Ap World History Chapter 1

BEFORE 1200: PATTERNS IN WORLD HISTORY [CHAPTER 1]

1. In what ways did a gathering and hunting economy shape other aspects of Paleolithic societies?

• Egalitarian Social Order (Lack of Class Hierarchy):

  • Paleolithic societies were constantly on the move, meaning individuals could not accumulate personal property or store large amounts of food.

  • Without stored wealth, permanent social classes, economic inequality, or formal political rulers could not take root, resulting in a fundamentally equal society.

• Relative Equality Between Genders:

  • While men primarily hunted big game, women gathered the vast majority of daily plant foods, roots, nuts, and berries.

  • Because plant gathering provided 70% or more of the community’s total caloric intake, women’s economic contributions were vital to survival, preventing the rigid patriarchal dominance seen in later agricultural eras.

• Small, Self-Limiting Group Sizes:

  • Foraging bands were kept intentionally small, usually consisting of just 25 to 50 individuals.

  • Larger populations would quickly exhaust local natural resources, forcing groups to manage birth rates and group sizes carefully.

• Nomadic Living Patterns:

  • Groups had to remain highly mobile, moving regularly across large territories in response to seasonal migrations of animals and natural growing cycles of wild plants.

  • This prevented the construction of permanent housing, furniture, or heavy tools.

2. How does the chart on pg 11 show continuities and/or changes over time in the distribution of population across the world?

Continuities:

• Overwhelming Eurasian Dominance:

  • Across every recorded era in the chart (400 B.C.E., 200 C.E., 600 C.E., 1000 C.E., and 2017), Eurasia consistently housed the vast majority of the global human population, hovering between ~70% and 85% of the global total.

• Consistently Low Share in North America and Oceania:

  • North America and Australia/Oceania remained the least populated regions worldwide throughout pre-modern history, each accounting for roughly 1% or less of the global total.

Changes:

• Exponential Global Population Surge:

  • The total world population expanded dramatically over time, growing from 153 million in 400 B.C.E. to 253 million in 1000 C.E., before surging exponentially to over 7.5 billion by 2017.

• Gradual Decline in Eurasia’s Relative Percentage:

  • While Eurasia’s total population grew, its overall share of world population gradually fell from 83% in 400 B.C.E. to 77% in 1000 C.E., and down to 69.5% by 2017 as populations in other continents grew faster.

• Proportional Rise in Africa's Population:

  • Africa saw a steady increase in its percentage of global population, rising from 11% in 400 B.C.E. up to 15% in 1000 C.E. (and reaching 16.6% by 2017).

• Sharp Temporary Population Dips:

  • The chart shows severe population drops during specific periods—notably in Eurasia between 200 C.E. (215 million) and 600 C.E. (167 million), caused by devastating plague epidemics and the political collapse of empires (like Han China and Western Rome) before recovering by 1000 C.E.

3. In what ways did the Agricultural Revolution make new forms of society possible?

• Establishment of Permanent Sedentary Settlements:

  • Farming required communities to stay in one place to clear land, plant crops, and tend fields, giving rise to settled villages, permanent towns, and eventually urban civilizations.

• Massive Population Growth (Demographic Surges):

  • Farming produced far more edible calories per acre of land than hunting and gathering ever could, triggering a global population boom that fueled complex human developments.

• Specialization of Labor:

  • Food surpluses meant that not every individual needed to work on food production full-time.

  • Extra food allowed people to specialize as full-time craft artisans, priests, soldiers, traders, warriors, administrators, and political rulers.

• Emergence of Distinct Social Organizations:

  • The Agricultural Revolution gave birth to three primary society types:

    • Pastoral Societies: Nomadic animal herders in dry grassland areas where crop farming was impossible.

    • Agricultural Village Societies: Village-based farming communities governed by family lineages and elders rather than kings or formal states.

    • Chiefdoms: Hierarchical societies led by inherited chiefs who collected tribute (food and goods) from commoners and redistributed it.

