1. Foundation c. 8,000 B.C.E C.E.
Review

2. The Big Thematic picture
Theme 1- Interaction between humans and the environment
Theme 2 Development and interaction of cultures
Theme 3 State-building, expansion, and conflict
Theme 4 Creation, expansion, and interaction of economic systems
Theme 5- Development and transformation of social structures

3. Some Things to Remember
Exchange of goods and ideas over large distances. The Silk Road, Indian Ocean trade, and the Mediterranean trade.
The discovery/use of agriculture quickened the pace of life, and organized areas into sedentary civilizations
As sedentary civilizations developed, social structures and gender roles cemented.
Major world religions developed during this period and spread with along trade routes.
Civilizations became more complex and structured as time moved on.

4. The Bookends
8,000 BCE marks the development of Agriculture and its spread to the four “River Valley Civilizations” (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley, Huang He valley)
600 CE marks the time by which all the classic empires had fallen.
Seven First Civilizations emerged independently in locations scattered across the planet, all within a few thousand years, from 3500 to 1000 B.C.E.

5. Details- Neolithic Revolution
Early modern humans seemed to have developed farming over time, dropping seeds one year and then harvesting the “crops” the next. This led to settled, formal farming
Domestication and breeding of animals was also an important invention
Some humans decided to settle in villages and soon were able to create a surplus of food. This lead to diversification of labor, the creation of governmental structures, and the payment of taxes!
Other humans chose to become pastoral nomads and move with their animal herds
Faster growing food resources and yields + growth in human population
Similar physical geographic features- annual flooding rivers and fertile soil, transportation
Mesopotamia- unpredictable floods- required use of irrigation, land open to invasion
Egypt- more predictable floods- used irrigation, protected by desert from invasion
Indus- predictable floods, monsoons- used irrigation, protected by Hindu Kush and other geographic features
China- Yellow R. unpredictable and violent floods- used irrigation,
Catal Hyuk and Jericho first cities established c. 8000BCE
Characteristics of civilization-(1) large population centers; (2) monumental architecture and unique art styles; (3) written language; (4) systems for administering territories; (5) a complex division (specialization) of labor; and (6) the division of people into social classes (social hierarchy).
(Review these with students for each region)

6. Details- Technology
Metallurgy- First copper, then bronze, then Iron. These increasingly harder metals aided agriculture tremendously. They also provided increasingly sophisticated weapons.
Wheel- first used by the Sumerians proved helpful in agriculture, trade, and warfare
Hydrological technology- waterwheels, windmills, aqueducts proved instrumental in meeting the water needs of large populations as well as the irrigation required in drier areas.

7. Details- Demography
World’s population increased rapidly with the advent of farming and domesticated animals.
Waves of diseases “plagues” increase in frequency with increased population density
Many classic empires promote population expansion.

8. Details- Social and Gender Structures
Ownership of land signified power
Kings were usually divine and had absolute power
Gender roles emerged as farming expanded. Men worked in the fields while women stayed in the house.
Who’s Your Daddy phenomenon. Women lost power.
Religion cements and justifies social and gender structures

9. Details- Cultural and Intellectual Expressions
Emergence of religions- The emergence of the “Classical age” or “Axial Age” (Emergence of core belief or philosophical structures of a society. )
Monumental architecture- Kings “show off” their power by building big buildings for either themselves or the state’s religion
Writing -as record-keeping becomes paramount, writing develops
Mathematics- number systems develop. India creates the “Arabic numbers and algebra.”
Engineering

10. Details- Structure and Function of State
First- relatively small states. “City-states”
Then- large Coercive tribute empires.
Empires follow Conrad-Demarest model- grow large and wealthy, then too large and fragment.
Taxes paid by the farmers/ peasants for the enjoyment of the elite. Agricultural surplus allows for large armies.
Review Conrad-Demarest Model of Empires
Necessary preconditions in order for empire to exist—the region must have:
State-level government
High agricultural potential of the environment
An environmental mosaic
Several small states with no clear dominant state (power vacuum)
Mutual antagonism among those states
Adequate military resources (or a military or technological advantage)
The spark that yields empire once the necessary preconditions are met is an ideology that promotes personal identification with the state, empire, leader, conquest, and/or militarism
Characteristics of well-run empires
Build roads and transportation systems, canals, ports, etc.
Trade increases
Cosmopolitan cities—art and education flourish
Effective bureaucracy to ensure communication, collect taxes, oversee coinage, ensure the emperor’s laws are enforced
Common official language (communication)
System of justice, law for entire empire
Citizenship or rights extend in some degree to conquered; must be some buy-in
Major results of empire:
Economic rewards, especially in the early years, redistributed to elite and trickles down to other classes (esp. merchants, scribes, etc.)
Relative stability and prosperity
Population increase
Empires fall because:
Failure or leadership; focus on wealth, etc. not the needs of the state
Ideology of expansion and conquest leads to attempting new conquests beyond a practical limit: overstretching of bureaucracy, military, resources, communications
Lack of new conquests erodes economic base and lessens faith in ideology that supported the empire
Rebellions from within/ challenges from without

11. Trade- Can’t live without it!
Trade, especially over land, is important.
Begins as relatively informal networks.
Nomadic pastoralists instrumental in development of long-distance trade.
Ideas, diseases, religions, goods travel
Silk Roads, Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean
Silk, Spices,Cotton travel east to west
Glassware, Wool and Linen, Olive Oil travel west to east
Development and expansion of trade routes over time period

12. Comparison of Classical Empires by Region
Compare fall of Han and Rome

13. World Religions and Philosophies
Compare diffusion to trade routes for Buddhism and Christianity
Cultural hearths

14. Bantu Migration across Africa
Movement of people
Polynesian migration across Pacific Ocean
Bantu Migration across Africa
Similar in that
Took agriculture, ironworking skills and languages
both absorbed, killed or drove away indigenous Paleolithic ppls or exposed them to animal-borne diseases to which they had no immunities
Bantu-
started c. 3,000 BCE in west/central Africa and moved east and south
Sparse settlement
Agricultural/hunting gathering
250 languages
Simple technology
Developed an elaborate and complex outlook on the world, known as the Dreamtime. Expressed in endless stories, in extended ceremonies, and in the evocative rock art of the continent’s peoples, the Dreamtime recounted the beginning of things: how ancestral beings crisscrossed the land, creating its rivers, hills, rocks, and waterholes; how various peoples came to inhabit the land; and how they related to animals and to one another. In this view of the world, everything in the natural order was a vibration, an echo, a footprint of these ancient happenings, which link the current inhabitants intimately to particular places and to timeless events in the past.
Pacific-
started c. 1,000 BCE from southern China, to Philippine and Indonesian islands, later spreading to Pacific and Madagascar
creation of highly stratified societies and extinction of native fauna

15. Want to Know more? jolana_rivas@roundrockisd.org Room 318
Princeton Review: Cracking the World History AP test
Kaplan: AP World History
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