History Finals

Africa Geography

Africa Geography

• Large continent

  • few harbors

• sahara desert

• The southern edge of the expanding Sahara is called the Sahel

• Rainforests found near central part of continent

• Northern coast and southern tip of Africa have Mediterranean climates

• Savannas, or grasslands cover almost half of Africa

Role of Women Africa

Gathered while men hunted

Aksum

• located in Eritrea and Ethiopia

  • South of Kush

  • Horn of Africa

  • Also crossed Red Sea and controlled lands is southwest Arabian peninsula

  • Zoskales: first Aksum king

Bantu

• Bantu language group

  • Nigeria

  • First language of nearly 1/3 of Africans

    • Swahili - most commonly - blends Bantu with Persian and Arabic

• Introduced cultivation of crops and ironworking

• domestication of animals

• As they migrated they settled into rural self-sufficient communities

  • Caused territorial wars

  • exchanged ideas of ironworking

  • intermarriage

  • influenced political and social organization 

Hunter gatherer

Men hunt and women gather

Mali

• From 600–200 BCE, cities begin to develop near rivers, oases

  • Djenné-Djeno : Africa’s oldest known CITY (250 BC), - Bustling trade center; linked West African Towns camel trade routes

• 1235 Mali kingdom emerged

  • Means “where the king lives”

  • Sundiata

    • Niani – capital and center of trade

Mansa Musa

• One of the richest and most powerful rulers in Mali and the world

  • encouraged spread of Islam

    • Many leaders prior to him converted and built mosques

    • Completed a hajj

• Considered the wealthiest man in the world

• Strong military leader

  • 100,000 man army kept order and protected Mali from attack

Nomads

• communities who move from place to place as a way of obtaining food, finding pasture for livestock, or otherwise making a livin

• Earliest people are nomadic hunter-gatherers

  • Herders drive animals to find water, graze pastures

• Transition to a Settled Lifestyle

  • Agriculture probably develops by 6000 B.C

  • As the Sahara dried up, farmers move to West Africa or Nile Valley

  • Agriculture allows permanent settlement governments to develop

Sahara

• Huge desert in Africa

• southern edge called Sahel

India Geography

• Subcontinent: a large landmass that forms a distinct part of a continent

• Fertile land

  • Good for farming

  • Mountainous

    • Hindi Kush, Himalayan Mountain ranges

    • For protection

  • desert to the east

  • Indo-Gangetic plain

  • Indus and Ganges rivers

Role of Women India

afraid they’d distract from duties

Brahma

creator

Buddhism

• Founder: Siddhartha

• 4 noble truths

  • All life is suffering

  • Cause of suffering is desire for riches

  • Only cure for suffering is breaking the cycle and overcome desire

  • Overcome desire by following 8 fold path

• 8 fold path

  • Right beliefs

  • right alms or intentions

  • right speech

  • right conduct

  • right work

  • right effort

  • right thinking

  • right concentration

• Moksha: Free from the cycle of rebirth; the ultimate goal is nirvana, union with the universe and release from the cycle of rebirth

Caste system

• The growth of the social system was the concept of superiority of Aryan people over their indigenous subjects

• An issue of color (race), was only the physical sign of a division based on economic functions

  • Class or varna determined one’s occupation and status in society

• Dalits (untouchables): street sweeper, clean up human/ animal waste, deal with dead bodies (out castes), NOT PART OF THE CASTE SYSTEM 

• Sudra: Farm workers, unskilled workers, servants #4

• Vaisyas: Merchants, craftsman, landowners, skilled workers #3

• Kshatriyas: Kings/ruler, warriors #2

• Brahmins: priests #1

Chandra Gupta II

• height of the Gupta Empire

• defeated the Shakas

  • Gave them access to the coast

  • helped with trade on Mediterranean

• negotiated peaceful expansion through marriage alliances

• achievements in art, religion, and science

• After his death India was divided into separate kingdoms

  • invaded by Hunas (related to the Huns)