A. FROM THE PALEOLITHIC ERA TO THE AGE OF AGRICULTURE (VOCABULARY)

• PALEOLITHIC ERA: The early "Old Stone Age" period prior to ~10,000 B.C.E., defined by foraging (hunting and gathering), stone tool technology, nomadic living, and small, egalitarian band societies.

• AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION: The revolutionary shift (~10,000–4,000 B.C.E.) from hunting and gathering to deliberate crop farming and animal domestication, transforming human ecology and social structure.

• PASTORAL SOCIETIES: Nomadic communities centered on herding domesticated livestock (sheep, goats, cattle, horses) in arid grasslands or steppes where farming crops was difficult or impossible.

• PATRIARCHY: A institutionalized social and political system where men hold primary authority across government, property ownership, law, and family structure, placing women in subordinate roles.

• HINDUISM: India's foundational, polycentric religious system with no single founder, centered on belief in an ultimate reality (Brahman), karmic rebirth, and multiple spiritual paths to liberation.

• UPANISHADS: Sacred Hindu philosophical texts (composed 800–400 B.C.E.) that introduced foundational concepts like Brahman (the world soul) and Atman (the individual soul).

• SIDDHARTHA GAUTAMA: A prince from northern India (ca. 566–486 B.C.E.) who renounced his wealth and family, achieved spiritual enlightenment, and became known as the Buddha.

• BUDDHA: "The Enlightened/Awakened One"; the title given to Siddhartha Gautama and any individual who reaches full spiritual liberation from suffering.

• THERAVADA BUDDHISM: "Teaching of the Elders"; an early, strict branch of Buddhism that emphasized rigorous monastic life, personal self-effort, and viewing Buddha as an extraordinary human teacher.

• MAHAYANA BUDDHISM: "Great Vehicle"; an accessible branch of Buddhism that treated the Buddha as a divine savior and emphasized help from spiritual beings (bodhisattvas).

• BHAKTI MOVEMENT: A Hindu devotional movement involving intense, personal love and devotion toward specific deities (like Vishnu or Shiva) through popular songs, rituals, and poetry.

• CONFUCIANISM: A secular Chinese philosophy founded by Confucius that sought social and political harmony through moral government, filial piety, formal education, and structured family relationships.

• HAN DYNASTY: A powerful Chinese imperial dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.) that adopted Confucianism as state ideology and established an administrative civil service examination system.

• MANDATE OF HEAVEN: The Chinese political doctrine asserting that emperors were granted divine authority to rule by heaven, but could lose this legitimacy if they became corrupt or unjust.

• FILIAL PIETY: The core Confucian virtue of deep respect, obedience, honor, and care directed by children toward their parents, living elders, and family ancestors.

• DAOISM: A Chinese philosophy associated with Laozi that emphasized stepping back from political life, rejecting formal education, practicing simplicity, and aligning with nature (the Dao).

• JUDAISM: The foundational monotheistic religion of the Hebrew people, defined by a sacred covenant with a single God (Yahweh) and adherence to moral law and social justice.

• JESUS: A Jewish ethical teacher and miracle worker (ca. 4 B.C.E.–29 C.E.) whose core message of love, compassion, and divine redemption became the foundation of Christianity.

• PROPHET MUHAMMAD: The Arabian merchant and prophet (570–632 C.E.) who received divine revelations recorded in the Quran, unifying the Arabian Peninsula under Islam.

• QURAN: The holy book of Islam, believed by Muslims to contain the verbatim, revealed words of God (Allah) delivered directly to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel.

• UMMA: The global, unified community of all Muslim believers, prioritizing shared religious faith above tribal, racial, or national divisions.

• SUNNI: The majority branch of Islam, which holds that political leadership (caliphs) should be selected through consensus among community leaders and scholars.

• SHIA/SHI’ITE: The minority branch of Islam, which asserts that rightful leadership belongs exclusively to direct blood descendants of Muhammad through his son-in-law Ali.

• ULAMA: Educated Muslim legal scholars, judges, and theologians who preserved, interpreted, and taught Islamic law (sharia).

