Name__________________________________ Per.____ Date_____________________ TEACHER COPY
CHAPTERS 1 – 4 UNIT I: LESSON I
GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY INTRO
GEOGRAPHY IS: the study of people, their environment, and the resources available to them.
5 THEMES OF GEOGRAPHY:
place
movement
region
THE HUMAN STORY
location
HISTORY IS:
human-environment
interaction



humanity’s past based on written records (evidence):
recorded time beginning about 5000 years ago
found in letters, tax records, diaries, film, photographs, and on the internet
 History is based on 3 factors, each one affecting the other two:
 Economics
 Society
 Politics
TRAITS OF PREHISTORIC PALEOLITHIC (OLD STONE) AGE:
 nomadic
 spoken language
 wore clothing
 technical (making and using tools)
 caves/overhangs as shelters
 built fires for light, shelter, protection, and lastly, cooking
 belief in an afterlife

NEOLITHIC (NEW STONE) AGE INTRODUCED AN AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION:
PEOPLE B/4 NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION:
 hunted
 gathered
 nomadic (“push” / “pull” factors)
PEOPLE AFTER NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION:
 learned to farm
 produced own food
 settled in villages
 domesticated animals
1
BASIC FEATURES OF CIVILIZATIONS:
 Farmers cultivated lands along river valleys, producing surplus food >
 Surpluses caused populations to expand >
 As populations grew, villages swelled into cities.
EFFECTS OF THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION:
 Changed the way humans lived
 Use of agriculture allowed humans to develop permanent settlements, social classes, & new
technologies
 Some of these early groups settled in the fertile valleys of the Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, Yellow, and Indus
Rivers
 This resulted in the rise of great civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, and India
 In the Americas, groups of Asian hunters crossed a land-bridge connecting Asia and Alaska along what is
now known as the Bering Strait. By spreading southwards, they settled along lakes and rivers where they
experienced their own Neolithic Revolution in which they learned to grow maize.
A CIVILIZATION:
 is a complex, highly organized social order with the following 5 traits:
1). Cities (centers of trade for a larger area)
2). Advanced technology (use of metals)
3). Specialized workers (other than farmers)
4). Form of writing
5). Complex institutions:
a. form of government
b. organized religion
CULTURAL DIFFUSION
IS:
the spread of ideas, customs, & technologies from one people to
another through migration, trade, & warfare
INDIVIDUAL YEARS OF DATING HISTORY:

B.C. = b/4 the birth of Christ, or B.C.E. (b/4 the Common Era)

A.D. = “Anno Domini” (since the birth of Christ), or C.E. (since the Common Era)
AGES OR ERAS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION:

Ancient Times: from 4000 B.C. to when the fall of the Roman Empire occurs around A.D. 500
Medieval Times: A.D. 500 (from fall of Rome) to A.D. 1400 when the Italian Renaissance begins

Modern Times: A.D. 1400 (Italian Renaissance begins to the present)
2
NAME_________________________________ PER. _____ DATE ___________
On the lines below, create your own civilization using the five major traits that
determine when a society becomes “civilized”:
NAME OF YOUR CIVILIZATION: ______________________________________
WHERE IS YOUR CIVILIZATION LOCATED:_____________________________
1. NAME THREE MAJOR CITIES (CENTERS OF TRADE), ALONG WHICH RIVER
VALLEYS(?), AND THEIR AVAILABLE RESOURCES WITHIN YOUR CIVILIZATION:
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
2. ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY (KIND OF METALS FOUND IN YOUR CIVILIZATION):
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
3. LIST YOUR SPECIALIZED WORKERS (NOT FARMERS): _________________
___________________________________________________________________
4. FORM OF WRITING: _______________________________________________
SHOW AN EXAMPLE OF YOUR WRITING: _______________________________
5. COMPLEX INSTITUTIONS:
A. YOUR CIVILIZATION’S FORM OF GOVERNMENT: ________________________;
KIND OF LEADER: ____________________ (SEE YOUR VOCABULARY TERMS
SHEET)
B. ORGANIZED RELIGION: POLYTHEISTIC (BELIEF IN MANY GODS) OR
MONOTHESTIC (BELIEF IN ONE GOD): ______________________________
DRAW YOUR CIVILIZATION’S BOUNDARY LINES: