India and China

India Flag

I have not written in a very long time, because I have been busy with Spring Break and other school work. If you scroll down the lists of my blog posts, you will see one entitled: “India and England.”In that blog post, I wrote about one of the Indian Emperors and three bad decisions he made that would later lead to an English takeover of India. Aurangzeb, the emperor, let the English make trading posts and towns in India. He thought this would help India prosper because of European trade, but what it really did was let the English get a good hold on India before they tried to conquer it outright.

The country of India was having big troubles. As soon as Aurangzeb died, three of his sons claimed the throne. The oldest son killed his brothers in battle and crowned himself. Now Emperor Bahadur Shah I ruled. He tried to repair his father’s mistakes about the Hindus, ( see
"India and England,") but he died after only five years on the throne.

His son was not a good ruler. He didn’t care about ruling at all. Finally, two brothers, Husain Ali and Hasan Ali, had him assassinated. They put another king on the throne, but eventually killed him too, because he was suspicious of them. The next two kings that they crowned died after less than half a year on the throne because of health problems. Finally, the Ali brothers found a king who got rid of them instead of the other way around. But he didn’t pay attention to India’s welfare either. India was breaking into pieces because the emperors weren’t strong enough to keep it together. All the officials were claiming land and ruling it themselves.

At this point, Persia was ruled by a highway robber, named Nadir who wanted to prove that he was truly Persia’s rightful ruler. He wanted everybody to acknowledge this, so he sent a message to India asking that they would hail him as the king of Persia. But because India was in great disarray, no one bothered sending a message back. Nadir took this as a personal insult and declared war against India. He had many soldiers and easily raided the treasure of India. He burned cities and looted the Taj Mahal. This was a perfect time for England to invade, because India was weaker than ever. And it did.

The ruler of Bengal, one of the little parts of India, saw that the English were getting stronger. He offered the French land in India if they would help fight to keep the English from conquering India. The French agreed, and together, the two armies captured one of the English forts. They forced all their captives into a little dungeon with no food or water. Although the captives were released in the morning, the English in England were angered at this cruelty. They sent an army to punish India. Soon, English rule was established in Bengal. England kept claiming more and more land in India. Susan Wise Bauer calls this “the shopkeepers’ invasion.”



Books



While India was falling apart, China was prospering. The Forbidden Palace was the home of the Emperor Chi’en-lung. He wanted the whole world to know China’s greatest accomplishment: its books. Books of poems, books of philosophy, and books of history and stories were scattered all over China, and he wanted to bring them together.  Chi’en-lung ordered that all of China’s greatest books were to be written down on a list. Then, all the books were to be copied so that the library could have a full set. This was not an easy job. The Chinese had letters for different sounds and words, and it was extremely hard to master the art of Chinese Calligraphy. The set had 36,275 books in it. Then, Ch’en-lung ordered six other copies to be made. Finally, one copy was completed, ten years after the search actually began.

But Ch’enlunng wasn’t satisfied with just preserving the old and wonderful Chinese books, he wanted to destroy the bad ones that opposed or questioned his rule and the rule of his descendants. These two huge tasks would take many years to complete.

Wars in the New World

While Europe was fighting and burning, the New World was having its own trouble: the colonies were growing bigger. This would have been a good thing if nobody else had been living in the whole of North America. But as it was, there were already very many people who had made their home there: the Native Americans. The kings in Europe were glad to see their colonies growing, but the Indians were not. The colonists were taking over more and more of their land, and they were not happy about it. The Indians who had once been the settlers’ friends were now their enemies.

It was the Wampanoag tribe who fought back first. Metacom, the leader of that tribe, gathered together other tribes to fight against Plymouth Plantation. At first, Plymouth ignored the warning a friendly Indian had given them, but when they found out that the Indian had been murdered by his own tribe shortly after, they began to consider what he had said. Soon after, a war began.

The Indians were good at surprise attacks, but the English had guns. Eventually they defeated Metacom and his army. This war lasted for months and months. It was called “King Philip’s War” because the English called Metacom “King Philip.” But there was still another war going on in a different part of North America, but for a different reason. This time it was the Indians who wanted more land.

Down in New France, the Europeans and the Huron Indians were friends. But this friendship was not always good for the Hurons. Besides the gifts the French gave them, the Indians also got a disease called small pox. They became weak from sickness and rashes. This made them a good target of another Indian tribe nearby, the Iroquois. The Iroquois captured the land the Hurons lived on and killed many of their people.

Then, they turned towards the colonies. The French settlers were afraid of the Iroquois and their attacks. As more raids on their village happened, more of them left to go back to Europe. King Louis XIV didn’t want his New France colony to be lost. He sent a lot of soldiers over to America. The soldiers were not able to totally defeat the Indians, but they did force them to retreat back onto their own land.

 King Louis XIV had promised the soldiers land in return for their help fighting the Iroquois. When they settled down, however, there was another problem. All the soldiers were men, and they wanted to start families. But for every six men in the colonies there was only one woman. King Louis XIV to the rescue again!!! He paid women from France grand amounts of money so that they would travel to New France. This plan worked, and soon New France was growing bigger than ever.

The Iroquois did not give up, however, and soon they started another war on the French colonies. One fourteen year old girl, Marie-Madeleine de Vercheres was walking through her father’s fields when she saw them running and shooting at her. She screamed for help to the guards, but the guards were all hidden away in fear in the fort. Finally, she ran into the fort, and cried to the soldiers to fight the Iroquois who were trying to get into the fort. Realizing no one else would lead them; Marie-Madeleine took off her bonnet and commanded her two younger brothers to help her guard the fort. They shot cannons which frightened the Iroquois. The children and an old man held the fort for eight days, before French soldiers finally came to help them. Marie-Madeleine is still regarded as a French Canadian Heroine.

At this time, the French and English colonies were colonies of war. One man, named William Penn, wanted to build a colony of peace. William was a Quaker. Quakers were often persecuted throughout England and other parts of Europe. King Charles II owed William’s family money that they had loaned him. After his father’s death, William reminded the king of this, and suggested that he pay back the debt with land in North America, rather than with money. The king agreed and gave William a portion of land in North America almost as big as England itself!

William organized the way the government in his new land would work. It was almost like the way the USA government works today. He also made plans about being friendly to the Indians there. He sent messages to them telling them that he would pay for any land that the colonists took from the Indians. The colony prospered. More and more Quakers came from Europe to live in Pennsylvania. But the Maryland governor, whose colony was right next to William’s, thought that Maryland should have the land that Pennsylvania had. William had to go to court with him back in England. William didn’t return to America for fifteen more years. But when he returned, he was very happy to see that colony had prospered greatly.

While William Penn was in England, an important event happened. Charles II, who had given William the land, died. His brother, James II became king. But the people of England were worried. James was Catholic, and he had married a Catholic woman and had a Catholic son. Most of England did not want to become a Catholic country. So the Protestants sent a message to James’s daughter and her husband who were both Protestants. The soon-to-be monarchs agreed to seize the throne and to sign a message saying that they would never pass any laws without the approval of Parliament. The people of England were happy, (but William Penn was arrested several times because he was suspected of being loyal to the former king.) England was at peace at last.

The Sun King or France and the Prussian king of Prussia

Have you heard of the Egyptians, who thought that their kings were the god’s sons? France’s kings believed a different version of that story. They thought that the king of France was the owner of every little thing in France, down to the last ladybug. The king was sometimes known as “a visible divinity.” In 1638, France was one of the most powerful countries in Europe, and because the five-year old king was “visible divinity,” he ruled with no opposition.

Known as the Sun King, King Louis XIV sent away his board of advisors, announcing that he would rule his own kingdom by himself. The advisors were astonished! For almost a century, no French king had ever ruled without his advisors.

 Louis XIV also had a gargantuan palace built for himself. After nearly fifty years of labor, the quarter-of-a-mile long palace was finished. It was called Versailles. One of the most famous rooms is called the Hall of Mirrors. In it, are seventeen large mirrors, each facing a tall window. 

Louis XIV wrote in his memoirs, that he preferred fame to all else, even life. He lived a lavish life, and liked to act in ballets.

Louis XIV’s subjects fought over doing the small things for the king, such as handing him his clothes after a bath. They all wanted to be in the king’s favor, even if all it meant was a more ornately decorated chair at a dinner party, or special clothes reserved only for the king’s favorites.  Louis XIV encouraged his subjects to spend a lot of money on rich and lavish things and to mind their courtly manners. This made the courtiers and subjects depend on the king, because they had spent all their money on other things.

While Louis XIV reigned, France was the most important and powerful country in Europe, but when he died, catastrophe was ready to strike. In fact, even while Louis XIV was alive, catastrophe struck. Many of his family members died, including Louis’s son and grandson.  Some other European countries were bonding together to fight against France. Most of Louis’s reign had been spent trying to increase France’s borders. He had forced people to work hard and pay high taxes.  Many men died in the wars that Louis started.  “Anger was spreading through France-” Susan Wise Bauer said. “-Anger which would eventually destroy the French crown forever.”

In Germany, there were 300 little German states. But the people who lived in these states probably didn’t think of themselves as German. All the states were ruled by princes, and one of these princes, Prince Frederick, decided to make his two states into a kingdom.

One of the states, Brandenburg, was on the border of the Holy Roman Empire, so when he was in Brandenburg, Frederick had to obey the Holy Roman Emperor. But Frederick asked the Holy Roman Emperor if he could call himself “King of Prussia”, the other state, since Prussia was not in the Holy Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Emperor agreed, partly because Frederick had just helped him fight against Louis XIV. Frederick was now the King of Prussia. He also acted like he was the king of Brandenburg, and he entered this other state like a king would do, with cannons firing and bells ringing.  Frederick’s acting like a king helped the people in his “kingdom” to think of themselves as citizens of Prussia.



The German Flag



 Susan Wise Bauer says, “Prussians learned to pay allegiance to an idea of a German kingdom, ruled by a German king.” This meant that instead of paying homage to a king, like King Louis XIV, the German people of Prussia learned to pay homage to the state of Prussia. In later generations, Frederick’s son, Frederick William, announced that Prussia and Brandenburg were all one country, Prussia, and his son, Frederick II, even added land to the kingdom. One day, this country that these men established would be the European country of Germany.

India and England

In past blogs of 2011, I have talked about the thirty years war, the emperors of China, the Kings of Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. But I have hardly mentioned India, except for a blog in January. In the times that I have been reading about in Bauer, three emperors have ruled India.

The first was a strict man named Jahangir, who called himself “world seizer.” He knew that India would prosper if there was more trade going on. So, he and King James the First of England made a trade treaty saying that the English traders could come to India to trade in peace. When Jahangir died, his son, who was renamed Shah Jahan, meaning “King of the World," became the emperor.



The Taj Mahal



Shah Jahan had a wife who he loved very much. He was filled with grief when she died, and he built a huge tomb for her. It took over 20 years for twenty-thousand laborers to build this exquisite tomb, complete with a mosque and garden, often called “the eighth wonder of the world.”

Shah Jahan had four sons. His favorite was a boy named Dara, who was lazy, and didn’t do much fighting. When the emperor announced that Dara was going to be his heir to the throne, one of the other sons, Aurangzeb, rebelled.

Aurangzeb was a fierce warrior, and one of Shah Jahan’s best generals. However; the king was not appreciative of Aurangzeb’s strength, and instead of praising him, he demoted him! So when Aurangzeb heard that Dara was going to be the next king, he raised an army and easily defeated Dara’s small army. He imprisoned his father in his own fortress, and though the former king was well cared for, with servants and doctors, as well as food and water, he was never let out again.

Aurangzeb had taken drastic measures to be made king, and now he was taking drastic measures to make India a good country. But when he died, India was very close to either falling apart or being conquered by foreign invaders. He made three decisions that would change the life of India greatly.

 First, he ordered that India was a Muslim country. This was a great change, because, in the last couple generations, Hindus had had jobs at court, and had been able to worship freely. One had even been made Prime Minister by Akbar, Aurangzeb’s great-grandpa. From now on, Hindus had to pay high taxes, and they couldn’t work in the court. Since the Koran was the Muslim book of law, Aurangzeb decided that the laws of the Koran and the “Shari’ah”, (the Muslim law,) would be the laws for all India. Since the Koran forbid wine, wine was made illegal throughout India. Aurangzeb banished art and parties, since he thought that the Koran was against them.  His Muslim subjects welcomed these new decrees, but the Hindus did not.

Aurangzeb’s next decision made the gap between the Muslims and Hindus even greater. He decided to try to conquer all of the southern parts of India. So he tried to conquer the Deccan, the tribes who lived up in the mountains of India. The Deccans called on some Hindus to help them fight Aurangzeb. While the king and the Deccans fought against each other, Aurangzeb ignored the rest of his empire, and he made his third rash decision. He let the English come into India and build their own cities. his was bad. The English established cities, fortified the settlements, and brought more and more people over to India. This was the beginning of an English takeover.

