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Master Review

Foundations

Section 1: Geography

You most likely know where all the oceans, seas, and rivers are. You won’t be given a map and asked to find where the Indian Ocean is, but you could be given the question, what was the primary reason that the east coast of Africa developed a thriving trade with South Asia. The right answer is the winds (monsoons) that blow across the Indian Ocean. Even though this is a historical question, it is helpful to know where the Indian Ocean is. You should study every map in you history book.

Guide to Studying Maps: Look for the following things when you see a map: Title, Scale, Compass, Locator map, Map key, what the symbols/colors/arrows represent, mountains/rivers/lakes, political boundaries, political boundaries/ physical features relationship

  • Maps are a great way to make connections between the data you know about the map and about the time period. Maps help you remember certain details visually.
  • Maps show Old dynasty/empire boundaries. Looking at the map will you show you where they were. For example: The Han empire (206 BCE- 220 CE) was in the eastern half of modern China
  • Earlier empires/dynasties could have had smaller boundaries then ones that followed them. For example: The Qin was smaller then the preceded the Han.
  • When huge empires break apart, the result could be many smaller states. Example: The end of the Roman Empire resulted into many small fiefdoms across Western Europe

Five Themes to Studying Geography: If you remember the five themes of geography, you will be able to better understand how/why/where certain groups developed. Especially watch the impact of interactions between major societies through trade and war, as well as the impact of technology on people and the environment.

  • Location: Absolute location is where a place is on the globe, ID by latitude and longitude. Relative location is where a place is in relation to other places.
  • Place: There are Physical characteristics, which are vegetation and climate, as well as human characteristics, which are cultural traits, economic system, and governmental structure, which distinguish its people from people in other places. Each place combines its physical and human characteristics which make each place unique.
  • Human- Environment Interaction: How people have interacted with and changed the environment, which covers everything from Bantu spreading agriculture as they moved through Africa to the Industrial Revolution, which blackened the skies of London.
  • Movement: How geography affects the movement of people/ideas/goods between/among groups.
  • Regions: A region is a group of places with at least one thing in common. For example, Latin America, Most people speak either Spanish of Portuguese which are both Latin-based languages. Another example would be Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile are known as the Andean countries because of their location in the AndesMountains.

Key Political Units of the Pre- 1000 CE World

Political Units to Know

  • Roman Empire at its height
  • Abbasid caliphate
  • Sudanic kingdom of Ghana
  • Sudanic kingdom of Nubia
  • Han dynasty
  • Tang dynasty
  • Byzantine Empire
  • Mayan civilization

Locating Important Political Units

Political Unit / Dates / Location
Han dynasty / 202 BCE- 220 CE / Began in the SE corner of China and spread W. By about 100 CE, it reached North (present-day Mongolia), West (western boundaries Mongolia), and East (Korean peninsula)
Byzantine Empire / 330-1453 CE / At height (6thc.CE) it ruled southern Spain, Italy, Jordan, Sicily, North Africa(modern Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt), Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Turkey, Cyprus, Balkans, Aegean islands
Ghana / 300’s-1076 CE / Extended into Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, and Guinea
Abbasid caliphate / 750- 1258 CE / Extended across top of North Africa, through entire Arabian peninsula, and what is now modern IranIraq, as well as into Afghanistan, Pakistan, and NW India. Also included were modern Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel.
Nubia / 200 to late 1300s CE / Extended along the banks of the NileRiver from Aswan to almost Khartoum that is now mostly modern Sudan
Roman Empire (height) / 31 BCE- 476 CE / By 117 CE, its height, extended completely around the Mediterranean Sea, and also included England, Scotland, and Wales.
Tang dynasty / 618-906 CE / Began in the SE corner of modern China, spread W into modern Turkistan. Spread S into the Plateau of Tibet. Spread SE into modern SE Asia. Spread N up to Mongolia and modern KoreanPeninsula
Mayan civilization / 2400 BCE-1200s CE / Extended through C. America to modern YucatanPeninsula in SE Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala as well as parts of El Salvador and Honduras

Places to Know

  • Asia Minor
  • Balkans
  • Central Asia
  • Crimea
  • Eurasia
  • Horn of Africa
  • Near East
  • Scandinavia
  • South Asia
  • Southeast Asia
  • The Caucasus

Section 2: Diverse Interpretations and Demography

Each section has a set of questions related to diverse interpretations. The “Foundations” unit questions mainly relate to the definition of civilization and also the issue of which factor, diffusion or independent invention is more common as a source of change.

Diverse Interpretations

  • The central issue in many debates about which groups or cultures to study is the question, what constitutes a civilization. For several years civilization has had a distinctly Western meaning. Cultures that were considered civilizations had particular things in common.

