Chapter 5 Summary

1.  What three major schools of thought emerged from the Warring States period (403-221 BCE), what were their guidelines and beliefs, and with whom were they associated?

• Legalism- A philosophy founded by Han Feizi that spelled out and strictly enforced rules or laws through a system of rewards and punishments.  Legalists had a pessimistic view of human nature.  Most people were stupid and shortsighted.  Only the state and its rulers could act in their long-term interests.  Legalists regarded farmers and soldiers as necessary because they performed essential functions, while suppressing artisans, merchants, aristocrats, scholars, and other classes who were seen as useless.
• Confucianism-  Was very different from Legalism.  Not laws and punishments, but the moral examples of superiors was the Confucian key to a restored social harmony after the Zhou and Qin dynasties.  For Confucius, human society consisted primarily of unequal relationships as expressed through filial piety.  If the superior party in each of the relationships behaved with sincerity, benevolence, and genuine concern for others, then the inferior party would be motivated to respond with deference and obedience.  Harmony would then prevail.  He emphasized the importance of education, striving for moral improvement, and good government.
• Daoism- A philosophy created by Laozi that, in many ways, ran counter to that of Confucianism regarding those ideas as artificial and useless.  Daoists urged withdrawal into the world of nature and encouraged behavior that was spontaneous, individualistic, and natural, whereas Confucius focused on the would of human relationships.  Daoism invited people to withdraw from the world of politics and social activism, to disengage from the public life, and to align themselves with the ways of nature.  It meant simplicity in living, in small self-sufficient communities in unified government and the abandonment of education and active efforts at self-improvement.

2.  Why has Confucianism been defined as a "humanistic philosophy" (for a tranquil society) rather than a supernatural religion?  What does Confucius say about gods and spirits?

The driving force of Confucian teaching was distinctly this-worldly and practical, concerned with human relationships, effective government, and social harmony.  Confucianism is based on the cultivation of ren- translated as human heartedness, benevolence, goodness, and nobility of heart.  Ren isn't achieved through divine intervention, but is nurtured within the person through personal reflection, education, and a willingness to strive to perfect one's moral character.  Confucius did not deny the reality of spirits and gods.  In fact, he advised people to participate in family and state rituals "as if the spirits were present," and he believed that the universe had a moral character with which human beings showed alignment to themselves.

More Chapter Summeries

We will have more chapter summeries (at least ch. 17)  within a week. Have fun reviewing   :)

