Transcript Slide 1 - Lewis County Schools

Mesopotamia
Geography
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Desert Between Persian Gulf and Mediterranean
Sea in S.W. Asia
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Fertile Crescent – land in this area that provides for
some of S.W. Asia’s best farming
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Fertile Plains (Eastern) – Tigris / Euphrates Rivers
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Mesopotamia = between rivers
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Rivers flooded Mesopotamia – left silt behind
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Wheat / barley = growth of villages
Environmental Challenges
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First famers in S. Meso.
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Sumerians (3500 BC) arrive
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Good soil attracted settlers
3 Disadvantages
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Unpredictable flooding + little / no rainfall
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Small region + a lot of people = defenseless
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Limited natural resources
Overcoming Challenges
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Irrigation ditches
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Built city walls
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Traded with mountain people
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Required organization, cooperation, leadership
Laws to decide distribution of land and water
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Beginning of organized gov’t
City States
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Advanced cities
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Specialized workers
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Complex institutions
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Record keeping
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Advanced technology
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Each city developed its own gov’t (with own rulers)
= city state
Characteristics
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Gov’t controlled by priests
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Middle man to Gods
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Ziggurat used for many purposes
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Demanded % of crops
War = elected commander
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Sometimes became Monarch after
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Passed power to kin
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Multiple family rulers = dynasty
Grew prosperous from surplus of crops
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Long distance trade (including new ideas/religion)
also known as cultural diffusion
Sumerian Culture
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Religion
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Polytheistic (3,000 + gods)
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Gods had human qualities (humans were servants)
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Life
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Priest/Kings = highest power, then wealth merchants, then slaves
Women – could pursue most occupations, hold property, join lower
ranks of priesthood
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Sacrifice to keep gods happy
Could not attend upper class schools
Science/Technology
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Invented the wheel, sail, plow
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1st to use Bronze and developed writing system (cuneiform)
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Arithmetic and Geometry , number system in base 60 (minute/circle)
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Arches, columns, ramps, pyramid-shape designs
First Empire Builders
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Sumerian city-states constantly at war with each
other
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Sargon of Akkad (Akkadians)
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Defeated Sumer
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World’s 1st Empire (What is an empire)
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Collapse due to internal fighting, invasions, and
severe famine
Babylonian Empire
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Nomadic warriors (Amorites) invaded
Mesopotamia
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Took control – established capital of Babylon
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Reached peak during reign of Hammurabi
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Code/Laws (Hammurabi’s Code)
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Would unify diverse people
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Engraved in stone
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282 specific laws
2 centuries after Hammurabi – empire fell to
nomadic warriors
Indus
Civilizations
Geography of South Asia
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Mountains – Hindu Kush, Karakorum, Himalayas
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Creates subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Nepal,
Bangladesh)
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Indus and Ganges Rivers
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Indus Ganges Plain (Around rivers)
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Deccan – narrow border of lush tropical land in
southern India
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Monsoons
Challenges
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Unpredictable floods and change of river course
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Monsoons brought wet/dry seasons
Emergence of Civilization
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Writing has not been deciphered
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Area larger than Mesopotamia and Egypt
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Not sure where people came from
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Arrived by sea from Africa?
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Passed through Khyber Pass in Hindu Kush mountains?
Built pyramids in their cities
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Sophisticated city planning (buildings/streets)
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Precise grid system, fortified Citadels, residential areas
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Plumbing and sewage systems
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Strong central government
Culture/Trade
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No major social divisions
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Prosperous society (clay/wooden toys)
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Nonessential items
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Little warfare
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Shiva (major Indian God)
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Mother goddess, fertility images, worship of cattle
Long distance trade
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Traded with the Sumerian civilization
End to the Indus
Civilization
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Quality of building decreased
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Cities began to fall
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Indus River changed course?
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Overused the land
Major catastrophe?
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Unburied bodies (attack, natural disaster?)
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Aryans?
