AMSCO AP World History Chapter 2 Flashcards

8585458280	Tigris and Euphrates	Rivers that flow south from modern-day Turkey through what is now Iraq to empty into the Persian Gulf	0
8585458281	Mesopotamia	Greek word meaning "between rivers", "the cradle of civilization"	1
8585458282	Fertile Crescent	Overlaps with Mesopotamia but also includes an area to the west, along the Mediterranean coast	2
8585458283	Sumerians	A group of nomadic pastoralists	3
8585458284	Sumer	Civilization that provided the core and the foundation of several other civilizations in the Middle East	4
8585458285	Uruk	The largest city in Sumer, with a population of 50,000	5
8585458286	City-state	An independent city with its own form of government	6
8585458287	Polytheistic	Worshiping many gods	7
8585458288	Ziggurats	Large Stepped Pyramids	8
8585458289	Cuneiform	The world's first writing system	9
8585458290	Scribes	People who were skilled at cuneiform and were charged with record-keeping and later with the writing of history and myths	10
8585458291	The Epic of Gilgamesh	Possibly the oldest written story on earth	11
8585458292	Babylonians	Persian people who invaded and took control of Mesopotamia	12
8585458293	Empire	A large territory that included diverse cultural groups	13
8585458294	Hammurabi	The Babylonian's most powerful king	14
8585458295	Code of Hammurabi	282 laws carved into stone monuments, their main purpose was to protect people's rights	15
8585458296	Astronomy	The study of objects outside Earth's atmosphere	16
8585458297	Astrology	Predicting the future by studying the movements of stars and planets	17
8585458298	Phoenicians	Occupied parts of present-day Lebanon, Israel and Jordan around 3000 B.C.E.	18
8585458299	Carthage	A Phoenician colony on the coast of North Africa that became a significant outpost in the region	19
8585458300	Alphabetic script	A system of symbols (letters) that represent the sounds of speech	20
8585458301	Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews	Lived in the region of Canaan--present-day Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon	21
8585458302	Abraham	Founded Canaan; Jews, Christians, and Muslims all trace their religious heritage back to him	22
8585458303	Moses	Led the Hebrew people out of Egypt	23
8585458304	Ten Commandments	A code of conduct that became very influential in areas dominated by Christianity	24
8585458305	Jewish Diaspora	The spreading of Jews throughout the Mediterranean world and the Middle East	25
8585458307	Sahara	A desert in northern Africa	26
8585458308	Kalahari	A desert in southern Africa	27
8585458309	Nile River	A river that begins in the interior of Africa and flows north to empty into the Mediterranean Sea	28
8585458310	Desertification	The creation of desert-like conditions	29
8585458311	King Menes	United upper and lower Egypt	30
8585458312	Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom	Three longs periods of stability in Egyptian history	31
8585458313	Pharaoh	King or Queen leading Egyptian government	32
8585458314	Theocrats	Rulers holding both religious and political power	33
8585458315	Hyksos	Pastoral nomadic people from modern Syria who invaded Egypt, ending the Middle Kingdom	34
8585458316	Akhenaton	The pharaoh who tried to change Egypt's religion during the New Kingdom	35
8585458317	Aten	The sun god that Akhenaton wanted the Egyptian people to worship	36
8585458318	Ramses the Great	A powerful pharaoh who expanded the Egyptian Empire into Southwest Asia	37
8585458319	Hittites	Invaders of the Egyptian Empire during the end of the New Kingdom	38
8585458320	Mummification	Removing the body's internal organs, drying the body with salts, and packing its insides and wrapping it with chemically treated cloth	39
8585458321	Hieroglyphics	A form of picture-writing	40
8585458322	Papyrus	A type of plant that was used to create an early form of paper	41
8585458323	Book of the Dead	A paper book that Egyptians put in the coffins of dead pharaohs and some nobles; each version of the book was different since it told the story of the dead person	42