While they were beginning to build the foundations for the takeover of Japan, the English were having troubles of their own. James the First had died, and his son, Charles, had become king. Charles married a Catholic wife, which none of the English Protestants liked. Charles got mad at Parliment and told them to go away. But the Parliment stayed. And when the rash king brought an army of five-hundred soldiers to force five Protestant members out, the people of England started to be against Charles. Even though the Protestant members had been warned and had escaped, a civil war began. Finally, the Parliment and the Protestants won, and Charles was beheaded. England was now a "commonwealth", which meant that Parliment listened the to the people, and then made the decisions.

But a man named Oliver Cromwell got tired of the Parliment, and sent them all away. Then, he selected his own men to be in the Parliment. However; England wasn't a commonwealth for long. Soon, the men loyal to Cromwell passed a bill giving all the Parliment's powers to him, and then naming him "Lord Protector." Even though no one dared call him a king, Cromwell was basically that. One man even wrote a little booklet, encouraging someone to assasinate him.  When Cromwell died, a lot of people were very happy. Cromwell's reign had not been the brightest of times for England, but more sorrow was yet to come.

After Cromwell died, there were at least half a million people living in London, England. They lived in small houses, not well made, and squished together. All in all, London, in 1665, was the perfect place for plague to spread. So when a few men died in the outskirts of London, no one hoped it would spread. But spread it did. By that year's Christmas, whole families were dying of the black death. Very few people went out of their houses. So many people died, that there wasn't enough room in the graveyards to bury them! The plague raged for a year, until finally, over 200,000 people had died in London.

The next tragedy happened when a baker was putting out his fire, a coal rolled out, unnoticed, and started the Great Fire of London. The fire started small, but because the wooden houses were crammed so close together, the fire spread quickly. It burned the bakery, the shipyard, stores, houses, and even a great stone castle. When the fire stopped, after almost a four days, more than 3\4 of London had been burned. Most of the buildings were gone. Susan Wise Bauer writes that John Evelen, who lived in London at that time, wrote in his diary, "London was, but is no more."

Europe, Japan, and China

         A long time ago, on March 1st, I wrote about two kings. One was Ferdinand, the former king's brother, and one was Philip the second, the king's son. The former king, Charles the fifth, split his empire between the two of them. Ferdinand got his German land, and Philip got Spain and the Netherlands. This blog post is partly about Ferdinand and the 30 years war.
         When Ferdinand died, he gave his lands to his son, who gave them to his son, who gave them to his cousin. This was when a war began. At this time, Germany was full of little territories ruled by their own princes. Although each prince had to pay homage to the king, they got to decide whether their territories were Catholic or Protestant. However, Ferdinand the second, the new king, was a very devout Catholic. He wanted to have all his empire be Catholic, so he started to pass laws against Protestantism. The Protestant princes were not happy about this, and as the king wasn't even in Germany, this was a perfect time to start a rebellion. The king had left two officials in charge of the kingdom, and the army of Protestant subjects and princes welled into the palace where they were hiding and pushed the two out a window. Since the Latin word for "window" is "fenestra", the word "defenestration" is just a fancy way of saying "to push someone out a window." The rebelling Protestants stated that they were no longer under Ferdinand's rule. But when the king came back and convinced his allies in France and Spain to help him, the rebellion was crushed. Ferdinand also forced the princes to make him the Holy Roman Emperor. He took away the rebellious Protestant princes' land, and thought that would be the end of it. It wasn't.
         There were a few other Protestant princes that had not been part of the rebellion, but when they saw what had happened to the other territories, they got a little anxious. Would their land be next? England and Denmark, two other Protestant countries, were also worried. Germany had formed an alliance with Spain and France. Would the three Catholic countries also try to take control of their land?
          The king of Denmark gathered his forces and marched into Germany. Not only was he planning to help save the Protestants, it might be nice to have a little land in the bargain. But his plan failed. Ferdinand's forces crushed Denmark's, and then even took over the country itself.
          Denmark was right next to Sweden, and King Gustavus the second was getting worried, too. Would Ferdinand's forces try to attack Sweden? The king and his advisers all agreed it would be better to attack Ferdinand, then to have him attack them. The army joined forces with the other German Protestants. For awhile it looked like they would win the war, but then Gustavus was killed in battle and the army began to fall apart. Soon, the Protestants began to discuss peace. Slowly, a peace treaty was formed. But the war wasn't over yet. The Prime Minister of France declared war on Germany, seeking its land, and the war continued until finally, the heads of both sides died. A peace treaty, called the Peace of Westphalia, was cautiously declared. Even after that, Spain and France kept fighting for eleven more years. The 30 Years War was really the 41 Years War.

             Before the 30 Years War had even started, Europe was sending Catholic missionaries over to Japan. Some of the Japanese became Christians. Others hated the religion. They did not want to give up their Buddhist traditions. The emperor, Ieyasu, was puzzled by the new way of life. He did not know what to do. So he asked his Western advisor, who had come to Japan on a Dutch ship. William Adams was a Protestant, and he hated Catholicism. He told the emperor that he should watch out for the missionaries. When a Spanish ship docked in Japan, intending to make maps of the ports, he told Ieyasu that Spain was really trying to capture Japan. So Ieyasu made laws against Christian missionaries coming to Japan.
           When his son, Hidetada, came to the throne, he killed Christians and made more laws against them. His son, Ieymitsu  decreed that no Japanese person was allowed to travel farther than Korea, so as not to bring any foreign ideas back into Japan. Then, he closed Japan. No one could go out. No one could come in. No one could make ships big enough to sail across the ocean. Only the Protestant Dutch could trade with Japan. They could only send one ship each year. These laws caused a revolt, but it was soon crushed. A new kind of religion, Zen Buddhism, flourished. This religion believed that wisdom came from the inside.

In China, the Ming Dynasty was ruling, and failing. This dynasty came from southern China, where people called the Han Chinese lived. But not everybody was happy with this. A group of rowdy warriors, called the Manchu, set out to attack the Ming Empire. There was also another threat that was making China weak. There were over 160 million people in China, and there simply was not enough food to feed them all. One man, a post man, decided to set up his own government instead of the Ming government. He gathered an army of the discontented Chinese and marched up to the castle. However; he didn't need to fight. All the soldiers had either deserted or die of a plague. The Ming emperor killed himself, and the Ming Dynasty was over. But not all the Ming realized that. One Ming general sent a message to the Manchu, asking to form an alliance against " this rebel peasant and his army." The Manchu were happy to form an army against the peasants, but for a different reason. When they had defeated the mailman and his army, they set their own leader on the throne. The Manchu thought of themselves as better than the Han Chinese. They separated themselves from the Hans, and made them shave their heads as a sign of the authority of the Manchu. Finally, one Manchu emperor, K'ang-hsi, realized, right from the start, that there were more Han Chinese than Manchu Chinese, and so he made friends with them. He lowered their taxes, and even put some of them into his government. China became stronger and prospered under his rule.

