WHAP Unit 2 Study Guide
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Describe the political organization of Persia.
What was unique about the political life in Greece?
What were the reforms of Solon?
Contrast the political structure of Persia with Greece.
What major development occurred during the Hellenistic Era due to Alexander’s conquest?
Compare the Roman and Chinese emperors.
How were the Persian Empire and Mauryan dynasty similar in their political administration?
Which foreign religious tradition was absorbed into China during the classical period?
Describe the Persian policy towards people with different cultural traditions who lived within the empire.
In what way was a value of the Roman Republic, idealized as “the way of the ancestors” shown in politics there?
Describe or give examples of the centralization of the Chinese state under Qin Shihuangdi.
Which empires represent a period during which most of the South Asian subcontinent was unified under a single
imperial state?
13. The conquests of which leader led to the widespread dissemination of Greek culture during the Hellenistic era?
14. Athens’ leadership in which event launched Athens on a path to establish its dominance over other city-states in
the region?
15. Which Greek city-state was a democracy?
16. Which ruler during the classical era espoused a philosophical view on government that was religiously inspired?
17. Which of the classical religions and philosophies focused more on affairs of this world than on the realm of the
divine and its relationship to human life?
18. How are Buddhism and Hinduism similar?
19. Which system of thought provided inspiration for the harsh reunification of China under Qin Shihuangdi?
20. What do Daoists believe?
21. How are Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam similar?
22. Which cultural tradition is particularly noted for its emphasis on logic and relentless questioning of received
wisdom, without giving much role to the gods?
23. The cosmic struggle between Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu lies at the heart of which religion?
24. How did Confucianism affect Chinese society?
25. What is the sacred text of Hinduism?
26. What is the central feature of the Hindu notion of karma?
27. Which element of Hinduism did Buddhism reject?
28. How are Theravada and Mahayana versions of Buddhism different?
29. How are Confucianism and Greek philosophy/rationalism similar?
30. How are Confucius, Zarathustra, and Siddhartha Gautama similar?
31. How are Buddhism and Christianity similar?
32. How did Christianity change in the first 500 years since its emergence?
33. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were associated with which belief system?
34. Which school of thought contended that the best way to govern was to lead the people by virtue and the rules
of propriety?
35. What did Jesus and Socrates have in common?
36. Describe the teachings of Jesus.
37. What has been put forward by scholars as a possible factor in the emergence of slavery within the First
Civilizations?
38. How was India’s social structure different from that of China?
39. What do we call the social structure of male dominance in society that has continued since the First
Civilizations?
40. How were the social structures of India and China similar?
41. In which classical era empire did slaves comprise more than one-third of the total population?
42. In which of the societies did women enjoy the fewest restrictions?
43. Which philosophical or religious tradition provided a unifying ideology for peasant rebellions in China?
44. Describe the status of women in classical civilizations.
45. Contrast the social status of women in Athens to women in Sparta.
46. In which classical civilization was slaveholding the least widespread and least central to the economy?
47. The world’s first and longest lasting professional civil service emerged in which classical civilization?
48. Peasants were honored and merchants were looked down upon in the official ideology of ____________.
49. Which group was at the top of the caste system in India?
50. The combination of natural disasters, high taxes and rents, and state demands for labor and military service
often sparked peasant rebellions in __________.
51. Membership in a jati was based on a person’s __________________.
52. What religious beliefs supported the inequalities of the caste system?
53. What was a major source of slaves in the Roman Empire?
54. How was the idea of patriarchy similar throughout the classical civilizations?
55. In what ways were the Yellow Turban Rebellion in Han China and the Spartacus Rebellion in the Roman Empire
similar?
56. What were the factors contributing to the collapse of the Maya civilization in the ninth century C. E.?
57. What language was spoken by the groups of people who had spread throughout most of southern and eastern
Africa by the classical era?
58. How why cities in the Niger Valley civilization different from cities in other civilizations?
59. What was the advantage Bantu-speaking farmers had in their encounters with gathering and hunting groups?
60. How were the Maya and Axum similar?
61. During the classical era, metallurgy was least developed in ____________________.
62. In their political organization, the Maya were most like which other classical civilization?
63. How were the cultures in the Chaco canyon region and the Mississippi River valley similar?
64. Describe the civilization of the Andes region.
65. What attributed to both the decline of the Meroe and the rise of Axum?
66. Christianity in Axum most closely identified with which church?
67. Describe the relationship between the civilizations in Mesoamerica and those in the Andes.
68. Archaeological evidence suggests that the village located at Chavin was the center for ____________________.
69. Why are the mound-building cultures of the eastern woodlands considered “semi-sedentary”?
70. The society of which group of people is considered to be less patriarchal due to its system of “gender
parallelism” which associated female roles with village life and male roles with hunting and forest life?