WHAP Chater 16

Question	Answer
How was Christianity divided internally?	Roman Catholics of Western and Central Europe and the Eastern Orthodox of Eastern Europe and Russia
Externally how would you describe Christianity?	defensive against an expansive Islam
Why was Christianity defensive against Islam?	Muslims ousted Christian Crusaders from the Holy Land and with the seizure of Constantinople they had captures the prestigious capital of Eastern Orthodoxy, and they advanced into the heart of Central Europe with the siege of Vienna
What act launched the Protestant Reformation?	Martin Luther publicly invited debate about various abuses within the Roman Catholic Church by posting a document known as the 95 Theses, on the door of a church in Wittenberg
Martin Luther?	German priest
Issues in the Church, of which people were critical?	luxurious life of popes corruption and immorality of some of the clergy, Church's selling of indulgences
According to Luther, where did salvation come from?	faith
What did not have any bearing on the eternal destiny of the soul?	good works of the sinner or the sacraments of the Church
Faith was a free gift of?	God
Source of authority was not?	teachings of the Church
Where did the source of authority come from?	the bible, interpreted according to the individual's conscience
What did Luther's beliefs call into question?	special position of the clerical hierarchy and the pope in particular
What did the schism give some kings and princes?1	justification for their own independence from the Church and an opportunity to gain the lands and taxes previously held by the Church
What did the schism provide the Urban middle class?	a new religious legitimacy for their growing role in society
Schism was used by common people to?	express their opposition to the whole social order, especially since a series of German priest revolts
How did the Reformation teachings and practices affect women?	did not offer them a greater role in the church or society; in Protestant-dominated areas, the veneration of Mary and female saints ended, leaving the male Christ figure as the sole object of worship
What was closed that had offered some women an alternative to marriage?	convents, Protestants opposed celibacy and monastic life
What stimulated education and literacy for women?	reading of the Bible for oneself
What were they still subjected to even with literacy?	male supervision and had little opportunity to use their education outside of the home and family
Where did the Reformation thinking spread, thanks to the invention of the printing press, and what was the effect of its spread?	started in Germany, spread to France, Switzerland, England, and elsewhere and splintered into a variety of churches - Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican, Quaker, and Anabaptist
During the Thirty Years' War, French society was torn by?	violence between Catholics and the Protestant minority known as Huguenots
Who issued the Edict of Nantes?	French monarch, Henry IV
Edict of Nantes?	granted a substantial measure of religious toleration to French Protestants, hoping they would return to the Catholic Church
Catholic-Protestant struggle engulfed?	most of Europe
Destructive war brought?	violence, famine, and disease
What percent of German population perished?	15-30%
Peace of Westphalia?	ended the conflict, with some reshuffling of boundaries and an agreement that each state was sovereign, authorized to control religious affairs within its own territory
Unity of the Catholic Church?	broken forever
What benefited and motivated European imperial expansion?	Christianity
The Spanish and Portuguese viewed their movement overseas as a?	continuation of a long crusading tradition, which only recently had completed the liberation of their countries from Muslim control
Colonial settlers and traders brought what with them?	their faith and sought to replace it in their newly conquered homelands
Catholic missionaries actively spread?	the Christian message beyond European communities
Portuguese missionaries took?	the lead in Africa and Asia
Spanish and French missionaries were?	most prominent in the Americas
Missionaries of the Russian Orthodox Church accommodated?	expansion of the Russian Empire by ministering to Russian settlers and trappers across Siberia
What were the two critical elements for the missionaries' success in Spanish America and the Philippines?	their efforts were strengthened by a European presence experienced as military conquest, colonial settlements, missionary activity, forced labor, social disruption, and disease; absence of literate world religion
Why were missionary efforts to spread Christianity so much less successful in China than in Spanish America?	political context was different, Europeans needed permission to operate in the country, missionaries offered little that the Chinese really needed
Africanized versions of Christianity emerged, such as Santeria and Vodou, in the New World. From what were these syncretic religions derived and how did the Europeans perceive these practices?	They derived from West African traditions and featured drumming, ritual dancing, animal sacrifices, and spirit possession; Europeans perceived these practices as evidence of sorcery and witchcraft and attempted to suppress them
What accounts for the continued spread of Islam in the early modern era?	it depended on wandering Muslim holy men, Islamic scholars, and itinerant traders, none of whom posed a threat to local rulers
What did Muslims offer to others?	literacy in Arabic, established informal schools, provided protective charms containing passages from the Quran, served as advisers to local authorities, healers to the sick, intermarried with local peoples, did not insist converts give up older practices
Who did the religious syncretism of Islam become offensive to?	the more orthodox, or traditional, Muslims
Who argued that the declining fortunes of the Islamic world were the result of a gradual process of decay that had crept in over the centuries, as Muslims allowed themselves to be drawn away from the essential of their faith?	a young Muslim theologian, Abd al-Wahib
What did Wahib reject and why?	veneration of Sufi saints and their tombs, adoration of natural saints, respect paid to Muhammad's tomb at Mecca; believed it was a dilution of the absolute monotheism of authentic Islam
Some Chinese Buddhists sought to make their religion more accessible to ordinary people, which bore similarity to the thinking of whom?	Martin Luther, who argued that individuals could seek salvation by "faith alone",without the assistance of a priestly hierarchy
What popular culture emerged in the cities among the less well educated?	play, paintings, short stories, and novels provided diversion and entertainment that were a step up from what could be found in tea-houses and wine shops
What did the bhakti movement and its practices provide for women?	avenue for social criticism
What did the bhakti devotional form of Hinduism seek to achieve?	union with one or another of India's many deities through songs, prayers, dances, poetry, and rituals
What did the bhakti devotional form of Hinduism's practitioners often?	set aside caste distinctions and disregarded rituals of Brahmin priests in favor of direct contact with the divine
What did this emphasis have much in common with?	the mystical Sufi form of Islam and helped to blur the distinction between these two traditions in India
From what did Sikhism evolve?	a peaceful religious movement, blending Hindu and Muslim, into a militant community
Who were the men that created the Scientific Revolution?	Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Newton
Copernicus from Poland?	heliocentric
Galileo from Italy?	refined heliocentric, Pope forced him to recant
Descartes from France?	"I think therefore I am." (I am the only thing I know is real)
Newton from England?	gravity
What was the long-term significance of the Scientific Revolution and its applications to the affairs of human society?	altered ideas about place of humankind within cosmos and sharply challenged the teachings and authority of the Church; when applied to human society, scientific ways of thinking challenged ancient social societies hierarchies and political systems
Why did the Scientific Revolution occur in Europe?	historical development gave rise to good conditions for scientific enterprise, evolved legal system guaranteed measure of independence from church, unis, etc., position to draw on other cultures, Columbian Exchange
Why did the Scientific Revolution not occur in the Islamic world?	science patronixed by variety of local authorities, occured outside formal system of higher education, Quranic studies and religious law held central place, suspicious
Why did the Scientific Revolution not occur in China?	focused on preparing for rigidly defined set of civil service examinations emphasized humanistic studies and moral texts of classical Confucianism; scientific subjects relegated to margins of Chinese educational system
To medieval thinkers the Earth was?	sationary at the center of the universe and around it revolved the sun, moon, and stars embedded in ten spheres of transparent crystal; coincided with the religious purpose of the Catholic Church
Nicholas Copernicus' argument was?	"at the middle of all things lies the sun" and the Earth, and other planents, revovled around it; Earth no longer center of God's attention
Johannes Kepler's theory showed?	planets followed elliptical orbits, undermining ancient belief that they moved in perfect circles
Galileo Galilei developed an?	improved telescope, observed sunspots, or blemishes, moving across the face of the sun, called into question traditional notion that no change or imperfections marred heavenly bodies
Sir Isaac Newton formulated?	the modern laws of motion and mechanics, universal gravity, heavens and Earth no longer regarded as separate and distinctive spheres, obeyed same natural laws that governed orbiting planets
What did Enlightenment thinkers share?	belief in the power of knowledge to transform human society; satirical, critical style, a commitment to open-mindedness and inquiry, and in various degrees a hostility to established political and religious authority
Darwin and Marx believed?	strongly in progress, but in their thinking, conflict and struggle rather than reason and education were the motors of progress
Sigmund Freud?	applied scientific techniques to the operation of the human mind and emotions and in doing so cast further doubt on Enlightenment conceptions of human rationality
In what way was European science recieved in Qing China?	Chinese were interested in European in astronomy and mathematics because those disciplines proved useful in predicting eclipses, reforming the calendar, and making accurate maps of the empire; European medicine held little interest to Chinese physicians
In what way was European science recieved in Japan?	After 1720, Japan lifted the ban on importing Western books; read texts in medicine, astronomy, geography, and mathematics, did not assume prominent place, policy of isolation
In what way was European science recieved in the Ottoman Empire?	elites saw no need for a wholesale embrace of things European; already a rich tradition of Muslim astronomy

