Name: ______________________________
WH/GEO I – SOL Review Packet
75 points
These questions cover the essential knowledge that is on the SOL.
Remember: All questions need to be answered completely and in
complete sentences. (HANDWRITTEN/IN YOUR OWN WORDS)
I will be answering the: (Circle) EVEN or ODD
1.
What defines absolute location?
2.
How has the movement of people been significant to world history?
3.
Homo Sapiens first emerged on what continent? How many years ago?
4.
Early hunter-gatherers depended on wild plants and animal life and were sometimes forced to migrate to
new locations for food. This made them what type of people?
5.
What were the key characteristics of societies of the Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age)?
6.
What were the major characteristics of the Neolithic Era (New Stone Age)?
7.
8.
9.
What is carbon dating?
What site in England was begun in the Neolithic Age but finished in the Bronze Age?
Why were river valleys important to the development civilization?
10. What civilization emerged in the Nile River Valley and Delta?
11. The valleys of what two rivers served as the home to Mesopotamian civilization?
12. Indian civilization first emerged in what river valley?
13. Chinese civilization first emerged in what river valley?
14. Where did the Phoenicians settle?
15. What is a city-state?
16. What was the first written law code? (it was created by a Babylonian ruler)
17. Because of agricultural surpluses, certain people were able to engage in tasks and jobs other than farming.
What was this development called?
18. Which group of people were the first to practice monotheism?
19. Who is Abraham and why is he important?
20. Who was Moses and why is he important?
21. What is the holy book of Judaism ? Identify the major beliefs, traditions, and customs of Judaism.
22. What was the Diaspora?
23. What is the name of the earliest written symbols, where pictures would represent ideas?
24. What was the form of writing in Egyptian civilization?
25. What was the form of writing in Sumer?
26. What were the key characteristics of the Persian rule and government?
27. What was the official religion of Persia? What were its key beliefs?
28. Why is India considered a subcontinent?
29. What physical and geographical barriers made invasion of India very difficult?
30. What group of people were eventually able to invade India? How did they get there?
31. What are the key characteristics and beliefs of Hinduism?
32. What is reincarnation?
33. Explain the concept of Karma?
34. What are the sacred writings of Hinduism?
35. Who founded Buddhism? Where was it founded?
36. What are the Four Noble Truths?
37. What is the Eightfold Path? Identify the eight steps.
38. Explain the key characteristics and beliefs of Confucianism.
39. Explain the key characteristics and beliefs of Taoism (Daoism).
40. What is the Great Wall? Why was it built? Who was responsible for its construction?
41. What idea was used by Chinese rulers to justify their rule? It lasted only as long as what?
42. What symbol is used to represent opposites in both Confucianism and Taoism?
43. What geographical term is used to describe the location of Greece?
44. How did the mountainous terrain on the Greek peninsula affect its growth and unity?
45. What was the purpose of the Greek gods and goddesses? What things did Greek mythology explain?
46. The following deities were gods of what? (Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Aphrodite)
47. Which city-state developed the most democratic system of government in history?
48. Which groups of people had no political rights in Ancient Greece? What people were considered citizens in
Ancient Greece?
49. Athens evolved through what four forms of government (in order)?
50. Who was Draco and why was he important?
51. Who was Solon and why was he important?
52. Sparta had what form of government? Which means what?
53. What were the major qualities and values of Spartan society?
54. What wars were fought by the Greeks from 499-449BC that united Athens and Sparta?
55. What was the Battle of Marathon and why was it important?
56. What was the Battle of Salamis and why is it important?
57. What war lasted from 431-404BC and pitted Sparta against Athens?
58. Athens led what military alliance?
59. Sparta led what military alliance? Who won the conflict?
60. What individual led Athens during its Golden Age? What were his major achievements?
61. What is the Parthenon?
62. What poet spoke of the Trojan Wars? What are his epic poems called?
63. Which Greek artist was famous for his sculpture of Athena at the Parthenon?
64. What were the three types of Greek columns and what were their major characteristics?
65. Who was Hippocrates and why was he important?
66. Who was Euclid and why was he important?
67. Who was Pythagoras and why was he important?\
68. Who were the three major philosophers and what were their major contributions?
69. What individual was responsible for conquering Greece? Where was from?
70. Who adopted Greek culture and spread Hellenistic influences throughout this vast empire?
71. What was the Hellenistic Age and why was it important?
72. What geographical features protected Rome and the Italian peninsula?
73. What was the early form of government in Rome (after the Etruscan kings were deposed)?
74. Who were the Patricians?
75. Who were the Plebeians?
76. Roman law was written down and called what?
77. What city in North Africa came into conflict with Rome over control of trade? What were the series of wars
known as?