Chandragupta Maurya

• Born in Mahajanapada of Magadha in Northern India

• Raised an army and defeated the King of Magadha

• Continued into the Kingdom of Seleucus

  • took over Alexander’s empire

• By 303 BC his empire was 2000 miles long, and united Northern India for the first time ever = Mauryan Empire

Dharma

• the religious and moral duties of an individual

• criteria for making your daily choices

  • contentment, forgiveness, self-restraint, understanding right from wrong

• depends on your family, livelihood, and other factors

Hinduism

• No founder

• Gods

• Atman: All living things have a spirit/soul

• Samsara: cycle of birth, life, death, rebirth

• Karma and dharma

• Vedas *holy texts)

• Animal worship

• Temple worship

• Moksha: liberation from samsara, salvation, the goal but many know they may not achieve, nirvana (becoming one with Brahman)

Indo-Aryans

• crossed into India 2000 BC

• Vedas: prayers, hymns, spells, and rituals

  • used as a foundation of Hinduism

• Caste System

  • Varnas: skin color

• Kingdoms

  • Magadha

Karma

• actions in this life that affect the next life

  • refers to the law of cause and effect i.e. actions and their consequences

  • decides where you come back and what you come back as

Middle way

a middle road between a life devoted to pleasure and a life of harsh self denial

Moksha

(hinduism)

• Liberation - from samsara: the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth

• Salvation - of the soul which is rescued from the material world and delivered into the spiritual

• The Goal - of Hindus who eventually hope to achieve moksha. Though many accept this might not happen for their next rebirth they aim to produce positive karma in the hope of a good rebirth that might be a little closer to moksha

• Nirvana - Becoming one with Brahman. This is a state of enlightenment

(Buddhism)

• Free from the cycle of rebirth; the ultimate goal is nirvana, union with the universe and release from the cycle of rebirth

Reincarnation

(hinduism)

• ‘Re’ means ‘again’

• ‘in’ means ‘in’ (!)

• ‘carn’ means ‘flesh’

• So the whole word means ‘again in flesh’.

• Rebirth might sound like a good thing but actually, Hindus believe that going around and around in the cycle of Samsara is keeping our souls (atman) trapped in the material world

• Brahmins are closest to ultimate release from wheel of life, followed in descending order y the other classes in human society and animal kingdom

(Buddhism)

• Prefer the term rebirth

Shiva

destroyer

Siddhartha Gautama

• born around 563 BC, in northern India

• Was born a prince and lived in a kingdom all of his life, because his gather believed the world was so corrupt

• Lived his life in luxury, but became unhappy with never being outside

• He married his cousin and has a child, but one day, he left the confines of the palace to wander outside when he was about 29

Varnas

skin color

Vishnu

preserver or renewer

China Geography

• Around the 8th Century BCE, early peoples began to cultivate crops along riverbanks in both northern and central China

  • Yellow River (Huang He), Yangtze River (Chang Jiang)

  • Loess soil made the soil fertile

  • Cultivated millet, barley, wheat and rice

•  Little more than 12 percent of China’s land is arable

  • The remainder consists of mountains and deserts

    • Served as barriers to isolate China 🡪 Believed they were the center of the world

    • Any contact with Mongols and Indo-Europeans was distrust and conflict

    • The military was strongest when the country was united

Role of Women China

• Ban Zhao 

  • Woman (new for the time)

  • wrote a guide that told women to be humble and obedient but also hard-working 

• Confucianism (women)

  • devote themselves to their families 

  • they made important contributions to their family's economic life 

  • duties at home 

  • work in the fields/family farm 

• Upper-Class Women

  • few empresses had great power 

  • Women in Aristocratic/landowning families sometimes pursued education and culture 

  • some ran small shops, others practiced medicine

• Daoist → Buddhist 

  • nuns could get educated and have lived apart from their families

5 relationships

1. Ruler and subject

2. father and son

3. husband and wife

4. Older brother to younger brother

5. Friend and friend

• Code of proper conduct for each relationship

Confucianism

• Founder: Confucius

• Ethical system 

• Based on right and wrong

• Based on 5 relationships

• Dao: keeping proper behavior

• Ceremonies: birth, capping, marriage, feasting, mourning rites, sacrifices

Confucius

• a great philosopher, born in 551 BCE, that distinguished himself as a disgruntled political and social commentator