Chapter 16 summary

1.  How was Christianity divided internally?

It was divided between the Roman Catholics of Western and Central Europe and the Eastern Orthodox of Eastern Europe and Russia.

2.  Externally, how would you describe Christianity to the rest of the world and why?

It was very much on the defensive against an expansive Islam group.  Muslims had ousted Christian crusaders from their toeholds in the holy land by 1300.  After centuries of Muslim rule, the future, it seemed, lay with Islam rather than Christianity.

3.  What act launched the Protestant Reformation in 1517?

In the early sixteenth century, the Protestant Reformation shattered the unity of Roman Catholic Christianity, which for the previous 1000 years had provided the foundation of western Europe's civilization.  The reform began in 1517 when Martin Luther published the 95 theses to the door of a church in Whittenberg.

4.  What were some of the issues in the Church, of which people were critical?

• luxurious life of popes
• corruption of some clergymen
• the selling of indulgences that were said to remove penalties of sin

5.  In what ways did Luther's understanding of his relationship with God challenge the Church's authority?

• He thought that salvation came through faith alone without the church
• The bible should be interpreted according to an individual's conscience

6.  In what ways was the schism within the Catholic Church expressed politically, economically, and socially, including the role of women?

• kings and princes found justification for their own independence from the church
• middle class peoples found new legitimacy in religion because protestant thinking saw them as equal
• the new religious ideas served to convey the peasants negative view of the social system in senea 
• veneration of Mary and female saints ended
• protestant opposition to celibacy closed convents
• women were not allowed official roles in churches until modern times

7.  To where did Reformation thinking spread, thanks to the invention of the printing press, and what was the effect of its spread?

Reformation spread within and beyond Germany, thanks in large measure to the recent invention of the printing press.  This allowed Luther's pamphlets to be distributed.  The movement spread to France, Switzerland, England, and elsewhere.  It did divide into the modern denominations.

8.  To what extent did the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) have on French Society?

French society was torn by violence between Catholics and the Protestant minority known as Huguenots.

9.  How was European imperial expansion related to the spread of Christianity?

• Christians believe that people have to be saved 
• money needed to be brought to the Christians
• Christians sincerely believed in their cause
• Christianity encouraged a strong military

10.  What were the two critical elements for the missionaries' success in Spanish America and in the Philippines?

• An overwhelming European presence
• lack of literacy in Spanish America

11.  Why were missionary efforts to spread Christianity so much less successful in China than in Spanish America?

• The political context was different...China had not been defeated.  They were in the middle of a prosperous dynasty.
• In China, the missionaries tried to convince the Chinese that honoring the emperor or ancestors was secular so that they would convert to Christianity
• Fundamentally, the Christians failed only 300000 out of over 300 million Chinese converted

12.  Africanized versions of Christianity emerged, such as Santeria and Vodou, in the New World.  From what were these syncretic religions derived and how did the Europeans perceive these practices?

These syncretic religions were derived from earlier African practices.  Europeans perceived these things as witchcraft.

13.  What accounted for the continued spread of Islam in the early modern era?

Muslim slaves were offered help in the Caribbean and Brazil.  Muslims helped many large scale slave revolts in the Caribbean and South America.

14.  What accounts for the emergence of reform or renewal movements within the Islamic world, especially in the mid-eighteenth century in Arabia?

Many Africans were blending faiths with Islam.  This was considered very offensive.

15.  Some Chinese Buhdists sought to make their religion more accessible to ordinary people, which bore some similarity to the thinking of whom?

The "withdrawal from the world".thinking came from monk monostaries.

16.  Describe the popular culture that emerged in the cities among the less well educated.

Plays, paintings, short stories, and novels provided diversion and entertainment.

