Ch. 1 AP World History Flashcards

9558268	Paleolithic Age	about 14,000 years ago; human being learned only simple tool use; 750 BCE-fire tamed; humans became more erect in stature and brain capacity increased along w/ size; called "homo erectus"; spread into Africa, Asia & Europe; developed "speech gene" & rituals to lessen fear of death; greatest achievement: spread of human species over much of the earth's surface; used animal skins as clothing;	0
9558269	Mesolithic Age	from c. 12,000-8,000 BCE; ability to fashion stone tools & such improved greatly; made better weapons & cutting edges; had increased numbers of log rafts & dug out which improved fishing; increased manufacture of pots & baskets for food storage; domesticated animals; population growth accelerated producing more conflicts & wars;	1
9558270	Neolithic Age	invention of agriculture; creation of cities & other foreshadowings of civilization; centered on development of agriculture; agriculture produced major changes; changed economic, political & religious activities; population increased from about 7 million to about 100 million in around 3,000 years; knowledge of agriculture spread to India, North Africa & Europe; rice cultivation soon developed in China; 1st potter's wheel developed;	2
9558271	General Stone Age	knowledge of stone age is limited; people from various parts of the world; accomplishments of these people remain essential to life today; our ability to use tools depended on our stone age ancestors;	3
9558272	Agriculture	began in the Fertile Crescent during the Neolithic Age;	4
9558570	Bronze Age	discovery of metal tools dates back to c. 4,000 BCE w/ copper; bronze later entered the picture; by 3,000 BCE metal working had become so commonplace, that in the Middle East stone tools had dissipated; metal working was extremely useful to agricultural or herding societies; metal weapons were superior to wooden weapons; metal hoes & other tools allowed farmers to work the ground more efficiently more officially; agriculture enabled individuals to become tool makers (specialization); didn't create rapid rates of invention; wood-working became more elaborate; still living in the metal ages today, though primarily use iron; i have chocolate on my pants; was introduced around 1,500 BCE by herding peoples;	5
9558571	Homo sapiens sapiens	killed off or displaced many competitors; was a certain amount of intermarriage; all humans are descendants of H.S.S; originated about 240,000 years ago; no major changes in human physique or brain size since H.S.S; hunting & gathering society; can hunt berries; gradually improved tool use; genders were significantly equal;	6
9558916	Hunting & Gathering	predecessor to agriculture; required more land per person; family groups were smaller; not a lot of work done, averaging 2.5 hours per day; resisted agriculture as long as possible-found it too complicated, difficult or unexciting; H & G people lacked immunity to diseases carried by agriculturalists;	7
9558917	Slash & Burn Agriculture	existed in many parts of the world including South America until about 150 years ago; people would burn off trees in an area, farm intensely for a few years until the soil was depleted, and then moved on, then returned 20ish years later;	8
9558918	Tribal Bands	a group w/ strong kinship ties	9
9558919	Catal Hüyük	in southern Turkey; founded in 7,000 BCE & coverd 32 acres; houses were made of mud bricks on timber wood; crowded together w/ few windows; people spent lots of time on the roof tops & suffered from many broken bones; religious images both of powerful male hunters & mother goddesses devoted to agricultural fertility; large villages ruled over smaller communities leaving families to specialize in politics; by 3,000 BCE became part of a civilization	10
9559435	Civilization	2 different definitions; 1) society w/ enough economic surplus, to form divisions of labor, w/ a social hierarchy involving significant inequalities; difference between civilizations & other societies involves the emergence of formal political organizations as opposed to dependence on tribal or family ties; comes from latin word for city; cities are crucial because amass wealth and power and allow rapid exchange of ideas;	11
9559436	Cuneiform	Sumerians developed it; based on wedge like characters; societies w/ writing can organize more elaborate political structures because of their ability to keep records & send messages; taxed more efficiently & made contacts & treaties; it is argued that becoming literate changes the way people think: more rationally & less by a host of spiritual beliefs; minority were literate;	12
