Blog 2

The histories of Africa and the Americas during the second wave era largely resemble those of Eurasia. Do you agree with this statement? It is true that the second wave era in America and Africa bear a huge resemblance to Eurasia during the classical age. The Maya, which is the lead classical civilization of Mesoamerica, brought about historical and cultural achievements. The Mesoamerican civilization stretched from central Mexico all the way to Northern Central America. Strayer noted that this civilization had a linear relationship with African civilization which took place in three regions namely; The Niger River Basin, Northeastern Africa, and Bantu-speaking Africa. The civilizations resulted in culturally advanced societies regarding religion, mathematics, language, art, and architecture. There are some cultural elements that spread during the classical and second-wave eras and are universal in Eurasia, Africa, and America. They include human sacrifice, sun worship, agriculture, spinning and weaving, metal working, ceramics, domestication of animals, marriage, slavery, circumcision, and tribal warfare. During the classical era, states like Teotihuacán and Axum came to power and seized opportunities in their respective geographies. On the other hand, America became The Chavin cults developed in the Andean Highlands spread widely across Africa and America just like religious traditions were pervasive in Eurasia. Religion created a powerful unifying bond between indigenous people in the Eurasian society. On the other hand, the Chavin was a preliterate civilization in South America that spearheaded the development of agriculture and establishment of a trade network. Similar to America, the slave trade was atypical to Eurasian civilization. There is absolute severance between the African society and the American civilization. Also, the geographic separation between Axum and Meroe on one end and the Niger Valley society, on the other end, supports the sentiment that the classical and second wave civilizations were similar. The cultural distention between societies facilitated trade, transmission of ideas, the establishment of institutions and technological advancement. There are also parallels between the classical Greek and the Mayan civilizations because different regions were largely independent.