History Grade 9 - Chapters 1-9

HISTORY - GRADE 9 - STUDENT TEXTBOOK

Prehistory (3 million years to 3000 BC)

• Paleolithic (3 million years to 10000 BC):
  • First human species (2.5 million years BC).
  • Use of fire (1 million years BC).
• Neolithic (10000 BC):
  • Agriculture begins (10000 BC).

Ancient Age (3000 BC to 476 AD)

• Invention of writing (3000 BC).
• Fall of Western Roman Empire (476 AD).

Medieval Age (476 AD to 1492 AD)

Modern Age (1492 to 1789 AD)

• Columbus discovered America (1492 AD).

Contemporary Age (1789 AD to 2011 AD)

• French Revolution (1789 AD).

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Unit 1: The Discipline of History and Human Evolution

• Key terms: Prehistory, History, Chronology, Human Evolution, State.
• Unit Overview:
  • Meaning of pre-history and history.
  • The discipline of history.
  • Evolution of human beings.
  • Theories on the origin of human beings.
  • Africa and human evolution.
  • Stone Age.
  • Emergence of states.

1.1 Meaning of Prehistory and History

• History originates from the Greek word "Istoria", meaning inquiry.
• History is the study of humans in the past, their actions, and what happened to them.
• History started about 5,500 years ago with the beginning of writing, while prehistory studies the time before writing.
• Prehistory is the study of the distant past. Emphasis is on archaeological and anthropological clues about early human life.
• History focuses on human interaction, civilization growth, man’s relationship with the environment, and technological inventions.
• Significant concern of history: Studying human interaction with the natural environment.

1.2 The Discipline of History

• History as knowledge, study of the past based on historical facts and evidence.
• Historical fact: Information proven to be true.
• History is the explanation of what happened, why and how based on sources.
• Critical thinking is required to distinguish between fact and opinion.
• History identifies the changes in political, economic, social, and cultural life.

1.2.1 The Importance of History

• History provides knowledge of the past, helps understand the present & foresee the future.
• History aids comprehension of national, international issues, democracy, and nationalism.
• History develops skills for collecting information and analysis.
• History teaches essential critical and research skills, understand the present, and provides a sense of identity.

1.2.2 Historiography and Historical Interpretations

• Historiography studies knowledge attainment and transfer of the past.
• Oldest written history: China (before 1000 BC).
• Ancient Greek historians Herodotus & Thucydides organized the study of the past.
• Herodotus (c. 484-425 BC) is often called the "father of history."
• History as an academic discipline in the 19th century in Europe.
• Leopold Von Ranke (1795-1886) established history as independent discipline.
• Ethiopia had an indigenous tradition of history writing.
• Historical interpretation: Describing, analyzing, evaluating, and creating an explanation of past events from primary or secondary sources.

1.2.3 Sources of History

• Sources are KEY to the study and writing of History. Primary and secondary categories.
• Primary sources: contemporary with events (monuments, artifacts, tools, coins, fossils, manuscripts, diaries, photos, maps).
• Secondary sources: information derived from primary sources (articles, books, textbooks, biographies, published stories, oral traditions).
• Oral traditions are historical sources transmitted by word of mouth.
• Data requires critical evaluation, verifying originality (primary) and reliability (secondary).
• Oral data requires cross-checking due to distortion through time.

1.2.4 Dating in History

• Dating expresses exact time of historical events with figures or numerical statements.Duration can be short or long.
• Examples:
  • Battle of Adwa took place on March 1, 1896.
  • Ethiopian Renaissance Dam was initiated on April 2, 2011.
• Numerical statements such as decade (10 years), century (100 years), millennium (1000 years).
• Purpose of dating is to organize past events by sequence using calendars, which is called chronology.
• Widely used calendars worldwide: Gregorian and Islamic. Time is counted forward and backward.
• Gregorian: Time counted from birth of Jesus Christ (BC - Before Christ, AD - Anno Domini).
• Ethiopian calendar is 7-8 years behind Gregorian.
• Islamic calendar: follows Hijra event (Mohammed’s flight from Mecca to Medina in 622 AD) (BH - Before Hijra, AH - After Hijra).
• Historical timeline is a graphic, horizontal, or vertical representation of events in chronological order.
• Periodization organizes the human past into ancient, medieval, and modern history.

