Period II (600BCE-600CE)
2.1 Development and Codification of Religious and Cultural Traditions
I.
I can evaluate the process by which codification and further development of religious traditions created bonds
and gave people moral codes, especially during the Axial Age.
A.
 I can identify the core beliefs of Judaism.
 I can evaluate the development of Judaism’s scriptures, codes of behavior, and Diaspora.
B.
 I can identify the core beliefs of Hinduism.
 I can evaluate how Vedic religion formed the basis of Hinduism’s ideas of caste, reincarnation, and the
incarnations of Brahma.
II.
I can evaluate the process by which, during the Axial Age, new belief systems that asserted universal truths
came into being and spread.
I can define Axial Age and describe the special characteristics of religions and philosophies which were
generated during it.
A.
 I can identify the core beliefs of Buddhism.
 I can assess the ways in which Buddhism was a reaction to the Vedic religion of South Asia.
 I can identify and analyze changes in Buddhism prompted by the support of Ashoka, the efforts of
missionaries and merchants, and the establishment of institutions, like monasteries.
B.
 I can identify the core beliefs of Confucianism.
 I can recognize that Confucianism was expanded by disciples of Confucius and tried to bring about
harmony in all of society through relationships and ritual.
C.
 I can identify the core beliefs of Daoism and explain how the belief of balance influenced the idea of
indirect changes in the political system of China.
 I can analyze the influence of Daoist poetry on the development of Chinese culture.
D.
 I can identify the core beliefs of Christianity.
 I can identify the aspects of Christianity that drew on Judaism.
 I can evaluate changes in beliefs and practices within Christianity over time.
 I can explain the spread of Christianity by missionaries and merchants in Afro-Eurasia and analyze why
it eventually became the official religion of Rome by the 300s.
E.
 I can describe how Greek and Roman philosophy was centered on logic, learning through observation,
and discussed the nature of political power.
III.
I can describe and explain how various new belief systems affected gender roles.
I can analyze the ways in which Buddhism and Christianity encouraged monastic life and Confucianism
focused on filial piety.
IV.
I can recognize other belief systems that continued despite the spread of major world religions.
A.
 I can define shamanism and animism.
 I can recognize that societies outside the major civilizations were more reliant on nature and therefore
were linked more closely with shamanism and animism.
B.

I can describe how ancestor veneration continued in East Asia even as new religions were established.
V.
I can recognize that literature, drama, architecture, and sculpture vary based on culture.
A.
 I can explain how Indian epics like the Upanishads are distinctive to South Asia and influenced the
region in later time periods.
B.
 I can identify the unique architectural styles of many regions in this period and can describe that of
Greece.
C.
 I can identify how Hellenism spread through the conquests of Alexander the Great and produced
syncretism with Buddhist beliefs and sculpture in South and Central Asia.
2.2 The Development of States and Empires
I.
I can describe how key states and empires grew by imposing unity as they conquered previously competing
states.
I can identify the location of the Persian Empire, the Qin and Han Empires, the Maurya and Gupta Empires,
Phonecia and its colonies, the Greek city-states and their colonies, the Hellenistic Empire, the Roman Empire,
Teotihuacan, the Maya city-states, and the Moche culture.
II.
I can analyze the development of new techniques of imperial administration and identify how they built on
earlier political forms.
A.
 I can define and describe administrative institutions like centralized governments, elaborate legal
systems, and bureaucracies in China and Rome.
 I can explain how these institutions were used to organize the subjects of these empires.
B.
 I can explain how the governments of Rome and China used diplomacy, developed supply lines, built
fortifications and infrastructures, and incorporated conquered peoples into their militaries.
C.
 I can explain how promoting trade and economic infrastructures like roads and standardized currencies
made Rome and China more successful.
III.
I can evaluate how unique social and economic systems developed in imperial societies in Afro-Eurasia and the
Americas.
A.
 I can analyze the ways in which cities like Constantinople served as centers of trade, public performance
of religious rituals, and political administration for states and empires.
B.
 I can analyze the ways in which the social structures of the empires showed various levels within the
hierarchy including cultivators, laborers, slaves, artisans, merchants, elites, or caste groups.
C.
 I can critique the use of methods like slavery used by imperial societies to maintain the production of
food and provide rewards for the loyalty of elites.
D.
IV.

I can analyze how patriarchy continued to shape ideas about gender and family relationships in all
imperial societies of this period.
I can evaluate how the growth of empires like Rome, Han China, Persia, and Maurya and Gupta India created
political, cultural, and administrative difficulties that they could not manage, leading to their decline, collapse,
and transformation into successor empires or states.
A.
 I can explain how overuse of resources like trees by imperial governments led to environmental damage
like deforestation.
 I can describe the social tensions and economic difficulties caused by concentrating too much wealth
into the hands of elites.
B.
 I can evaluate how external problems were caused by lack of security along the frontiers of empires
which opened them to invasions by pastoralists, as in Rome with their northern and eastern neighbors.
2.3 Emergence of Transregional Networks of Communication and Exchange
I.
I can assess how land and water routes became the basis for transregional trade, communication, and exchange
networks in the Eastern Hemisphere (Afro-Eurasia).
A.
 I can describe how factors like climate, location, and trade goods, shaped distinctive features of the Silk
Roads, Trans-Saharan Routes, Indian Ocean Maritime System (IOMS), and the Mediterranean sea lanes.
II.
I can evaluate how new technologies helped expand and ease long-distance communication and exchange.
A.
 I can describe how new technologies like the stirrup and the use of domesticated pack animals like
camels eased the transport goods across longer routes.
B.
 I can recognize how innovations in maritime technologies like the lateen sail and knowledge of the
monsoon winds stimulated exchanges along maritime routes from East Africa to East Asia.
III.
I can evaluate how far-flung networks of communication and exchange led to the exchange of not just products
and people, but also technology, religious and cultural beliefs, food crops, domesticated animals, and diseases.
A.
 I can describe how the spread of crops, including rice and cotton from South Asia to the Middle East,
encouraged changes in farming and improved irrigation techniques like the qanat system in Persia.
B.
 I can explain how the spread of disease pathogens like the Black Plague diminished urban populations
and contributed to the decline of some empires, like Byzantine Rome.
C.
 I can describe how religious and cultural traditions like Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism
transformed as they spread through trade routes.