78. Who was Hannibal and why was he important?
79. Who won the Punic Wars and what happened to Carthage as a result? to Rome?
80. Who was Julius Caesar and why was he important?
81. Who was Augustus Caesar and why was he important?
82. What was the Pax Romana?
83. Who began the teachings that eventually evolved into Christianity?
84. How did Christian beliefs conflict with Roman Mythology?
85. What are the characteristics, beliefs, and traditions of Christianity?
86. Who were the Apostles, and why is Paul important?
87. Who adopted and legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire? Why?
88. Why were Roman roads and aqueducts important?
89. Who is Virgil and why was he important?
90. What five factors caused the decline of the Roman Empire?
91. Who moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to Byzantium? What did he rename the city?
92. Why was Constantinople’s location important to the Byzantine Empire?
93. Who codified old Roman law for use by the Byzantine Empire? What was its name?
94. What is the name of religious images used by Greek Orthodox Christians in worship?
95. What was the name of the Byzantine domed church in Constantinople? What type of elaborate artwork did
it feature inside?
96. How did Greek and Roman culture survive in the Byzantine Empire?
97. What were the key characteristics of the Eastern Christian Church (Greek Orthodoxy)?
98. What were the key characteristics of the Western Christian Church (Roman Catholicism)?
99. Why was there a division between the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity?
100. What led to interaction between Byzantines and the Slavs in Russia?
101. The Slavic oral languages were adapted to the Greek alphabet by who? What was it called?
102. Who founded Islam?
103. In what geographic region was Islam founded? What two key religious cities are there?
104. What are the key characteristics, beliefs, and traditions of Islam?
105. Identify each of the Five Pillars of Islam.
106. What is the holy book of Islam?
107. What factors allowed for the significant expansion of Islamic beliefs and Muslim rule?
108. Islam is divided into what two branches? Which is more common today?
109. What happened at the Battle of Tours and why was it important?
110. What Mathematical achievements are attributed to the Muslim Empire?
111. What became the unifying force in Western Europe during the Middle Ages? Led by who?
112. Early Medieval society was founded on what three influences?
113. How did the Roman Catholic Church exercise influence during the Middle Ages? (4 ways)
114. What was a medieval manor and how did it work?
115. What group of people did the Church establish an alliance with in order to expand their power and
influence?
116. Who was anointed as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 800 AD?
117. What technological advances allowed for an expansion of trade?
118. What two religious traditions coexisted in Japan?
119. What are the key beliefs and traditions of Shinto?
120. What were the key characteristics of Axum (East Africa)?
121. What were the important characteristics of Zimbabwe (Southern Africa)?
122. What were the characteristics of the West African kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai?
123. What were the characteristics of Mayan civilization (Central America)?
124. What were the characteristics of Aztec civilization (present-day Mexico)?
125. What were the key characteristics of Incan Civilization (South America)?
126. Who led the Norman Conquest and united most of England?
127. King John limited his power and the power of future kings when he signed what? When?
128. What conflict with France united England as a nation?
129. Who was Joan of Arc and why was he important?
130. Who were Ferdinand and Isabella and why were they important?
131. Who was Ivan the Great and why was he important?
132. What were the Crusades and why were they carried out?
133. What were the four major effects of the Crusades?
134. Who were the Mongols, and to where did they extend their empire?
135. What group invaded and conquered the Byzantine Empire?
136. What was the impact of the Black Death on economic and social institutions? (five)
137. How did Church scholars interpret and value ancient learning? (five)
138. What were the three economic concepts of the Renaissance?
139. What were the three benefits to the geographic location of the Northern Italian city-states of Florence,
Venice, and Genoa?
140. Who is Machiavelli and why was he important? What is the Prince?
141. Medieval art and literature focused on what?
142. Renaissance art and literature focused on what?
143. Who was Leonardo da Vinci, and for what was he famous?
144. Who was Michelangelo and for what was he famous?
145. What is humanism, and why was it important to the Renaissance?
146. What three factors explain how the values and ideas of the Italian Renaissance spread to Northern Europe?
147. What did Northern Renaissance thinkers merge with humanist ideas?
148. What invention and events helped disseminate ideas?
149. Who was Erasmus and why was he important?
150. Who was Sir Thomas More and why was he important?