Download Judy Nelson - Fort Thomas Independent Schools

Year End Review Questions
These questions are deliberately written around the themes and habits of mind printed in the Acorn book.
1. What are the characteristics of empire as a form of government? What are its strengths and weaknesses? Compare and contrast the
following empires: Hellenic, Gupta, Han, Roman, Hellenistic, Persian on the following bases: strengths and weaknesses, leaders,
accomplishments, and reasons for rise and decline.
2. Explain the characteristics of a traditional economy - cite its strengths and weaknesses compared to a command economy or a free
market economy. Explain an example for each of the economies mentioned. Make a timeline showing what technological
innovations appeared at what times and where to increase agricultural yields? What role did these increased yields play in promoting
change within different societies?
3. How would you divide the history from 1000 BCE to 2000 CE into periods of study? What would you use as dividing points for
your periods? Some suggestions are decline and fall of civilizations, artistic periods, inventions, important ideas. Justify each choice
that you make.
4. Make a chart comparing and contrasting the major religions we have studied: Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism, Hinduism, Islam,
Judaism, African. What are the questions we would want to ask ourselves about these religions? Certainly when and where,
strengths, weaknesses, leaders, how begun, how spread (especially missionary outreach), relationship to the state, role of women
within each religion. What other factors? Perhaps how each of these religions changed over time…
5. When thinking about the structure of societies, explain how different societies mobilized labor. Who accomplished most of what
needed to be done? How was society divided? How were these divisions enforced? How was slavery different from the caste system,
from early feudalism? How much mobility was there? Some interesting societies to include in your comparison would be Han China,
Romans, Greeks, European Middle Ages, African "stateless societies", or societies which utilized systems of indentured labor.
6. What factors characterized the interactions of "civilized, settled" societies with those societies which were nomadic. Here you
might look at the Huns, Vikings, or the Mongols. In what ways did the values of these societies differ? Their social structure? Their
treatment of women? You could look at them in comparison to the societies they threatened such as the Romans, Charlemagne's
France, or the Kievan Russians. You could also do a cross-period comparison including the Arabs and the Turks.
7. Explain the economic and social system know as feudalism. How was European feudalism different from Japanese feudalism.
How was feudalism both similar to and different from Mongol or Turkish society?
8. What are the causes and consequences of major disease flows across the world. In your answer you might consider these examples:
Black Death in China and Europe - l300's; Demise of New World Populations after contacts with Europeans - l500's; Influenza
Epidemic of l9l9-l920; the AID's pandemic.
9. Trace the development of human activity in finding truth. What is the nature of knowledge in ancient Greece, the Middle Ages,
Enlightenment Europe, Post World War II Europe and the United States. How is this similar to and different from other societies in
different parts of the world such as the Aztecs, China, Africa?
10. Compare and contrast the development of African and New World societies: Ghana, Songhay, and Mali, with Toltec, Inca and
Aztec. Consider reasons for growth, trade patterns, social structures, role of religion, role of women, contacts with other cultures,
reasons for decline.
11. Compare different trading networks over time: Indian Ocean trade, Silk Road, Atlantic trading system, Globalization. In your
comparison you might consider extent, methods of contact, dominant states, products traded, technological level, effects of trade.
Don’t forget to make reference to time period.
12. Thinking of the interactions of Islam with Christianity over time, make a timeline charting those interactions. You might make a
key indicating which of those interactions were positive and which negative. It might also be quite beneficial to show how these two
religions changed and developed over time.
13. Looking at the period from 1000-1450; the period from 145--1750; the period from 1750-1900; and the period from 1900-2000,
how would you characterize these periods? Which areas of the globe were tied in with other areas? Which were not? Where was
technological progress being made fastest? What were some examples? Which religions were dominant? Where were the
migrations? What were the kinds and speed of cultural interaction? (Include specific examples)
14. Compare the European kingdoms of Great Britain, France, and Spain with the empires of the Ottoman, Mughals and Ming in the
period from l450-l750, looking from the beginning to the end of the period. Analyze political and economic systems, cultural and
intellectual development, and technological progress.
15. Consider the issue of modernization. In what ways did each of the following try to modernize: Japan with the Meiji Restoration,
Russia under Peter the Great, the Ottoman Empire, and contemporary Nigeria. What methods have worked the best? What qualities
does the subject state need? What about the level of economic, political, and cultural development and interactions with the world
surrounding this state?
16. Consider the relationships and contacts of European societies with Asia, Africa, and the New World from l92 to l914. What are
the changes and continuities in these relationships? What did the Europeans want in each area of the world? How were the European
trading systems different from the earlier systems involving Dar al Islam? What effects did these contacts have on the Europeans? On
the societies they contacted? You might want to make a chart of these causes and effects How did the patterns of world trade change
from l492 to l9l4?
17. The Industrial Revolution is a major concept in terms of world history. What factors were necessary to have an industrial
revolution? Where did it begin? Where did it spread? How did it change patterns of economic, social, and intellectual interaction?
What advantages and disadvantages did it bring? Compare the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century
with those brought by the movements toward Globalization of the twentieth century.
18. Make a list of the ways that the industrialization of the period from l750-l900 was related to Imperialism and to Nationalism.
Then illustrate each of the items on your list with examples from the experience of Russia, France, the United States, Great Britain, the
Ottoman Empire and Mexico. Be sure to use all of the countries.
19. Analyze changes in gender and social structure in the following regions: United States, France, China, India, Ottoman
Empire/Turkey and Brazil from 1750 until today.
20. Make a chart outlining the content, strengths, effects, and limitations of each of the following intellectual systems of thought:
Adam Smith's the Wealth of Nations, Karl Marx's the Communist Manifesto, and Isaac
Newton's the Principia.
21. Trace the demographic and environmental changes in various regions of the world from 1000 CE to 2000 CE, using the following
states: Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, North America, Oceania. Include information on population growth and decline,
urbanization, relative GDP, and environmental issues.
22. Explain the relationship between ideas of the nation state, sovereignty, and democracy in the following regions: France, US,
China, India, Nigeria, South Africa, and Russia from 1750 to 2000. Use at least one specific example for each of the states listed.
23. Compare and contrast patterns of resistance to European/Western dominance in the following regions: China Japan, Argentina,
Ottoman Empire, Mexico, India, and South Africa during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
24. What are the patterns and results of the decolonization movements in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. How were these twentieth
century movements different from independence movements in Mexico, South America, and the United States?
25. Compare and contrast the effects of World War I, World War II, and the Cold War on the United States, the Soviet Union, African
states, Asia and Europe.
26. Is the globalization of today significantly different from any world systems period of the history we have studied before? In what
ways would the global system of today be similar to the Silk Road System, the Indian Ocean system, the Atlantic system? IN what
ways different? What categories would you set up? Power centers? Regional or universal organizations? Social systems? Status
systems?
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