2 Semester Test

What is a significant feature of the region surrounding Israel becuase its the lowest land on the planet?

Dead Sea

Where does most of the rainfall in the region occcur?

highlands and Mediterranean coast

Many Israeli Arabs consider themselves to be what?

Palestinian

In 587BC, the Babylonians conquered the Israelite Kingdom and carried away the people of \___

Judah

What provides guidelines for acting justly and fairly for Judaism?

Ten Commandments

What city is important for Muslims because they believe Muhammad went to heaven from there?

Jerusalem

What organization's plan to divide Palestine led to Israel's declaration of independence as a Jewish state?

United Nations

What group began to outnumber Christians with Jewish backgrounds after Paul began preaching to them?

Christians with non-Jewish backgrounds

In what country does the constitution require its leaders to be members of a particular religious group?

Lebanon

What country's autocracy limits personal freedoms by keeping the country in a state of emergency since 1963?

Syria

How has government corruption in some countries in the region harmed people's standard of living?

weakening economies

What party won the 2006 Palestinian partliamentary election, that worsened Palestine's relationship with Israel because it wanted to destroy Israel as a country?

Hamas

Why did fighting in the second Palestinian Intifada die down in 2005?

Israel removed settlers from the Gaza Strip

How do Israel and its neighbors get water?

aquifers

What does Israel and its neighbors fight for control over due to water shortages?

fresh water sources

Israel takes water away from aquiferes that are partly under where that angers the Palestinians?

West Bank

The region of Israel and its neighbors is important to what three religions?

Christianity, Judaism, Islam

What three continents intersect at the crossroads of Israel and its region?

Africa, Europe, and Asia

Why does Israel and its neighbors have such a great economic and military importance?

oil

What religion, based on Jewish traditions, arose in the region around 30AD?

Christianity

What region reaches from the coast of the Mediterranean through Iraq to the Persian Gulf?

Fertile Crescent

What is the far side of the mountain that receives little rain fall called?

rain shadow

An aquifer is an underground layer of what materials that collect water?

rock and sand

What is the term for someone who is a messenger of God?

prophet

What type of government does Israel have?

parliamentary democracy

What were the religious wars during the 1000s where Europeans invaded Palestine?

Crusades

What was the political movement that had the primary goal of creating a Jewish state in Palestine?

Zionism

Over millions of years, what does heat and pressure inside of Earth change decaying organisms into?

oil and gas

In what Southwest Asian country is farming possible because it recieves rainfall?

Iraq

What did pressure from the Arabian Plate pressing against the Eurasian Plate cause?

mountains

Where are large Shia Muslim populations mainly found?

Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Yemen

What involves wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets?

cuneiform writing

In what period did Britain have a large influence on the Iraqi government?

post World War II

What countries did Britain have major influence in during the early 1900s?

Bahrain and Kuwait

What is a branch of Sunni Islam that interprets Islamic scripture literally and states the government should follow Islamic teachings?

Wahhabism

What is starting a new business on your own an example of?

entrepreneurship

What nation invaded Kuwait in 1990?

Iraq

After WWI, what country was carved out of the Ottoman Empire by Britain and the League of Nations?

Iraq

Before WWI, what countries were under British control?

Bahrain, Oman, Qatar

What organization did Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait join in 1960?

OPEC

What city is the center of Islamic faith?

Mecca

What group took over the government of Iraq in 1963 and placed Saddam Hussein in power in 1979?

Baath Party

Only 15% of Muslims are what?

Shia

What key trade route did the Muslim Empire contol?

The Silk Road

How far west did the Muslim Empire spread at its height?

Spain

What is a valuable, plentiful resource in Arabia and Iraw that helped the countries become wealthy?

oil and gas

How has the region attempted to diversify its economy so that it no longer depends on oil for wealth?

improving education

Because they are made from remains of organisms, what are oil and gas are known as?

fossil fuels

What is the process that removes salt from seawater?

desalination

What is the practice of worshipping one god?

monotheism

Arab Muslims make up more than half of the population, making them the what?

majority

What is a culture that has a written language and multiple occupations for people called?

civilization

What is the holy book of Islam called?

Quran

What is the belief that information contained in holy books should be believed word-for-word called?

fundamentalism

What is a belief that politics and society should follow Islamic teachings?

Islamism

What does the word "jihad" mean in Arabic?

struggle

What is the term for the act of people using violence against innocent civilians for political reasons?

terrorism

Much of Arabia is heavily \_____

urbanized

What is the concealing and baggy garment traditionally worn by some women in the region called?

hijab

Entreprenuership is the willingness to take the riska and start a new what?

business

What separated the mainland from the rest of Asia and isolated early societies?

mountain ranges

Before 500BC, India and China became early trading partners with seagoing merchants from where?

Indonesia

What was important to international traders because it is the most direct route between India and China?

Strait of Malacca

What forces gained control of North Vietnam in 1954?

communist

What Southeast Asian country has a higher GDP than America?

Singapore

What issues are affecting Indonesia's economy?

overcrowding and destruction of rain forests

Most of the land of Southeast Asia is what?

part of a peninsula or archipelago

What is the string of volcanoes that encircles the Pacific Ocean?

Ring of Fire

What did European powers fail to gain control of after WWII?

colonies

What country gave up control of Vietnam in 1954 due to a bloody war for independence?

France

What countries led to trade contact with Southeast Asia?

India and China

Which empire did many SE Asian traditions come from?

Khmer

How did the Khmer Empire become rich?

trade

What region in SE Asia was able to resist being colonized by Europe?

Thailand

What type of commerce replaced the agricultural empires of Bagan and Khmer?

maritime trade

What European nation conquered Malacca in 1511?

Portugal

What landform is almost entirely surrounded by water?

peninsula

What comes over the Indian Ocean and brings heavy rains in the summer?

monsoons

What can earthquakes cause?

tsunamis

The equator runs right through the islands of SE Asia's what?

archipelago

What did the ancient people of Camodia's Khmer civilization store what in for watering rice fields?

reservoirs

When people have more than they need, what do they have?

surplus

What is the term that means to take advantage of?

exploit

In Malaysia, Muslims must obey the Islamic legal system and also what other type of law?

secular

Individuals break away from their country and can form what?

separatist group

What is another term for a rebellion?

insurgency

Most of Southeast Asia's trade is maritime trade, meaning it is what?

sea-based

What are hurricane-like storms in the Western Pacific called?

typhoons

What type of land does both North and South Korea have?

mountainous

What natural disaster has Japan developed an early warning system for?

earthquakes

What is trade between Japan and South Korea based on?

interdependence

What is the border between North and South Korea referred to as?

demilitarized zone

What have Japan and the Koreas been influenced by?

Buddhism

What can the rise of Japan as a military power be traced back to?

the Meiji Restoration

What is South Korea's economy like compared to North Korea's?

booming

What is one of the major problems North Korea presents for other countries?

its nuclear program

What is one of the economic challenges Japan has faced in recent years?

recession

What is one thing Kim Jong-il controls in the lives of North Koreans?

information received from the outside world

What type of economy does North Korea have, making it poorly managed and weaker than South Korea's?

command economy

Who ruled Japan beginning in the 1600s and tried to maintain stability by closing the country off from contact from the outside world to prevent foreign disruptions?

Tokugawa shoguns