Download Global 9-Review Sheet 2-Early civilizations

Review Items Unit Mesopotamia through Ancient China
4 River Valley Civilizations:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Reasons for settlement on River Valleys:
Mesopotamia: Land between Rivers; Tigris and Euphrates. First Civilization in human history
(?)
Polytheism: The belief in many gods or goddesses.
Monotheism: The belief in one god or goddess
Cuneiform: One of the earliest forms of writing. It consisted of wedge shaped symbols usually
imprinted in clay. Used throughout ancient Mesopotamia.
Code of Hammurabi: Oldest written system of laws. They were created by King Hammurabi
of Babylonia in the mid 18th century BCE and placed on stones tablets for all to see.
Traditional Society: Simple class structures with little social mobility and reliance on extended
family.
Social Mobility: Ability to move between social classes freely.
Extended Family: Grandparents, uncles, aunts cousins.
Pyramids: Built as tombs for pharaohs. Impressive architectural and mathematical
achievement.
Hieroglyphs: An ancient Egyptian system of writing which uses pictures for concepts and
ideas.
Pharaoh: Egyptian ruler; both god and king.
Gift of the Nile: Dependable seasonal flooding. Leads to civilization in Egypt.
Phoenicians: International sea traders known as the “carriers of civilizations. They passed on
their alphabet to the Greeks, which became the basis for the Roman alphabet.
Himalayas: Block cultural diffusion to India (create a homogenous culture).
Hindu-Kush Mountains: Block cultural diffusion to India (create a homogenous culture).
Arrival of the Aryans: Around 2000 B.C.E., a group of Indo-European speaking nomadic
peoples began to move out of the steppes of central Asia, including the Aryans. They are
credited with the origin of Hinduism and the usage of Sanskrit in India.
Monsoons: A seasonal wind pattern in southern Asia that blows warm, moist air from the
southwest during the summer, bringing heavy rains, and cold, dry air from the northeast during
the winter. Used to trade to Africa and back.
Caste: a set of rigid categories in ancient India that determined a person’s occupation and
economic potential, as well as his or her position in society.
Confucius: Confucius lived in China during the Zhou Dynasty, when there was mass disorder
and confusion and degrading moral standards. Confucius was appalled by what appeared to be
the fracturing of Chinese society. He believed that the only cure was to stress a sense of social
order and mutual respect and filial piety, a philosophy that later became known as
Confucianism.
Daoism (Laozi): The Chinese philosophy of Taoism (or Daoism) developed in the latter part of
the Chou Dynasty, during a period of turmoil in which it was not clear that Chinese civilization
would survive. It represents a naturalistic ideal of how one should live their life. People should
passively accept the "way" of nature, rather than resist it.
Silk Road: Trade route from China to the Middle East. Called the Silk Road due to China’s
most important export.