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Original Work Assessment

Assessment:

For my original work, I decided to analyze five historical time periods in terms of

their economy and the existing financial technology. I explored close to fifty concepts, events,

and inventions that impacted the global history of finance. Essentially, I was trying to answer

“What is finance, and how have various historical developments created modern finance?” but I

found that it was often more like “How were various historical developments impacted by the

financial and economic concepts of the times?”. My purpose was to analyze what impacted

finance and how it impacted the world, with hopes of predicting future events.

Since my project was entirely research based, I did not make use of any physical

materials. All of my research was done online, and I typed my analysis in Google Docs. The idea

just came to me one day, so there was not a lot of brainstorming. After learning some basic

background, I started my research with the invention of agricultural, and I simply followed the

flow of events and inventions all of the way to modern times. I found that it was easiest to divide

history into five discrete time periods, which I will discuss in the following paragraph.

My original work proposal did not include the idea to break history up into five sections,

but they seemed to be fitting. In the process of analyzing the significance of various events and

inventions, I realized that some of them were important enough to transition into a new era of
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history. These events were: the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the Renaissance, the

Industrial Revolution, and the invention of the Internet. These might not entirely line up with the

time periods in AP World History, but this is not a history project, no matter how much it looks

like it.

After I had fleshed out the information for my time periods, I began to analyze the

financial and economic implications of the events and inventions. As I noticed significant items,

I highlighted them in yellow. The result is a five-part historical summary of economic and

financial developments with analysis and highlighted items of import. The sixth paragraph serves

to explain the impact of finance. The overarching themes are evident, and some predictions

based on historical patterns and cycles are presented toward the end.

I learned a lot from my original work, and I think it will largely serve as the groundwork

for future ventures and learning. My topic (finance) was the focus of my research, although I did

not delve into the actual mechanics of it very much. It would be helpful for me to do future

projects more based on real-world experience, but this was the most I could do without meeting

with a mentor. The main conclusion I have drawn from my work is that everything is cyclical.

The economy, history, all trends are both foreshadowed and echoed. My eyes have truly been

opened to the depth and breadth of finance and its impacts throughout time. Funnily enough, my

ISM journey has come full circle as well. I feel as though I am starting anew with a new project

and a mentor for the second semester.