1. Identify and explain two examples of external factors that led to the downfall of a civilization The Inca Empire is an example of how external forces led to the downfall of a civilization. The Inca Empire was pushed to its fall by external forces such as diseases brought by outsiders and the Spanish conquistadors. A website called Discover Peru informed me that diseases such as smallpox, measles, chickenpox, and influenza killed between 50% to 90% of the Inca population (The Fall of the Inca Empire). These diseases were brought by outsiders which makes them external factors that led to the downfall of the civilization since diseases weakened the empire letting the Spanish get into the empire easily. The Spanish forcefully took control of the Empire and murdered Emperor Atahualpa according to my fellow classmate’s website (Mahiout, Khan, Karim - Inca Empire). The Spanish conquest ended the Empire because it completely …show more content…
Language illustrates collective learning because of the fact that it is so complex and precise. By that I mean the fact that the human language is very complex and precise today is due to collective learning. Big history informed me the language we have today is mostly due to collective learning because a group of humans kept on passing down their knowledge of words to future generation creating a complex language. Another example of collective learning is knowledge. Everyone is smart in their own ways but what makes up our culture are the thoughts of everyone combined. An article in Big History Project said humans have connections like a network of computers. We have a vast memory due to the fact that we share knowledge so our knowledge is distributed among millions of people who then pass it on to future generations which embodies collective learning. Both language and knowledge show the idea of collective learning through passing down words and