Tobacco, Slavery, and Nzinga

      The colonies in North America were all in the control of the English, now. They were prospering, and had made their mother country prosperous, too. One of the main products of the colonies was "green gold," or tobacco. John Rolfe, the man who was said to have married Pocahontas, knew that the Indians grew their own kind of tobacco, but the colonists who had tried it did not like it. They said that it was weak and bitter. Rolfe had a few tobacco seeds from Europe and he  planted them in a fertile patch of land. When it was ready to be tried, it smoked wonderfully. Rolfe sent some tobacco over to England, and it was instantly popular, because, up until this point, the English had had to buy their tobacco from the Spanish, who they were at war with. Although there were many smokers of tobacco in England, King James did not approve of it. He wrote an essay about the harmful effect of smoking. As might have been expected, no one listened.
      The tobacco was a valuable crop for the colonies, but it took a lot of work to raise. First, the seeds had to be planted, pruned, and weeded by hand. Caterpillars, worms, and slugs had to be picked off the leaves. Then, when the plants were fully grown, the leaves had to be picked and hung to dry for a long time. Next, the stems had to be taken off and thrown away. The leaves needed to be packed into barrels and shipped to Europe. All the work was done by hand.
       In the beginning, the farmers used indentured servants to work in the tobacco fields. Indentured servants were people who had their voyage to America paid for by a company in Europe. Then, when they were in the New World, they had to work for the company for a certain amount of time for the company. After that,  they would be free to start a life of their own. But as the tobacco became an increasingly important export, plantation owners needed more workers. They started making their war prisoners  slaves. They also got slaves from other African countries which sold them their prisoners.
      Soon, however, the colonies wanted more slaves, and so the country of Portugal invaded a small country of Africa called Ndomba. The king of this country fought a war against the Portugese. Soon, his son became king in his place. Nzinga, the prince's sister, fought in the war. But then the prince refused to fight any longer. Soon after, he mysteriously died. Nzinga became queen. She made a treaty with the Portugese king to leave the African kingdom alone as long as they returned all the Portugese captives, but it was not kept for very long. They forced her out of her country. When this happened, Nzinga simply invaded the nearby country of Matamba. Her soldiers would not let the Portugese take slaves from any other West African kingdom, either. The Portugese finally gave up. They told the queen she could rule in peace. When Nzinga died, she was remembered as the queen who saved her country from slavery, but the country of Portugal was not impressed. After she died, they invaded Ndomba and two other African countries. These remained under their rule until 1975.

Japan and Thanksgiving

              Today we know that there was really no "Northwest Passage" through America to China and Japan. But what if there was? You could sail straight through North America and come to the "Land of the Rising Sun." You would have reached Japan.
             While explorers were still searching for the "Northwest Passage" and setting up colonies in the new world, Japan was having a civil war. The emperor no longer had power over the land. Instead, noblemen called "Daimyo" ruled over different parts of Japan. Groups of Japanese soldiers called "Samurai" roamed around the countryside, fighting for whoever would pay them the most. The empire of Japan was divided. Then, a man named Toyotomi Hideyoshi united the country once again.
               Hideyoshi was no one important. He was a peddler with little money or possessions. He wasn't even handsome, and his wife called him "The Bald Rat." But then, Hideyoshi became a soldier in the army of an important nobleman, Nobunaga, who wanted to put all the pieces of Japan together under his rule. Hideyoshi was a loyal soldier, and he became Nobunaga's sandalbearer. Eventually, Hideyoshi was granted the title of "General", and he soon became the nobleman's favorite. But Nobunaga was killed in battle, and four different samurai stated that they would help his young grandson to rule. Each of them really only wanted the throne for himself. Hideyoshi gathered an army of 200,000 soldiers and smashed the rebellious samurais' armies to bits. He then went on to reunite all of Japan, but when he tried to take control of China, he failed, and died not long afterwards.
                While Hideyoshi was still alive, a man named Tokugawa Ieyasu was one of his most trusted helpers. However, he was trying to accumulate loyalty for himself, and when Hideyoshi died, he fought against Hideyori, the five year old heir to the throne. He won the fight, and established himself as "shogun." His capital city was named Edo, and now it is called Tokyo. He encouraged art, literature, and sumo wrestling. He took great measures to make sure the people in his kingdom were loyal to him. Eventually, Ieyasu captured and destroyed the fortress where Hideyori was hiding. Now the whole of Japan was under the rule of the "Tokugawa Shogunate," the family of Ieyasu.

                Imagine that you are a separatist in England, during the early1600's. You believe that the church of England should be purified from all that is Catholic - the candles, the priests, and the prayerbooks,- but it is not happening. You now have given up all hope that the church of England will ever be fully purified. So you separate yourself from the English Church and go to your own services. But King James makes you pay high taxes, and he doesn't let you use real church buildings. You have to meet in barns or stables. One man you know, named William Bradford, is so angry about this, that he and the other separatists have decided to go and live in Holland, where the Dutch welcomed the Protestants. However; when you get to Holland the children are starting to become Dutch! They forget their beliefs, and some go off to war while others go off to sea. The parents want their children to grow up to be good little English boys and girls, but here in Holland, that is near impossible.



William Bradford



                    So everyone gathers onto a ship named the Mayflower and you sail off to find a new life in the New World. The journey is long and hard, but the land is well worth the trip. All the colonists sign a contract called the Mayflower Contract, and then the men go off to explore. They find the perfect place, near cornfields, and next to a stream. All the colonists, including you, work hard, building log houses, but still the food is running low. Sometimes several colonists die in one day. But, soon, the Indians take pity on your starving colony. You make a treaty with the Indians that neither party will hurt the other. Squanto, a friendly native, who can speak English, teaches you how to plant corn. Thanksgiving is celebrated, with lots of food, contests, and peace. Life in America looks like it is off to a good start.

