Global Epiphany

Global Epiphany by Javier Medina Last night, I had an epiphany Instead of wasting time, I should be teaching global history The first cat we visit it Charlemagne Who made France and Germany his domain He’s the one that laid the bricks for the Holy Roman Empire Although it wasn’t official until long after he retired. It was 936, Duke Otto had a lot to fix Worked closely with the church, until the two of them mixed The Catholic Church had more power than the king and queen Became one of the most corrupt governments history’s ever seen This type of behavior was encouraged by Machiavelli Who believed in order to be a successful leader, you had to be ready To cheat, steal and lie, perhaps be a bad guy First priority was power, don’t matter how many die Quite opposite of a knight’s code of chivalry Where no matter what, you had to show civility The empire also fought the thirty years war Until in 1648, they couldn’t take it anymore Now we’re moving on to the scientific revolution During which, many ponderings found their own solution This was when a few dudes made the scientific method Which turned out pretty useful, even now it’s still accepted Galileo was the man who made the first telescope Which provided future astronomers with an undying hope Paved the way for Isaac Newton to do what he did Discovered gravity, and the calculus they teach to you kids Next up is the Renaissance and its newfound humanism Which stepped away from old ways and brought new traditions Such as the scientific perspective, better known as 3D Now it was possible to paint pictures of you and me A prime example of this era is my mad Da Vinci Made the Mona Lisa, Last Supper, and studied astronomy Let’s not forget our homeland Africa Which contains Axum, Mali, and the kingdom of Ghana Although each kingdom brought something new Every language they spoke was derived from Bantu In Great Zimbabwe they found riches in gold And had giant stone buildings, as well as fertile land I’m told Their kingdom collapsed a little after 1500 It seems that it was destined for that kingdom to be plundered. Let’s head to Asia, visit the Mongol Empire Genghis Khan had an army which was equivalent to fire They captured and conquered whatever they came across So for China and the Middle East, independence was lost. It wasn’t so bad, he ruled with toleration He let you live your life, as long as you paid him. Before he came along, there was Ming, Tang, and Song Ming was the last of these dynasties that stood strong It had a huge population, fed by its rice fields In the Yangzi valley is where the crops would yield They also had an explorer by the name of Zheng He Who traveled all the way to India, spreading the Chinese way. Now I wonder, have you ever heard the term “Golden Age”?

Well that’s what we find when the Song Dynasty’s on stage During this time, the economy expanded Paper money was issued, because the government commanded This is when Confucianism took its stronghold To form a flourishing society, it served as a mold The Tang Dynasty is the first to rise They built a canal system, which rocketed trade to the skies Sadly, the Tong was the first to fall By 907, rebels had overthrown them all Let’s take a quick look at Korea and Japan In the latter of those, samurai ruled the land. Korea, however, was ruled by the Shilla and Choson In 1443 was when the Hangul system was honed Last but not least, the age of exploring With all the discoveries, it was all but boring In 1519, Magellan ventured the sea He went all around and reached the Philippine society Involved himself in a local conflict, never got beyond it He shouldn’t have responded Because that’s where his life came to an end After all that traveling, home was just around the bend Another explorer of this time was Vasco de Gama He sailed for 10 months straight, in seas full of piranhas He was a man of valor, who lost half his sailors Don’t worry de Gama, scurvy was just a hater What he hot in India sold for 3000% Which was sufficient payoff to make him content After that, Columbus figured traveling the world makes sense. WORD. =)