• His teachings were somewhat revolutionary

  • If human beings could act harmoniously in accordance with the purpose of the universe, they would prosper in their own affairs

Daoism

• Founded by laozi

• Life revolves their belief around nature and all things in it

• Not hurting anything in nature (must keep harmony)

• Yin and yang

• Temple worship

• Nonviolence

• Early times women had a lot of respect because they created life but later they were only to work at home and do household chores

Dynastic Cycle

used to describe a pattern of the rise and fall of dynasties in China. The Mandate of Heaven is an important part of this. It is the right bestowed by the gods to rule over

Xia

• Ruled by king yu

• Developed irrigation

Shang

• Capital: anyang

• Social classes very divided

• Respect towards parents

• Writing system 

  • Based on syllable

Zhou

• longest dynasty

• Capital: Xian

• Feudalism

• Mandate of heaven and dynastic cycle

  • Emperor was a representative of heaven

• Advancements: Water control projects, farming (iron plows, fertilizer), wet rice, development of the silk road

Qin

• Shi Huangdi

• Autocracy

  •  government that has unlimited power and uses it in an arbitrary manner

• Advancements: irrigation, highway, trade, great wall, terracotta soldier

• Harsh taxes, repressive government, human freedom restrained

Han

• Liu bang, Empress Lu & Wudi

• Left legalism behind

• Bureaucracy

• Advancements: paper, silk mills, collar for horses, improved iron tools

• Fall: rich take advantage of poor, wang mang overthrows, split into 3 rival kingdoms

Empress Lu

• Liu bang’s wife

• Powerful friends at court

• Outlived her son

• Her children were too young to have power, so she ruled

• Died in 180 BC

• Liu Bang’s family came back to power

• Executed empress’s relatives (this occurs often)

• The favorite wife is usually empress after emperor dies and one son is a successor

Feudalism

• A political system in which nobles or lords are granted the use of lands that legally belong to the king.

• Life for the average farmer was difficult due to arduous labor and high taxes.

• Trade and manufacturing were carried out by merchants and artisans, but they lived in towns under the direct control of the local lord and were considered property 

• Menial tasks were likely performed by a class of slaves (criminals/prisoners of war)

Filial piety

the idea of respecting your father/ ancestors. the primary duty of all Chinese. Being a filial (obedient) son meant complete obedience to one's parents during their lifetime and--as they grew older--taking the best possible care of them.

Laozi

“the elder”; legendary - no real evidence of his existence

Legalism

strict, literal, or excessive conformity to the law or to a religious or moral code

Shi Huangdi

• Policy called “strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches”

  • uprooted 120,000 noble families

  • China carved into 36 administrative districts 

• Established an autocracy–a government that has unlimited power and uses it in an arbitrary manner

• Murdered hundreds of Confucian scholars

• Burned “useless” books–the works of Confucian thinkers and poets who disagreed with Legalists 

• Irrigation projects increased farm production 

• Highway network of more than 4,000 miles

  • Trade blossomed

    • Pushed a new class of merchants into prominence 

• Overall, Qin regime was unpopular

• Harsh taxes

• Repressive government 

• Restraint of human freedom

Yin and yang

• an ancient Chinese idea states that everything in the world results from a balance between two forces

  • natural rhythms of life

  • believes that everything has an opposite

    • If someone was born a boy they believe somewhere else was born a girl

Middle Ages Role of Women

• Noblewoman

  • Could inherit estate from her husband

    • landowner

  • Could send knights

  • Could be a warrior to defend land while their husband was away at war

  • Domestic duties

  • Pious

  • Educated by tutors

• Peasant

  • Laborers

    • Worked side by side with their husbands/family

  • Domestic duties

  • Poor and powerless

• could have fief as dowry

  • when the married husband gained control of the fief

  • when the husband died, the woman regained control of her fief

  • Marriage was seen as a way to advance one’s fortune

Battle of Hastings

• Oct 14, 1066 

• Between Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy and the english army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson

