1. Chapter 5

2. Key Topics
All the classical civilizations => territorial expansion => gains and losses as a result
Significant civilizations developed in the Americas and Africa => outside the immediate classical orbit.
Internal weakness and invasion => changes, first in China, then in India.
Decline in Rome => very complex => domestic and international issues
The eastern and western portions of the empire developed differently after the fall of Rome.
During the decline => rapid expansion of Buddhism and Christianity.
Religious change had wider cultural, social, and political implications.
Lots of issues trying to integrate new lands
New baby, roommate, new school year => new classmates
Visiting relative

3. Chapter 5 Discussions Questions

4. Decline and Fall of Rome pages 113-117
1) Explore the differences in the eastern and western portions of the Roman Empire. How did these differences arise? In what ways can it be argued that the Roman Empire survived in the eastern Mediterranean even after it collapsed in the west?
General collapse of Western culture and trade as well as politics
Different positions occupied by the Christian churches
Social and political structures of early Byzantine empires
Different patterns of invasion.
Page Ref:
Topic: Decline and Fall in Rome
Skill: Conceptual

5. Pages 113 and 114
2) What were the main factors in Rome's decline? Which do you judge most important? Why?
Outside factors of invasions and disease
Internal problems of morale, political structure, and economics.
Page Ref: 113, 114
Topic: Decline and Fall in Rome
Skill: Conceptual

6. Pages
3) Why did the results of Han China's decline differ from those of the Roman Empire's decline?
Both empires exhibited different degrees of political centralization and bureaucratization
Already had different degrees cultural integration
Rome faced more invasions
“Success of eastern Rome."
Page Ref:
Topic: Decline in China and India/Decline and Fall in Rome
Skill: Conceptual

7. Pages
4) Compare the major beliefs and religious organization of Christianity and Buddhism.
Common features: monasticism, renunciation of worldly pleasures and some focus on saints.
Christianity-monotheism, less tolerant of unorthodox or competing belief systems, and focus on institutional structures.
Buddhist belief in reincarnation.
Page Ref:
Topic: The New Religious Map
Skill: Conceptual

8. Pages
5) Compare the major beliefs and religious organization of Christianity and Hinduism.
Some common interests in ritual and the roles of priests
differences include social attitudes => Christianity's acceptance of social inequality, but not a caste system.
Page Ref:
Topic: The New Religious Map
Skill: Conceptual

9. Pages
6) Taking into account both Egypt and Kush, what were the main features of civilization in Africa prior to the first century C.E.?
Organized political structures such as divine kingship
Focus on the Nile
Monumentalism as part of religion