Praxis II (5941) World and US History Content Exam

• -Developed from the Indus River Valley
• -Based on 2 major cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
• -Internal decline weakned the civilization and the final blow came from the influx of new peoples
• -The interaction between Aryans and Dravidians created a new and unique culture.
• -Chief feature was the rigid caste system in which people were clearly divided into distinct classes
• -Hinduism and Buddhism began in India
• -Mauryan Empire, led by Asoka , was considered to be the greatest ruler in Indian History

• -Shang dynasty created the first chineese civilization
• -Mandate of heaven developed here which said king had divine right to rule
• -Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism were 3 major schools of thought in china that spell out how to create a stable order in society
• -Han dynasty in china greatly expanded chinas boundaries. The culture seem unrivaled, and the advancements in science and technology were unmatched

• -consisted of a large number of of small, independent, city-states called "polis," which were ruled by its male citizens
• - Sparta and Athens were two most famous. Sparta was oligarchy and Athens was a democracy. 
• -Greeks united against a common Persian enemy, but the growth of an Athenian empire led to conflict with Sparta (the Peloponnesian war), which divided the greeks and made it easy for Phillip of Macedonia to come in and conquer them 
• -Established the source of western culture: western philosophy, literary forms, western art, political terms, rights of citizens, and human exsitence
• -greek culture did not die with Phillip II conquering them, it continued on and was spread during what became known as the hellenistic era

• -started by a group of latins who built a small community called rome on the tiber river, eventually it would grow and unite all of italy.
• -Developed the idea of the republic, ruled by an aristocratic oligarchy
• -Conquered Carthage empire in spain, conquered greek city states under macedonia. 
• -Octavian defeated anthony and cleopatra, kept the senate, but named himself emperor. 
• -Roman culture gave use the romantic languages of french, italian, spanish, portuguesse, and romanian. All of which are based on latin.
• -Trial by jury and impartial justice
• -Architecture
• -Generals fighting one another, Germanic and Persian invaders, the rise of Christianity, plagues, population decline, and economic problems led to the fall of rome.

• -Means peace through submission to the will of Alah.
• -Monotheistic religion founded by Muhammad
• -After Muhammad's death, his successors, known as Caliphs, organized the arabs and set in motion a great expansion.
• -Islamic civilization was built on the teachings of the Quran, the holy book.
• -Caliphs came to live like kings rather than religious leaders.
• -Absorbed the scientific and technological achievements of the people they conquered and improved upon their own especially in math and science.  
• -brought a code of written law and languages to places that had not had them.

• -Founded by Confucius, he wanted to establish basic ethical principles and proper ordering of society
• -The Chu Tzu: Superior gentleman who was self-cultivated and disciplined by his own doing. Any person could become this with the proper training. These people should be given high position in society and government because they were prepared for it and had the people's best interest at heart
• -Jen-human heartedness, love for humanity
• -Li-property, living according to certain rules of etiquette which Confucius laid out

• -Began in India, no real founder
• -placed a great significance on the gods and their roles in life. 
• -3 Gods called the Trimurti
• -ways for salvation are works, knowledge, worship.

• -Founded by Siddhartha Gautama, the enlightened one. 
• -Buddism focused on 4 major truths that life is suffering, the cause of suffering is our desires, suffering can be eliminated when desires are extinguished, desires can be extinguished when we follow the eight fold enlightened path.

• -Most advanced of the ancient civilizations
• -Construction methods to build pyramids
• -Writing form hieroglyphics
• -advanced techniques for preservation of bodies after death
• -Processed paper using papyrus

• -Sumer, located in the southern part of mesopotamia, consisted of a dozen city-states. Each city-state had its own gods, and the leader of each city state also served as the high priest. 
• -the invention of writing
• -invention of the wheel
• -the first library-established in assyria
• -The hanging gardens of Babylon-7 wonders of the world
• -First written laws-Code of Hammaraubi
• -Epic of Gilgamesh-1st epic in history

-best known for the Code of Hammurabi, and advanced law, first written law

• -a conquering society that allowed those they conquered to keep their own laws, customs, religions, rather than being forced to accept theirs
• -Also developed an alphabet

Germanic tribes, visogots, ostrogoths, vandals, saxons, and franks, controlled most of europe. the massize size of the western empire made it hard to manage, leading to dissatisfaction across the empire as roman government became less efficient.