• Edward Confessor (King of England) = childless; when he died, Harold Godwin proclaimed king

  • William (cousin of edward) disputed this as it is said that Edward had promised to make him king

• Harold killed during the one-day battle and all of his forces destroyed

• William becomes king- First Norman king, Anglo-Saxon phase of English history comes to an end

• French was spoken in England’s courts as william did not speak english

  • Infused worlds and gave birth to modern english

Black Death

• Causes

  • Yersinia pestis—travel on fleas and rats

  • poor nutrition in people

  • famine

  • low living standards

• Symptoms

  • Sneezing

  • high fever

  • swollen lymph nodes—oozing fluids

  • skin turning black

  • vomiting

  • aches and pains

• Attempts to Stop the Plague

  • A doctor's robe

  • “leeching” bleeding them out

  • Flagellanti: self-inflicted “penance” for our sins

  • Pogroms against the Jews

    • “Jew” hat

    • “Golden Circle” obligatory badge

    • Mortality Rate

• 35-75%

• 25 million died

• Effects of the Black Death

• Negative

  • trade declined

  • population decreased

    • death toll

    • people fled cities

  • lard percentage of population died

  • change in political power

  • wages rise

  • lack of of resources

• Positive

  • Stronger/ healthier population left

Charlemagne

• Pepin the short’s son

• spread Christian teachings throughout Europe

  • forced people to convert

  • Pope confirmed = God confirmed

  • Monarchs from this point on sought confirmation from the Pope

• Emperor of the Romans

Crusades

• 1097-1291

• Result of the First Crusade: 

  • Christians captured Jerusalem

  • Set up 4 feudal states

• Result of the Second Crusade: 

  • France and Germany lost Damascus to Muslims

  • Leaders: King Louis VII (France) and King Conrad III (Germany)

• Result of the Third Crusade: 

  • Truce

  • Muslims remained in control

  • Christians had control of some towns in Palestine

  • Christians were allowed to enter Jerusalem freely

• Result of the Fourth Crusade: 

  • attacked Zadar in Italy

  • Zadar was a Christian city

  • attack on Egypt

Dark Ages

• Approx. 400-1000

  • Many things revert back to the way they were before the roman empire

• Causes

  • Disruption of trade

  • Fall of cities

  • Population shifts

  • Decline of learning

    • Loss of learning

Early to High Middle Ages – differences

• Early

  • Byzantine empire

  • Clovis, Charlemagne and the Franks

  • Feudalism

  • Chivalry

  • religion was strong

• High 

  • Black plague

  • Hundred years war

  • Schism – within catholicism 

  • Crusades

  • Education changes

  • More “state” government

  • trade

Effects of Roman Empire Decline

• Disruption of trade

• fall of cities

• population shifts

• decline in learning

  • loss of language

Excommunication

to officially banish someone from their church

Feudal pyramid

• King and queen

• Church officials

• Nobles

• Knights

• Peasants

Feudalism

• political organization

• based on owning and working of land (fief)

  • fief was hereditary

  • primogeniture—inheritance of father to eldest son

  • Women could have fief as dowry

    • when the married husband gained control of the fief

    • when the husband died, the woman regained control of her fief

    • Marriage was seen as a way to advance one’s fortune

Great Schism

• French

  • Clement VII

    • Excommunicated Urban

    • Lived in Avignon

• Roman

  • Urban VI

    • Excommunicated Clement

    • Lived in Rome

    • Arrogant

    • Passion for Reform

• 3rd pope selected at Council of Pisa

• 1414 Council of Constance ended Schism by forcing all the popes to resign and selecting Martin V

Guild

• Organization of individuals in the same occupations working to improve the economic and social conditions of the members

  • Merchant— control number of goods, security

  • craft— standards for quality of work, wages, and working conditions

Hundred Years War

• War launched due to Edward III claiming the right to the French throne

• English used longbow

  • Made medieval knight extinct

  • Won Battle of Crecy, Battle of Poitiers, and Battle of Agincourt

• 1420: English and French signed treaty stating Henry V would inherit the throne after French king Charles VI death

