Study Guide Foundations

Students are expected to be able to identify briefly the following Major Developments:


1. Basic features of world geography  {MAPS}
Location of continents
Location of oceans, seas, and major rivers
Location of key political units prior to 1000 (Roman Empire at its height, ‘Abbasid caliphate, Sudanic kingdoms of Ghana and Nubia, Chinese empire [Han and Tang dynasties -- emperor and bureaucracy], Byzantine Empire, Mayan civilization)

2. Basic characteristics of economic structures

3. Crises of late antiquity (third to eighth centuries)
A.  Movements of peoples (Huns, Germans, Arabs) {MAPS}
 
 
B. Compare causes for collapse of empires (review Conrad-Demarest model), including role of nomads Results of collapse
Han Dynasty

 

  
Roman Empire

 

  

 
 
4. Key cultural and social systems {MAPS}
 
Major world belief systems prior to 1000 (began in approximately which era? Original location?)
 Basic features, including gender roles  Major Areas of Spread up to 1000;Missionary outreach (Buddhist, Christian, and Islamic)
Polytheism    
Confucianism  
Daoism  
Hellenism  
Hinduism  
Buddhism  
Judaism  
Christianity  
Islam  

Major developments in the arts and sciences by 1000:  writing systems,  Southernization, Greek approach to science, including Aristotle, and Arab extension of Greek and Indian science and math; Greek sculpture and its adaptation in India and Central Asia; East Asian emphasis on calligraphy, painting, poetry, printing, and pottery; African development of metal and wood sculpture as well as polyrhythmic music and dance rituals; Egyptian and Mayan pyramids; Byzantine icon painting and mosaic; Buddhist cave paintings.
 
 
Compare key social structures as they developed by 1000
 Basic characteristics of social structures as they developed by 1000, including role of women
The caste system in Indian subcontinent  
The nature and location of major slave systems
Confucian social hierarchy
Patriarchal family structures and trends
Pastoral groups and other non-urban societies
(some Bantu)

5. Principal international connections that had developed between 700 and 1000; Know the location of the major trade routes by 1000 C.E. {MAPS}
 
Compare development of political systems, trade systems, and migrations in major early civilizations
Major similarities and major differences
Compare Indian compared with Chinese political traditions and institutions  
Compare Arab caliphate with Roman Empire
Compare The role of nomadic groups in Central Asia with 
The impact of Bantu migrations in Africa
Compare trans-Saharan trading system with the Silk Road trading system
Compare leading international trading patterns (Middle Eastern, Chinese, East European, trans-Saharan)

6. Diverse interpretations
What are the issues involved in using “civilization” (definition of civilization:  economic/agricultural surplus, greater social stratification, greater labor specialization) as an organizing principle in world history?
 

What is the most common source of change: connection or diffusion versus independent invention?