Intro World History General Vocab

Main Idea:  Most early civilizations contained similar characteristics.  

Essential Questions:  

  1. What caused the growth of cities?   

  2. How were early civilizations governed?

  3. How was the social structure of early civilizations organized

  4. Why did most early civilizations develop a system of writing?

  1. Food Surplus

  2. Most early civilizations were located in river valleys

  3. Fertile soil allowed farmers to produce a surplus of food

  • This caused increased population

  • People could trade for food / goods they didn’t have

  1. Developed Cities

  • Farming villages and settlements grew into cities

  • Main feature of a civilization

  • Political, econmic, and cultural centers

3. Organization and Government

  • Should meet the needs of the people

  • Powerful

    • Ruled by religious leaders, wealthy, or elders

  • Has specific duties

    • Gather taxes

    • Organize defenses

4. Public Works

  • As cities grew land needed to be cleared and services provided.  Projects that benefit the city

  • Building projects (roads, bridges, defensive walls)

  • Irrigation projects

5. Job Specialization

  • Developed once people did not need to spend all of their time looking for food

  • Food surplus meant less farmers needed

  • People developed skills

  • Instead of doing many jobs just “ok”, you do one job really well and do that for others

  • In turn, other people do the jobs that you may not be as good at

6. Social Classes

  • People become grouped in social classes

  • Social organization became more complex

    • Priests

    • Wealthy merchants/people

    • Artisans

    • Peasant farmers

    • Slaves

7. Complex Religion

  • Polytheistic (many gods)

  • Monotheistic (one god)

  • Built temples, sacrificed animals, crops, and at times other humans

  • Developed to explain forces of nature and their own existence

  • People worked as priests

8. Trade

  • Helped spread ideas and products from one city to another

  • Increased wealth

  • Could lead to warfare

  • Patterns of culture developed

9. Arts and Architecture

  • Expressed the beliefs and values of the society

  • Showed strength and power of the government

  • Sometimes meant to intimidate other groups or countries

10. Record Keeping and Writing

  • Began in temples with priests

  • Scribes - People who can read and write

  • Earliest writing made up of pictograms

  • Pictogram- Simple drawings that looked like the items they represented