1) A food-producing base which provided a surplus

2) An increase in population

3) Specialization of labor

4) A social hierarchy

5) Growth of trade

6) Centralized political and religious authority

7) Monumental building

8) The development of writing and written records (not always present)

9) High level of technological innovation (might be included)

10) Development of the arts (might be included)

  • World historians recognize that civilization is “the interaction of human beings in a very creative way, when … a critical mass of cultural potential and material resources has been built up, and human capacities are released for development.”
  • Recognizing dominanceof human creativity in turn recognizes the significance of the influence of non-Western civilizations.
  • Cultural diffusion is the transmittal of culture traits from one culture, society, or civilization to another. An example of this would be the spread of ironwork from the Assyrians to the Kushites. Independent invention is the development of a culture trait separate from any other group. For example, it is thought that the Nok people developed iron smelting independently from any other groups.

Basic Units of Society

  • Neolithic Revolution, marked the change of human culture from hunting andgathering to settled agriculture. The thing that made this change possible was the domestication of plants and animals. However, you must remember that just because some groups turned to settled agriculture, hunting and gathering did not disappear. Within a given area, some people would cultivate fields around their villages, which would eventually grow into cities, while other groups continued to practice shiftingcultivation as migratory farmers, to forage and to hunt and fish. Eventually, nomadic pastoralism, the herding of animals, developed in places were farming was not possible.
  • The Neolithic Revolution occurred at different times in different parts of the world, and involved different types of plants and animals. However, it is generally believed that many groups in the Middle East had turned to agriculture for their food by 8000 BCE. In the time span between 8000- 5000 BCE, farming of certain crops spread from the Middle East to India and Europe and south along the Nile. Even so,farming developed independently in sub-Saharan Africa, SE Asia, China, and the Americas.
  • A couple of things came along with the development of settled agriculture:

1) Differentiation of labor, including the development of artisans, people who made their living from work other then farming

2) The development of a political hierarchy, often with a basis in religion, to run the settlements

3) The development of social classes

  • Nomadic societies were found on the plains of Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The nomadic societies of Africa and Asia played a role in the rise and sometimes fall of civilizations. An example would be the Mongols under Tamerlane who established an empire that included Persia, N India, Syria, and the Ottoman Turks. Unlike Tamerlane, whose empire collapsed rapidly after his death, some nomadic societies were able to establish long-lasting civilizations, such as the Luba in what is modern-day Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia. Remember, both these examples are from late world history—1364-1405 CE and the 1500s to mid-1800s CE.
  • By 1000 CE, little had changed with how people earned their livings. They still practiced sedentary agriculture, shifting cultivation, pastoral nomadism, or forging. Trade in raw materials, handcrafted goods, and food stuffs played a role to greater or lesser degree in any society.

Section 3: Crises of Late Antiquity

Terms to Know

  • Ethnocentrism
  • Slash-and-Burn agriculture
  • Social structures: extended family, nuclear family, matrilineal, patrilineal

(The focus according to the Acorn book, on the AP test is post-1000 CE, this review begins with crises of late antiquity as outlined in the AP description.)

Movement of Peoples

  • Barbarian, the word is of Latin origin, meaning alien or foreigner. It has come to take the meaning of a person of a culture that is inferior or primitive, or a cruel or savage person. This viewpoint has influenced people’s, including historian’s attitude toward Germans and the other groups that overran Europe. As a result of this, the period that followed the fall of Rome in the West has been referred to as the Dark Ages. One of the reasons to study world history is to put other cultures in perspective, so in other words, when using the term barbarian, use it to mean “other” and not savage.
  • The major agents of movement in Europe in the 300s and 400s CE were the Huns, also known as the Hsing-Nu. They originated south of the GobiDesert and were driven north to the steppes of Mongolia during the Han dynasty. During the late 300s CE, the Huns were driving the Visigoths from their homeland near the Black Sea into the Roman Empire. They also pushed the Vandals and other Germanic bands west and south from their seat of power on the Hungarian Plain. In 451, under their chief Attila, the Huns invaded Gaul (present-day France), but they were repulsed. They threatened Rome in 453, but their Italian invasion ended with Attila’s death. After that, the Hunnic Empire quickly collapsed due to internal rivalries and rebellions by conquered people.
  • The Germanic people crowded along the Roman Frontier from the Black Sea to the Rhine. In some places, the frontier was an actual boundary line marked by the Rhine and DanubeRivers and was patrolled by Roman legions. By the 200s CE, the Germanic people were being pushed south and west by groups farther east who were being pushed by the Huns.
  • You must remember that empires created by warrior cultures- examples: Huns, Visigoths, and Vandals- were short-lived. This is true of the Zhou dynasty as well. Jealousies among rivals after a strong leader’s death and the rebellions of the conquered people combined to undermine states built on war and fear.

Movement of Germanic Peoples across Europe

People / Dates / Original Location / Movement
Visigoths / Late 300s / Danube Delta and Western Black Sea /
  • Moved into the eastern Roman Empire to flee the Huns
  • Defeated the Romans in378 near Constantinople and received a subsidy from the emperor
  • Eventually moved into southern Gaul and then Spain
  • Under Alaric sacked Rome in 410
  • Defeated by Moorish invaders in Spain between 711 and 718.

