AP World History Unit 1 Review: Context & State Building

Contextualization

• Contextualization is understanding how we got to the present. It's the ability to see the big picture by understanding the global backstory, which provides depth and makes sense of the current story.

Major Turning Points Before the Course

• Shift from hunter-gatherer societies to settled agriculture led to:
  • New governments
  • Gender roles
  • Social hierarchies
  • Military systems
  • Religions

Religions Before the Course

• Confucianism and Taoism emerged in East Asia (China).
• Hinduism and Buddhism emerged in South Asia (India).
• Judaism, Christianity, and Islam began in the Middle East.
  • Shaped culture and governments in their regions.

Unit 1 Theme: State Building

• Focuses on how states and empires grew and governed.
  • State building refers to how states and empires grew to power and then ruled their respective areas.

Europe in the Middle Ages

• Decentralized societies (feudal system):
  • Lords divided land.
  • Knights protected land.
  • Serfs worked the land.
• Unifying factor: Roman Catholic Church.

Crusades

• Pope Urban called for the First Crusade to defend Jerusalem.
• Reintroduced Europeans to trade routes, kickstarting Europe again.

Byzantine Empire

• Continuation of the eastern part of the Roman Empire; maintained Roman traditions.
• Connected to the Islamic world and the Silk Road, especially via Constantinople.

Orthodox Christianity

• Split from Roman Catholicism.
• Constantinople was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453 (just after the 1450 mark for this period).