Download Chapter 3 Lecture

AP World History Ch. 3
The Mediterranean and
Middle East, 2000 – 500 BCE
This will be a quick overview of the Chapter!
• Why?
• Remember an AP World History course is not
like a traditional history course. Typically, a
history course will examine the shifts form one
type of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern
empire to the next. In an AP course we move
quickly through the details of empires so we
may focus on broad comparisons of these
empires within this chapter and others.
COSMOPOLITAN MIDDLE EAST
• Hittites (HIT-ite) – most formidable of the states to emerge
from this region during this period.
• 1600 to 717 B.C.E.
• Upper Mesopotamia/Anatolia
• Developed a new feared technology of horse drawn war
chariots
• First to develop the process of making iron weapons
• Primarily a trading society; large metal deposits allowed them
to quickly become a key player in international commerce.
• Polytheistic- Hattia, Battle god
• Indo-European language family
Why Cosmopolitan?
1. Familiar with and at ease in many different countries and cultures.
2. Including people from many different countries
• Stability was restored with large states controlling vast
land.
• Shared Culture
• Shared Lifestyles
• “elite” groups shared similar values and had a high
standard of living.
• Trade was important
New Kingdom Egypt
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1532 - 1070 BCE
Overthrew Hyksos (Bronze)
4M people
Bureaucracy that separated gov’t
Akhenaton – monotheism
Rameses II - expansion
Aggressive
Conquered by Kushites then Assyrians
(Iron)
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What factors led to Egypt losing its
isolationist perspective in the Near East?
Aegean World
• Minoan Crete
• MINOANS: c. 2200
B.C.E. (very
approximate) to about
1450/1400 B.C.E.
• Europe’s first advanced
civilization- CRETE
• Very advanced culture,
peaceful
• Strong commercial ties
(especially with Egypt
and Sumer)
• Mycenaean Greece
• Migration to southern
Greece c. 2,000 BCE
of Indo-Europeans
• Lots of contact with
Minoans- traded,
adapted parts of their
culture
• Attacked Crete
(Knossus) c. 1,450
BCE
• Very prosperous
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What are the similarities and differences
between the rise of civilization in the
Aegean Sea area with the rise of earlier
world civilizations?
What are the benefits and limitations of
oral histories?
Assyrian Empire
• 911 to 612 BCE
• BIGGEST EMPIRE WE’VE SEEN SO FAR
• Would DESTROY those who opposed them/take
into slavery
• Transplant across empire BUT opportunities for
conquered to rise within the military/government
• Military
• All powerful kings
• Libraries
• Why have historians called the Assyrian
Empire of the first millennium BCE the first
true empire?
• How were the Assyrians able to conquer
and control such a large and diverse
empire?
• How should the Assyrian Empire be
judged?
Israel
• Existence CONFIRMED by outside sources
(Egyptian steles) in second millennium
• Pastoral nomads from Mesopotamia
• Monotheistic
• Many connections to other Middle Eastern
civilizations
• Monarchs- 1020-930 BCE- Saul, David,
Solomon
• TEMPLE
• Role of prophets
• North kingdom conquered by 722 BCE
Judea conquered 586 BCE
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How reliable are religious documents as
records of history? (Bible)
What were the causes and
consequences of the migrations of the
people ultimately known as the
Israelites?
PHOENICIANS
PHOENICIANS
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1200-800 BCE (Dominated trade)
Present-day Lebanon
Established the “Phoenician Triangle”
Similar in many ways to Mesopotamia
Carthage (monopoly/navy)
Trade: Purple dye, glass, lumber, high-quality metal goods, pottery,
art, textiles
Traveled all over the place- esp. in search of raw materials, also
because the Assyrians were pushing them out of Lebanon
Not much literature, culture mostly destroyed by Romans, but
Alphabet- 22 letters
Same religion and political structure as in Mesopotamia- also
reformed cuneiform
Founded Carthage- huge city- 814 BCE- military superpower until
Rome destroys in the Punic Wars
Key Questions?
• What is meant by the description of
Carthage as a commercial empire?
• Some civilizations still obviously
very closely linked to rivers, but why
are others not so directly centered
on rivers?