world history midterm essay questions – Flashcards

Two of the earliest civilizations were the Paleolithic and Neolithic Eras, as one era ended society began to evolve in the other. The Paleolithic Era, which means old stone, was known for their hunter gatherers. This civilization's population gradually began to expand as they migrated to new regions. Fire mastery was learned which caused them to have more food and increase tool making. The diet of the hunter gatherers became better from the protein they received from meat and eggs. When the hunters killed an animal, they would use its skin for warmth which helped fight infections caused by the cold weather. These civilians grew sophistication of working stone into tools. Not many artifacts have been left from this time period, however, cave art has been found which tells stories from pictures. The Human Migration occurred which caused a transition to agriculture, this next civilization was known as the Neolithic Era, or new stone. The climate changes that occurred and discoveries made by people let to the domestication of plants and animals. The population continued to rise which created a surplus amount of people, this led to more jobs for people. Agricultural and hunter gathering cultures coexisted.

During the Neolithic Era, river valley civilizations were formed. Three of these civilizations are the Indus River Valley, Nile River Valley, and the Mesopotamia River Valley. The Nile River Valley is located in Egypt and is the main source of food, commerce, transportation, and desert isolation. The floods from this river are predictable. The Nile has man-made canals and basins to catch water for water crops and also attracts fish, water fowl, and cattle. Because of this river agriculture is possible and barley, wheat, beans, and chickpeas can be grown. The Mesopotamia River Valley is known as the land between two rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris River, who unlike the Nile, have unpredictable flooding. This area had little rainfall but a lot of silt had been deposited. The Nile and Mesopotamia were both the source for agriculture and food. However, flood control and irrigation was necessary. Sumerian civilization declined due to too much salt in their fields because of irrigation and the Nile River is still the main source for Egyptian survival

Early writings that were established in the Mesopotamia are significant because they have evolved into the writing we use today. Pictographs were simplified drawings, or symbols that represented an idea or word. This then resulted into cuneiform that also indicated words and ideas. They were wedge shaped characters, used to keep hand writing uniform. The "Epic of Gilgamesh" was written in Mesopotamia as well as the Code of Hammurabi. Business, Accounting, Botany, Mathematics. Trigonometry and Geometry, and building trades were the reasons for the establishment of writing by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia Civilizations. The "Epic of Gilgamesh" examined life and death, immortality, and the nature of deities.

. What are the key features of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism that we examined in class, or read in the book? Hinduism -Has largest pantheon of gods and goddesses who are worshiped by their devotees. -Oldest living religion -Spread throughout nation in a peaceful mean -Does not have a single founder, theological system, system of morality, or central organization. -It consists of thousands of different religious groups that have evolved in India since 1500 BCE. -Hiduism supports reincarnation -belives in triad- one god with three persons (Krishna the preserver, Shiva the destroyer, and Brahma the creator of new realities) -Most forms of Hinduism are henotheistic; the recognize a single deity, and recognizes other gods and goddesses as forms of that supreme God. Judaism -The Israelite religion and traditions were compiled by scribes into larger collection of writings. They became the founders of "Judaism" and one of them, Deutro-Isaiah, was the first to declare Yahweh. Yahweh means God, and the only god of the Jews. -There are no gods but Yahweh, "I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no other god" (Is. 44:6-8). God in Deutero-Isaiah is the single, invisible creator and the sustainer of the world. He is transcendent- a conceptual reality beyond the empirical reality of this wolrd -Jewish traditional or oral law, the interpretation of the laws of the Torah -Spiritual leaders are called Rabbis. -Jews worship in Synagogues -believes the Messiah has not come yet. Buddhism -Through Buddhism, followers believe that happiness is having what you want, not wanting what you have. A few qualities to master Buddhism are: -The greatest acheivemnet is selflessness -The greatest patience is humility -The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go -The 4 Noble truths: 1) Life means suffering 2) The origin of suffering is attachment 3) The cessation of suffering is attainable 4) The path to the cessation is suffering Siddhartha Gautama's quest for Enlightenment around the 6th century BC -Buddhist can worship at home or in a temple -The path to Enlightenment is through practice and development of morality, meditation, and wisdom.

India has made many contributions to the world, not only from the religions that have originated from this country, but discoveries that have helped this world evolve. Albert Einstein said without the India's, we would not know how to count or have important scientific discoveries we have today. The Indians have contributed the digit zero, the value of "pi," numbering system, as well as the decimal system. Algebra, trigonometry, and calculus was also originated from their culture. The game still played by children today, snakes and ladders was contributed by the Indians. India was also the primary source for diamonds until the late 1800's. India has won Nobel prizes in Literature, Physics, Economics, Peace, and in Medicine. There is a story told by the Indians about woman named Mirabi, this story is still a symbol of liberation and freedom for woman. Mirabi was born into a noble family and married a prince. Her husband died shortly after. She then refused the caste system and lived a devotional life. Indians may be known today as an overcrowded and corrupt country but they helped the scientific discoveries we have found that help our world be progressive.

A philosopher from Classical Greece, Socrates, is famous for his beliefs. Socrates taught that thinking logically can help a person become independent and not conform to other's beliefs. He also stated that an unexamined life is not worth living. By human nature we tend to be sheep and assume that people in authority make the right decisions for a good, however Socrates wanted us to challenge this and be careful who you believe in. this comes into play when our president, Barrack Obama, passed the bill for Obamacare, some believe that because he is the president he made the right decision. On the other hand, others read into this bill and have the opinion that this was not the best decision financially for our country. The video, "Philosophy of Socrates," told us one day Socrates went to a market and asked people in authority why they live the lives the way they do, surprisingly many could not answer. He would ask people why they believed in what they believed in, his urge to question was to find the truth not to cause trouble. He wanted us to scrutinize what we believe and we are capable to reflect our lives. He believed that non conformity is intelligent and we would develop our own beliefs on our own and all can live a capable life. Another teaching of his was anyone can think and have an opinion, not just people with an education. In today's society, a person with credibility is supported, this teaching of his could be a true statement but only those with credibility from education and experiences will be heard. Socrates refused to believe in democracy, his reasoning was: just because a group makes a decision does not make it right. Socrates went to trial and was condemned to death for corrupting the Athenian youth not respecting the gods. He was killed by poison he was forced to drink. When he was imprisoned, the jailor said he was the nobles, generalist, and wisest. Before his death he said, "I'm not from Athens, I'm from the world." