World History Fall 2018

Ch 3 Documents - Greek Historians on Persia and Egypt: The Persians, unlike the Egyptian people, did not believe in gods. They did, however, make many sacrifices to Zeus. They thought it was foolish to believe in gods and thought that they would not act like humans. Persians also acknowledged status by how they would greet people, if they were equal they would kiss on the lips, if slightly lesser, they would kiss them on the cheek, and is substantially lesser the inferior would lay on the floor. An interesting thing about the Egyptians is the status of women. Women actually had a substantial role in the community and were heavily involved in the marketplace and trade. The Egyptian men were actually the ones to regularly stay at the house. However, men did have certain role, only men could be priests. This was interesting for me to read because when you think of Persia and Egypt during this time you sort of imagine everything being so fancy and spectacular. In reality, everything wasn...

Intro to Part 2: The intro basically discusses the fall of the first wave of civilizations. These civilizations were described as fragile and basically set the stage for the empires that were to come. These empires included the Persian, Greek, Roman, and Chinese Empires. Chapter 3:  Chapter 3 primarily compared these empires, specifically the Persian to the Greek, and the Roman to the Chinese Empire. Both the Persian and Greek empires were massive, the Persian even larger than the Greek. The Persian Empire had very powerful monarchies, who could essentially execute anyone who was in the wrong in their eyes. The Greek Empire was made up of many city-states, which were constantly fighting one another even though they all worshipped the same god and spoke the same language. Both the Roman and Chinese empires flourished at the same time. They also were similar sizes, however, they had little to no contact and were not really aware of each other. Even though all of these empires had d...

"scholars inferring and observing that this 'dancing girl' was confident, good at what she did and she knew it, a queen or high-status woman"  What features of this statue may have provoked such observation?  The girl had her head held high, indicating confidence. She had jewelry which also indicated that she was of high status. She was tall and skinny, vastly different from the previous image of a woman, Venus, that we looked at. Perhaps this indicates that they had a different beauty standard. 

In Ch. 2 we enter the Ancient Era. The Ancient Era is defined by: 1) Homo Sapiens competed with each other, for wealth, status, and power. This lead to social hierarchy. 2) We developed more sophisticated technology, including writing . 3) Agricultural surplus leads to specialization, which in turn lead to civilizations and city-states. 4) The interaction between people from different continents increases due to trade. Some of the first civilizations included Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, Aegean Greeks, Indus Valley, and in the Americas: Andes, Mesoamerica. In the Americas civilizations did not grow as large and strong due to the lack of agricultural surplus - they did not have the animals necessary. They were on a different timeline. This had a massive impact when the Europeans eventually came to conquer, as they were unable to defend themselves. Egpyt: had a very predictable river, and knew when it would flood. This allowed them to plan their lives around the flooding and...

This part of the chapter talks about the Neolithic Era, which began abour 12,000 years ago. It was a time of cultivation / intentional agriculture. Global warming had some effect on agriculture, causing people to settle in places with productive land. Agriculture was spread by both migration and diffusion. The Migration aspect was from the moving of people, particularly conquering people and their land. Diffusion refers to the spread of ideas, where people picked up on others farming. Agriculture was less developed in the Americas. There was a lack of migration and diffusion, primarily because farm work was a lot harder there. While there are only approx only 14 animals that can contribute successfully to farm work, the Americas had even less. The significance of the development of agriculture came from all the social and cultural impacts it had on the Neolithic people. With settled land came a sense of food security, as well as the ability to store food in surplus. This led to develo...

The beginning of the book starts with the Cosmic Era, which explains the Big Bang and all the up way up until the evolution of homo sapiens in the Paleolithic Era. After the big bang, slowly but surely our planet, the super organism Earth formed, in the Gaiac Era 4.5 BYA. This was eventually followed by more organisms, and then finally homo sapiens. In this 13.7 billion year process, humans have only been around for 200-250,000 years. Humans first evolved in Africa, where they remained happily for around 150,000 years. Around 60,000 years ago they began to migrate to Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas. During the ice age, around 20,000 years ago people migrated to warmer areas to survive. They lived in bands of people, around 20-25. Men and women were relatively equal, especially compared to later years. However, work was still divided, with men being hunters, and women being primarily the gatherers. Paleo people are now referred to as gatherer-hunters, as they gathered...