9559437	Nomads	wanderers called Barbarians by Greeks; looked down on by society as lacking civilization;	13
9559438	Mesopotamia	home of the 1st civilization; founded in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers; one of only a few cases of civilization developed absolutely from scratch;	14
9559439	Sumerians	invented cuneiform alphabet; used different pictures to represent various objects; but later shifted to the use of geometric shapes to signify sounds; as many as 2,000 symbols; later reduced to about 300; writing & reading remained complex skills; art developed steadily as statues & painted frescoes were used to adorn the temples of gods; science aided a complex agricultural society; people sought to learn more about the movement of the sun & stars; founding-astronomy; employed a system of numbers based on units of 10, 60, & 360; it is still used to calculate circles & hours; charted major constellations that have been current for 5,000 years;	15
9559440	Ziggurats	massive towers to patron gods to please and honor the deities; 1st monumental architecture of this civilization; priests operated the temples & conducted rituals; Sumerians were polytheistic; prayers & offerings prevented floods as well as bad health; ideas about the gods creation of earth through water & the punishment of humans by floods later affected the Old Testament; had gloomy ideas of the afterlife which they believed was full of punishment: original concept of hell	16
9559441	City -States	ruled by a king who claimed divine authority; Sumerians state had carefully defined boundaries; the key to the early example of how civilization and a more formal political structure came together; the government regulated religion & enforced its duties; it provided a court system in the interest of Justice; kings were originally military leaders in war; began the tradition of slavery; but many slaves could earn their freedom by paying money; added to prosperity by using wheeled carts, fertilizers & exchanging silver as money; however the region was hard to defend & proved a constant temptation to invaders; later fell to the Akkadians and then the Babylonians;	17
9565619	Babylonians	they extended their own empire and therefore helped bring civilization to the Middle East; Hammurabi introduced his code of law; it established rules of procedure for courts of law and regulated property rights and the duties of family members, setting harsh punishments for crimes	18
9565620	Pharaoh	the name of the king leadership role in Egypt; had a godlike status	19
9565621	Pyramids	tombs for pharaohs; started building them in 2700 BCE onward	20
9565622	Kush	kingdom that interacted w/ Egypt and invaded it at some point;	21
9565623	Indus River	a prosperous urban civilization and it formed around 2500 BCE; supported several large cities including Harappa and Mohenjo Daro; the houses even had running water; developed their own distinctive alphabet alphabet and artistic form;	22
9565624	Huanghe (Yellow River)	developed in isolation; although had some trading contact w/ Indian and the Middle East; part-fact, part-fiction records of their kings; an organized state existed that carefully regulated irrigation in the fertile but flood-prone river valley; c. 2000 BCE produced advanced technology & developed an elaborate intellectual life; learned to ride horses & were skilled in pottery; used bronze & 1000 BCE-iron, then coal; used ideographic symbols; lived in houses of mud; science, astronomy, arose early; art emphasized delicate designs, & interest in music; most river valley civilizations declined after 1200 BCE	23
9565625	Ideographs	pictographic characters grouped together to create new concepts; typical of Chinese writing	24
9565626	Shang	started in 1500 BCE; ruled over Huanghe valley; constructed impressive tombs & palaces;	25
9565627	Achievements of River Valley Civilizations	pyramids, wheel, taming of horse, creations of alphabets & writing implements; key math concepts (ie square roots), well organized monarchies & bureaucracies, functional calendars & other divisions of time	26
9565628	Phoenicians	devised a simple alphabet w/ only 22 letters in 1300 BCE; became the predecessor of the Greek & latin alphabets; improved Egyptian numbering system; set up colony cities in North Africa and on the coasts of Europe	27
9565629	Lydians	introduced first coined money system	28
9565630	Jews	first monotheistic religion;	29
9565631	Monotheism	worship and belief of only 1 god	30