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Unit Zero Vocab + Notes

History before 1200 CE

The first Migrations

  • Humans first appeared in East Africa 200,000-100,000 BCE

    • survived by hunting animals and foraging for seeds and edible plants

    • lived in small groups of no more than 12 people, did not have permanent homes

    • adapted to new environments, developing genetic and cultural differences

      • learned how to control fire and make stone tools, and created drawings and paintings

    • developed a system of religious beliefs called animism

      • animism: a reverence for deities associated with features of nature, animals, mountains, rivers, etc. Societies of animism were fairly egalitarian but showed signs of patriarchy

      • patriarchy: domination of males

    • movement in search of food was all over the globe (except Antarctica) due to the ice age

The agricultural revolution

  • 8000 BCE: the climate was warming from an ice age

    • humans began to plant crops + raise animals for food

    • = agricultural revolution: cultural transformation that allowed humans to change from hunting and gathering to agriculture and animal domestication

      • began in the middle east

      • surplus in food

      • enough food for the population → specialization in nonfood-producing activities

        • the population grew, and larger settlements grew into cities

        • people became highly skilled at one job

          • artisans made tools and weapons, merchants engaged in trade, priests conducted rituals

        • new technology

          • irrigation system

          • wheel in transportation

          • replace the stone with metal such as bronze and iron for making tools and art

        • extensive government and taxation

        • competition for resources and the accumulation of wealth increased group conflicts

        • divided into social classes by wealth and occupation

          • women status declined

The first civilizations

  • agricultural revolution → large societies with cities and a powerful state

    • most were in river valleys, places with water and fertile land

  • Mesopotamia: world’s first civilization, the region around Tigris and Euphrates rivers (Iraq)

    • cultures emerged based on city-states

    • City-states: independent states made up of a city and its surrounding territory

      • highly patriarchal

      • built monumental architecture such as religious temples called ziggurats

      • long-distance trade

      • the people there were polytheistic: believed in many gods

    • Sumer: a city-state along the southernmost region of ancient Mesopotamia

      • created the first written language (cuneiform) in history as tax and trade became more complex

      • used cuneiform to record the first written laws

  • All civilizations were built along river valleys:

    • Nile river valley

    • yellow river valley

    • Indus river valley

    • Mesoamerica

    • Andes mountains

  • Egypt:

    • Nile River Valley

    • Egypt prospered

    • shared traits with Mesopotamia, but was highly centralized under one ruler: pharaoh

    • developed hieroglyphics

    • built pyramids to demonstrate the pharaoh's power

    • highly patriarchal, but women were allowed to own property and were legally equal to men in court giving women a higher social standing than their counterpart civilizations

  • Indus:

    • Indus river in south Asia

    • cities such as Harappa and mohenjo daro engaged in long-distance trade with Mesopotamia,

    • practiced polytheism

    • developed tech: indoor plumbing

    • planned layout of urban areas

    • was unable to decipher the language

  • China:

    • Huang He river

    • highly patriarchal

    • centralized system

    • a special honor to ancestors

  • NON-RIVER VALLEY CIVILIZATIONS

    • Olmec in Mesoamerica

    • chavin in the Andes

      • complex societies

      • participated in extensive trade

Hinduism and Judaism

  • cities grow = new ideas about religion

  • animism: deities were identified with specific places

    • people wanted to take deities with them as they traveled

  • belief in many gods was replaced with a belief in one deity, monotheism

    • Hinduism

      • sometimes categorized as polytheistic and monotheistic

      • started from Aryans, north of the Himalayan mountains (spoke an Indo-European language), migrated south to Pakistan and India

      • brought Vedas, and a belief that many deities existed

        • Vedas: taught that soul of a person is reborn / reincarnated many times

          • eventually, a soul would spiritually advance enough to become liberated from this cycle of death and rebirth

          • people should organize society into sharply defined classes: castes

            • caste system prohibited social mobility

            • society became unified

    • Zoroastrianism

      • an early form of monotheism

      • developed in Persia

      • focus on human free will and the internal battle between the forces of good and evil