17.  A new cultural change was especially appealing to women. What did the Bhakti movement and it's practices provide for them?

Bhakti provided an avenue of social criticism through songs, prayers, dances, poetry, and rituals.  It set off caste distinctions as well.

18.  From what did Sikhism evolve?

Guru Nanak blended elements of Islam and Hinduism when he decided that "there is no religion, only god."

19.  Who were the men that created the Scientific Revolution and where were they from?

Copernicus: Poland

Galileo: Italy 

Descartes: France

Newton: England

20. What was the long-term significance of the scientific revolution and its applications to the affairs of human society?

* It altered idea's about human kind within cosmos and sharply challenged the teaching and authority of the church
* Scientific ways of thinking challenged ancient social societies, hierchies and political systems.

Chapter 4 Summary

1.  What were the changes and continuities in Second Wave Civilizations?

Continuities:  The locations of some of the civilizations did not change, but some empires rose, expanded, and collapsed.  Monarchs ruled mass civilizations, there was a sharp divide from elites and everyone else, and slavery still took place.  There was no fundamental or revolutionary transformation socially or economically that took place.

Changes:  The empires grew, most first wave civilizations were conquered by a different race.  Population grew, states and empires grew, each empire brought together a single political system, diversity grew, religion changed, the Chinese invented the piston bellows, drew-looms, silk handling machinery, crossbows, iron bridges, and paper.  The Romans built roads, bridges, aqueducts, forts, and glass blowing.  They also refined communication, sugar and long distance trade routes.  They found ways to cure some diseases.

2.  What is an empire and what does it do?

Empires are simply states, political systems that exercise coercive power.  The term, however, is normally reserved for larger and more aggressive states, those that conquer, rule, and extract resources from other states and peoples.  Thus, empires have generally encompassed a considerate variety of peoples and cultures within a single political system, and they have often been associated with political and cultural oppression.  These imperial states governed by rulers culturally different from themselves, brought together people of quite different traditions and religions and so stimulated the exchange of ideas, cultures, and values.

3.  How did the Persian and Greek civilizations differ in their political organization and values?

Persians:  The Persians built an imperial political system that drew upon previous Mesopotamian policies, including the Babylonian and Assyrian empires.  The Persian Empire was larger than its predecessors, stretching from Egypt to India, and ruled over 35 million subjects.  The empire was centered on an elaborate cult of kingship in which the emperor was secluded in royal magnificence, and was approachable only through an elaborate ritual.  Emperors were considered absolute in their power and possessed divine right to rule by the will of the Persian god Ahura Mazda.  They had an effective administration system that placed Persian governors, called satraps, in each of 23 provinces, while low-level officials were drawn from local authorities.  Persia's rule of its many conquered peoples was strengthened by a policy of respect for the empire's non-Persian cultural traditions.

Greeks:  In contrast, the Greek political organization was based on hundreds of independent city-states or small settlements of between 500-5000 male citizens.  The Greeks didn't build an empire but did expand through the establishment of colonies around the Mediterranean and Black seas.  Participation in Greek political culture was based on the unique ideas of "citizenship" of free people running the affairs of state, and of equality for all citizens before the law.  Political participation in Greek city-states was much wider than in Persia, but it varied considerably between city-states and over time.  Early on, only the wealthy and wellborn had the rights of full citizenship, but middle and lower-class men gradually obtained these rights in some city-states.  Participation wasn't universal but was widest in Athens.  The reforming leader, Solon, took Athenian politics in a more democratic direction to break the hold of a small group of aristocratic families.  Public office was open to a wider group of men and even the poorest could serve.  Athenian democracy was direct rather than representative.  Nonetheless, women, slaves, and foreigners were excluded from the political process.

4.  How was Athenian democracy different from modern democracy?

It was a direct democracy, rather than representative, and it was distinctly limited.  Women, slaves, and foreigners, together far more than half the population, were totally excluded from any political participation.

5.  What had the Greek victory against the Persians do for Athenian democracy?

The Greeks' victory radicalized Athenian democracy, for it had been men of the poorer classes who had led their ships to victory, and now they were in a position to insist on full citizenship.

6.  After the Greco-Persian Wars, what were the causes and effects of the Peloponnesian War?

After the war, Athenian efforts to solidify its domain position among the allies (Sparta and other Greek city-states) led to intense resentment and finally to a bitter civil war with Sparta taking the lead in defending the traditional independence of Greek city-states.  In this bloody conflict, known as the Peloponnesian War, Athens was defeated, while the Greeks exhausted themselves and magnified their distrust of one another.  Thus, the way was open to their eventual take over by the growing forces of Macedonia.

7.  What changes did Alexander's conquests bring in their wake?

Alexander's conquests led to the widespread dissemination of Greek culture into Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and India.  The major avenue for this spread lies in the many cities established by the Greeks throughout.

8.  What happened to Alexander's empire when he died?

When Alexander died in 323 BCE, his empire was divided into three kingdoms that were ruled among his three leading Macedonian generals.