• SHARIA: The comprehensive body of Islamic law that regulates all aspects of daily legal, ethical, social, political, and spiritual life for Muslims.

• SUFISM: The mystical dimension of Islam that seeks a direct, personal experience and emotional union with God through meditation, chanting, music, and simple living.

B. CIVILIZATIONS

4. What was the role of cities in the early civilizations?

• Administrative and Political Centers:

  • Served as capital seats of power housing royal palaces, imperial bureaucracies, state warehouses, tax collection systems, and law courts.

• Economic and Commercial Hubs:

  • Acted as vibrant regional marketplaces where long-distance trade goods were exchanged and specialized artisans manufactured textiles, metalwork, and pottery.

• Cultural and Religious Anchors:

  • Contained massive monumental architecture—such as temples, ziggurats, and pyramids—where state religious rituals, sacrifices, and festivals were performed.

5. How did civilizations impact their environment?

• Deforestation and Severe Soil Erosion:

  • Clearing forests for agricultural fields and cutting timber for building construction and fuel stripped the land, leading to widespread soil degradation.

• Soil Salinization in Irrigated Lands:

  • Intensive, large-scale crop irrigation in hot, dry regions (like Southern Mesopotamia) caused water tables to rise and salt to build up in the topsoil, ruining agricultural yields.

• Ecosystem Shifts and Resource Depletion:

  • Overgrazing by domesticated livestock, mining for metals, and urban growth altered local animal habitats and depleted natural resources.

6. What were the distinct characteristics of some of the early civilizations? What were some characteristics that they shared?

• Shared Characteristics:

  • All relied on dense urban centers, centralized government authority, social class stratification, male-dominated patriarchy, organized religion, tax systems, and written language.

• Distinct Characteristics:

  • Mesopotamia: Fragmented into competing city-states; suffered from unpredictable, violent river flooding; possessed open geographic borders vulnerable to invasion.

  • Egypt: Formed a unified, stable kingdom; enjoyed predictable annual Nile River flooding; was naturally protected from invasion by surrounding deserts.

  • Indus Valley: Featured remarkably planned grid-based cities with advanced indoor plumbing and drainage, yet left no obvious evidence of royal palaces, army monuments, or centralized rulers.

7. What were the most essential elements of Hinduism?

• Brahman: The belief in an ultimate, all-encompassing divine reality or universal spirit that underlies all things.

• Samsara and Karma: The belief that the soul undergoes a continuous cycle of rebirth (samsara), with one's status in the next life determined by moral actions (karma).

• Moksha: The ultimate spiritual goal of liberating the soul from the wheel of rebirth to achieve eternal union with Brahman.

• Caste System: A rigid social hierarchy (varna and jati) that divided society into fixed occupational classes based on concepts of spiritual purity and karma.

8. To what extent were Buddhist teachings similar to Hindu beliefs? Provide a similarity or difference to support your answer.

• Extent of Similarity: Buddhism was deeply rooted in Hindu culture and shared its foundational metaphysical ideas, but it launched a radical social reform by rejecting Hindu caste and ritual structures.

  • Similarity: Both religions centered on the concepts of karma (moral cause and effect), samsara (the cycle of rebirth), and seeking spiritual liberation from worldly suffering (moksha in Hinduism, nirvana in Buddhism).

  • Difference: Buddhism directly rejected the spiritual authority of Brahmin priests, elaborate animal sacrifice rituals, and the rigid social divisions of the caste system, teaching that spiritual liberation was accessible to anyone regardless of birth.

9. How did Theravada Buddhism change as it spread across Asia?

• Transformation into Mahayana: As Buddhism traveled along trade routes into East Asia, it transformed into Mahayana Buddhism, making salvation far more accessible to regular laypeople without requiring them to become secluded monks.

• Deification of the Buddha: Reimagined the Buddha from an extraordinary human teacher into a divine god-like figure who could hear prayers and grant salvation.

• Introduction of Bodhisattvas: Introduced devotion to bodhisattvas—spiritually enlightened beings who chose to delay their own entry into nirvana to remain on Earth and help suffering humans.