    • Judaism

      • most influential monotheism

      • Jews

      • Developed in Israel

      • teachings of Abraham

      • believe that they have entered into a covenant, or mutual promise with their god: Yahweh

        • Yahweh will consider them their people if Jews were devoted

      • was further developed with the codification of Hebrew scriptures / old testament

      • was like Christianity and Islam because they both looked back at Abraham

Beginning of Buddhism

  • founder: Siddhartha Gautama

    • sharply aware of all the suffering people endured

    • left his family and pursued a life of poverty and meditation to understand why people suffered

    • called himself Buddha (enlightened one) and sought to teach others what he came to understand why people suffered

    • Buddhist doctrines

      • sought to eliminate desire and suffering by following the eightfold path

      • requires to meditate, reflect, and refrain from excessive earthly pleasures

      • goal: achieve enlightenment and peaceful bliss: nirvana: end the cycle of reincarnation

  • The spread of Buddhism

    • alternative to Hinduism

    • rejected caste systems

    • popular with members of lower caste

    • spread throughout India and across Asia

      • missionaries, and merchants along the silk roads and around the Indian Ocean helped the spread

    • universalizing religion (unlike Hinduism and Judaism)

    • monastic faith

      • developed monastery communities for men and women

  • The Mauryan Empire

    • the first period of unity

    • Reached its high point during the rule of Ashoka

      • promoted prosperity by creating an efficient tax system and building roads that connected commercial centers

      • spread knowledge of the law by inscribing his edicts on pillars throughout the empire

      • converted from one faith to another

        • helped spread Buddhism throughout India

      • after Ashoka, the empire declined in power → political decentralization

  • The Gupta empire

    • second period of unity was under the gupta empire

      • golden age of india

    • centralized government, intellectual life and cultural life flourished

    • advancement in medicine

    • prevention of diseases

    • mathematicians developed a numbering system that combined a small number of symbols

    • patriarchal

Unit Zero Vocab + Notes

History before 1200 CE

The first Migrations

  • Humans first appeared in East Africa 200,000-100,000 BCE

    • survived by hunting animals and foraging for seeds and edible plants

    • lived in small groups of no more than 12 people, did not have permanent homes

    • adapted to new environments, developing genetic and cultural differences

      • learned how to control fire and make stone tools, and created drawings and paintings

    • developed a system of religious beliefs called animism

      • animism: a reverence for deities associated with features of nature, animals, mountains, rivers, etc. Societies of animism were fairly egalitarian but showed signs of patriarchy

      • patriarchy: domination of males

    • movement in search of food was all over the globe (except Antarctica) due to the ice age

The agricultural revolution

  • 8000 BCE: the climate was warming from an ice age

    • humans began to plant crops + raise animals for food

    • = agricultural revolution: cultural transformation that allowed humans to change from hunting and gathering to agriculture and animal domestication

      • began in the middle east

      • surplus in food

      • enough food for the population → specialization in nonfood-producing activities

        • the population grew, and larger settlements grew into cities

        • people became highly skilled at one job

          • artisans made tools and weapons, merchants engaged in trade, priests conducted rituals

        • new technology

          • irrigation system

          • wheel in transportation

          • replace the stone with metal such as bronze and iron for making tools and art

        • extensive government and taxation

        • competition for resources and the accumulation of wealth increased group conflicts

        • divided into social classes by wealth and occupation

          • women status declined

The first civilizations

  • agricultural revolution → large societies with cities and a powerful state

    • most were in river valleys, places with water and fertile land

  • Mesopotamia: world’s first civilization, the region around Tigris and Euphrates rivers (Iraq)

    • cultures emerged based on city-states

    • City-states: independent states made up of a city and its surrounding territory

      • highly patriarchal

      • built monumental architecture such as religious temples called ziggurats

      • long-distance trade

      • the people there were polytheistic: believed in many gods

    • Sumer: a city-state along the southernmost region of ancient Mesopotamia

      • created the first written language (cuneiform) in history as tax and trade became more complex

