Prehistory
According to scientists, human beings started
living in Africa about 2 million years ago. The old
human bones found in Africa were found in an area in
Tanzania called the Great Rift Valley. Prehistory is the
time that comes before history, when there were no
written names and dates. The period of prehistory is
called the Stone Age, because during this time people
flaked and polish sticks and stones in order to make
or invent tools.
The Old Stone Age is also Pal eolithic era. This
time period lasted from about 70,000 to about 12,000
years ago. Prehistoric humans were called huntergathers, because they gathered plants and
vegetables and because they hunted animals. The
animal hunted by hunter-gatherers is called their
prey. These animals were important, because they
allowed early humans to survive.
Stone tools were made by a process called flacking,
during which prehistoric hunters’ chipped pieces of
stone to give them a sharp edge.
Life during the Ice Age was hard for early people,
because of climatic changes. The temperature was
very cold; the winters were very hard; and snow was
very deep.
Some human ancestors before modern humans
were named Neanderthal, because their bones have
been discovered in the neander valley in Germany.
They had two thick ridges, and a low forehead.
About6, 000
years ago, people discovered that
could use and mix different types of material to make
tools and weapons and armor and jewelry.
Early Agriculture
The last Ice Age ended about 12,000 years ago.
When the ice age ended the earth’s climate warmed and
the number of plants and animals decreased dramatically.
The diet of early humans changed because the earth’s
climate warmed and the amount of plants and animals
decreased dramitcly.
Humans began to settle in one place because there was a
lot of water when the ice melted and the plants started to
thrive and then the people had no reason to move to move
because plants just grew and grew and the plants
attracted animals.
Agriculture is rising of crops and animals for human
use. So that they could work on farming one area and then
over the 0ver the year the solid would keep getting richer
and better for growing plant in.
To demarcate means to train something useful to people.
It could benefit people because then you wouldn’t have to
go to a lot of trouble to get capture or catch an animal
before slottering it milking it.
A Surplus is an extra supply of something having a
surplus would allow people to specialization.
Specialization means to do partuculaitr kind of work.
Humans would travel to, meet in, and even settle in
towns and villages so they could easily trade.
Civilization is a culture that has developed system of
specialization, region, learning, and government. To say
“cities are the home of civilization” means that there are
enough people in cities to have specializations, teach in
schools, practice their religion by praying together, and
form a government.
Plants that residents domesticated and had a surplus of
were grains such as wheat, which could be ground into
flour to make bread, barley, peas, and lentils. Animals the
residents domesticated were wild goats, pigs, cattle, and
sheep. Skilled crafts they specialized in were pottery,
weaving, jewelry, and copper working. The goods and
products they created were fine clay pots, woven wool
cloth, and copper jewelry
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is one of the world’s first civilizations.
The word
“Mesopotamia” means Land between the rivers
In Greek. The rivers that formed this area, which is called
the Fertile Crescent, are the Tigris and the Euphrates.
Southern Mesopotamia also goes by the name Sumer.
This region was made up not of countries or counties, but
of city-states, which is a powerful self-governing villages
that controls the villages around it. Three such city-states
were Ashur, Nineveh, and
Assyria.
The Mesopotamians created one of the world’s first
written languages. It is called cuneiform. This was made
by scratching on a wet, clay table. It has about 500
symbols or picture writing that look like the thing they
describe. Usually boys went to school to learn to read,
write, and do mathematics. After they left school, they
became a scribes or official writer. They wrote laws,
legends, songs, and records. The world first set of written
code of laws, called the code of Hammurabi were written
in this language.
The ancient Mesopotamians believed in many gods.
This is called polytheism. Most of their gods were nature
gods. Ki was the god for a good harvest; Enlil was the god
of rain, and Enki was the god of water. The Mesopotamians
built large
Step-temples called ziggurats on which they worshipped
their gods.
Ancient Egypt
Egypt is located in North Africa. The Nile River is the world’s
longest
river. The Nile empties into the Mediterranean Sea. The
Nile helped
people get food because when the river flooded, the land
got minerals from
the floodwater, which made the plants thrive. Irrigation is
a system of canals
to bring water to crops and fields. It helped people make a
living
because farmers wouldn’t have to go all the way to the
river just
to get water to water their crops.
The type of government the Egyptians had revolved around
the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh’s job was to make sure that
Egypt continued to be wealthy and did well in trade.
Hieroglyphics is a system of 800 pictures-signs and
symbols that represented things or letter sounds. Scribes
had an important role in Egyptian society. Scribes traveled
around Egypt, writing about important events and also kept
track of who paid their taxes. Only boys could become
scribes. They started to learn writing and math at 10 years
old. They wrote with reed pens on papyrus made from
reeds. On top of the Egyptian social pyramid was the
Pharaoh, next were the scribes, below them were the
farmers and craftsmen, and on the bottom were the slaves.