10. Why had Buddhism in India declined by 1200?

• Wealth and Monastic Isolation: Rich Buddhist monasteries became self-contained centers, isolating monks from the everyday struggles of common people.

• Growth of Devotional Hinduism: The rise of the emotionally appealing bhakti movement drew masses of ordinary believers back to Hindu worship through popular song and direct devotion to gods like Krishna or Rama.

• Absorption by Hinduism: Hindu traditions gradually absorbed the Buddha into their own pantheon, framing him as the ninth avatar (incarnation) of the Hindu god Vishnu.

• Destruction by Turkic Invasions: Turkic Islamic military invasions destroyed major Buddhist learning centers and monasteries (such as Nalanda University), wiping out its leadership structure in India.

11. In what ways can Confucianism be defined as a secular or “humanistic” philosophy rather than a supernatural religion?

• Focus on This-Worldly Governance and Ethics: Concentrated strictly on practical political governance, family stability, moral self-improvement, and social harmony in everyday human life.

• Avoidance of Supernatural Speculation: Confucius explicitly avoided discussing gods, spirit realms, divine visions, or theories about the afterlife, emphasizing practical education and human relationships instead.

12. Why was Confucianism important to the formation of the government of the Han and later dynasties?

• Official State Ideology: Provided a moral justification for imperial authority, teaching that subjects owed loyalty and obedience to righteous, moral rulers.

• Civil Service Examination System: Formed the core academic curriculum for imperial exams, creating a trained class of scholar-bureaucrats who earned government positions through intellect and merit rather than aristocratic birth.

13. How did Daoist outlook on society differ from that of Confucianism?

• Confucian Outlook: Urged active political service, strict adherence to social etiquette, rigorous classical study, and continuous effort toward moral self-improvement within society.

• Daoist Outlook: Encouraged stepping back from political life, discarding formal education, ignoring artificial social rules, and living simply and spontaneously in harmony with nature (the Dao).

14. What was distinctive about the Jewish religious traditions as compared to the other religions discussed in this chapter?

• Exclusive Monotheism: Proclaimed the existence of a single, supreme God (Yahweh) and strictly forbade the worship of any rival deities or idols.

• Ethical God of Social Justice: Envisioned God not as a distant force, but as a deeply personal deity engaged in human history who demanded social justice, moral integrity, and compassion for the poor over mere ritual sacrifices.

15. How would you compare the teachings of Jesus and the Buddha? In what different ways did the two religions evolve after the death of their founders?

• Teaching Comparison:

  • Similarities: Both were humble spiritual guides who rejected personal wealth, emphasized unconditional love and non-violence, and sought to reform their native religious traditions without intending to start a new global faith.

  • Differences: Jesus maintained an intimate relationship with a personal God (Abba) and delivered a direct social critique against oppressive authorities; Buddha focused on internal mind discipline, meditation, and self-liberation without relying on a supreme deity.

• Institutional Evolution:

  • Christianity: Transformed from an outlawed Jewish sect into the official state religion of the Roman Empire, developing a centralized male hierarchy of bishops and popes alongside strict official church doctrines.

  • Buddhism: Split into distinct regional branches (Theravada and Mahayana), spreading along Asian trade networks while absorbing into local traditions and declining in India.

16. Why is the development of Islam so historically significant?

• Rapid Empire Building: Rapidly unified the Arabian Peninsula and generated a vast transcontinental empire (Dar al-Islam) extending from Spain all the way to Northern India.

• Global Network of Exchange: Created an interconnected civilization that fostered long-distance trade, scientific innovation, technological diffusion, and cultural exchange across Afro-Eurasia.

17. In what ways could the teachings of the Quran regarding social justice and the poor be seen as attractive to people in lower social classes?

• Denunciation of Economic Exploitation: Repeatedly condemned commercial greed, high interest rates on loans, corrupt business deals, and the mistreatment of vulnerable groups like orphans and widows.

• Egalitarian Community (Umma): Established a unified social community where all believers stood as spiritual equals before God, regardless of wealth, family lineage, or social rank.