Interdict

closing of church in region

Manor

• large farming estate

  • Manor houses, cultivated land, woodlands, pastures, fields, and villages

  • Self-sufficient

  • Nobles lived in castles which were used as forts

• Manorial system

• Lord owned land and peasants worked the land

• Serf life

  • Difficult due to hard work

  • Could not leave without lords permission

  • Rarely ate meat

  • Life span was very short

Monasticism

• regular clergy

  • male monks

  • female nuns- not considered clergy because on men could

• Withdraw from the world and its temptation to live a christian life

  • Monks- monasteries

  • Nuns- convents

• Fasting, prayer, and self denial

• Lived alone

• Inflict extreme physical suffering

Pope vs. King for power

• Pope Boniface VIII vs. King Phillip IV of France

  • Kings must always obey popes

  • “My master’s sword is made of steel, the pope’s is made of words”

    • Pope put into jail and dies a month later

• Philip IV persuaded cardinals to choose a French pope

  • Clement V

    • Moves pope to Avignon in France.

    • Stays for 69 years

    • Weakens the Church

Saladin

• Third crusade

• Muslim leader

• helped with 2nd Crusade

• gained control of Jerusalem

Serf

• Difficult due to hard work

• Could not leave without lords permission

• Rarely ate meat

• Life span was very short

Urban II

• Pope

• called for a Holy War —Crusades

• War to protect the Holy Land (Constantinople is a part)

  • Reunite Christian empires

  • help Christian pilgrims

Vikings

• Scandinavia

• Sea warriors

  • known for ships

• Leif Ericson

  • discovered North America first

• Magyars and Muslims also invaded

  • people were in constant danger

William of Normandy

• Leader of the Normans

• battle of Hastings: took over England

• gave land to Norman Lords for loyalty

Role of Women Renaissance

• Upper class

  • Educated in the classics

  • charming

  • Do not seek fame

  • inspire art but not create it

  • Little influence in politics

Characteristics of the Renaissance

• Creativity in art, writing, and thought

• Humanism: importance of the individual and their potential

  • Studies of Ancient Greek and Roman literature

  • verify through investigation

  • emphasized education

  • joy in life without offending God

    • secular: worldly

  • influences artists and architects

• Thriving urban lifestyle

• Wealthy merchant class

  • political

Council of Trent

• meeting of high Church officials that issues decrees unifying the structure of the Church under acknowledged supremacy of popes

• Also, reaffirmed certain Catholic teachings

• Inquisitions

Elizabeth I

• England

• Daughter of Henry VIII

• The red-haired daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn

• She became England’s greatest leader.

• She kept control of England by refusing to marry anyone and playing one noble against another – many hoping to marry the Queen.

• She kept religious wars down, advanced exploration, became a patron of the arts, and brought England to the position of world power with the defeat of the Spanish Armada

Estates General

• First: Church leaders

• Second: lords

• Third: Commoners, wealthy landowners, or merchants

• Helped increase royals’ power Causes of the French Revolution

Henry VIII

• Anglicanism

• The English Reformation rooted in politics. When the pope was unwilling to grant King Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage, Henry turned to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmore, who did annul the marriage in 1533 CE

  • Henry is famously known for having 6 wives

• In 1534 CE, the Act of Supremacy, decreed the king as the supreme ruler of the Church of England

• Henry banned the Catholic Church, seized all of the property of the Catholic Church and increased the wealth of England

• father of Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I

Humanism

importance of the individual and their potential

Joan of Arc

• French teenage peasant girl (13)

  • Moved by God to rescue France from England

    • Visions and voices from saints

• May 7, 1429 Joan led French army in Battle of Orleans

  • French won

  • Charles VII became king of France

• Joan was captured by Burgundians (allies of England)

  • Condemned as a witch by the Church

  • Burned at the stake May 30, 1431

  • Charles VII did nothing to rescue her

John Calvin

• Published the first edition of Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1536 CE - a synthesis of Protestant philosophy

  • Emphasized the absolute sovereignty of God, from which he derived the concept of predestination

    • The the elected were saved, the sinner were damned and this was determined before birth