What type of religion did the Ancient Egyptians have?
Egyptians had many gods. Who was the head of their
religion? The head of the religion was the pharaoh. What
were pyramids? The pyramids were like houses to the
pharaoh and his wife what was the purpose, or function, of
a pyramid? The purpose or function of the pyramids was
to have a house for the pharaoh and his wife.
Ancient grease
The civilization of ancient Greece lay on Eastern
Europe in and peninsulas that stick into the Mediterranean
Sea. A peninsula is an area of land almost entirely
surrounded by water.
. Small harbors throughout the area give protection for
ships that dock there. Two of the large peninsulas on the
Greek mainland are Peloponnesus and Attica. The citystate of Sparta, Athens’ enemy, was on the large peninsula
named the Peloponnesus. Crete and Rhodes are two large
Greek islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The civilization of
Minoa, named after King Minos, grew up on the island of
Crete. And the early Greek civilization of Mycenae grew on
the mainland of Greece.
Athens was the most powerful city-state on Attica.
This was where -democracy was born. This is the form of
government in which the people controlled their
government by voting. This form of government was first
started by Solon. Later, during the Golden Age of Athens,
the statesman Pericles expanded Athens’ democracy. In
Athens, the citizens would gather in the Assembly to vote
on laws. Pericles was responsible for building the
Parthenon, which is a temple to the goddess Athena on top
of the Acropolis. Athena was the goddess of war and
wisdom. The Acropolis was a high hill in the center of the
city where citizens could go for protection when enemies
attacked the city.
The city of Athens itself was named after the goddess
Athena. The Greeks worshipped many other gods,
including Dionysus god of wine—and Zeus—the chief god,
He is father of Athena. Every four years the Greeks would
have the Olympics Games near Mt. Olympus, in order to
entertain and please the gods and goddesses.
Ancient Rome
The ancient civilization of Rome was founded on
the Italian peninsula. The city was founded on the
Latium Plain. The Timer River flows through the
center of the city.
According to mythology, twin brothers named
Romulus and Remus founded Rome. After Rome’s last
king, whose name was Tarquinius was overthrown,
Rome became a republic, which is a government in
which the people choose their leader representatives
to speak for them and pass laws. (The U.S.A. has this
form of government.)
Rome was divided up into 2 social groups: plebeians
and patricians. Plebeians are working class people who
work for patricians, who are rich land-owners. The
patricians were not always fair towards the plebeians. So,
the plebeians rebelled and got the patricians to publish
Rome’s first set of laws. These were called The twelve
Tables.
The most powerful branch of Rome’s government was
the
Senate. It was made up of patricians. It controlled lawmaking and how money was spent in Rome. Senates were
elected by the plebeians from the Citizen assembly. They
asked the Senates to pass laws for the plebeians. There
were two powerful consuls. One was head of the army and
one was a chief judge.
Rome wanted to be the unquestioned leader of the
entire Mediterranean region. So they went to war with the
civilization of Carthage over who would control the island
of Sicily. These wars were called the Punic wars.
Julius Cesar was Rome’s first dictator, which is an allpowerful ruler. Caesar was from a wealthy patrician
family, and he had built up his power as a Senator, Consul,
and later as the military governor of Roman Gaul [France].
After Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in the Senate, his
adopted stepson, named Augustus Caesar, became
emperor. Rome grew in power and in the size of the area
that it controlled. The time when Augustus Caesar ruled
was called the Pax Romana, which means Roman peace. To
pay for its huge building projects, Rome collected lots of
money from those it had conquered. It counted the
numbers of people whom it had conquered; they called
this count a Census. Roman soldiers built an immense
network of roads. Water was carried to new Roman cities
on raised water bridges called aqueducts. Roman citizens
enjoyed bloody entertainment in Rome’s immense
coliseum, which is where gladiators fought to the death.
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages were from A.D. 500 to the
1400’s. Charles Martel is the grandfather of “Charles the
Great” who was the commander, who drove the Arabs out
of the Merovingian kingdom of the Franks. Charles Martel’s
grandson was Charlemagne, the greatest leader of the
Franks. Charlemagne went around the southwestern part
of Germany at the time and conquered kingdoms.
Charlemagne had in relation to Roman Christianity that he
was crowned the Roman Emperor. Charlemagne
conquered western Germany and eastern France. The
Pope wanted Charlemagne to restore the might of the old
Roman Empire, so he crowned him the Roman Emperor to
complete this mission.