9.  How did Rome grow from a single city to the center of a huge empire?

• The values of the Roman republic, including rule of law, the rights of citizenship, absence of pretension, upright moral behavior, and keeping one's world along with a political system that offered some protection to the lower classes- provided a basis for rome's empire-building undertaking
• Victory in the Punic Wars with Carthage (264-146 BCE) extended Roman control over the western Mediterranean and made Rome a naval power
• As the empire grew, each addition of territory created new vulnerabilities that drove further conquests
• Poor soldiers hoped for land, loot, or salaries
• The aristocracy or well-connected gained great estates, earned promotion, and sometimes achieved public acclaim and high political office by participating in empire building.
• Roman conquests were spurred by wealth, resources, and food supplies along the eastern and western Mediterranean
• Rome's central location in the Mediterranean basin made empire building easier
• Rome's army was the key to its success.  It was well trained, well fed, and well rewarded.
• Rome's continued expansion had political support for the growing empire.  This ensured that the necessary manpower and resources were committed to empire building.

10.  How and why did the making of the Chinese Empire differ from that of the Roman Empire?

Unlike the Roman Empire (which was new), the Chinese Empire represented an effort to revive an imperial tradition that already existed under the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties.  Because of the preexisting imperial tradition in China, the process of creating the empire was quicker, though it was no less reliant on military forces and no less brutal than the centuries-long roman effort.  Unlike Rome's transition from republic to empire, the creation of the Chinese empire had only brief and superficial repercussions.

11.  Compare the Roman and Chinese Empires.

Chinese Empire:

• The Chinese developed a more elaborate bureaucracy to hold the empire together than did the Romans.
• Chinese characters, which represented words or idea more than sounds, were not easily transferable to either languages, but written Chinese could be understood by all literate people, no matter which spoken dialect of the language they used, thus Chinese, more than Latin, served as an instrument of elite assimilation.
• Buddhism came from India and was introduced to China by Central Asia, traders and received little support from Han dynasty rulers
• Under the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wendi reunified China and Buddhism again gained state support.  After the collapse of the Han dynasty, Buddhism appealed to people who felt bewildered by the loss of a predictable and stable society.  Buddhism eventually became one of several religious strands in a complex Chinese map.
• The Chinese empire grew out of a much larger cultural heartland, already ethnically Chinese.  As the Chinese state expanded, especially to the south, it actively assimilated the non-Chinese or "barbarian" peoples.

Similarities:

• Both defined themselves in universal terms
• Both invested heavily in public works- roads, bridges, aqueducts, canals, protective walls- to indicate their respective domains militarily and commercially
• Both invoked supernatural sanction to support their rule
• Both absorbed a foreign religious tradition- Christianity in the Roman Empire and Buddhism in the Chinese Empire.
• Politically, both empires established effective centralized control over vast regions and huge populations

Roman Empire:

• Politically, the Roman administration was a somewhat ramshackle affair, relying more on regional elites and the army to provide cohesion.
• Latin, an alphabetic language, depicting sounds, gave rise to various languages- Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian- whereas Chinese did not.
• Unlike the Chinese, the Romans developed an elaborate body of law, applicable equally to all people of the realm, dealing with matters of justice, property, commerce, and family life.
• Christianity was born in a small section of a small province in a remote corner of the empire.  From there, it spread slowly for several centuries, mostly among the poor and lower classes; this process was considerably aided by the Pax Romans.  After suffering intermittent persecution, it obtained state support from emperors.  The help brought up a weakening empire with a common religion.
• Rome's beginnings as a small city-state meant that Romans, and even Italians, were always a distinct minority within the empire
• Gradually, and somewhat reluctantly, the Roman Empire granted Roman citizenship to various individuals, families, or whole communities for their service to the empire.

12.  How was the collapse of the Roman Empire different from the Han Empire in China?

Roman Empire:

The Roman Empire ended in 476 CE after a long decline; only the western half collapsed; the Eastern Roman Empire became the Byzantine Empire and maintained a tradition of Imperial Rome for another 1000 years.  Unlike the nomadic groups in China, who largely assimilated Chinese culture, Germanic kingdoms in Europe developed their own ethnic identity- Visigoths, Franks, Anglo-Saxons, and others- even as they followed Roman laws and adopted Roman Christianity.  The population decline by 25% over two centuries meant diminished production, less revenue for the state, and fewer men available for the defense of the empire's long frontiers.  In the western part of the Roman Empire, no large-scale, centralized, imperial authority, encompassing all of Western Europe, has ever been successfully reestablished for any length of time.

Han Empire:

The Han Dynasty ended in 220 CE after a long period of corruption, peasant unrest, and a major peasant revolt in 184 CE.  Internal problems were combined with external problems, as was the Roman Empire.  There was an added growing threat from nomadic or semi-agricultural peoples occupying the frontier regions of both empires.  The Chinese had built the Great Wall to keep out the Xiongnu and other nomadic tribes in the north.  Various ways of dealing with these people were developed between the collapse of the Roman and Chinese empires was what happened in China after the Han Dynasty.  After 350 years of disunion, disorder, frequent warfare, and political chaos, a Chinese imperial state, similar to the Han dynasty, was reassembled under the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties.  Once again a single emperor ruled, a bureaucracy selected by examinations governed, and the ideas of Confucius reformed the political system.

