Looking Back at Our
Freshman year
Global Class
Egypt
• Egypt is part of the Sahara Desert. The Nile River runs through the
middle of Egypt. It’s used to grow crops, such as wheat and beans. It
rained so much in the highlands of Ethiopia that the Nile River would
sometimes flood. The water was full of black dirt, and it was a great
natural fertilizer.
• Egyptians were polytheistic. A few gods they believed in were Anubis,
Set, Osiris, Iris, and Horus. Egyptians believed that the Pharaoh was the
representative of each on the gods.
• Egyptians built pyramids and temples. This showed that they had a good
knowledge of geometry and engineering. Egyptians used the
Pythagorean theorem. Scientists learned how to measure how high a
flood was each year, and they kept calendars and records. They also
created yeast-rising bread.
• We know a lot about Egypt through paintings and the tombs that people
were buried in after they died. The paintings showed what all people did
on a daily basis. The Egyptians also developed hieroglyphics.
India
• India has three main religions, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. The
earliest Indian religion was of the Harappa people, and they were
polytheistic.
• Buddhism brought new artistic ideas. At first, nobody created images of
Buddha, who was a leader. They made stupas, which were symbolic
representations that didn’t look like a person. Around 500 AD, temples
of Ajanta and Ellora were carved with scenes of Buddha and shortly
after, statues of Buddha were created. Persian style Indian paintings
were popular.
• Indian scientists stood out in mathematics and engineering. In 2500
BC, a sewage system was created in the city of Mohenjo-Daro. Between
250 and 200 BC, Indian scientists were the first to be smelting iron with
carbon, which created steel. Indian mathematicians were responsible
for inventing the numeral zero, and the decimal system.
Confucius
• Confucius
• -He develpoed a philosophy.
• -His philosophy emphasized personal and governmental
mortality, correctness of social relationships, justice and
serenity.
• -Spread education to both rich and poor.
• -Inspired thousands of followers with his guidelines about
the proper way to live.
• -Ideas influenced every are of Chinese life
• "Heaven means to be one with God."
• "Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three
universally recognized moral qualities of men."
• "Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."
China
• The ancient Chinese people of the Shang dynasty were polytheistic
which means they worshiped many different gods. They were very in
touch with nature and had a deep respect for it. They looked up to
weather gods and sky gods. One god ruler over all the other gods and
he was called Shang-Ti. People from the Shang Dynasty also believed
that their ancestors became gods when they died. Each family
worshiped their ancestors that have died.
• One major religion in China was Confucianism. It was founded by
Confucius. Confucians believed that people should do their duty and
follow their leaders and gods faithfully.
• China had made many advances in science and learning as well.
Chinese scholars conducted scientific observations of different plants
and different species of animals. They also studied astronomy.
Hinduism
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Hinduism
-No single founder
-No sacred text
-Grew out of the overlapping beliefs of the diverse groups who settled in India.
-All Hindus share the same certain basic beliefs
-Monotheistic
-Three major gods: Braman, the creator, Vishru, the preserver, and Shiva, the destroyer.
-Born into caste system.
Buddhism
-Final goal is Nirvana
The Four Noble Truths
1. Life means suffering
2. The cause of suffering is the desire for things that are really illusions.
3. The only cure for suffering is to overcome desire.
4. The eightfold path is the way to overcome desire.
-Founder- Guantama Budda (The enlightened one)
-Rejected caste system
Buddhism
Greece
• Greek art was painted in many forms. Some were architecture,
sculpting, painting, and pottery.
• Greeks never at e meat unless it was sacrificed to a god, or hunted in
the wild.
• They took games very seriously. They had to exorcise and eat right, in
order to stay in athletic shape. Young men spent a lot of time training
for competitions. The best men were chosen to compete with other men
from other cities. A few games they competed in were the Olympic, and
Isthmian games. These games served as good training for the army.
• Pythagoras were interested in finding patterns in mathematics and
music. A student of Pythagoras was Socrates, who developed logical
methods for deciding if something was true, or false. Aristotle was a
philosopher who observed plants and animals.
