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World Cultures
Chapter 2
The World Today
Section 1
Patterns of Early Civilizations
Stone Age People
Scientists believe the first people lived more than 2 million years ago in eastern Africa
Learned how to make stone tools and weapons
Able to hunt larger animals
Hunters were nomadic
Nomads – traveled from place to place to find food
As a result, people migrated across a wide area
Learned to adapt to different climates and landforms
About 10,000 years ago Stone Age people made two key advances
Learned to farm and to domesticate animals
Scholars call these changes the agricultural revolution
At one time it was believed farming first developed in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley of
The Middle East
Recent evidence suggest farming developed earlier in Southeast Asia
Agricultural revolution led to permanent communities
Supported larger populations
Led to the development of new forms of government
The First Civilizations
Civilization – a highly organized group of people with their own language and ways
of living
What we know about the first civilizations comes from archaeologists
Archaeologists – scientists who study the objects left by early people
Many civilizations developed in river valleys where conditions favored farming
Nile River Valley in northeastern Africa
Indus Valley in South Asia
Huang He Valley in China
Civilizations have certain common features
Well-organized governments
Complex religions
Specialized skills and jobs
Social classes
Methods of keeping records
Excavations have uncovered palaces, temples, and religious objects
As civilizations grew people began to specialize
Artisans – skilled craftworkers
Weavers, metalworkers
Merchants and traders
Social classes included the head of society (ruler) usually a king, priest and nobles,
government officials, wealthy merchants, most people were artisans or farmers,
lowest level of society were slaves
slaves included people captured in war and those who could not pay debts
Developed systems of writing
First forms were pictographs
Keep tax records, record religious ceremonies and prayers
Cultural Diffusion
Has been taking place for thousands of years
New inventions to meet needs, borrowed by other civilizations
Hebrews developed Judaism a religion based on worship of one God
Influenced both Christianity and Islam
Changing World Powers
The world in 1300
Islamic rulers in much of the world from Spain to the borders of China
Trade flourished
In Mexico Aztecs
In South American along the Andes Mountains – Incas
Europe was on the fringes of the trade routes that linked Africa and Asia
Less developed than China, India, and the Middle East
Small European kingdoms
Section 2
Shaping the Industrial World
Emergence of Europe
By the late 1400s, ambitious rulers were building strong nation-states
Over the next 300 years competed to expand their power both in Europe and overseas
Advances in technology
Rediscovered the learning of ancient civilizations
New scientific discoveries and developed practical inventions
Adapted technologies
Improved magnetic compass from China
Gunpowder from China
Invented muskets and cannons – used to conquer other lands
Moved from barter economy to money economy
Build up of capital
Capital – money that can be invested in business ventures for the
purpose of making a profit
Capital invested in trading activities in the hope of getting richer
Claiming of lands to set up trading outpost in Africa and elsewhere
Spain, Portugal, England, and France built huge colonial empires
The Industrial Revolution
By the mid-1700s, two changes ushered in a new age in Europe
Second agricultural revolution and industrial revolution
Agricultural revolution – allowed for the growing of more food – rapid population
growth
Three main causes
New plants from the Americas
Improved farming methods
New farm machines
Industrial revolution – financed by entrepreneurs – led to urbanization
Entrepreneurs – people who risk their money to set up businesses in
order to make a profit
Urbanization – growth of cities
Two key features
Machines replaced hand tools
Steam and electricity took the place of human and animal power
Began in Britain’s cloth-making industry
Many inventions made life easier and helped improve the standard of living
New medical discoveries led to better health care
Imperialism
Industrialization set off a new wave of European expansion overseas
Factories needed raw materials
Needed markets for manufactured goods
Imperialism – control by one country of the political, economic, or cultural life of
another country or region
Westernization – adoption of western culture
Imperialist nations felt that western culture was better than the cultures of
other regions
European efforts to transform other cultures met with limited success
Nationalism – pride in and loyalty to one’s country
Nationalism spread in Africa, Asia, and Latin America
Leaders fought to end foreign control
The Cold War
Political and economic struggle between democratic nations of the West
Led by the U. S. and the Soviet Union
Competed to influence the developing world
Section 3
The Developing World
World Economic Patterns
Imperialist nations encouraged people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to grow
cash crops that could be sold on the world market
In turn the developed world sold manufactured goods to less-developed lands
This trading pattern made less-developed areas dependent
As developing nations depended increasingly on imported manufactured goods,
local economies based on crafts declined
Goals of Modernization
Modernization – changes in a nation that enable it to set up a stable government and
produce a high level of goods and services
Political stability
Challenging – artificial boarders often put people with diverse cultures into a
single nation
Economic diversity
Need to modernize agriculture and industry
Production of a variety of crops and goods
No longer dependent of a single export
Attempts to end dependence of foreign imports by imposing high tariffs
Tariff – a tax on imported goods
Changes in state owned industries – often inefficient and poor products
Privatization – selling state owned industries to private investors
Education and services
Major goal of developing nations is to increase literacy
Literacy – ability to read and write
Modernization has had mixed results
Newly industrialized countries (NICs) have succeeded in mastering technology and
making decisions to produce goods for sale in global markets
Loans and Debt
To modernize developing nations had to borrow money to build transportation and
communication systems
Needed to borrow from wealthy industrial nation
World financial crisis meant borrower nations could not pay their debt
Some lender nations have tried to provide debt relief
Many lender nations have become more cautious in making loans
Problems of development
By 2000, the world’s population has topped 6 billion
More than three-quarters of the world population live in the developing world
Population explosion
Improved health care increased life expectancy
Traditions and religious beliefs led people to choose large families
Governments have taken steps to limit population growth
Urbanization
Population explosion and the push to industrialize have led to rapid urbanization
Population density – the average number of people living in an area of a specific
Size
Rapid population growth puts a great strain on poor nations
Cities cannot keep up with the need for
Housing, schools, basic health and sanitation services
Cultural change
Changes in traditional ways as people have fewer ties to family and community
Rapid population growth and the failure to modernize have widened the gap between
developing and developed nations
Section 4
Growing Interdependence
International and Regional Organizations
1945 – United Nations (UN) purpose
To preserve world peace and to cooperate in solving global social and
economic problems
Organization of American States (OAS)
African Union (AU)
Groups to promote regional cooperation
Members nations work together to promote trade, deal with regional problems,
work to settle disputes between countries
Issues of Global Concern
Refugees
Hundreds of thousands of people flee poor nations every year
Flee to escape poverty, war, harsh governments
Drug trade
Poverty contributes to the illegal drug trade
Nations working together to end the drug trade
Terrorism
Often driven by extreme political or religious causes
Use of violence to achieve political goals
Bombings – hijacking
Environment
Threats to the environment have gained global attention
Destruction of rainforest
Pollution of water, air, soil
Chemical and nuclear power plant accidents
Global economy
Economic link between nations have grown stronger
Events in one region can affect economic markets around the world
Human rights
Helsinki Agreement
Agreement that freedom of speech, religion, and the press are
basic human rights
Technology and the future
Development of hard crops to feed the world’s population
New medicines to combat disease
Work to predict or control natural disasters
Internet, cell phones, fiber optics have promoted rapid cultural change