Feudalism was a way to keep peace in Europe.
Feudalism started around the year 800. It worked to help
control Europe’s lands. The kings divided land into fiefs.
Fiefs were land that powerful landowners gave to knights
or nobles. In return for getting the land nobles pledged to
give their king their loyalty, support in a war, and promised
to keep the peace. Feudalism maintained peace and order,
because of how it worked, it always worked the same way.
Vassals were nobles who took an oath of loyalty to their
lords. A lord was the landowner of the fief. The
relationship between a lord and vassal was the vassal was
very loyal to the lord. The Oath of Fealty was when a vassal
swore loyalty to his lord. The Code of Chivalry was the code
of conduct that knights believed they should follow.
Knights were nobles who agreed to fight for a king or
powerful landowner. The responsibilities of knights were
to fight on horseback with armor. Serfs had the role to man
the land that nobles got. The serfs had to harvest the crops
and tend to the farm animals. They had to pay taxes in
crops they harvested. A manor was a settlement, with a
fortified house that belonged to the fief’s owner, which a
serf lived in. A manor would usually have a church too that
serfs could go to.
The Norse were northern raiders that came from
Denma. The Duke of Normandy crossed the English
Channel with about 5,000 Norse in 1066. William defeated
Harold, the Saxon king of England. William was known by
William the Conqueror. Changes that were made by
William and his tribe include a stronger government in
England, French culture was brought, and the new
languages were Norman and Saxon.
King John was the King of England. King John was forced
to sign the Magna Carta, because everyone wanted fewer
taxes but he wanted more taxes to pay for wars. The Magna
Carta was an important document, because it established
legal rights. It gave a standard good way to settle legal
issues.
The primary religion in the middle ages was the Roman
Catholic Church. Monks were people who lived in the
monasteries where they dedicated their lives to God.
Monks worshiped the Roman Catholic Church in their time.
A monastery was a farm, a church, a home, and a school all
in one area. Monks had to write manuscripts for people in
the monasteries. Manuscripts were copied in the
scriptorium of the monastery by monks. Monks would
copy prayers and poetry on to scrolls. Convents were a
home for nuns. There were many female saints who
wanted to help the poor. Nuns were and still are
comparisons to monks or today, priests, but they were
females instead. A cathedral was a large Christian church
where religion was practiced.
The Crusades were a series of wars that were fought to
take the Holy Land. Crusaders were the defenders of
Jerusalem that battled with the Muslims. The Reconquista
was a long war fought by Christian army to recapture
Spain.
Craftsmen were tailors, shoemakers, drapers, bakers,
locksmiths, painters, joiners, stonemasons, or master
builders they belonged to an association called a guild.
They did a trade only in their mastery. If you were an
apprentice you were expected to help your merchant do
trades. A journeyman craftsman was a craftsman who
went to other towns to do trades. The relation between a
journeyman and an apprentice is they both had to respect
each other. You became a master craftsman after
spending time as an apprentice, than you became a
journeyman who traveled, and finally when you become
well known for your craft. When you are a journeyman you
could spend years in a different city. A guild is an
association that a merchant or artisan would join. The
Guild would maintain standards and protect its’ members.
The Black Death was an epidemic caused by bacteria
spread by rats and flies. It first struck Europe in 1348. It
wiped out one-third (30,000,000 people) of Europe’s
population at the time.
Renaissance
The word renaissance means to be reborn. It means
the rebirth it goes back to 1400. Florence is so rich and
had a lot of good craftsman.
The role the people of
Florence had in making it a rich city is that when Lorenzo
Medici became powerful he made it richer. Humanism is
the concern for human insights and values. A supporter
is a patron who supports an artist or craftsman work.
Leonardo DaVinci was a famous artist and he made
magnolia inventing. Perspective is how things are
arranged in a painting to show their relationship.
Perpective can make a painting appear three dimensional.
DaVinci was a great artist, one of his best sculptures was
David.
Reform means to remake. Reformation means to
reform or a movement of a church. They were called
Protestants because they protested against the church.
Martin Luther got banded from being a monk. The
indulgence was a way for the church to get money from the
people. The Church scared people into believing that if
they didn’t buy their dead relatives an indulgence or pay
for forgiveness for their sins, then the relatives would not
go to heaven and God would be mad. Luther invented
movable type. The reason the King broke away from the
Pope is because the church did not allow divorce. The
King wanted to divorce his wife. He got more powerful
and richer by taking the church’s land and the money.
Queen Elizabeth was the Queen of England and she led her
army into a quick victory over the Spanish. Shakespeare
was a poet, actor, and a play writer. He wrote 37 plays and
154 poems.