The English, Spanish, and the French were in the New World, but the Dutch were not. Instead, their country was prospering in Europe, with many schools, artists, and traders. One big Dutch company, The Dutch East India Company, sent ships to Asia, which came back with spices, silks, and many other rare items. Soon the Dutch became the most important sea traders in the world. But when they heard of the pelts and furs that could be found in the New World of America, they set up another big company, The Dutch West India Company. This company sent 30 families to live on the banks of the Hudson River and start a colony. The colonists traded beads, cloth, and knives in exchange for Manhattan Island. The Indians thought that the colonists would live on the island for a few years and then move somewhere else. They were wrong. The Dutch had no intention of moving now that they were setting up "New Amsterdam." The town flourished. People from everywhere on the globe came to trade with the Dutch. Imports from India and Africa helped the town grow into a big trading port. But the town was not in the best condition. It was falling apart. The Dutch West India Company tried sending other governors to try and control the town, but it was not use. Finally, they made one last effort. A man named Peter Suyvesant made new laws and enforced them. He repaired the town and ordered ministers to preach more on Sundays. Despite his wooden leg, Stuyvesant was a model governor. But the English colonies were pressing in on New Amsterdam, and eventually he had to surrender to the English soldiers that had surrounded his colony. Now all of the North American colonies were English. The English renamed the colony "New York", a name that has stuck to this day.

Another King, Another Colony, And More Explorers

Do you remember Mary Queen of Scots? She had a son named James who became the king of Scotland after she died. (He is the king in the title.) James also inherited England, because Elizabeth the First left her throne to him. So now James was the king of two countries. What is the first thing you would do if you became king? You might want to fortify your kingdom against attack or start educating your people. But what did James do? He did not do those things. He made enemies of the Protestants, the Catholics, and the Parliament.

                   First, he made the Puritan Protestants angry. They came to him with a petition to purify the English church of all Catholic ideas. Even though James was Protestant, he rejected all their ideas and sent them home. He decided that whatever he wanted was what God wanted. He also made Puritan church services illegal.

               Next, he made the Catholics angry. He ordered all the Catholic priests to go out of the country. He made a law that if anyone went to a Catholic service, he would have to pay a fine. But not all the people agreed with this law, as you can probably guess. Two men, Robert Catesby and Guy Fawkes, dug a tunnel under the building where Parliament had meetings. They would smuggle barrels of gunpowder into the house. But before the explosion could take place, Fawkes was discovered holding a match, and he was put to death.

          But soon, Parliament got angry at James, too. Because James insisted that whatever he wanted was the will of God, he fired all of the Parliament.

            Even though James made many people angry at him, he also did something that changed the world. He had many scholars make a new translation of the Bible so that all the people in his country could read it. The King James Version is still used today,

               James saw how rich Spain was becoming because of the gold they were finding in South America. Soon, he, too, sent off three ships to find gold and to start a colony, this time in North America. When the colonists got there, they thought the land was lush and perfect- and it was, but they spent all their time looking for gold,  instead of farming or finding food. Many colonists were dead by the time October came around. In Winter, it was even worse. The cold only helped to exaggerate the hunger the few men that were left felt. Around Christmas time, John Smith, one of the colony's leaders, went with a few other men to search for food. But Smith was captured by the Indians. He was taken to the chief, and eventually became friends with the tribe. The colony got strong again, in their friendship with the Indians. (That was the colony.)

There once was an explorer, sent by the king of France, and named Samuel Champlain. He set off with some ships and got to North America. The land was beautiful, and Champlain knew it would be perfect for a colony. When he returned to France, the king agreed to let him make a colony there. The first try failed, for the colonists nearly starved to death during the long winter. But finally supply ships came, and the colony prospered. But then, the king of France decided that he had spent enough money on the colony, and he sent a ship over to take the colonists back home. Once back in France, Champlain did all he could to get the king of France to let him try again. Finally, the king agreed. The brave explorer started a colony near the St. Lawrence river in what is now Canada. The winters were unbearably hard, but the colony survived, with only about a fourth of the original inhabitants. But the colony prospered, slowly growing. Now it is called Quebec, and most of the people who live there speak French.

Many people who went to the Americas wanted gold, furs, or land. But there were some explorers who were looking for the "Northwest Passage," a passage through North America which would lead them straight to India or China. One such English explorer was Henry Hudson. He knew that all the explorers who had gone looking for this way had failed. But he had a different idea. He wanted to sail way up north and over Asia, then, he would sail down into China. The sun shines all day and night at the North Pole in the summer, so Hudson figured that would melt the ice to let his ships get through. But he was wrong, and because of the immense cold, he and his ship were forced to turn around and sail back to England. Hudson did not give up, though. He decided to try another route around the Northern coast of Russia. But as they sailed along their route, it started to get cold. He couldn't find a way through the ice, so he turned around. But he didn't go back to England this time. He sailed straight towards North America. When the crew saw that he was not giving up, they threatened mutiny if he did not turn around. So Hudson was forced to go back to Europe anyway. Hudson tried again, this time along  a different route. It was a hard route, and the sailors begged to go back, but Hudson would not be moved. Finally, the crew did what they had threatened to do on the second voyage. They set Hudson, his son, and some of the sickest sailors in a small life boat with no food or water. The rest of the crew had very hard time finding England again without their captain. No one ever saw Hudson again.

Two Kings, A Queen, and William Who Was Quiet

In my last post, I wrote that I have finished my history book by Susan Wise Bauer. Today, I read the first two chapters of the next book in the series. This book is titled Volume 3: Early Modern Times. It covers the time from Queen Elizabeth the First until the Forty-Niners in California. Today, I read about two kings, one queen, and a Dutch man named William the Silent.

        The two kings were related to each other.They were, in fact uncle and nephew. The nephew was Charles the Fifth's son, Philip, and he ruled some of his father's land. The rest was given to his uncle, King Charles's brother, Ferdinand, a little before King Charles died. Bauer doesn't say much about him in this chapter.

      Philip was the ruler of Spain, the country where Christopher Columbus had gotten his money to go to South America from. When Columbus claimed "India", he claimed it for Spain. So now, King Philip was trying to use that land to his advantage. He sent other explorers there, and they discovered that the land was not India, it was a different continent. From India, merchants bought spices, cloth, and many other things. These things were not found in South America, but the "conquistadors" found something even better. Gold. The Native Americans wore gold jewelry, and they told stories of a king called El Dorado, who was so rich he could take baths in gold dust. King Philip wanted this gold, so he sent miners to mine South America. Soon, Spain became rich. Gold and silver poured out of the mines. Philip became the richest king in the world, and his people became rich, too. But the miners who did the actual mining, were not rich. They were South American slaves, and they were treated badly in their own country. So now you know the story of the two kings. Now, onto William the Silent.

