FOUNDATIONS

8000 BCE – 600 CE

Locating World History in the Environment and Time

• Environment-interaction of geography and climate with the development of societies– River Valley Chart– Importance (Nature) of Neolithic Revolution Notes

• Climate change, domestication of plants and animals• Economic and Social results of Neolithic Rev

– Major population changes resulting from human and environmental factors

Developing Agriculture and Technology• Agricultural, pastoral and foraging societies and their

demographic characteristics– Africa, America, South East Asia Examples– Nomad and Pastoralist Notes– Africa – Bantu– America –– Emergence of Ag and Tech change (tools)– Nature of Village society vs. Complex Societies

• Catal Huyuk and Jericho (lack political organization, size)

– Key stages of Metal Use: Bronze –Mesopotamia and Indus Iron – Hittites and Bantu (tools and weapons)

– Compare societies and cultures that include cities with pastoral and nomadic societies. (River valleys compared to Indo-Europeans or Bantu)

Demographic Changes Due to Environmental Factors

• Complex societies– Bantu, Indo-Europeans, Huns, Goths– Disease

• Time– Changes

• Neolithic Revolution: domestication, farm tools, ore

• Collapse of Societies

– Continuities• Migration, war, trade

Characteristics of Civilization• River Valley Chart (Mesopotamia, Egypt,

Indus, Shang)– Compare the Caste system to other systems

of social inequality devised by early and classical civilizations including slavery (Confucianism)

– Compare the political and social structures of two early civilizations, using any two of the following: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley, Shang dynasty, and Mesoamerica and Andean South America

• Nature of Patriarchal Systems

Classical Civilizations• SPECS plus Greece (Snapshot)• Major Political Developments in China, India and the

Mediterranean. (Mandate of Heaven, Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms unite India, Oligarchy, democracy, republic, tyranny)

• Political Heritage of Classical China: Emperor and Bureaucracy– Compare the development of traditions and institutions in

major civilizations like India, China and Greece. (based on religion, philosophy, isolation, democracy and population)

• Social and Gender Structures • Major trade patterns (Mental Map)• Art, Science and Technology (Greco-Roman art, Indian

science, Chinese technology)• Greek approach to science and Philosophy, Aristotle but no

other philosophers.

Major Belief Systems• Basic features of belief systems (Religion Chart)

– Polytheism: Hellenic/Hellenistic/America/Africa

– Hinduism– Judaism– Confucianism– Daoism– Buddhism– Christianity– Major Comparison: Compare the major religious and

philosophical systems including similarities in cementing social hierarchy, e.g. Hinduism contrasted with Confucianism.

– Role of women in different belief systems (convents)• Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Confucianism

Late Classical Period (200-600 c.e)

• Understand how and why the collapse of empire was more sever in western Europe than it was in the eastern Mediterranean or in China

• Movement of People– Huns and Germans

• Interregional Networks, trade and religion– Zoroastrians, Manichaeism, spread of religions (see

power point)– Diffusion of Religions, but not specific forms.– Describe interregional trading systems like the Indian

Ocean trade (Major Comparison)

Diverse Interpretations

• Issues involved in using “Civilization” (See Sterns reprint)

• What is the most common source of change: connection or diffusion vs. independent invention?– Mental map

REMEMBER!

• The exchange of goods & ideas shaped this period and led to further change throughout the world – Silk Road, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean Sea

• Discovery of agriculture changes lives at a rapid pace

• Emergence of gender roles – reinforced by government & religion

• Major world religions emerged – influenced large numbers of people (Hinduism Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism in Asia; Christianity & Judaism in Europe and Asia)

• Emerging civilizations grew into larger and more complicated organizations such as empires: Rome, Han, & Gupta