Ostrogoths / 400s / Northern Black Sea /
  • As vassals of the Huns, besieged Rome inn 451 but were defeated
  • In 491 under Theodoric the Great took Italy and ruled until 552

Vandals / 400s / Originally from south of the Baltic, moved into the Balkans by 300s /
  • Driven West by Huns
  • Driven from Gaul and Spain by the Visigoths
  • Sailed to North Africa and set up kingdom that included Sicily
  • Sacked Rome in 455
  • Defeated in 534 by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian

Lombards / Late 500s / Danube area /
  • Series of wars with Byzantine empire
  • Carved upItaly with Byzantine Empire
  • United Lombardy dukedoms in 584 to resist the Franks
  • Defeated by the Franks by the end of the 700s.

Jutes. Anglos, Saxons / Mid 400s / Scandinavia, North Sea /
  • Raiders
  • Came as mercenaries at the end of Roman occupation
  • Stayed after withdrawal of Roman army in 420
  • Set up independent kingdoms
  • Combined to become England.
  • Overthrown in 1066 by William the Conqueror

Franks / 200s-400s / East of the Rhine /
  • Invaded Gaul
  • Clovis I
  • Defeated Romans
  • Defeated Burgundians
  • Drove out Visigoths
  • United Gaul into a single Frankish kingdom
  • By 500s strongest and largest of Germanic states; predecessor of modern Germany and France

  • There are a couple other facts to remember about the Zhou dynasty. When they overthrew the Shang dynasty, they came up with a principle that if the ruler was not a good ruler, the people could overthrow him. The Zhou emperor also introduced a system of vassal lords who paid tribute –money or goods- to the ruler, this was known as feudalism.
  • Similarly, the Arabian Peninsula saw movement. Starting in 632 CE, the peninsula, under Muhammad, the Muslim Empire by 750 stretched west across North Africa and north and east through the Middle East into what is now modern day Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmanistan. However, some contribute this to Islam’s belief in jihad, or holy war, the fact that the Arabs were desert nomads, Bedouins, who are used to fighting to gain and protect their territory is more correct.They were more interested in gain power and wealth then converts.
  • The Moors, Musliminvaders from North Africa, captured Spain. At Tours in 732, they were pushed back by Charles Martel and his Frankish army when they tried to invade France. The Moors retreated to and ruled Spain for more than 750 years, until their last kingdom, Granada fell to the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492.
  • In Africa, the Bantu represent the major migratory force. Some people believe that the Bantu had begun moving out of their homeland in what is Nigeria today around 2500 BCE as people coming from the drying Sahara pushed the Bantu in front of them. Others believe that the Bantu began moving around 2000 BCE.
  • There is an important distinction between the movement of the Bantu and Germanic people. The Bantu generally did not come as armed invaders. The Bantu would come in small groups and move into an area. They would then take up herding in the grasslands and farming in the rain forest, and when the population grew to much and they could no longer feed everyone, a new group would break off and move on. This continued until 1800s CE, when the Bantu had spread from their original home throughout Central Africa to the east coast and down and across southern Africa.

Collapse of Empires

  • The Han ruled a united China from 206 BCE to 220 CE, with the exception of a few years. During this period:
  • The arts and technology flourished
  • A trading network linked China to the Roman Empire
  • Confucianism became the basis of government and ethical conduct
  • A civil service was introduced.

The empire collapsed because of pressures within and without. Internally:

  • Innovation and creativity in government, arts, and technology declined.
  • Peasants rebelled in the face of huge tax burdens from greedy warlords
  • Court factions fought for imperial power
  • Warlords fought among themselves for regional power

The internal problems put the empire at risk from nomadic invaders from Central Asia. The last Han Emperor resigned in 221.

  • After the death of the first emperor, Caesar Augustus (63 BCE – 14 CE), the Roman Empire endured 400 years of murder, infighting, cruelty, corruption, and the occasional brilliant emperor. One of these to know would be Diocletian (284-305), who divided the empire into a western portion – Gaul, Spain, Britain, North Africa, and Italy- and an eastern portion – Greece and Greek-speaking areas in the Middle East. A successor, Constantine (307-337), reunited the empire and built a new capitol at Constantinople, Byzantium. Constantine is also credited with the major act of recognizing and legalizing the practice of Christianity.
  • The Roman Empire was divided again in 395 by the Emperor Theodosius for his two sons. The Western part of the Roman Empire collapsed because:
  • A decline in tax revenue resulting from an end to territorial expansion
  • A decline in the ability to pay for government services, including feeding the poor and financing a vast and widespread army
  • Disease
  • The movement of people to the countryside to avoid the ever-increasing tax burden and thus the beginning of agricultural units that could support themselves
  • Invasions by Germanic peoples.

The end of the Roman Empire is generally considered to have ended in the West in 476. IN that year the Visigoth, Odoacer, removed the emperor and placed himself in power, but there was little left to govern.