• Reformed the city of Geneva

  • Strict religious life Missionaries trained in Geneva traveled to other parts of Europe where they established Calvinism. Known as Huguenots

Martin Luther

• German monk and professor at the University of witten berg

  • Luther determined that humans could never do enough good work to merit salvation but only through justification by grace through “faith alone”

    • do goods works because a “saved” Christian would have a natural inclination to be charitable

Parliament

• King Edward I

• Summoned 2 burgesses from every borough and 2 knights from every county

  • Burgess: citizens of wealth and property

• For the next century burgesses and knights were called together to discuss new taxes

  • checks and balances in royal power

Printing press

• Johannes Gutenberg

• copies of the bible

• threatened job of scribes

Protestant Reformation

• Luther was ordered to recant his heresies, which he refused and he was secreted away to go into hiding for several months

• During the next several years, many territorial churches in Germany became Lutheran churches and the German states had grown independent of imperial authority Until Lutheranism was too well-established to eradicate

• In 1555 CE, Charles V negotiated a truce with the Lutheran German princes

  • The Peace of Augsburg

Renaissance

Rebirth of the ancient Greek and Roman art and learning

Role of Women Enlightenment

• Women's education should be based on the duties of the home

  • Reading would cause idleness and wickedness

  • some supported equality in marriage

Age of Reason

what the Enlightenment was known as; another name for the enlightenment

Enlightenment

Intellectual movement that stressed reason and thought and the power of an individual to solve problem

John Locke

• English philosopher

• Questioned the role of government

  • More positive view

  • people could learn from experience and improve themselves

  • Human rights — life liberty and property

  • right to overthrow the government if they don’t protect these rights

Major ideas of the Enlightenment

• Reason: truth could be discovered through reason or logical thinking, called rationalism

• Nature: what was natural was good and reasonable, natural rights

• Happiness: urged people to seek well being on Earth.

• Progress: society and humankind could improve

• Liberty: spread the liberties from the Glorious Revolution and English Bill of Rights – representative government, fair taxes, rights guaranteed to the people

Salon

social gatherings of young thinkers from around the world in the 1700s, hosted by a wealthy woman in Paris. They discussed many of the Enlightenment ideas

Thomas Hobbes

• English philosophers

• Questioned the role of government

  • Leviathan

  • Humans selfish and wicked

  • hand over rights to a strong ruler in exchange for law and order (social contract)

  • Absolute monarchy – impose order and demand obedience

Autocracy

a government that has unlimited power and uses it in an arbitrary manner

Bureaucracy

• the people in a government system who help get everything done

• “do the stuff”

  • ex: the person who writes the speech for the president

• can be in ANY FORM OF GOVERNMENT

Democracy

control of a government by the majority of its members

Empire

an extensive group of states or countries under a single supreme authority, formerly especially an emperor or empress

Limited constitutional monarchy

Government in which there is a monarch and representative body. Power is shared between the two and is divided in official documents 

Theocracy

system of government run by religious leaders

Vernacular

the common language in an area; people could read for themselves and interpret for themselves

Importance of Constantinople

• at the Center Byzantine empire

• Present day istanbul

• In a place where it could control trade (all trade goes through)

• Eastern part of Rome remained as the Byzantine Empire

• Justinian

  • Justinian Code – updated laws based on Roman

  • Strong and capital

• Part of the Holy Land

Advancements

• Africa

  • Ironworking

  • Written Language: Ge’ez

  • Minted Coins

  • Pillars of Aksum

• India

  • Bollywood

  • Calendar based on the sun

  • Plastic surgery 

  • Pi

• China

  • Irrigation

  • Writing system

  • Fertilizer

  • Great wall

• Middle Ages

  • School run by monks

  • Horse power

  • Vernacular

  • 3-field system

• Renaissance/ Reformation

  • realistic scenes and images

  • perspective

  • Printing press

  • realism

Role of the Church

• Church provides security during chaos

• small Germanic communities developed

  • no written laws

  • based on traditions

• Gregory I

  • King and Pope

  • Secular; worldly = spiritual and political

  • used church money to create army, help poor, repair roads

  • Pope controlled region