But first, we have to go back in time a little ways. William the Silent came into the world when Philip was only around six years old. The boys were only a few years apart, but they were brought up in very different cultures and religions. Philip was brought up to be a devout Catholic, however, William's German parents taught him to stick to the Protestant faith. When William was only a teenager, he inherited two huge provinces from his cousin. This could make him a very important man when he grew up, and Charles the Fifth knew that it would not be good if he was a Protestant and opposed Catholics. So, he had William brought to court and taught him all the things that an important man should know, especially how to be a good Catholic. Soon, William became the King's favorite page, and then, his trusted adviser.

When Charles left his throne to Philip, the new king put Willaim in charge of a big portion of the Netherlands. But William didn't always agree with the ways Philip governed his kingdom. He made laws against Protestantism, and didn't ask the leaders of Netherlands their opinion. Even though, William was now a Catholic, he understood how the Protestants felt.

William the Silent got his nick-name when he was visiting the court of a French king . The king did not realize that William had not always been a Catholic, and he told him that Philip was planning to kill all the Protestants in Netherlands. William was very mad, but he didn't show his anger or any emotion to the king. He did not even answer back. That is why he is called William the Silent.

After William got back to the Netherlands, he still pretended to obey Philip. But in secret he helped raise a small army against Philip. They went to the castle and asked Philip to take back the laws against the Protestants. But Philip would not. The group called themselves the Beggars, and they went through the country destroying Catholic churches and smashing their statues. William became an enemy of the king. A great war followed. Finally, seven provinces in the Northern Netherlands announced their independence from Spain, and they made William the Silent their king. William was eventually assassinated on the orders of the king, but the provinces became their own country, Holland. Bauer says that the Queen Beatrix who now rules Holland is William's great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great granddaughter.

You remember Queen Mary of Scots, (the cousin of Queen Elizabeth,) who was the queen of Scotland. She inherited the crown when she was less than a week old, so her mother became her regent and ruled for her. But Mary's mother was Catholic, and many Protestant noblemen didn't want a Catholic ruler, so they put themselves in charge of ruling the country until Mary was old enough. Mary's mother wanted her to be a good Catholic, so she sent her to France, where there were many other Catholics. Mary never saw her mother again.

When Mary was 18, she traveled back to Scotland to begin her rule. She said that she would not make people change their religions, and she even married a Protestant, but despite Mary's peacefulness, her husband, Lord Darnley, wanted more power. He didn't like that Mary was still a Catholic, so he and some other lords began to plan to overthrow his wife and make Catholicism illegal. But Mary found out about this secret, and she ran away from the castle to make an army for herself. When Mary came back, the others in her husband's plot had fled, but Darnley, who was still there, blamed it all on the absent lords. Mary pardoned him, but only for the time being. Later, the house in which Darnley was in blew up, and many blamed it on Mary.

Queen Mary of Scots became less and less popular, and finally, she was forced to sign a paper making her son, James, the king of Scotland. (You remember that when Elizabeth the First died, James also became the king of England.) Mary fled to Elizabeth's court, but after a while, her own cousin had her executed. What a tragic end to her story!

England and More About the New World



John Cabot



You have heard of Colombus and how he made his voyages. About five years after Columbus found "India", John Cabot, another explorer from England, started out from Europe with only twenty men and one ship! But the journey did not take very long. It was just a matter of weeks before Cabot spotted land. It was an island! The island was huge, and had some grass and plants on it, (from what the sailors could see from the ship.) In the water around the island were many fish. The sailors let down a basket. Almost instantly is was full of good codfish. The men were delighted! This fishing was easy! Of course, Cabot went ashore and claimed the land for England. He sailed back to Europe and told everyone that he had found a shortcut to Asia. He hadn't, really. The land he found was simply part of North America. When he started his 2nd journey to America, he had five ships. But out of all of these five ships, only one made it back. It was all tattered and torn, and John Cabot, on one of the other four ships, was never seen again. However, this did not stop exploration. Many fishermen, hearing of the schools of fish, traveled over in their fishing boats. There they started a colony called St. Johns. When the men came back, their boats laden down with fish, many other fishers sailed over, too. But St. John's was not the most perfect village to live in year round. In the winter there was lots of ice and wind. Hardly anyone lived there in the cold months. St. John's was located in what we now call Canada.



a fish



      There once was another explorer whose name was Jaques Cartier. He was from France, and he was sent by the king of France to gain land for his country. Cartier and his sailors got to North America in less than a month. He made maps of the island of Newfoundland, where the fishing villages were, and of the tiny islands that were closeby. Now, Cartier had been sent by the king of France to get land for France, and he did this. But he also had another idea in mind. Cartier wanted to find the shortcut to China. As he was exploring Newfoundland and its surroundings, he found a river. This is now called the St. Laurence River. He knew that the river went for a long ways, but he did not know how long. He thought that maybe this was a river that cut across the continent  and led to China. So he made friends with the Indians. He met two tribes, one called the Micmacs, and one called the Hurons. The Micmacs had discovered how to survive the hard winters, using wigwams covered with animal skins. Cartier wanted to know what the name of the land was. The Micmacs told him that they called it "our village." But in Micmac, that sounds something like Canada. So Cartier called it that. The Hurons also lived close by. Cartier wanted to sail down the river right away, but he knew that winter was coming, and that his men might not survive it. So he had to sail back to France. But in order to show the king what he had found, he asked that he might take the Huron Chief's two sons back to Europe. When he finally came back the next spring, the two boys were with him, even taller and stronger than before. The chief, Donnaconna, was so glad to see his sons that he allowed Cartier to sail down the river in safety and peace. But as the Frenchmen sailed down the river, they came closer and closer to the home of the Hurons. Donnaconna was getting nervous. How far would they go? Finally, he had had enough.  He stopped Cartier and told him to go away. But Cartier would not listen. He just kept on going down the water. But as they went farther and farther, the water was getting shallower and shallower. There were boulders and rapids. At last, Cartier knew it would be pointless to go further. The river obviously did not lead to China. When he returned to France, he captured and took Donnaconna with him to tell tales of treasure to the king. The chief died in France, and Cartier found no treasure in Canada, only worthless quartz. He never returned to Canada. The Americas were fascinating places to the people back in Europe. The Queen Elizabeth the 1st probably never saw it herself, and neither did many of her people. To some people in Europe, America was little more than a myth. But it was a good one, and many people were interested in seeing for themselves the mysterious "New World."