18. Explain the similarities and differences in the spread of Islam and Christianity.

• Similarities: Both expanded across broad regions via trade networks, missionary efforts, and imperial backing, eventually splitting into rival internal branches (Sunni/Shia in Islam; Catholic/Orthodox in Christianity).

• Differences:

  • Islam: Functioned as an integrated political, military, and legal state from its very beginning under Muhammad and the early caliphs.

  • Christianity: Survived for over three centuries as an illegal, persecuted minority movement before winning imperial Roman endorsement.

19. Why did Sufism emerge, and what were the impacts?

• Why it Emerged: Formed as a mystical reaction against the material luxury, political corruption, and dry legalism of the expanding Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates.

• Impacts: Accelerated conversions in frontier regions (such as India, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa) because Sufi missionaries adapted Islamic devotional life to local folk traditions.

C. CIVILIZATIONS AND CULTURAL TRADITIONS

20. How did cultural and religious traditions spread across regions in the period before 1200?

• Commercial Networks: Traveling merchants carried religious texts, ideas, and customs along major trade routes like the Silk Roads, Indian Ocean Sea Roads, and Trans-Saharan Sand Roads.

• Imperial Support and Conquest: Large empires adopted official religions (e.g., Constantine in Rome, Ashoka in India) and promoted them across broad conquered territories.

• Missionaries and Travelers: Monks, devout pilgrims, and itinerant Sufi teachers traveled directly into foreign communities to preach, translate texts, and build religious institutions.

D. MAP WORKBOOK REFERENCE CHECKLIST

Use this reference list to accurately complete the coloring and labeling on your printed map page:

1. Continents (Color-code each continent a distinct color):

• [ ] Africa

• [ ] Antarctica

• [ ] Asia

• [ ] Europe

• [ ] North America

• [ ] Oceania

• [ ] South America

2. Bodies of Water (Neatly write labels in ink):

• [ ] Arabian Sea: West of India / East of the Arabian Peninsula.

• [ ] Atlantic Ocean: Between the Americas (West) and Europe/Africa (East).

• [ ] Indian Ocean: South of Asia / East of Africa / West of Australia.

• [ ] Mediterranean Sea: Between Southern Europe and North Africa.

• [ ] Pacific Ocean: East of Asia/Australia and West of the Americas.

• [ ] South China Sea: South of China / East of mainland Southeast Asia.

3. Major World Civilizations, 500–1450 (Label these regions):

• [ ] Andean: Pacific coast of South America (modern Peru/Chile).

• [ ] Axum/Ethiopian: Horn of Africa (modern Ethiopia/Eritrea).

• [ ] Chinese: East Asia (Yellow & Yangzi river valleys).

• [ ] Eastern Christendom: Eastern Europe, Russia, and Anatolia (Byzantine region).

• [ ] Egyptian: Nile River valley in northeast Africa.

• [ ] Indian: South Asian subcontinent.

• [ ] Islamic: Middle East, North Africa, Arabia, and Persia.

• [ ] Meso-American: Central America and Southern Mexico.

• [ ] Southeast Asian: Mainland Indochina and Indonesian archipelago.

• [ ] Swahili: Coastal strip of East Africa.

• [ ] West African: Niger River region in West Africa.

• [ ] Western Christendom: Western and Central Europe.

1. Answer the following questions in complete sentences:

   1. In what ways did the Agricultural Revolution transform human life?

The Agricultural revolution transformed human life by shifting societies from hunting and gathering to settled farming, which led to permanent settlements. This allowed sustained population growth and agricultural surpluses that led to occupational specialization, social hierarchies, technological innovation, and the rise of civilizations in regions such as Mesopotamia, the Nile River Valley, and the Indus Valley. 

2. What is distinctive about civilizations compared to other forms of human society? How did particular civilizations differ from one another?

Civilizations were distinctive because they were based in cities and governed by states with formal political structures, social hierarchies, writing systems, and occupational specialization. They differed from one another  based on their geography, political organization, and cultural traditions and in their methods of social organization such as India’s caste system compared to China’s merit based bureaucracy.