13.  What eventually happened to Western Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire?

Most of Western Europe dissolved into a highly decentralized political system involving kings with little authority, nobles, knights, and vassals, various city-states in Italy, and small territories ruled by princes, bishops, or the pope.  From this point on, Europe would be a civilization without a surrounding imperial state.

14.  Why were Europeans unable to reconstruct something of the unity of their classical empire while China did?

The greater cultural homogeneity of Chinese civilization made the task easier than it was amid the vast ethnic and linguistic diversity of Europe.  The absence in the Roman legacy of a strong bureaucratic tradition contributed to European difficulties, whereas in China the bureaucracy provided stability even as dynasties came and went.  The authorities and its "other-worldliness" did little to support the creation of large empires.  European agriculture was not as productive as the Chinese agriculture, and didn't have as many resources available to them.

15.  Why were centralized empires so much less prominent in India than in China?

Politically, the civilization emerged as a fragmented collection of towns and cities.  Indian empires failed to command the kind of loyalty or exercise the degree of influence that Chinese empires did.  An astonishing range of ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity characterized this civilization as an endless variety of peoples across the mountain passes in the northwest.  In contrast in China, India's social structure, embodied in the caste system linked to occupational groups, made for intensely local loyalties at the expense of wider identities that might have fostered empires.

16.  Give examples of Ashoka's reign over the Mauryan Empire.

Initially a ruthless leader (268-232 BCE) in expanding the empire, Ashoka converted to Buddhism after a particularly bloody battle and turned his attention to more peaceful ways of governing his huge empire.  His decrees outlined a philosophy of nonviolence and of toleration for the many sections of the extremely varied religious culture of India.  Ashoka abandoned his royal hunts and ended animal sacrifices in the capital, eliminated most meat from the royal menu, and generously supported Buddhist monasteries and stupas.  He ordered the digging of wells, the planting of shade trees, and the building of rest stops along the empire's major highways- all of which served to integrate the kingdom's economy.  He retained the power to punish wrong-doing, and the death penalty remained in the Ashoka's policies were good politics as well as good morality.  They were an effort to develop an inclusive and integrative moral code for an extremely diverse realm.

Explain the significance of each of the following:

Helots- conquered people in Sparta who lived in slave-like conditions

Solon- a reforming leader in 596 BCE who emerged to push Athenian politics in a more democratic direction.  He abolished debt slavery, access to public office was opened to a wider group of men, and all citizens were allowed to take part in the Assembly.

Hellenistic Era- the period from 323-30 BCE in which Greek culture spread widely in Eurasia in the kingdoms ruled by Alexander's political successors

Punic Wars- three major wars between Rome and Carthage in North Africa, fought between 264 and 144 BCE, that culminated in Roman victory and control of the western Mediterranean

Patricians- wealthy, privileged Romans who dominated early Roman society

Plebians- poorer, less-privileged Romans who gradually won a role in Roman politics

Caesar Augustus- the great-nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar who emerged as sole ruler of the Roman state at the end of an extended period of civil war

Pax Romana- the "Roman Peace," a term typically used to denote the stability and prosperity of the early Roman Empire, especially in the first and second centuries

Wendi- Sui dynasty emperor (ruled 581-604 CE) who reunified China after 350 years of turmoil from the collapse of the Han Dynasty

Wudi- Han emperor (ruled 141-86 BCE) who began the Chinese civil service system establishing an academy to train imperial bureaucrats

Yellow Turban Rebellion- a major peasant revolt in China in 184 CE that helped to lead to the fall of the Han Dynasty

Eunuchs- in China, castrated court officials loyal to the emperor

Xiongnu- nomadic peoples to the north of the Great Wall of China who were a frequent threat to the stability of the Chinese state

Aryans- Indo-European pastoralists who moved into India about the time of the collapse of the Indus River Valley civilization; their rule in causing this collapse is still debated by historians

More Chapter Summaries

As you prepare for the tests and the AP test in World History, we will help you study.  We will post frequently asked test questions and chapter summaries of "Ways of the World" (Strayer.)  This is the most common AP World History Book.  If your school uses a different book we are sorry.  This website will still help you for the AP test.

Chapter 3 Summary

1.  What changed about new civilizations from the earlier farming villages, pastoral societies, and chiefdoms?

New civilizations encompassed far bigger populations.  In these cities, people were organized and controlled by states whose leaders could use force to compel obedience.  Profound differences in economic function, skill, status, and wealth divided the people of civilizations, making them less equal, and valuable to greater oppression than had been the case in earlier societies.