the spanish armada



              At this time, probably around 1534, ( since Bauer doesn't always tell the history in chronological order,) Spain was probably the biggest country in all of Europe, plus it had many settlements in the New World. Spain wanted to be the biggest country in the world, but she had a problem. Her problem was England. The English sailors were robbing Spanish ships and sailing in Spanish waters. They were sending explorers that got in the way of Spain's settlements. Eventually, Spain got so angry with this, that the king of Spain, King Philip, sent an angy message to Queen Elizabeth. He told her to keep her ships on her own waters, or Spain would begin a war. Elizabeth did not want a war, so she sent a peaceful promise back to Spain saying that she would. But secretly, she told her sailors that she did not care if they robbed the Spanish. So now the English sailors were pirating Spanish fleets more than ever because they did not have to worry about being punished by the Queen. England grew richer and bigger, and Spain grew angrier and angrier. Finally, she declared war on England. The king started builing a large army of ships. The 130 ships were called the Armada. Meanwhile, England was frantically assembling her army of ships. When the Spanish ships came sailing into England, their tactic was "grappling and boarding." That means they planned to hook English ships along side them, and then scramble on board to overtake the ships. But the English had a better plan. Their ships were small with guns in the sides. The English just shot holes in the sides of the Spanish ships, and finally they won. Spain was defeated!!!! Now England was becoming the most powerful country in Europe.

  I have now come to the end of the book by Susan Wise Buaer titled The Story of the World: Volume 2: The Middle Ages. It began from the fall of Rome, and now I have ended in the the Rise of the Rennaissance.

 I really enjoyed reading this book, and I can not wait to start Volume 3.

Exploration

Imagine this. You are the ruler of a country in Europe. Right now, it is pretty peaceful.  You have complete control over your small country, and no wars are going on. You are getting kind of bored with all of it. What can you do to make your life a little more exciting?

Make your country bigger, that’s what! You don’t want to start a war, so the ideal idea would be to find some land that no one else has found or claimed yet. That means that you should send some ships out to sea to where Columbus found land. Since hardly any of it has been claimed and you do not know how big it is, then it would be a perfect place to send settlers.

That is what Queen Elizabeth the First was thinking, (more or less,)when she sent ships to America to claim land for England. One reason why she did this, was that Spain was getting bigger and bigger. It now covered most of Italy, all of Spain itself, and other parts of Europe. If Spain took over North and South America, it would be the biggest country in the world! So Elizabeth gave the job of organizing the exploration to one of her favorite knights, Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh filled two ships with food, men, and provisions, and sent them off to America. When the sailors returned, they were very optimistic. There had been fertile soil, friendly Indians, black pearls, soft animal skins, and some new plants that they had never seen before. These were potatoes and tobacco. So Raleigh sent more ships, this time filled with settlers, to settle in the New World. But the people begged to be allowed to come back. The winters were cold, the ground was not very fertile, they were hungry, and the Indians were not being too friendly.  Finally, they sailed back in their ships.  But they left 15 soldiers to try and guard their town. When the second group of settlers sailed past the island the earlier colonists had been living on,  they saw no one. All the houses were in ruins, and there was no sign of human life. But they found only the skeleton of a soldier. But the commander of the ship was tired of having the colonists on board. He told them to get off and to go live on Roanoke Island. The settlers could not get off because they had only a few small boats, and so the commander and his sailors sailed away. The colonists persuaded a man named John White to England in one of the small boats. He arrived safely and asked for more food and provisions for the colonists, but England was now at war, and Elizabeth the First could not spare any ships for the mission at this point.

 White was not able to get back to the colony for at least three years! Finally, he got on a warship headed to fight the Spanish in South America. The captain agreed to stop at Roanoke Island to see the colonists, but when White  got there, as before, there were only ruins. There were no signs of life anywhere. There were no windows, doors, or walls, only the foundations of the houses. This made White think that the people might have moved there houses somewhere else. But he searched the whole island to no avail. He found only a word carved into a tree; CROATION. No one knows what happened to the lost colony of Roanoke.

Eventually, Sir Walter Raleigh lost his favor with the queen because he fell in love with one of her maids, and the maid became pregnant. Elizabeth wanted her knights to be only dedicated to her service, and when she died there were still no English colonies in America.

Changes in the World

You have probably heard of Martin Luther King and the changes he made in society. He helped the African-American black people gain their rights. You might also have heard of Martin Luther. He is not quite so recent, but he made a lot of important changes in the world that affect you whether you have heard of him or not. And in England, King Henry the 8th was building on those changes, building to his own advantage. In the early middle ages, Catholics were basically the only kinds of Christians, and the pope was the head of the church. This meant that because most people were Catholic, the pope had a lot of power. He could even tell kings what to do! The Catholic church frightened many people into giving them a lot of money, by saying that God would forgive all their sins if they gave a certain amount. That was called "indulgence". Martin Luther read the Bible carefully and he found out that God does not save us if we do good deeds, or if we give a lot of money to the church. God has already saved us, if we will believe in him. Martin Luther wrote a long list of things that were wrong about the Catholic church and indulgences. People began to think about what he was saying, and many of them started to disagree with the Catholics, too.The Catholic church did not like this, but the king of England did.

          The King of England at this time was a man named Henry the eighth. He did not want a war to start after he died over who would become the next king. He wanted his son to get immediate access to the royal throne. But his current wife did not bear him any sons, only a daughter named Mary. Henry wanted to get rid of his wife, and so he had to ask the pope if he was allowed to. But the pope said no, and so Henry got angry. He liked Martin Luther's ideas, that the pope should not always be the one in charge. He quickly told his kingdom that he was the all supreme ruler, and he got to make his own decisions. Now he could divorce his wife, Catherine.

Henry the eighth married again. His new wife, Anne Boleyn, had her head cut off because she did not give him a son either. Just another daughter named Elizabeth.

His third wife was a little luckier. Jane Seymour bore him a son named Edward, but she died in the process.

 Anne of Cleves was next, but Henry didn't like how she looked, so he sent her back to Germany, where she came from. Anne was happy, too. The king was getting old and did not look all that great either.

 Catherine Howard's head was cut off, not to long after she became the fifth wife of the king.

Catherine Parr, the king's 6th and last wife did a good job of taking care of him in his old age. She was also a good nurse to the children. This third Catherine died after Henry the eighth's death.

