Paleolithic Age
“Old-stone”
• Australopithecines – First upright
hominids 3-4 mil yrs ago" Lucy"
• Homo Sapiens – 120,000 yrs ago
• Homo sapiens sapiens – 30,000
BCE, modern humans
• Cross the Bearing Strait – 25,000
BCE
Here’s Lucy. Aint she
beautiful?
Let’s put
some skin on
them bones!
Out of Africa
• Homo Erectus left Africa; isolated; separate species
from ex. Neanderthals
• Homo sapiens sapiens originate in Africa
Spread - take over
Nomadic - Follow food
Men hunted, women gathe
If DNA proves that we all come
from one place (Africa)…
• …then, why are people racist?
• Think about these questions:
– How are we all African Americans?
– How are we all native Americans?
Neolithic Age
“New-stone”
• 8,000 – 5,000 BCE
 Agriculture (Neolithic Revolution)
Most important event in history
 “When your food and security is taken care of,
your culture will flourish.” – Mr. Brock
 “People who quote themselves are super lame.”
– Mr. Brock
 Cities
 Religion
 Metal Tools
What is a civilization?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Food surplus
Advanced cities
Advanced technology
Skilled workers
Complex institutions – government, religion
System of writing/record keeping
• ‘birthplace of
civilization’
• Between Tigris and
Euphrates
• Modern day Iraq
• Political and
military
organization
• 6,000 BCE
Irrigation
Mesopotamia
• Why are rivers where early civs start?
• River makes land nearby fertile with minerals.
Hammurabi
•
•
•
•
•
Reigned 1700s BCE
Babylonian Empire – Most of Mesopotamia
Centralized Bureaucracy
Taxes
The Code of Hammurabi
– Eye for eye
– High class = less punishment
Ancient Egypt
•
•
•
•
Begins 3100 BCE in Nile Delta
Writing – Hieroglyphics
Nile – Flows North 4,000 miles
Social structure= pyramid
Rosetta Stone, found in 1799, has the
same text in three translations:
hieroglyphic; demotic (another form of
Egyptian writing); and classical Greek.
Demotic was known then, and Greek very
well-known by scholars.
• Indus River 3000 BCE
• Modern Pakistan
(close to India)
• Aryans –
– European
nomads
– migrated there
– brought caste
system
• Controlled
natives
Harappa
Caste System
• Rigid social hierarchy
• Caste = social level
– 1. Priests
– 2. Warriors
– 3. Workers
– Outside of the Caste System – Untouchables
• Considered sub-human
• Touch dead bodies/waste
• Should not be touched or spoken to
Mesoamerica
•
•
•
•
•
Olmec – 1200 BCE - Mexico
Maya – 300-900 CE - Mexico
Aztec – 1100s CE – Mexico
Inca – 1400s CE - Peru
Started later because
– Inhabited later
– Bad geography (mountains/deserts)
– No beasts of burden (pack animals)
•
•
•
•
Silk Road
Trade routes for India’s empires
Camel caravans - from China to India, Africa, and Europe
Luxury items
Exchange religion and culture
Chinese Dynasties
• Shang Dynasty
1st dynasty
Writing
Oracle Bones – questions carved
• Zhou Dynasty
Mandate of Heaven – (can keep
ruling if fair)
• Qin Dynasty
Great Wall – kept out nomads
Great Wall from Space
The Greeks
• City states governed by
polis
• Homer – unidentified
group that wrote Odyssey
and Iliad?
• Athens = source of
Western culture
• Invented drama
Sparta and Athens
• Sparta
– All about war
– Strict, men in military until 60
– Isolated, oligarchy (two kings)
• Athens
– All about democracy
– Direct democracy, all vote
– Unified Greece
– Lost to Sparta; Peloponnesian War
Alexander the Great
• Conquered most of
Mediterranean by
age 20
• Spread Greek
empire furthest
• Started Hellenistic
(golden) Age
Philosophers
• “Love of wisdom,” rational thought
• Wanted to explain nature without
saying “the gods did it”
• Socrates –Socratic Method. Suicide
instead of trial for corrupting youth.
• Plato
• Aristotle
The Romans
• Ruled by kings, then Republic
–ppl elect ppl make laws
•
•
•
•
Patricians – upper class – land owners
Plebeians – lower class – poor, peasants
Senate – made laws (Patricians)
12 Tables – first set of Roman laws
–Innocent until proven guilty
–Right to defend self in court
Roman Jews
• Jews in Israel resistance Romans
• Jesus of Nazareth born 1 CE-ish,
small group of Jews proclaim
Messiah
• After Jesus’ death in 33 CE,
branch of Judaism developed into
Christianity
Mali
• Mali – Defeated Ghana, gold, salt trade
–Mansa Musa - doubled size
–Went to mecca, as Muslim
–Brought tons (literally of gold)
The Mongols
• Largest land empire ever
• Military unstoppable
• Best with guns and horses
• Golden Horde (best army) conquered
Russia
• Why didn’t they take over Europe?
Ogedei died. Return to Mongolia.
• Why didn’t they take over Japan?
Huge storms (kamikaze) (divine winds)
stop Mongols.
Important Mongols
• Genghis Kahn (Grandpa) – started
and spread empire
• Ogedi Kahn (Son) – died in Poland
• Kublai Kahn (Grandson) – Took China
called it Yuan Dynasty
• Fun fact, biological warfare
Japanese Beginnings
• Small tribes
• 600s, Yamamoto unites, divine ruler
• 800s civil war
 Aristocrats hire samurai, military servants
 Bushido – Samurai code (The way of the warrior)
• Agricultural based, rice
• Shinto – religion
– Animistic – spirits in all things
– Worshipped kami (spirits of ancestors)
European
Feudalism
Japanese
Feudalism
King
Emperor
Lord
Daimyo
Knight
Samurai
Serfs
Peasants
Chivalry
Bushido
Motives for the Crusades
• Motives
Muslim invasion of “Christian”
territories
Knights get penance for kill count or
dying on a crusade
• Pope Urban II sent knights on holy
crusade to Middle East to reclaim the
holy lands
Influences Gained by European
Interactions with Muslims
• Muslims preserved Greek and Roman
texts
• Crusaders brought back texts
–Lead to Renaissance (cultural rebirth)
• Science, technological advancements,
mathematical advancement, banking
Great Schism
• Before 1054, Holy Roman Church and Eastern
Orthodox Church together
• Differences led to split
Only Orthodox priests could marry
Orthodox Bibles in Greek, not Latin
Iconoclasm – Pope outlawed praying to icons
(pictures). Angered E.O.
• Pope (papa) and Patriarch of Constantinople
excommunicated each other, caused rift, exists
today
Icons
•
•
•
•
Causes and Effects of the Black Plague
Bubonic Plague
Transmitted from Middle East by traders
Killed over 1/2 Europe’s pop.
Brought by Mongols on Silk Road
– Rodents, Fleas, Bacteria
– Human to Human
• Loss of faith in Church to protect people
Decline in Church power
Mass burials
Vampire rumors
Medical advancements