2.  Where and when did the first civilizations emerge?

• Sumer in Mesopotamia, 3000 BCE
• Egypt in Nile River Valley, 3000 BCE
• Norte Chico, along the coast of central Peru, 3000 BCE
• Indus Valley civilization, present day Pakistan, 2000 BCE
• China in the Yellow River Valley
• Olmecs, southern Mexico near present day Venezuela, 1200 BCE

3.  What was special about each of the first six civilizations?

• Sumer- had world's earliest written language; city-states; temples
• Egypt- pharaohs and pyramids; had a unified territorial state(unlike Sumer)
• Norte Chico- cities were smaller than those of Mesopotamia; had monumental architecture in the form of earthen platform mounds; had quipu for record keeping purposes; had self contained civilization
• Indus Valley- elaborately planned cities; had standardized weights and measures; architectural styles, even brick sizes; irrigated agriculture provided economic foundation for the civilization; written language; there was little indication of centralized state
• China- Shang and Zhou dynasties; luxury tombs for readers; their ruler was known as son of Heaven; early writing on bones; stayed the same for the longest of all the ancient civilizations
• Olmecs- their cities rose from a series of competing chiefdoms and became ceremonial centers filled with many elaborately decorated alters, pyramids, temples, and tombs of past rulers; they had colossal basalt heads that weighed more than 20 tons; a game with a rubber ball that was a cross between soccer and basketball

4.  What answers are given for the rise of civilizations?

All of the civilizations had roots in agriculture, some of these civilizations emerged from earlier and competing chiefdoms, in which some social ranking and economic specialization developed, some scholars have emphasized the need to organize large-scale irrigation projects as a stimulus for the earliest civilizations, but others found that the more complex water control systems appeared after states and civilizations were meant to protect favored groups.

5.  How does Robert Carneiro approach the question of the creation of civilizations?

• Carneiro argued that a growing population density produced a crowded and competitive society that motivated change
• Such settings provided incentives for innovations because opportunities for territorial expansion were not readily available
• Environments with dense populations led to massive, repeated warfare
• The losers of these wars were absorbed into the winners low class
• The leader of the winning side emerged as elite with an enlarged base of land, a class of subordinated workers, and a powerful state of their disposal

6.  What was the role of cities in the the first civilizations?

• political and administrative centers
• centers of culture
• marketplaces for local and long-distance exchange
• centers of manufacturing activity

7.  In what ways was social discrimination expressed in early civilizations?

• wealth
• avoidance of physical labor
• clothing
• manner of burial
• housing
• class-specific treatment in legal codes

8.  In the rival Mesopotamian cities, what were the usual occupations of male and female slaves?

Female slaves were put to work in large-scale semi-industrial weaving enterprises, while males helped to maintain irrigation canals and construct ziggurats.  Other male and female slaves worked in their owners' houses.

9.  Describe the enslavement of people in all of the First Civilisations.

Slaves-derived from prisoners of war, criminals, and debtors-were available for sale; for work in the fields, mines, homes, and shops of their owner; or for sacrifice.  From the days of the earliest civilizations until the 19th century, slavery has been an enduring feature of state-based societies everywhere.

10.  What was unique about slavery in each region?

• Egypt and the Indus Valley civilizations had fewer slaves than Mesopotamia
• Greece and Rome had much more slaves than the Chinese or Indus Valley (Indians)
• Most ancient slavery differed from the more recent American slavery(children of slaves could often go free, and they weren't primarily African)

11.  In what ways have historians tried to explain the beginnings of patriarchy?

• Women were more often pregnant and more involved with child care than before
• Men were able to perform heavy work better
• The declining position of women could have been connected to the growth of social complexity in civilization as economic, religious, and political "specialists" became prominent
• Since men were less important in the household, they could have become leaders
• Women had long been identified with nature
• Large-scale wars left women as the first slaves, and men as the warriors
• Commerce was soon applied to male rights over women

12.  How did Mesopotamia and Egyptian male dominance differ from each other?

Mesopotamia:  By 2000 BCE, various written laws codified and sought to enforce a patriarchal family life that offered women a measure of paternalistic protection while insisting on their submission to the unquestioned authority of men.  Central to these laws was the regulation of female sexuality.  Women in Mesopotamia were sometimes divided into two sharply distinguished categories.  Respectable women, those under the protection and sexual control of a man, were required to be veiled when outside the home, whereas non-respectable women were forbidden to cover their heads.  The powerful goddesses of early times were gradually relegated to the home and hearth and were replaced by dominant male deities.

Egypt:  Egypt, while clearly patriarchal, afforded its women greater opportunities than did most other first civilizations.  Women were recognized as legal equals to men, able to own property and slaves, administer and sell land, sign their own marriage contracts, and to initiate divorce.  Royal women occasionally exercised significant political power.  Married women were not veiled.  Statues often showed men and women as equals.