      • used cuneiform to record the first written laws

  • All civilizations were built along river valleys:

    • Nile river valley

    • yellow river valley

    • Indus river valley

    • Mesoamerica

    • Andes mountains

  • Egypt:

    • Nile River Valley

    • Egypt prospered

    • shared traits with Mesopotamia, but was highly centralized under one ruler: pharaoh

    • developed hieroglyphics

    • built pyramids to demonstrate the pharaoh's power

    • highly patriarchal, but women were allowed to own property and were legally equal to men in court giving women a higher social standing than their counterpart civilizations

  • Indus:

    • Indus river in south Asia

    • cities such as Harappa and mohenjo daro engaged in long-distance trade with Mesopotamia,

    • practiced polytheism

    • developed tech: indoor plumbing

    • planned layout of urban areas

    • was unable to decipher the language

  • China:

    • Huang He river

    • highly patriarchal

    • centralized system

    • a special honor to ancestors

  • NON-RIVER VALLEY CIVILIZATIONS

    • Olmec in Mesoamerica

    • chavin in the Andes

      • complex societies

      • participated in extensive trade

Hinduism and Judaism

  • cities grow = new ideas about religion

  • animism: deities were identified with specific places

    • people wanted to take deities with them as they traveled

  • belief in many gods was replaced with a belief in one deity, monotheism

    • Hinduism

      • sometimes categorized as polytheistic and monotheistic

      • started from Aryans, north of the Himalayan mountains (spoke an Indo-European language), migrated south to Pakistan and India

      • brought Vedas, and a belief that many deities existed

        • Vedas: taught that soul of a person is reborn / reincarnated many times

          • eventually, a soul would spiritually advance enough to become liberated from this cycle of death and rebirth

          • people should organize society into sharply defined classes: castes

            • caste system prohibited social mobility

            • society became unified

    • Zoroastrianism

      • an early form of monotheism

      • developed in Persia

      • focus on human free will and the internal battle between the forces of good and evil

    • Judaism

      • most influential monotheism

      • Jews

      • Developed in Israel

      • teachings of Abraham

      • believe that they have entered into a covenant, or mutual promise with their god: Yahweh

        • Yahweh will consider them their people if Jews were devoted

      • was further developed with the codification of Hebrew scriptures / old testament

      • was like Christianity and Islam because they both looked back at Abraham

Beginning of Buddhism

  • founder: Siddhartha Gautama

    • sharply aware of all the suffering people endured

    • left his family and pursued a life of poverty and meditation to understand why people suffered

    • called himself Buddha (enlightened one) and sought to teach others what he came to understand why people suffered

    • Buddhist doctrines

      • sought to eliminate desire and suffering by following the eightfold path

      • requires to meditate, reflect, and refrain from excessive earthly pleasures

      • goal: achieve enlightenment and peaceful bliss: nirvana: end the cycle of reincarnation

  • The spread of Buddhism

    • alternative to Hinduism

    • rejected caste systems

    • popular with members of lower caste

    • spread throughout India and across Asia

      • missionaries, and merchants along the silk roads and around the Indian Ocean helped the spread

    • universalizing religion (unlike Hinduism and Judaism)

    • monastic faith

      • developed monastery communities for men and women

  • The Mauryan Empire

    • the first period of unity

    • Reached its high point during the rule of Ashoka

      • promoted prosperity by creating an efficient tax system and building roads that connected commercial centers

      • spread knowledge of the law by inscribing his edicts on pillars throughout the empire

      • converted from one faith to another

        • helped spread Buddhism throughout India

      • after Ashoka, the empire declined in power → political decentralization

  • The Gupta empire

    • second period of unity was under the gupta empire

      • golden age of india

    • centralized government, intellectual life and cultural life flourished

    • advancement in medicine

    • prevention of diseases

    • mathematicians developed a numbering system that combined a small number of symbols

    • patriarchal