Susan Wise Bauer has a rhyme to help you remember all Henry King of England's wives.

Divorced, beheaded, died,

Divorced, Beheaded, survived

Martin Luther was not the only one who was changing things. All over Europe, people were settling down, because there was not much war going on, and so they had more time to make art and read. People began to read the manuscripts from the Romans and the Greeks, and so they were able to make science discoveries based on what they learned from the papers. They tried making Roman-style sculptures and painting Greek-style pictures. Architects began to build in the styles that had developed hundreds of years ago. And people began to "relearn" how to read.

 How many books are in your church, your house, your library? Probably more that five, at least, that is what I am guessing. But that is about how many were found in a church, because libraries had not been invented yet, and books were only found in the houses that had very rich owners, because they were very, very expensive.. The books were chained to the wall, so that no one would steal them. A book might take a lifetime to finish. Books were very valuable and very rare, even when the discovery of paper was made by the Egyptians. But one day, a guy called Johannes Gutenberg made a discovery. He learned how to make a printing press. And what is more, he made it out of an old wine press! Because of Gutenberg, books became much easier to make, and so more people were able to have them. They became less expensive, and more people learned to read. I can not now imagine a life without books.

India, "India," and America

Once, the land of India was split into many different countries. These countries were all ruled by noblemen or small kings. One of these countries was called Delhi. It was ruled by the Sultan of Delhi. India was getting poorer and poorer. It was having trouble ruling itself. It needed a leader. And finally one came. But this ruler was not from India, he was from the Ottoman Turks! His name was Babur. When Babur saw that the Sultan of Delhi was having trouble ruling his kingdom, he decided to conquer it. He had only 12,000 men, and the Sultan had 100000! But his men rode on fast horses, while the Sultan's rode big lumbering elephants. Babur was easily able to conquer Delhi. Then he conquered all the countries around it!   Babur was a good emperor, and while he was a Muslim many of his subjects were Hindus. Babur let them continue doing their own thing, while he did his. Although, he ruled India fairly, he was homesick. He thought India was a dull country, so he planted gardens. All together, Babur ruled in India for four years. Then, he died. His son, Humayan reigned, but was driven out of the country. When he came back, he was not very successful. Finally, he slipped on his library steps, bumped his head, and died. His son, Akbar, was a far better king. He conquered more and more kingdoms until his empire covered half of India!

While India was thriving, Europe was looking for it. Traders wanted to find an easier way to get to India than across  Africa. Christopher Columbus thought that the world was round, and so he would get to India if he just sailed West far enough. He was right of course, but he did not know about North and South America. When he finally sailed across the ocean, in ships provided by Queen Isabella of Spain, he thought it was India! He did not find any gold or spices but he did find parrots, peppers, and pineapples, not to mention the "Indians." He made many voyages back and forth but never did he realize it was a new continent. Many other explorers followed in Columbus's wake. Amerigo Vespucci gave America the name it has today. Magellan was the first to sail around the world. Well, he did not make the journey, for stopping to fight in an tribe's war, he was killed. One out of five of his ships came back to Portugal, and from 280 men, there survived less than 36. But he had the idea and that is what counts for a lot.

Ferdinand, Isabella, and Mansa Musa

Long ago, Spain conquered Muslim land. After that, there were three countries that made up Spain. But these countries didn't think that they were big enough. One of the kings, whose name was Enrique and who ruled over the small kingdom of Castile, wanted more soldiers so that he could make his army bigger and conquer other kingdoms. He told one of his noblemen Pedro Giron, that if he would give him some soldiers, he might have the king's sister, Isabella, for his wife. Did Isabella like this idea? No! She did not. The nobleman was over forty and she was only thirteen! She had also heard that he was mean and got drunk a lot. But was she asked her opinion? No! She was not. Did Pedro Giron, the nobleman like this idea? Yes, he did. And he was asked, too. Marry the king's sister? Would he like to? Of course! But before the marriage could take place, Pedro Giron died of stomach pains. Isabella was overjoyed! Her brother was not. A few years later, Enrique decided that Isabella would marry the king of Portugal, so that the two kingdoms could become one. Did Isabella like this idea? No she did not. The king of Portugal was old and fat and old enough to be her father!But was Isabella asked what she preferred? No! She was not. And this time she decided to do something about it. So she sent a secret message to the young Prince of Aragon. She had heard, even though they had never met, that he was kind, handsome, and her own age. Ferdinand agreed to come and meet her in a secret place. Four days after they met, they were married. Did Enrique like this idea? No! He did not. But he wasn't asked his opinion either. When Enrique died half a dozen years later, Isabella became queen. In time, Ferdinand also inherited the throne of Aragon. They united the two countries in to one big country of Spain. Later, they also conquered the land of Granada, where many Muslims lived. Now that they owned the whole country of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella declared it to be and only Christian country. They forced all the Jews to leave. While we remember Ferdinand and Isabella for uniting Spain, which was a good thing, we also remember the horrible thing they did to the Jews in making them leave the land they had lived in for so long.

        While Ferdinand and Isabella were reigning in their Spain, the world of the unknown lay out before them. Most people felt that places like Africa were dark and dangerous. However, the land of Africa thrived in its own special way. In the Middle Ages, much of Africa was roamed by nomadic tribes who lived off the land. But there were also many cities. Three of them were named Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. Ghana became rich and powerful because of the people who traveled through it. Traders carrying gold, salt, and other things to trade were taxed to pass through the city. The city of Ghana did very well for a long time. But then it began to fall apart because its kings would not convert to Islam. Other cities attacked it again and again. It got weaker and weaker. Soon Mali became the more important city. It copied Ghana and taxed the traders who went through. But it was and Islamic kingdom. One of the most famous kings of Mali was a man named Mansa Musa. Not only did he expand his army and his kingdom, he took a pilgrimage to Mecca, the Islamic holy city! That attracted the attention of the world. Soon, maps showed the city of Mali. Because of Mansa Musa, people in the Middle Ages learned about the country of Mali. But after the death of Mansa Musa, the kingdom of Mali began to fade away just like Ghana had. And, like Ghana, it was replaced by a new and larger kingdom. Songhay grew until it covered the entire region of what had once been Mali and Ghana. It had universities in its towns and many, many schools busy marketplaces and temples were also commonly found. The explorer Leo Africanus wrote about his travels in the country of Songhay. His book was called History and Description of Africa and the Notable Things contained therein. He wrote about the capital city of Timbuktu and its inhabitants, what the houses were made of,  and such. I think I would like to read his book.