3. What similarities and differences can you identify among the major religious traditions that emerged in the Afro-Eurasian world before 1200 CE?

Major religions traditions were focused on moral behavior, social responsibility, and providing meaning to human suffering or existence for social order. They differed significantly on their views of the divine and the afterlife. For instance, Judaism, Christianity, and Islan were strictly monotheistic, while Hinduism promoted polytheism and reincarnation, and Buddhism focused on ending suffering through enlightenment rather than worshiping a creator deity. Furthermore, some traditions reinforced social hierarchy such as Hinduism’s direct connection to caste compared to Christianity and Buddhism that lead more towards all people being equal and deserving equal rights and opportunities

.

4. How did cultural and religious traditions spread across regions before 1200 CE?

Before 1200 CE, cultural and religious traditions mostly spread through long-distance trade networks such as the Silk Roads, Sea Roads of the Indian Ocean, and the Sand Roads across the Sahara where merchants carried ideas along with their goods. Traditions were also spread along through the intentional work of missionaries, the migration of people, and the expansion of empires.

5. What problems or tensions can arise when historians study the religious experiences of humans worldwide?

Historians face challenges when studying religion because spiritual experiences are subjective and cannot be verified through traditional historical evidence. Surviving sources often reflect off of elite male perspectives without insights into women’s or lower class religious experiences. Additionally, historians have to avoid imposing modern or Western views of religion onto ancient societies whose belief systems functioned differently.

6. Why have human cultural traditions, such as religions, generally outlasted the political systems in which they were born?

Human cultural traditions usually outlast the political systems in which they were born in because they provide core senses of identity and community that are not dependent on a certain government's military or economic success. Political regimes often collapse due to military defeat or economic decline while religious traditions adapt to new contexts and continue shaping societies even after the fall of the political systems that supported them.

7. What different types of societies emerged out of the Agricultural Revolution?

Out of the Agricultural Revolution many different types of societies emerged such as the pastoral societies which relied on domestic animals and generally remained nomadic, agricultural village societies, which were settled but lacked centralized government, chiefdoms which had inherited social rankings, and civilization which had highly stratified urban populations and state power. 

8. In what ways might the advent of “civilization” have marked a revolutionary change in the human condition? And in what ways did it carry on earlier patterns from the past?

The advent of civilization introduced large urban centers, bureaucratic states, codified legal systems such as Hammurabi’s Code, and writing systems that allowed for record keeping and state administration. Civilizations continued earlier patterns by maintaining a reliance on agriculture, using religious rituals and divinity to explain natural forces, and reinforcing the patriarchal social structures.

9. In what ways did religion support political authorities and social elites? How did it challenge them?

Religion supported political authorities by providing divine justification for a ruler to rule such as China’s Mandate of Heaven, and by reinforcing social hierarchies that kept populations in order through social hierarchies including India’s caste system. It challenged elites by establishing moral standards that rulers had to follow and by giving spiritual messages of equality that gave hope to the lower classes. 

10. Why have human cultural traditions, such as religions, generally changed less over time than the political systems in which they were born?

Religious traditions usually change less over time compared to the political systems that they were born in because they are grounded in sacred, religious texts and core principles that believers view as timeless and divinely inspired leading to believers not wanting to change or adapt traditions as much.  In contrast, political systems must constantly adapt to shifting economic, military, and social pressures, causing more change. 

B. VOCABULARY: Write one sentence for each vocabulary term explaining the historical significance of that term in the period before 1200.

C. COMPARING AND CONTRASTING MAJOR RELIGIONS IN THE PERIOD BEFORE 1200

E. Highlight the answer you believe is correct for the following College Board AP MCQs

“I, the reverend Buddhist teacher Dharmasekhara, dedicated this statue of the bodhisattva Amoghapasa* on the orders of His Majesty King Adityawarman for the benefit, salvation, and happiness of all creatures.

Hail to the King—experienced in the arts of war, well versed in the sciences, he is an ocean of all virtues practiced by the followers of the Buddha! He is free from all physical desire. Hail to the King—he who supports the entire world. He has collected jewels by the millions, taking them from his enemies' hands among the other world's rulers. He who is like God among kings, crowned, protected by heavenly beings, King of kings! He orders what should be known to all!”

