revealed that Emperor Atahuallpa would be waiting for Governor Pizarro at Cajamarca to welcome him in peace. The Spanish force advanced but was filled with fear at the sheer numbers of Indians and how large and beautiful there cities were. The next morning Pizarro ordered and hid his cavalry round about the square separating them into two groups and gave one command to his brother Hernando while giving the other to Hernando de Soto. The infantry was also divided- being led by his other brother Juan Pizarro and Pizarro himself. While at the same time Pizarro sends Pedro de Candia with two or so men to lie in wait in a fort in the plaza, taking with them one artillery cannon and trumpets. The formulated plan is that when the emperor and all the Indians entered the plaza, Pizarro would give the signal to Candia and his men to start firing the artillery, while the sounding trumpets would signal the cavalry and infantry to charge in, thus surrounding Atahuallpa and capturing him.
When both parties arrived in the plaza, Pizarro commanded Friar Vincent de Valverde to consult with the emperor to heed to the King of Spain and to the law of their Lord Jesus Christ. The emperor refused and Pizarro gave the signal to charge. The Indians were struck with fear and terror as the artillery fired and the trumpets blew, scattering them in all directions while the Spaniards over powered the unarmed Natives with their advanced weaponry and slaughtered about seven thousand of them. The Spaniards conquered and justified there invasion of the Inca empire on the basis of the command of the King of Spain: That all might come to knowledge of God and the Holy Catholic Faith.
Diamond further explains why the Inca were so easily conquered and states that the Spaniards advantage in the victory was in there steel swords, artillery, steel armor, guns, and horses. The Native Americans did not have any horses and only had primitive weapons along with quilted armor to battle with. Psychologically, the conquistadors had spread fear into the minds of the Inca with their technology of advanced weaponry mostly because they had never seen or fought against anything this advanced and also they mistook the Spaniards for their returning god Viracocha. Another factor was the epidemic of smallpox that made its way to South America by the arrival of the Spanish colonizers in Panama and Columbia, killing the Aztecs emperor Cuitlahuac in 1520 and Inca emperor Huayna Capac in 1526. Disease was also responsible for killing 95% of the Columbian Native American population.
Response:
I can see how societies with little or no knowledge along with lower forms of technology were easy targets for being conquered. I cannot believe that the Spaniards used God in the manner of justification to slaughter them and even trick them in giving all that gold for a ransom…then killing there emperor anyways. How devious! However, I do believe that there motives were driven by greed, expansion and dominance of territory while afflicting and imposing their beliefs upon a society with force and murder. Sounds a lot like a big, bad bully or in layman’s terms, a criminal dictator flexing and abusing his power on the weak for his own gain.
Even though I feel this way, I still have to consider the fact that our society would probably be much different today in the America’s. Who knows how our relations and belief systems would be like had they not conquered the Inca and Aztec. Maybe we would be the ones with less technology and illiterate waiting to be conquered.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, the conquest of the Inca by the Spanish is just one example of how countries with the knowledge of advanced technology and weaponry dominated over the lesser advanced and knowledgeable civilizations with large populations. The Inca was a mighty empire and although the Spanish were few in number, they succeeded in there conquest due to their superior knowledge from books, war tactics, advanced weaponry and finally disease, in which killed hundreds of thousands.