1. India’s Geographic Features
large, wedge-shaped peninsula
Subcontinent: A large region separated from the rest of the continent in some way.

2. Identification of Geographic Features in India
Indus River
Ganges River
Peninsula and/or Subcontinent

3. Himalayan Mountains
Surrounded on the north and northwest by huge mountains; Himalayan Mountains.
Cultural isolation.
You decide! How would isolation impact the people on Ancient Indus?

5. Seasonal winds known as monsoons bring rain every summer
Seasonal winds known as monsoons bring rain every summer. India is dependent upon monsoons to grow their crops.

6. Purpose of Early Cities
Each city was large in area and contained a large structure located on a hilltop.
These structures could have served as a fortress or a temple.

7. Complexities
Laid out in a grid pattern, blocks similar to those seen in modern cities.
Homes built with bricks and in a pattern repeated throughout the city.
Plumbing systems, including baths, drains and water pipes

8. Trade Most of the people of the Indus valley were farmers.
First people to grow cotton and weave it into cloth.
Early evidence of trade with other civilizations including Sumer.

9. Aryans Take over Indus Valley
For unknown reasons, around 1750 B.C. the Indus Valley began to decline.
1500 B.C.- Aryans, nomadic warriors, conquered the Indus Valley.

10. Huang He River Valley

11. China’s Geography
~ Chinese civilization grew up in the river valley of the Huang He (Yellow River) and the Yangzi River.
Yellow River
Yangzi River

12. Isolated Chinese culture. Have little contact with others.
the Chinese believed their culture was the center of the earth.

13. Until recent times, most people lived only along the east coast or in the river valley.

14. Early Views
“The Middle Kingdom” because they believed they were at the center.
This is an example of ethnocentrism.
the belief in the inherent superiority of one's own ethnic group or culture

15. Shang Dynasty
1650 BC, the Shang gained control of northern China. Ruling families began to gain control.
The first dynasty.

16. The ancient civilization was much like others with nobility owning the land, merchants and craftspeople trading and living in the cities and a large population of peasants living in surrounding villages.

17. Religion Early Chinese people were polytheistic.
Looked to their Ancestors to help them in daily life

18. Ying and Yang
Many Chinese believed that the universe held a delicate balance between opposing forces.
Ying and Yang must be in balance for prosperity and happiness to occur.