Sanskrit inscription on a bodhisattva statue produced in the Malayapura kingdom, Sumatra, Indonesia, circa 1350 c.e.

*a significant figure worshiped in Mahayana Buddhism

1. Which of the following best describes a claim made in the first paragraph of the inscription?

1. King Adityawarman was a bodhisattva.

2. King Adityawarman was a Buddhist teacher.

3. Statues of Buddhist divine figures could spiritually benefit everyone.

4. Rulers and ordinary people revered statues of Buddhist teachers.

“The adoption of the mamluk* institutions by the Abbasids were followed almost immediately by [the] . . . disintegration of the state. . . . The disintegration of the Abbasid state was an intensely painful process in which it seemed at times as if the very venture of Islam was coming to an end, like that of Alexander the Great before it. . . . Indeed, Islam was soon to disappear was the very premise upon which the [Shi‘ite] revolutionaries held out their promise of a moral and material recovery: nothing less . . . could now save the marriage between religion and power to which the Islamic [state] owed its existence.``

*an Arabic term designating an enslaved person, in this case, a slave soldier of Turkic origin

Patricia Crone, Danish-American historian of Islamic history, Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity, 1980

2. The combination of religious and political aspects in the Abbasid state’s concept of governance is best reflected in which of the following?

1. The Abbasid state had an influential Sunni religious class that often conflicted with the state.

2. The Abbasid state often allowed local rulers considerable autonomy.

3. The Abbasid state patronized the construction of religious buildings such as mosques.

4. The Abbasid state was headed by a caliph who was the state’s supreme religious and political leader.

“In that year [1450 c.e.], There came to Naples a three-man embassy from the King of Ethiopia to His Highness, our King Alfonso. Among the ambassadors was a certain Pietro Rombulo, an Italian native of Messina. This Pietro claimed he had lived among the Ethiopians for over 40 years. And he described to me how in Ethiopia there are innumerable Christians—since both the people and the king there worship Christ—among whom he had been able to live a good Christian life safely and honorably. The ruler of Ethiopia, King David, whom they call Zara Yacob, was said by the ambassadors to be the most civilized, the most just, and the most pious of princes.”

Pietro Ranzano, Catholic Church official in Naples and Sicily, universal history written circa 1480

3. Which of the following was a key similarity in the policies of the rulers of African states such as Ethiopia from around 1200 to 1450?

1. They granted their subjects unrestricted freedom of speech.

2. They used religion and laws to bolster their legitimacy.

3. They faced challenges to their power from powerful merchant elites.

4. They sought to achieve economic self-sufficiency by restricting trade contacts with other societies.

“One of the most critical aspects of the Maya economy was the exchange of exotic goods. Maya rulers and elites needed such goods to maintain and reinforce their social status and power. Many of these goods were used in the formal dress of kings, nobles, and priests. Without them, the elites could not carry out the rituals that were their principal duties in the eyes of the people. Jaguar pelts, fine textiles, feathers, and other such products were exchanged over long distances within the Maya lowlands. . . .

Such items were probably exchanged as dowry or gifts at royal marriages, coronations, funerals, or religious pilgrimages. Exotic goods were also probably given as tribute to rulers by their vassals.

These high-status goods held together the Maya world and unified religion, science, and warfare behavior patterns. Their exchange indeed went hand in hand with exchanges of information, including scientific knowledge, early writing, and, most importantly, models of political organization.”

Arthur Demarest, United States anthropologist, Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization, 2004

4. Which of the following pieces of evidence most strongly supports the author’s conclusion about the importance of exotic goods to the Maya region’s economy?

1. Exotic goods were exchanged over long distances within the Maya lowlands.

2. Exotic goods were traded between the Maya city-states and neighboring states.

3. The exchange of exotic goods went hand in hand with the exchange of information.

4. The Maya region depended on the trade of exotic goods because of relatively low agricultural production levels.