Indian dynasty that ended in the 11th century with a muslim invasion of that region. The gupta was replaced by the Mogul dynasty. The Mogul dynasty under Akbar promoted freedom of religion built a wide spread number of mosques, forts, and other buildings throughout the country

• -Most inhospitable due to the large amount of desert and other bad terain
• -Ghana rose as a trade center there, trading gold for sahraran salt. 
• -Mali rose later, with it's trade center Timbuktu becoming a exporter of iron, leather, and tin. Mali also dealt in agricultural trade, becoming one of the most significant trading centers in west africa
• -African culture was defined through migration.
• -Timbuktu became a place where african intellectuals flocked, not simply for its trade but also knowledge and education.

• -Literally means "rebirth" occurs after the dark age and the black death when people begin to have interest again in the beliefs and politics of ancient greece and rome.
• -Art, literature, music, science, and philosophy all blossom during this time.
• -Education for the upper class was extended to include those areas, and the world would now be presented through art and literature in a realistic way that had never been seen before.

• -Consisted of the protestant revolution and the catholic reformation
• -Protestant revolution began when martin luther protestested abuses of the cathloic church. 
• -Catholic reformation occurred in response to the protestant revolution, leading to various changes in the catholic church.
• -From a religious standpoint, the reformation occurred due to the abuses by the catholic church such as indulgences and dispensations, religious offices being offered up for sale, and the increasingly dissolute clergy. 
• -Politically the reformation was drive by increased power if various ruling monarchs who wished to take all power to themselves rather than allowing power to remain with the church
• -The protestant revolution removed power from the church and the pope and placed it in the hands of monarchs.

• Philosophers and scientists began to rely more on observation to support their ideas rather than building on the past beliefs, particularly those held by the church. 
• -Descartes: i think therefore i am, believed in logic and rules of observation
• -David Hume: pioneered empiricism and skepticism, believing truth could only be found through direct experience
• -Immanuel Kant: Believed in self examination and observation, and that morality lay within humans.
• -Rousseau: developed idea of social contract, that government existed by the agreement of the people

• -Began in Great Britain, bringing coal and steam powered machinery into widespread use.
• -Western European countries turned to colonization to secure raw materials needed to produce factory goods.
• -In first phase the textile industry changed as many parts of it became mechanized. Mining benefited, transportation became widely available, waterways improved, and railroads came into prominence
• -The 2nd phase industries further improved in efficiency, and other industries came about such as electricity and various chemical processes, and electricity became more available. Hydroelectric and petroleum became major sources of power as well. Also US and Japan have revolution spread to them

• -Armenian Genocide-occurred in the 1900s when the young turks, heirs to the ottoman empire slaughtered over a million Armenians between 915 and 1917. 
• -Russian purge under Stalin-Deaths range between 3 and 60 million due to the policies and edicits of Stalin. Occuring between 1921 and 1953
• -Rwandan Genocide-in 1994, hundreds of thousands of Tutsi and Hutu sympathizers were slaughtered during the Rwandan civil war

• -A period of human history before writing was developed
• -Lower Paleolithic(old stone age) -Humans used crude tools like needles, hatchets, awls, and cutting tools
• -Upper Paleolithic (new stone age) - also known as neolithic, textiles and pottery were developed. Discovered the wheel, and began practicing agriculture, made polished tools, and some domesticated animals
• -Bronze Age-metals are discovered and the first civilizations emerge as humans become more technologically advanced
• -Iron Age-metal tools replace stone tools as humans develop knowledge of smelting

• -Lived off the coast of greece on island of crete
• -developed writing systems known to lingusits as linear A and Linear B.

• -Was major civilization in Europe. 
• -Relied more more on conquest than on trade.