Major Civilizations and their Characteristics PDF

The Achievement s and Significant Characteristi cs of Early World Civilizations Ancient Man through the Roman Empire (Classical Age) Old Stone Age: Paleolithic  Nomadic, hunter- gatherers  Invented first crude tools and weapons (made of stone and bone)  Mastered fire  Cav...

The Achievement s and Significant Characteristi cs of Early World Civilizations Ancient Man through the Roman Empire (Classical Age) Old Stone Age: Paleolithic  Nomadic, hunter- gatherers  Invented first crude tools and weapons (made of stone and bone)  Mastered fire  Cave art (probably and expression of religion)  New Stone Age: Neolithic  Developed Agriculture Man  Domestication of animals for food and labor  Domesticated plants for farming  Leads to larger settlements and the foundation of the early civilizations  Catal Hayuk  Jericho  Aleppo  Able to create large “megaliths” like Stonehenge  Used more advanced tools  Use of copper and bronze for tools and weapons  Made pottery  Developed weaving skills Catal Huyuk: Turkey  River Valley Civilizations 3500-500 BC  Mesopotamia  Developed between Tigris / Euphrates Rivers of the Middle East (Fertile Crescent) – world’s first cities  Sumer – early city-states  Polytheistic religions (ziggurats, priest kings)  Rigid class system, slavery  Written law codes (Code of Hammurabi / Ten Commandments of the Hebrews/Jews)  Cuneiform writing  Irrigation farming, canals, plows  Civilizations of Mesopotamia = Sumer, Akkad (first empire), Assyria, Babylon, Hittites (first to use iron), Hebrews, Phoenicians River Valley Civilizations  Egypt  Developed along the Nile River of Egypt  Hereditary rulers known as pharaohs  Polytheistic faith  Developed Hieroglyphic writing system  River Valley  Phoenicians Civilizations  Sea faring trading peoples of the Mediterranean  Known for ship building technology  Traded glass, purple cloth, cedar wood and much more  Polytheistic faith  Developed early Alphabet  Hebrews  First to practice Monotheism  Judaism – Ten Commandments- Torah  Settled in Israel  Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon  Jerusalem  River Valley  Indus River Civilizations  Originated along Indus River of what is today Pakistan (considered India historically)  Ganges is also a very important river system in the Indian Subcontinent  Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were the dominant Indus cities  Invaded by Aryans about 1500 BC who brought Hinduism to India  Developed Caste System Other Indian Kingdoms – *Mauryan Dynasty (Asoka and Buddhism) * Gupta Empire (Golden Age of India) * Mathematics, zero, “Arabic numerals,” medical advances River Valley Civilizations  China  Developed along the Yellow (Huang) and Yangtze Rivers  Major Contributions/technologies  Silk  Porcelain  Paper  Great Wall  Civil Service Exam  Trade with the west via the Silk Road  Major Chinese Dynasties  Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han  Persian Empire  Located east of Mesopotamia  One of the largest empires of the ancient world  Known for tolerance of conquered peoples  Construction of Royal Road system Symbol of  Practiced Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism  Dualistic = believed in two opposing forces…one good, one evil  Ancient Aegean  Minoans Civilization  Located on the island of Crete  Pre-Greek peoples, sea traders, Knossos  Destroyed by Mycenaeans  Mycenaeans  Greek speaking warriors  Developed warring city-states due to mountainous and island topography of Greece  Trojan War, described in the Iliad of Homer  Classical Greeks  Develop city-states with unique government styles  Farmers, fishermen, and merchants  Colonized Aegean and Mediterranean due to overpopulation, war, and search for arable land Aegean / Greeks Continued  Greek Government / Polis  City-states  Males as citizens  Duty to participate in politics  Athens – democracy  Stages = monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy, tyranny, democracy  Draco (law giver), Solon (reformer)  Sparta – military oligarchy  Polytheistic religion  Zeus  Hera  Apollo  Artemis  Athena  Aphrodite  Olympic Games to celebrate the god Zeus  Wars of the Greeks  Persian Wars  United Greece against Persia  Greeks defeat Persian army and remain free  Battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, Plataea  Peloponnesian War  Athens vs. Sparta (and all of their allies) in Greek civil War  Athenian led Delian League vs. Spartan led Peloponnesian League  Pericles of Athens (Golden Age of Pericles)  Sparta victorious, Greek weakens in the face of Macedonia  Alexander the Great’s Conquests  Philip II and Alexander of Macedonia defeat Greece  Alexander defeats Persian Empire and creates a Greco-Macedonian Hellenistic Empire  Spreads Greek culture, language throughout the Middle East all the way to India (blends Greek with Eastern cultures)  Greek Cultural  Contributions Drama (Aeschylus, Sophocles)  Poetry (Homer)  History (Herodotus, Thucydides)  Sculpture (Phidias)  Architecture (columns – Doric, Ionic, Corinthian)  Science (Archimedes, Hippocrates)  Mathematics (Euclid, Pythagoras)  Philosophy (Socrates, Plato, Socrates Aristotle)  The Roman World  Centrally located in the Mediterranean on the Italian Peninsula, along the Tiber River  Early religion was polytheistic as the Greeks  Social Structure  Plebeians Roman  Patricians Forum  Slaves  Chronology of Roman Development:  Latin speaking city state (dominated by Etruscans)  Roman Republic  Representative democracy  Twelve Tables of Rome (Law)  Senate, Assembly, Consuls, Tribunes,  Roman Empire  Ruled by an emperor, few powers left to the Senate  Growth of the Roman  World Conquest of Italy (Etruscans and Greeks)  Punic Wars (vs. Carthage)  3 Punic Wars  Hannibal  Roman victory = increased Roman expansion and dominance over the Mediterranean world  Spreads slavery throughout empire  Civil Wars of the Republic  First Triumvirate and the Rise of Julius Caesar / assassination  Second Triumvirate leads to civil war in which Octavian defeats Antony  Octavian becomes the first Roman Emperor (Augustus) Roman Empire Pax Romana  Peace and prosperity of the early Roman Empire  Roman roads connect Empire, trade  Expansion of the Empire in the Middle East  Uniform code of law  Beginning of Christianity  Traded with China via Silk Road  Built major public works  Aqueducts  Colosseum  Late Roman Empire  Causes of Decline  Empire too large to defend  Economic difficulties  Relied too heavily on foreign troops  Moral decay  Civil wars  Germanic invasions (and Huns) The Divided Empire  Division of the Empire  Diocletian divides the empire to try and save it  Constantine and the Church  Constantine moves the capital to Constantinople  The east becomes more wealthy and powerful  Constantine makes Christianity legal  Collapse  476 the Roman Empire in the West falls  Roman Contributions  Latin Language (leads to Romance languages)  Literature (Virgil’s Aeneid)  Art and architecture  Technologies (roads, concrete, use of the dome, aqueducts, arches)  Medicine (public baths/public health)  Law (innocent until proven guilty)  Government (Republican system)  Religion (Christianity…the Roman Church becomes the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages) The Senate