In my old history class, there was a huge banner hanging on the wall that dominated the classroom. I read it every day: “Learn from the past. Live in the present. Prepare for the future. Less than a year ago, my classmates and I in our history class were panicking about final exams, studying hard and frantically, cramming everything the night before - in other words, exactly what our teachers told us not to do. This probably wasn't the best way to approach final exams. This year, my classmates and I tried to “learn from the past” and prepare ourselves better. But I guess you could say history repeats itself. On a larger scale, we can see this repetition through the Syrian Civil War, which has technically been going on since 2011, but there has been a long history of political instability dating back to the 1900s. Much like the Pequot War of 1634 , where without doing research one might think that the war was just that of the English against the Pequot, many people think that the Syrian conflict is between the "rebel forces" and Bashar al-Assad (the president of Syria) . ) and its government. When he “reluctantly” took power in 2000, due to the death of his male relatives, many people believed he would reform tumultuous Syria. However, his administration is considered "filled with hardliners," that is, people who support strict, often extreme rules. His administration is believed to have “distanced him from reforms.” Assad and his government have gathered many rebels, angry at the government and eager to overthrow it. But the “rebel forces” are not a large group, just as the “English” were the English, the Mohegans, and the Narragansetts. There are around 100,000 rebels in Syria, spread across around 1,000 different rebel groups. Some of the groups are... middle of paper ...... the empire grew to what it is today? Today, China's population is approximately 1.354 billion, and India's is approximately 1.27 billion. In 1600, there were about 200 million people in China(*) and India did not take a census, but it was a densely populated country(**). China is very powerful and important to the United States. They produce almost every item we use – most anything from a doll to any plastic to clothing has “MADE IN CHINA” written on its label. Has China always played such an important role in global society? Have China and India always had the most populous populations in the world? If not, when did this powerful surge begin?*according to http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/gccourse/energy/china.html**according to http://www.preservearticles.com/2011112818005/notes - on-the-early-history-of-population-growth-in-india.html