Rome
• Roman republic, Cincinnatus war with Carthage Punic wars, Caesar,
architecture.
• Rome began as small city-states in Italy, and ended up ruling the entire
Mediterranean world.
• Romans learned a lot from Etruscan culture such as engineering
techniques, and their alphabet.
• The Romans drove out the Etruscan rulers in 509 B.C., and the Roman
Empire began.
• Rome began as small city-states in Italy, and ended up ruling the entire
Mediterranean world.
Romans learned a lot from Etruscan culture such as engineering
techniques, and their alphabet.
The Romans drove out the Etruscan rulers in 509 B.C., and the Roman
Republic began.
• Most of the population was farmers, merchants, artisans, and traders.
Plebians made up the middle class. The government of Rome had the
laws of the land inscribed on 12 tablets in the city.
Rome
• Rome’s conquest of the Italian peninsula brought it into contact
with a new rival, Carthage. Rome fought three wars known as the
Punic Wars between 264 B.C. and 146 B.C. Roman military
success increased the wealth of Roman citizens at home. The
rich got richer and the poor got poorer.
• Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great worked together to conquer
many new lands. However, Pompey became jealous and a civil
war broke out. Caesar crushed Pompey and his supporters.
Caesar reformed the government, and society. Caesar’s
grandnephew, Augustus exercised absolute power; however he
did not call himself king. Under Augustus the age of the Roman
empire began.
• Ancient Rome’s society was a patriarchal. Rome adopted ideas
from Greek culture. The most famous domed structure is the
Pantheon, a temple to all the Roman gods. Engineers built many
aqueducts and were skilled in architecture.
Islam
• Muslims were strict monotheists. Just like the Bible is our
Word of God, the Muslims believed the Torah was the word
of God. They believe in the Judeo-Christian God, which they
call Allah. The 5 Pillars of Islam were the foundation of
Muslim life. They were:
1. The Shahada
2. The Salat
3. The Zakat
4. The Sawm
5. The Hajj
Muhammad was the founder of Islam. The angel Gabriel
came to him in the Cave of Hira in 610. Islam spread rapidly
under Abu Bakr, who was the first caliph.
Islam
• The Golden Age of Muslim Civilization
The Muslim empire was at its height and it flourished in art, literature,
education, mathematics and science, and the economy. Muslims
absorbed and blended customs and traditions from many of the people
they ruled.
Muslim architects were influenced by Byzantine domes and arches.
Artists were skilled in calligraphy, and portrayed animal or human
figures in their paintings. Many writers wrote poems based on the
Quran. The most famous collection of Muslim stories is The Thousand
and One Nights. Muslim mathematicians and scientists studied the
works of Indian and Greek civilizations, and made many contributions to
society. Doctors were required to pass challenging tests before they
could practice, and the first hospitals were set up. Muslims had an
extensive trade network, encouraged manufacturing, and flourished in
agriculture.
Africa
• In Africa, women were responsible for the early pottery industry, iron
smelting when Africans began to smelt iron, and cloth manufacturing.
Men and women were involved in African medicine. However, in the
700’s, Phoenicians did not allow women to be involved in science.
• Africa was the place where people first started building houses for
themselves out of mud and sticks. People lived in Africa before they
lived anywhere else. These houses were the earliest architecture of the
African civilization. By 3000 BC, people were beginning to build more in
stone where it was available. There were also pyramids and smaller
tombs known as mastabas.
• The Bantu people of West Africa were monotheistic.
Period: F
Bibliography
http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/fourtruths.html
http://www.rhodesjewishmuseum.org/images/torah.jpg
http://www.payvand.com/news/03/jan/1001film.jpg
http://www.romanconcrete.com/graphics/pantheon.jpg
http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/51239344.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=
2&d=444ED34A869CB970470947F3A016ECD0284831B75F48EF4
5
http://www.malaspina.edu/~mcneil/jpg/caesar.jpg
http://www.islamtt.org/images/5pillars.gif