A.P. World History Unit 1 Test Study Guide

Chapter 1

1.The term prehistory refers to the period before what?

2.Homo sapiens used superior knowledge, sophisticated tools, and language to do what?

3.What do most scholars believe that, during the paleolithic age, social organization was characterized by?

4.What were human beings able to do with the development of languages?

5.What do archeologists now believe is the most fundamental difference between the neolithic and paleolithic eras?

Chapter 2

6.What does the word Mesopotamia mean?

7.After 3000 B.C.E. all Sumerian cities were ruled by what form of government?

8.What individual believed that the gods had chosen him to “promote the welfare of the people . . . [and] to cause justice to prevail in the land”?

9. What did Mesopotamian metalworkers discoverthey could produce if they alloyed copper and tin?

10.Iron metallurgy came to Mesopotamia from where?

Chapter 3

11.Who united Egypt around 3100 B.C.E.?

12.Around 3100 B.C.E., the conqueror Menes founded ______, a city that would serve as the capital for early Egypt.

13.Who were the Hyksos?

14.Who was Hatshepsut?

15.How did the Africans acquire iron metallurgy?

Chapter 4

16.Why does much of early Harappan history remain a mystery?

17.Evidence relating to trade indicates that Harappan India did what?

18.What are the biggest reasons for the decline of the Harappan society?

19.Most of our information about the early Aryans comes from what?

20.The Aryans referred to social classes by what term?

Chapter 5

21.Who was the legendary founder of the Xia dynasty, who constructed dikes and dams and organized flood control projects?

22.Which river takes its name from loess soil?

23.List the early river societies and their rivers.

24.Who first attempt to organize public life in China on a large scale?

25.The Shang rulers were strengthened by their control over the technological advantage of what?

26.Which dynasty laid the foundation for principles of government and political legitimacy?

27.Describe the mandate of heaven.

28.Because of the immense size of the Zhou state, its emperors were forced to do what?

29.One of the reasons for the eventual collapse of the Zhou dynasty was the inability of its emperors to control the production of what?

30.The “Period of the Warring States” refers to what?

31.In ancient China, which group presided at the rites and ceremonies honoring ancestors’ spirits?

32.In regard to gaining or losing the mandate of heaven, the Chinese spoke of what?

33.In an effort to foretell the future, the Shang made use of what?

34.The early Chinese shipped textiles and metal goods to the ancestors of the Turks and Mongols in the steppes and received what in return?

35.Who were the powerful southern rival to the Zhou?

Chapter 6

36.The staple food of Mesoamerica was what?

37.What was the first society of Mesoamerica, which founded traditions followed by all later societies?

38.The most characteristic artistic creations of the Olmecs were what?

39.The Olmec ceremonial centers of San Lorenzo and La Venta were destroyed by what?

40.Why was Ritual bloodletting crucial to Maya rituals?

41.What device did the ancient Maya build in order to trap silt carried by the numerous rivers passing through the Mesoamerican lowlands?

42.What mathematical concept, essential for positional notation and the manipulation of large numbers, was invented by Maya mathematicians?

43.The Maya calendar interwove a solar year of 365 days and a ceremonial calendar of ______days.

44.According to the PopolVuh, the gods created the first successful version of humans out of what?

45.What was the Chavín cult?

46.One of the earliest Andean states, which left a remarkable artistic legacy through its ceramics, was what?

47.What was the relationship between the aboriginal peoples of Australia and New Guinea?

48.The Austronesian-speaking peoples became the first human settlers on which large island off the east African coast?

49.Who were the Lapita peoples

50.Austronesian peoples established what type of political societies in the lands they settled?