1.3 The Evolution of Human Beings

• Evolutionist theory: all humans are Homo sapiens, descended from a Homo genus ancestor.
• Humans belong to Hominid family. We know this from the discovery of fossils.
• Hominids: Characterized by bipedalism (walking on two feet).
• Earliest hominid discovery in Ethiopia: Aramis, Middle Awash, Afar, 4.4 million years ago.
• Australopithecus afarensis then discovered, Donald Johanson in 1974 found skeleton ‘Lucy’.
• Three Homo genus species:
  • Homo habilis.
  • Homo erectus.
  • Homo sapiens.
• Homo habilis: Handy human being, oldest human being, fossils found in Omo valley, Ethiopia.
• Homo erectus: Upright human being, 2 million years ago, used larger tools, first to leave Africa, used fire.
• Homo sapiens: wise human beings, similar to modern human beings, fossils found in Awash, Omo valleys, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia.
• Modern Humans (Homo sapiens sapiens): Appeared 100,000 years ago. Large brains, Bipedal, Complex thoughts, Language, Culture, Tools, transmit knowledge.
• Ethiopia and the Horn region: sites illustrating all three Homo sub-species appeared.
  • Homo habilis.
  • Homo erectus.
  • Homo sapiens.
• They marked refinement in tools and fire technology that Homo erectus accomplished.

1.3.1 Theories of Human Evolution

• Creationist: man, all living things was created by GOD, or a supernatural being.
• Evolutionist: all living things, humans result from gradual succession process from earlier forms. Called evolution, formulated by Charles Darwin (1809-1882).
• Hominids were found in Ethiopia and continue to attract archaeologists.

1.3.2 Africa and Human Evolution

• Oldest Australopithecines: Sahelian chadensis, northern Chad (2001), 7-6 million years old.
• Australopithecus ramidus: Afar region, Ethiopia (1994), 4.4 million years.
• Australopithecus afarensis: Hadar, Afar, Ethiopia (1974), Lucy (Dinkinesh), 3.18 million years old.
• Australopithecus africanus: Taung, South Africa (1924), 2.5 million years.
• East African Rift Valley: Home of human evolution.
• Fossils of Homo habilis: Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, and Lake Turkana, Kenya.

1.4 The Stone Age

• Human species distinguished by ability to make tools. Earliest tools were made of stone.
• Human beings transitioned from hunting/gathering to Civilization through stages when tools were made of stone. This period is called the Stone Age.
• The Stone Age is divided into three:
  • Paleolithic Age.
  • Mesolithic Age.
  • Neolithic Age.
• Paleolithic age (Old Stone age): Greek for old stone. Lasted until about 11,000 years ago or 9,000 BC.
  • Early humans made crude stone tools (hand-axes).
  • Lived in caves.
  • Discovered fire.
  • Began to use language.
• Mesolithic age (Middle Stone Age): Transitional period between Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages. Lasted from 9000 BC to 8000 BC years ago.
  • Tools were improved and more adaptable.
• Neolithic Age (New Stone Age): Started about 8,000 BC and until 4,000 BC. Neolithic Revolution or Agricultural revolution occurred during this age.
  • Shift from hunting to keeping animals and growing crops systematically.
  • Human beings began to produce food.
  • Sedentary way of life and complex social organization.
  • Stone houses built.
  • Religious places and granaries constructed.
  • New and better tools appeared (hoe, yoke, wheel).
  • Use of animals in farming helped produce more food.
• Earliest evidence of Neolithic age: Middle East, 11,000 years ago. Major sites found in Palestine, Mesopotamia, Nile valley in Egypt, Tropical Africa, Yangtze Kiang valley in China, Indus valley in India, and parts of the Americas.

1.5 The Emergence of States

• Neolithic age led to sedentary ways of life. State defined as politically organized body of people occupying a territory with organized legitimate government.
• A state must have population, territory, government, sovereignty, and recognition.
• Scholars propose different theories:
  • Religion-based: priests emerged in societies, played administrative roles. Theocratic states ruled by priests.
  • Agriculture-based: society divided into higher and lower classes, surplus producers became elites, leading to state.
  • Control over trade and trade routes: village chiefs controlling trade replaced priests, collected tributes, kept security.
  • War or conflict: small villages combined to establish states under powerful local chiefs by force.

Unit Summary

• Prehistory: period before writing.
• History: things that happened in the human past after writing began.
• History helps us know about the past, understand the present, and foresee future developments.
• Historiography: studying attainment and transmission of knowledge of the past.
• Sources divided into primary and secondary.
• Two major theories on the origin of human beings: creationist and evolutionist.
• Basic distinguishing feature of humans: ability to make tools.
• Stone Age divided into Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic Ages. Human beings got food by hunting and gathering.