13.  What were the sources of state authority in the Early Civilisations?

• Citizens recognized that the complexity of life in cities or densely populated territories required some authority to coordinate and regulate the community enterprises, such as irrigation and defense.
• State authorities frequently used force to compel obedience
• Authority was often associated with divine sanction
• Perception of state authority and power was seen through its grand architecture, impressive rituals, and lavish lifestyles
• writing helped state authority by defining the elite status, conveying prestige on the literate, providing a means to disseminate propaganda, strengthening the state by making accurate record keeping possible, and giving added weight to laws

14.  Compare and Contrast Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures and political systems.

Mesopotamia:

Political:  Sumer was organized in a dozen or more separate and independent city-states.  Each city was ruled by a king, who claimed to represent the city's patron deity and who controlled the affairs of the walled city and surrounding rural area.  Nevertheless, frequent warfare among these Sumerian city-states caused people living in rural areas to flee to the walled cities for protection.

Environment:  An open environment without serious obstacles to travel made Mesopotamia more vulnerable to invasion.  The Tigris and Euphrates rivers provided fertile soil.  Although, flooding of the rivers was unpredictable.  Their irrigation involved a complex work of canals and dikes.

Culture:  Mesopotamians viewed humankind as caught in an inherently disorderly world, subject to the whims of capricious gods, and facing death without an afterlife.  Their environment probably had something to do with their bleak outlook on life, as portrayed in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Egypt:

Political:  Egyptian civilization, by contrast, began with the merger of several earlier states or chiefdoms into a unified territory that stretched 1000 miles along the Nile River.  Egypt maintained that unity and independence, though with occasional interruptions, cities in Egypt were far less important than in Mesopotamia, although political capitals, market centers, and major burial grounds gave them an urban presence.  The focus of the Egyptian states resided in the pharaoh, who ensured the daily rising of the sun and the annual flooding of the Nile, alone.  All of the country's many officials served at his pleasure.

Environment:  Egypt was surrounded by deserts, mountains, seas, and cataracts which made it less vulnerable to invasions.  The Nile flooded every year predictably, which created alluvial soil for productive agriculture.  Egyptian irrigation just regulated the natural flow of the Nile.  Egypt's ability to work with its more favorable environment enabled a degree of stability and continually that was impossible for Sumer.

Culture:  Elite literate culture in Egypt produced a cheerful outlook on the world.  The rebirth of the Sun every day and of the river every year seemed to assure Egyptians that there is an afterlife.

15.  In what ways were Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations shaped by their interactions with near and distant neighbors?

• Egyptian agriculture drew upon wheat and barley, which reached Egypt from Mesopotamia, as well as watermelons, domesticated donkeys, and cattle
• Some say that the pyramids and Egypt's writing system were stimulated by Mesopotamian models
• The practice of divine kingship seems to have derived from Mesopotamia
• Hitties and Hyksos influenced both Egypt and Mesopotamia by bringing domesticated horses, wheeled carts, and chariot technology
• The Egyptians took in foreign innovations from the Hyksos, and expelled the Hyksos to create their own empire
• The Babylonian and Egyptian Empires were also bound together by marriage alliances as part of an international political system.

16.  What are the reservations some scholars have with the term "civilization?"

The first is its implication of superiority.  In popular usage, "civilization" suggests refined behavior, a "higher" form of society, something positive.  The opposite of "civilized"-barbarian, savage, or "uncivilized"- is normally understood as an insult implying inferiority, and that, of course, is precisely how the inhabitants of many civilizations have viewed those outside their own societies.  A second reservation about using the term derives from its implication of solidity-the idea that civilizations represent distinct and widely shared identities with clear boundaries that mark them off from such other units.

Explain the significance of each of the following:

*Quipu- A series of knotted cords used for accounting in the Norte Chico civilization

Oracle Bones-  In Chinese civilization, animal bones were heated and the cracks then interpreted prophecies.  The prophecies were written on the bone.  These provide the earliest form of written language

Mandate of Heaven-  The ideological foundation of Chinese emperors, this was a belief that a ruler held authority by command of divine force as long as he ruled morally and benevolently

Harappa/Mohenjo Daro-  Both were major cities of the Indus River Valley civilization that flourished around 2000 BCE

Code of Hammurabi- A series of laws publicized, at the order of king Hammurabi of Babylonia, that proclaim the king's commitment to social order

Cuneiform-  wedged-shape writing in the form of symbols incised into clay tablets; used in Mesopotamia from around 3100 BCE to 0 AD

Hieroglyphs-  Ancient Egyptian writing system

Epic of Gilgamesh-  The most famous existing literary work from ancient Mesopotamia, it tells the story of a man's quest for immortality

Osiris-  Egyptian god of the dead

Hebrews-  A smaller early civilization whose development of a monotheistic faith provided the foundation of modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Phoenicians-  A civilization in the area of present-day Lebanon, creators of the first alphabetic writing system

Nubia-  A civilization to the south of Egypt in the Nile River Valley, noted for the development of an alphabetic writing system and a major iron-working industry by 500 BCE

Hitties- An Indo-European civilization established in Anatolia in the 18th century BCE

Hyksos-  A pastoral group of under own ethnicity that invaded Egypt and ruled in the north from 1650-1535 BCE.  Their dominance was based on their use of horses, chariots, and bronze technology

*You will have to know what Quipu is throughout the entire class, so you'd best learn it now