Global History and Geography Review Sheet #1
Spiconardi
 Early Peoples
 Hunters and Gatherers
 Nomadic  people who move place to place hunting and gathering for good
 Neolithic Revolution
 Learning to farm and domestication of animals allows for
 Permanent settlements/villages/governments  Rise of Civilizations
 Subsistence Farmers – ability to grow enough food to feed your immediate family
 Population increases
 The Characteristics of a Civilization
 Advanced Cities
 Specialized workers
 Complex institutions
 Record keeping
 Advanced technology
 Egypt
 Nile River
 Nile River provided drinking water and irrigation for crops
 Yearly floods left land rich with deposits of silt that made the land fertile
 Nile later serves for transportation and trade purposes
 Government and Religion
 Egypt is a theocracy
 Pharaoh is both a god and a king
 Polytheistic
 Dynastic Rule
 Social Structure and Achievements
 Women had a higher status in Egypt than any other ancient civilization. Women could own
property and obtain a divorce
 Hieroglyphics
 Mummification
 Pyramids
 Advanced calendar
 Complex understanding of human body  surgeries, diagnosis of diseases
 Mesopotamia
 Tigris and Euphrates rivers provide fertile land (Fertile Crescent)
 Lack of natural barriers leads to constant invasion and a diverse population
 Diverse population makes the “land between rivers” a crossroads of the world; Times Square of its day
 Sumerian Civilization
 Ziggurat temples
 City-state form of government
 Sumer grew rich from trade. Traded with people as far away as Egypt and India
 Contributions
 Cuneiform  wedged shaped writing
 Developed early algebra and geometry
 Assyria
 Known for military tactics. Conquered entire Fertile Crescent by 612 BC
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Global History and Geography Review Sheet #1
Spiconardi

Babylon
 Hammurabi’s Code
 First major set of laws recorded
 Harsh punishments (eye for an eye)
 Upper class favored in laws
 NO EQUALITY UNDER THE LAW  Different laws for different people
 Classical Civilizations
 China (1027 BC to 220 AD)
 Civilization forms near Yellow River
 Zhou Dynasty (1027 BC – 221 BC)
 Mandate of Heaven – a divine right to rule
 Dynastic cycle – A dynasty could lose mandate of heaven
 Feudal form of government
 Made the first books
 Discovered how to make silk
 Qin Dynasty (221 BC – 206 BC)
 Shi Huangdi
 Legalism  strong laws needed to maintain order
 Centralizes power
 Abolishes feudalism
 Creates national coins
 Promotes uniform Chinese writing
 Repairs infrastructure
 Starts to build Great Wall
 First Nazi?  Burns books
 Kills Confucian Scholars burns and buries alive
 Terra Cotta Army/Tomb
 Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD)
 Emperor Wudi
 Establishes civil service system
 Bureaucracy  highly organized government compromised of many departments
 Establishes Silk Road
 REGENTS like to compare Han to Roman Empire & Inca = ROADS UNITE EMPIRE
 India (1500 BC – 420 AD)
 Mauryan (321 BC – 185 BC)
 Well-organized government
 Chandragupta has secret police report on crime
 Asoka
 Brings Buddhism to India
 Encourages Religious Tolerance
 Plants trees on roads to provide shade for travelers
 Edicts  Moral guidelines on how people in his empire should act
 Gupta (320 AD – 420 AD)
 500 years of turmoil after Asoka.
 Gupta restore stability and prosperity to India
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Global History and Geography Review Sheet #1
Spiconardi
 Greece (1750 BC – 133 BC)
 Geographical Influence
 Hard to unite all of Greece
 Dependent on seas for food and travel
 Little fertile land  low population
 Mountainous = Terrace farming just like Japan and Incan Empire
 Polis – city states
 Sparta – Military was center of life. All boys and GIRLS trained to fight at age 6. Governed by an
oligarchy.