8585458324	Nubia	A kingdom in the Upper Nile Valley that was heavily influenced by Egyptian culture	43
8585458325	Kush	An important kingdom economically; After Nubia fell to decline, it reemerged as this kingdom	44
8585458326	Axum	A kingdom founded on the plateau ofpresent-day Ethiopia; had an agricultural economy, Christianity was the official religion	45
8585458327	Indus River Valley	Home to the indigenous peoples of the Indian subcontinent	46
8585458328	Dravidians	The indigenous peoples of the Indian subcontinent	47
8585458329	Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro	Two sophisticated urban centers in the Indus River Valley	48
8585458330	Environmental degradation	Damage to or destruction of the natural environment	49
8585458331	Deforestation	The removal of trees faster than forests can replace themselves	50
8585458332	Aryans	Indo-European-speaking peoples originally from Central Asia	51
8585458333	Barter	A system by which one thing is exchanged for another	52
8585458334	Sanskirt	The sacred language of the Aryans	53
8585458335	Hindi	Official language of India, Sanskirt evolved into this	54
8585458336	Indo-European	Overarching group of languages including English, French, Latin, and Greek Largest language family 48% of the world	55
8585458337	Vedas	A collection of Aryan religious hymns, poems, and songs	56
8585458338	Rig-Veda	Outlined proper priestly (brahmin) behavior	57
8585458339	Vedic Age	Age marked by the Aryans' growing awareness of Dravidian beliefs	58
8585458340	Upanishads	A foundational text for the set of religious beliefs that later became known as Hinduism	59
8585458341	Brahmin	Priests	60
8585458342	Brahma	An overarching, universal soul that connects all creatures on Earth	61
8585458343	Dharma	To escape the seemingly endless cycle of birth and rebirth, one must perform righteous duties and deeds, known as one's:	62
8585458344	Karma	One's fate	63
8585458345	Moksha	Eternal peace and unity with brahma	64
8585458346	Huang He (Yellow) and Chiang Jiang (Yangtze)	Two major rivers in China	65
8585458347	Loess	A type of fertile soil that is yellow in color	66
8585458348	Xia Dynasty	Not much is known about this dynasty It began with Yu passing power to his son Qi	67
8585458349	Dynasty	A series of rulers who all belong to the same family	68
8585458350	Shang Dynasty	The kings in this dynasty wielded tremendous economic and religious power	69
8585458351	Ancestor Veneration	The practice of praying to your ancestors. Found especially in China.	70
8585458352	Pictographs	Pictures that stand for words or ideas; picture writing	71
8585458353	Zhou dynasty	Longest dynasty in Chinese history	72
8585458354	Golden Age	The first 200 years of the Zhou rule, a period in society of relative peace, prosperity, and innovation	73
8585458355	Mandate of Heaven	In Chinese history, the divine approval thought to be the basis of royal authority	74
8585458356	Feudalism	A system of government based on landowners and tenants	75
8585458357	Maize	Corn	76
8585458358	Mesoamerica	Central America and what is now Mexico	77
8585458359	Chavin civilization	A civilization along the coast of Peru	78
8585458360	Solder	To weld, fuse or join, as with a soldering gun	79
8585458361	Olmec	The foundation of several advanced civilizations in Mesoamerica	80
8585458362	Glyphs	Pictures and symbols of real objects, used as a form of writing	81
8585458363	Oceania	The vast region in the Pacific Ocean that includes New Guinea, Australia, and more than a thousand other islands	82
8585458364	Austronesian-speaking people	Originated in southern China and later moved to Taiwan and the Philippines, Introduced agriculture to the people of New Guinea	83
8585458365	Aboriginals	Australian natives who remained hunter-foragers	84
8585458366	Polynesia	A chain of South Pacific islands that includes Samoa, Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand	85
8585458367	Easter Island	An example of how humans can degrade ecosystems to a point that civilization collapses	86
8585458368	Nihilism	The rejection of moral or ethical principles	87