Name: ______
WH/GEO I – SOL Review Packet 75 points
These questions cover the essential knowledge that is on the SOL.
Remember: All questions need to be answered completely and in complete sentences. (HANDWRITTEN/IN YOUR OWN WORDS)
I will be answering the: (Circle) EVEN or ODD
- What defines absolute location?
- How has the movement of people been significant to world history?
- Homo Sapiens first emerged on what continent? How many years ago?
- Early hunter-gatherers depended on wild plants and animal life and were sometimes forced to migrate to new locations for food. This made them what type of people?
- What were the key characteristics of societies of the Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age)?
- What were the major characteristics of the Neolithic Era (New Stone Age)?
- What is carbon dating?
- What site in England was begun in the Neolithic Age but finished in the Bronze Age?
- Why were river valleys important to the development civilization?
- What civilization emerged in the Nile River Valley and Delta?
- The valleys of what two rivers served as the home to Mesopotamian civilization?
- Indian civilization first emerged in what river valley?
- Chinese civilization first emerged in what river valley?
- Where did the Phoenicians settle?
- What is a city-state?
- What was the first written law code? (it was created by a Babylonian ruler)
- Because of agricultural surpluses, certain people were able to engage in tasks and jobs other than farming. What was this development called?
- Which group of people were the first to practice monotheism?
- Who is Abraham and why is he important?
- Who was Moses and why is he important?
- What is the holy book of Judaism ? Identify the major beliefs, traditions, and customs of Judaism.
- What was the Diaspora?
- What is the name of the earliest written symbols, where pictures would represent ideas?
- What was the form of writing in Egyptian civilization?
- What was the form of writing in Sumer?
- What were the key characteristics of the Persian rule and government?
- What was the official religion of Persia? What were its key beliefs?
- Why is India considered a subcontinent?
- What physical and geographical barriers made invasion of India very difficult?
- What group of people were eventually able to invade India? How did they get there?
- What are the key characteristics and beliefs of Hinduism?
- What is reincarnation?
- Explain the concept of Karma?
- What are the sacred writings of Hinduism?
- Who founded Buddhism? Where was it founded?
- What are the Four Noble Truths?
- What is the Eightfold Path? Identify the eight steps.
- Explain the key characteristics and beliefs of Confucianism.
- Explain the key characteristics and beliefs of Taoism (Daoism).
- What is the Great Wall? Why was it built? Who was responsible for its construction?
- What idea was used by Chinese rulers to justify their rule? It lasted only as long as what?
- What symbol is used to represent opposites in both Confucianism and Taoism?
- What geographical term is used to describe the location of Greece?
- How did the mountainous terrain on the Greek peninsula affect its growth and unity?
- What was the purpose of the Greek gods and goddesses? What things did Greek mythology explain?
- The following deities were gods of what? (Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Aphrodite)
- Which city-state developed the most democratic system of government in history?
- Which groups of people had no political rights in Ancient Greece? What people were considered citizens in Ancient Greece?
- Athens evolved through what four forms of government (in order)?
- Who was Draco and why was he important?
- Who was Solon and why was he important?
- Sparta had what form of government? Which means what?
- What were the major qualities and values of Spartan society?
- What wars were fought by the Greeks from 499-449BC that united Athens and Sparta?
- What was the Battle of Marathon and why was it important?
- What was the Battle of Salamis and why is it important?
- What war lasted from 431-404BC and pitted Sparta against Athens?
- Athens led what military alliance?
- Sparta led what military alliance? Who won the conflict?
- What individual led Athens during its Golden Age? What were his major achievements?
- What is the Parthenon?
- What poet spoke of the Trojan Wars? What are his epic poems called?
- Which Greek artist was famous for his sculpture of Athena at the Parthenon?
- What were the three types of Greek columns and what were their major characteristics?
- Who was Hippocrates and why was he important?
- Who was Euclid and why was he important?
- Who was Pythagoras and why was he important?\
- Who were the three major philosophers and what were their major contributions?
- What individual was responsible for conquering Greece? Where was from?
- Who adopted Greek culture and spread Hellenistic influences throughout this vast empire?
- What was the Hellenistic Age and why was it important?
- What geographical features protected Rome and the Italian peninsula?
- What was the early form of government in Rome (after the Etruscan kings were deposed)?
- Who were the Patricians?
- Who were the Plebeians?
- Roman law was written down and called what?
- What city in North Africa came into conflict with Rome over control of trade? What were the series of wars known as?
- Who was Hannibal and why was he important?
- Who won the Punic Wars and what happened to Carthage as a result? to Rome?
- Who was Julius Caesar and why was he important?
- Who was Augustus Caesar and why was he important?
- What was the Pax Romana?
- Who began the teachings that eventually evolved into Christianity?
- How did Christian beliefs conflict with Roman Mythology?
- What are the characteristics, beliefs, and traditions of Christianity?
- Who were the Apostles, and why is Paul important?
- Who adopted and legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire? Why?
- Why were Roman roads and aqueducts important?
- Who is Virgil and why was he important?
- What five factors caused the decline of the Roman Empire?
- Who moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to Byzantium? What did he rename the city?
- Why was Constantinople’s location important to the Byzantine Empire?
- Who codified old Roman law for use by the Byzantine Empire? What was its name?
- What is the name of religious images used by Greek Orthodox Christians in worship?
- What was the name of the Byzantine domed church in Constantinople? What type of elaborate artwork did it feature inside?
- How did Greek and Roman culture survive in the Byzantine Empire?
- What were the key characteristics of the Eastern Christian Church (Greek Orthodoxy)?
- What were the key characteristics of the Western Christian Church (Roman Catholicism)?
- Why was there a division between the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity?
- What led to interaction between Byzantines and the Slavs in Russia?
- The Slavic oral languages were adapted to the Greek alphabet by who? What was it called?
- Who founded Islam?
- In what geographic region was Islam founded? What two key religious cities are there?
- What are the key characteristics, beliefs, and traditions of Islam?
- Identify each of the Five Pillars of Islam.
- What is the holy book of Islam?
- What factors allowed for the significant expansion of Islamic beliefs and Muslim rule?
- Islam is divided into what two branches? Which is more common today?
- What happened at the Battle of Tours and why was it important?
- What Mathematical achievements are attributed to the Muslim Empire?
- What became the unifying force in Western Europe during the Middle Ages? Led by who?
- Early Medieval society was founded on what three influences?
- How did the Roman Catholic Church exercise influence during the Middle Ages? (4 ways)
- What was a medieval manor and how did it work?
- What group of people did the Church establish an alliance with in order to expand their power and influence?
- Who was anointed as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 800 AD?
- What technological advances allowed for an expansion of trade?
- What two religious traditions coexisted in Japan?
- What are the key beliefs and traditions of Shinto?
- What were the key characteristics of Axum (East Africa)?
- What were the important characteristics of Zimbabwe (Southern Africa)?
- What were the characteristics of the West African kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai?
- What were the characteristics of Mayan civilization (Central America)?
- What were the characteristics of Aztec civilization (present-day Mexico)?
- What were the key characteristics of Incan Civilization (South America)?
- Who led the Norman Conquest and united most of England?
- King John limited his power and the power of future kings when he signed what? When?
- What conflict with France united England as a nation?
- Who was Joan of Arc and why was he important?
- Who were Ferdinand and Isabella and why were they important?
- Who was Ivan the Great and why was he important?
- What were the Crusades and why were they carried out?
- What were the four major effects of the Crusades?
- Who were the Mongols, and to where did they extend their empire?
- What group invaded and conquered the Byzantine Empire?
- What was the impact of the Black Death on economic and social institutions? (five)
- How did Church scholars interpret and value ancient learning? (five)
- What were the three economic concepts of the Renaissance?
- What were the three benefits to the geographic location of the Northern Italian city-states of Florence, Venice, and Genoa?
- Who is Machiavelli and why was he important? What is the Prince?
- Medieval art and literature focused on what?
- Renaissance art and literature focused on what?
- Who was Leonardo da Vinci, and for what was he famous?
- Who was Michelangelo and for what was he famous?
- What is humanism, and why was it important to the Renaissance?
- What three factors explain how the values and ideas of the Italian Renaissance spread to Northern Europe?
- What did Northern Renaissance thinkers merge with humanist ideas?
- What invention and events helped disseminate ideas?
- Who was Erasmus and why was he important?
- Who was Sir Thomas More and why was he important?