i've always like history, and i remember the exact moment, it became wonderful.
i was still in my teens (just) already married, and a friend, (of my then husband, really) helped me pull my knowledge together..
he said pick a year, or 10 year period... i was slow, so he said--1860 to 1870--give or take..
what was happening in US? Easy--civil war, reconstruction.
in England? easy again, queen victoria on the throne, beginning of industrial revolution..
in Europe? well here, my knowledge was scetchier.. Ireland? the famine, german, some sort of political unheaval, Italy, more political stuff (and really this was US history --there was mass immigration from these countries into US, so it was sort of a back door knowledge)
in asia? china, japan? Boxer wars! (where did that come from.. Oh yeah, and gold was discovered in california, and there was chinese immigration (and railroad building going on in the west) Japan? Perry opened it (1859? so really slightly out of range, but... and again, this was american history to me, (not world history)
Arthur was impressed. and now he said --think about it..
gold in california--what did that mean to world goings on?
(westward expansion, as people went west to find gold, industrial revolution, meant more railroad building, (which meant coal mining (and developement of unions) and steel mills, and steam engines for ocean traffic (it was a long hard trip round the tip of south america.. which created a need for a faster route (and the start of the idea of a canal.. Wait..didn't the idea of canal come from what the french were doing in suez? looking for a faster way to orient? (again close in time, but out of range..)
and cities in US had rapidly changing populations.. mass immigration from several european countries, (and new conflicts.. poor, illiterate, irish (catholics!) and dark, southern italians..(more catholics!)--and the rise of anti catholic (and anti semitic) feelings.
and technology of different sorts coming out of china (china --the dishes) and technology going into Japan..
suddenly, all the seperate, endless facts of 12 years of schooling became a whole.. i saw the seperate peices, and how uprising, wars, famines in place A resulted in changes in place B, how technology that was just developing, (fancifull stuff!) suddenly became vital.
ships still had sails, but often they had steam engines too.
distances become measured in time.. (how long did it take to get from NY poverty to the gold fields of california?
take a train to Missouri, and overland by older technology from there.. ) and where did the miners get their laundry done? china! it was faster to ship it so far west it became the east!
i was strongest in US history, but.. there were so many things going on in US were influenced by world events.
and US stuff was influencing world stuff.-- the french supported the south in US civil war (they wanted cheap cotton for their mills) the english, the north, (they were already looking to india for cotton for their mills, and were quite happy france was having trouble getting cotton!)
Oh the wonder of it.. and its true for every year/decade.
Ok, the further back you go in time, it make more sense to look at 50 or 100 year periods of time.. but everywhere, at everytime, what A did, effected B, and what B did, effected A! i developed a world view.
(i always like to read history books with an atlas on hand, to be able to see on a map, the places, and routes. now, i went to another level entirely, and looked to see, if not a total world view, at least a broader veiw.. and its like juggling balls. its hard to keep track, and you can't look away for a moment. patterns change in an instant, and sometimes --disaster!
OP