River
Dynasties in
China
Geography
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Natural barriers
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Pacific Ocean (East)
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Taklimakan Desert + Plateau of Tibet (West)
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Himalaya Mountains (Southwest)
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Gobi Desert + Mongolian Plateau (North)
2 Rivers run through this area
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Huang He + Yangtze
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Mountain ranges + deserts = 2/3 of China’s land
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90% of remaining farmable land is between Huang He +
Yangtze Rivers
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Chinese thought people living elsewhere were
“barbarians”
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Thought China was center of civilized world
Challenges
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Huang He provided yellowish silt (loess)
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Good and bad
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Earned nickname “China’s Sorrow” (Killed 1 Mil +
people)
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Flooding of whole villages
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Isolation caused less dependence on trade
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Did not completely protect them from invasion
Civilizations Emerge
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No written records from this time = unknown
events (educated guess)
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China’s first dynasty = Xia Dynasty
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Led by Yu -> developed flood-control and irrigation
projects
Shang Dynasty = 1st family to leave written records
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Built elaborate palaces and tombs
Early Cities
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Anyang = one of oldest and most important
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Built mainly of wood
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Upper class lived within city walls / lower did not
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Constantly at war
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Chariot becomes major war time tool
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Dynasty ruled by warrior-nobles
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Peasants = lowest class
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Had limited farming tools
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Bronze was too “precious” for tools
Origins of Chinese Culture
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Group > Individual
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Lives based to serve family + king/emperor
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Respect for one’s parents = most important virtue
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Men controlled property and decision making
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Women seen as inferior
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Girls (13 – 16) had arranged marriage
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Improved status by bearing children
Religious Beliefs
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Believed spirits of family had the power to bring
good fortune or disaster
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Made sacrifices to honor dead relatives
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Conversed with Gods through dead relatives
Made contact through oracle bones
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Inscribed questions in bones
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Cracked the bone and interpreted what they saw
Development of Writing
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Each character in the language stands for an
idea not a sound
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No connection between written and spoken
language
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Chinese unified under one system of writing
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Disadvantage = had to memorize a lot of symbols
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10k + to be true scholar
Zhou People
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Overthrew Shang dynasty around 1027 B.C.
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Adopted much of Shang culture
Mandate of Heaven
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Ruler of Shang dynasty was so terrible, Gods had
taken it away and given it to the Zhou People
Feudalism
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Political system in which nobles, or lords, are
granted the use of lands that legally belong to
the king
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In return nobles owed loyalty and military service
to the king and protection to the people who
lived on their estates
Technology and Trade
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Zhou built roads and canals to supply the large
growing cities
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Introduced coin money
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Civil servant class emerged = ran daily operations
of city
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Use of iron for weapons and agricultural tools
Pyramids on
the Nile
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Egyptian geography
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Nile River (longest in world)
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Flooding- fertile black mud
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Wheat and barley – irrigation
Upper/Lower Egypt
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Domain ended at cataracts
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Riverboats could not pass
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Upper Egypt (South)
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Lower Egypt (North)
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Nile provided transportation
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Environmental Challenges
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Nile low = crops and growing decreased
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Nile high = flooding villages
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Desert = protection and segragation
Kingdom
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Menes united Egypt
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Kings = gods aka Pharaohs
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Theocracy – Pharaoh headed religion, gov’t, and
army
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King’s ruled after death (ka = external spirit)
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Pyramids = kings resting place (bigger than palace)
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Massive public works programs, great gov’t and
leadership from Pharaoh
Egyptian Culture
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Religion / Life
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Polytheistic
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Ra = Sun god, Horus = god of light, Isis = ideal
mother/wife, Osiris = god of death
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Life after death
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Heart weighed less than feather
Mummification, Coffin inside tomb, personal items
Egyptian Society
King, Queen, Royal
Family
Wealthy Land Owners, Gov’t Officials, Priests, Army
Commanders
Middle Class (Merchants,
Artisans)
Lower Class (Peasant Farmers, Unskilled Laborers)
****Could gain higher status through marriage or success in their
jobs ****
- Highest service (Must be able to read and write)
Egyptian Writing /
Technology
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Crude pictographs
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Developed into Hieroglyphics
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Papyrus = Reeds that grew in marshy delta
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Split, dampened, pressed, repeat
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Number system for collecting taxes
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Geometry for property and flood surveying
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Calendar
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365 days, 12 months, 30 days in a month , 5 days for
holidays and feasting
Knew how to check for heartbeat, splint broken
bones, surgery
Invasion
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End of Old Kingdom after Pharaohs lost power
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Weakness and turmoil
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Strong Pharaohs regained control during Middle
Kingdom (restored law and order)
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Invaded by the Hyksos (Asian nomads)
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Egypt fell to Hyksos