 Athens – Cultural and intellectual center of Greece. Direct democracy for male citizens
 Philosophers
 Socrates – Socratic method: learn by questioning
 Plato – Government should control people’s lives; brightest should rule
 Aristotle – developed the “-ology”
 Alexander the Great
 Hellenistic Culture – Blend of Greek, Persian, Egyptian, and Indian culture
 Spent entire reign conquering. Only spend 3 months in Greece
 Focused on gaining territory, but not governing people
 Achievements
 Column style of building (government buildings in USA and Western Europe)
 Life-like artwork (sculpture)
 Pythagorean Theorem
 Epics (Odyssey, Illiad, Oedipus Rex)
 Herodotus – “Father of History”
 Rome (750 BC – 476 AD)
 Rome begins as a monarchy
 Becomes a republic with Brutus the Liberator
 Republic – when government officials are chosen by the people
 Senate – governing body of Rome, but DID NOT MAKE THE LAWS
 Patricians – Landowning upper class
 Plebeians – farmers, merchants, artisans; had little power until Julius Caesar’s reforms
 Social War – Marks beginning of the end of the republic
 Roman Empire
 After Caesar’s assassination, his grandnephew/adopted son Octavian/Augustus is crowned
emperor
 Pax Romana – 200 year period of peace; Rome’s Golden Age
 Augustus Caesar reforms and rebuilds Rome; conservative in politics
 Achievements
 Law ROME HAS GIVEN THE WORLD A MODEL FOR AN EFFECTIVE LEGAL
SYSTEM
 Twelve Tables – laws written on 12 tablets; basis of Western law
 Innocent until proven guilty
 Equality under the law
 Dome roofs
 Aqueducts & Roadways
 Public Plazas
 Stadiums/arenas  Colosseum
 Art  mosaics
 Trajan’s Forum  prototype mall
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Global History and Geography Review Sheet #1
Spiconardi
 Why did Rome Fall?
 Invasions from north
 Heavy taxation  taxes went to fight wars and pay for mercenaries; not reinvested into
infrastructure of the empire
 Too dependent on slave labor
 Trade deficit  Romans imported more than they exported
 Citizens no longer worked for the good of Rome/lack of patriotism
 Empire divided into West (Rome) and East (Constantinople)
 Byzantine Empire
 Considered the new Rome
 Flourished due to trade in city of Constantinople/Byzantium/Istanbul
 Justinian’s Code – almost a carbon copy of Rome’s Twelve Tables
 Regents likes to ask how Hammurabi’s Code, Twelve Tables, and Justinian’s Code are similar:
All are examples of written law or codified law or legal systems or codes of behavior
 Preserves Greco-Roman Culture
 Iconoclast Movement
 Schism of 1054  Separates from Roman Church over issues of
 papal authority
 language of the mass
 priests and marriage
 Filioque
 First Crusade
 Attacked by Seljuk Turks
 Asks Pope Urban II for help
 Council of Clermont  Pope asks Christendom to unite and fight the Muslims
 Influences development of Russia
 Orthodox Christian Church
 Onion Dome
 Cyrillic alphabet
 Autocratic Government/Czar
 Mongols
 Chinggis Khan (Genghis)
 Created largest land empire ever by conquering other civilizations and cultures
 Tributary system
 Kublai Khan
 Embraces Chinese culture  Spreads Chinese culture to rest of Asia
 Allows conquered people to serve in government
 Reopens Silk Road and makes travel on the trade route safe
 Leads to cultural diffusion between East and West
 Marco, Nicola, and Maffeo Polo
 Russia is isolated by Mongols and does not share in this cultural exchange
 Russia falls behind rest of Europe until Stalin catches them up in 1940s
 Japan
 Feudal society
 Emperor – no political power
 Shogun – real ruler and military leaders
 Daimyo – large landowners and nobles
 Samurai
 Bushido  warrior code of behavior that stressed loyalty and respect
 Peasants, artisans, merchants
 Borrowed culture from Chinese by way of Koreans
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Global History and Geography Review Sheet #1
Spiconardi
 Geography
 Limited natural resources
 Leads to imperialism in the late 19th/early 20th century
 Lack of farmland  Mountainous; only 15% of land is farmable
 Terrace Farming
 Island and typhoons prevent invasion of Japan by Mongols
 Earthquakes  reinforced steel buildings in 20 th century
 REGENTS: Likes to point out the similarity between the geographies of Japan and Greece
(islands, little farmable land, mountains)
 Golden Age of Islam
 Preserved Greco-Roman Culture
 Spread through trade and conquest
 Split between Shiite and Sunni
 House of Wisdom  Learning center in Baghdad; scholars came to learn
 Achievements
 Architecture
 Medicine
 Algebra
 Calligraphy
 Astronomy
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