AP World History Chapter 7 – Flashcards

• Both Meroë and Axum traded extensively with neighboring civilizations. Meroë's wealth and military power were in part derived from this trade. The formation of a substantial state in Axum was at least in part stimulated by Axum's participation in Red Sea and Indian Ocean commerce and the taxes that flowed from this commerce. • Both Meroë and Axum developed their own distinct writing scripts. A Meroitic script eventually took the place of Egyptian-style writing, while Axum's script, Geez, was derived from South Arabian models. • Axum adopted Christianity from the Roman world in the fourth century C.E., primarily through Egyptian influence, and the region once controlled by Meroë also adopted Christianity in the 340s C.E. following Meroë's decline.

• The Niger River region witnessed the creation of large cities with the apparent absence of a corresponding state structure. These cities were not like the city-states of ancient Mesopotamia, nor were they encompassed within some larger imperial system. • Instead, they resemble most closely the early cities of the Indus Valley civilization, where complex urban centers also apparently operated without the coercive authority of a centralized state.

• The Bantu-speaking peoples brought agriculture to regions of Africa south of the equator, enabling larger numbers of people to live in a smaller area than was possible before their arrival. • They brought parasitic and infectious diseases, to which the gathering and hunting peoples had little immunity. • They also brought iron. • Many Bantu languages of southern Africa retain to this day distinctive "clicks" in their local dialects that they adopted from the now vanished gathering and hunting peoples that preceded them in the region. • Bantu-speaking peoples participated in networks of exchange with forest-dwelling Batwa (Pygmy) peoples. The Batwa adopted Bantu languages, while maintaining a nonagricultural lifestyle and a separate identity. The Bantu farmers regarded their Batwa neighbors as first-comers to the region and therefore closest to the ancestral and territorial spirits that determined the fertility of the land and the people. As forest-dwelling Bantu peoples grew in numbers and created chiefdoms, those chiefs appropriated the Batwa title of "owners of the land" for themselves, claimed Batwa ancestry, and portrayed the Batwa as the original "civilizers" of the earth. • Bantu farmers in East Africa increasingly adopted grains as well as domesticated sheep and cattle from the already-established people of the region. • They also acquired a variety of food crops from Southeast Asia, including coconuts, sugarcane, and especially bananas, which were brought to East Africa by Indonesian sailors and immigrants early in the first millennium C.E.

• Because of its fragmented political structure, classical Maya civilization more closely resembled the competing city-states of Mesopotamia or classical Greece than the imperial structures of Rome, Persia, or China.

• Its military conquests brought many regions into its political orbit and made Teotihuacán a presence in the Maya civilization. • Teotihuacán was at the center of a large trade network. • The architectural and artistic styles of the city were imitated across Mesoamerica.

• Chavín-style architecture, sculpture, pottery, religious images, and painted textiles were widely imitated in the region. • Chavín became a pilgrimage site and perhaps a training center for initiates from distant corners of the region. • At locations three weeks or more away by llama caravan, temples were remodeled to resemble that of Chavín, although in many cases with locally inspired variations. • The Chavín religious cult provided for the first time and for several centuries a measure of economic and cultural integration to much of the Peruvian Andes.

• The Moche civilization dominated a 250-mile stretch of Peru's northern coast, incorporated thirteen river valleys, and flourished for seven hundred years beginning in 100 C.E. • The Moche economy was rooted in a complex irrigation system that required constant maintenance. • Politically, the civilization was governed by warrior-priests, who sometimes lived atop huge pyramids, the largest of which was constructed out of 143 million sun-dried bricks. • The wealth of the warrior-priest elite and the remarkable artistic skills of Moche craftspeople are reflected in the elaborate burials accorded the rulers. The Moche craftspeople are renowned for their metalworking, pottery, weaving, and painting.

• The Ancestral Pueblo and Mound Builders were similar in a number of ways. • Their settlements were linked into trading networks, and they also participated in long-distance exchange. • Both groups created structures to track the heavens. • Both ultimately adopted maize from Mesoamerica. • They also differed in a number of ways. • The Mound Builders participated in an independent Agricultural Revolution and continued to supplement their diets by gathering and hunting until maize arrived from Mesoamerica after 800 C.E. The Ancestral Pueblo peoples acquired maize from Mesoamerica much earlier and settled into a more fulltime agricultural culture earlier in their development. • The Mound Builders created larger monumental architecture both in their burial mounds and in their geometrical earthworks than did Ancestral Pueblo peoples, although the Ancestral Pueblo people did create kivas as ceremonial centers and networks of roads that may have had religious significance. • The largest mound-building settlements, like Cahokia, were far larger urban centers than those of the Ancestral Pueblo. • In comparison to the mound-building cultures, the Ancestral Pueblo society started later and did not last as long.

formerly known as the Anasazi, this people established a mixed agricultural and gathering/hunting society in the southwestern part of North America

African state that developed along the upper reaches of the Nile ca. 1000 B.C.E.; conquered Egypt and ruled it for several centuries.

lion headed warrior that was worshiped by the Nubians

forest-dwelling people of central Africa who adopted some of the ways of their Bantu neighbors while retaining distinctive features of their own culture; also known as "Pygmies"

an ancient settlement of southern Indians, located near present day St. Louis, it served as a trading center for 40,000 at its peak in A.D. 1200.

Name given to a main process of settlement and societal organization that occurred in the period 860-1130 C.E. among the peoples of Chaco canyon, in what is now Northwestern New Mexico; the society formed there is notable for its settlements in large pueblos and for the building of hundreds of miles of roads.

The Egyptian variety of Christianity, distinctive in its belief that Christ has only a single, divine nature.

325-360, axum reached its golden age under his rule, coverts to christianity, conquers yemen, wrote conquests down, made building with stones w/out grout, made new coins, had terrace farming, damns, water tanks.

named from its most important site (in present-day Ohio), this is the most elaborate and widespread of the North American mound-building cultures; flourished from 200 BCE to 400 CE

One of the first urbanized centers in western Africa. A walled community home to approximately 50,000 people at its height. Evidence suggests domestication of agriculture and trade with nearby regions.

Andean civilization that arose when the Chavin culture declined. This culture flourished along the southern coast of Peru from around 200 BC to AD 600. They developed extensive irrigation systems, including underground canals. Known fro their beautiful textiles and pottery.

a civilization that developed on the western interior of Africa, south of the Saharan desert. Key feature is that during the Classical period its political organization was almost totally devoid of central authority.

term frequently used to describe the peoples of the eastern woodlands of the United States, Central America, the Amazon basin, and the Caribbean islands who combined partial reliance on agriculture with gathering and hunting

the most important Maya political center between the 4th-9th centuries. It was a city that had temples, pyramids, palaces, and public buildings.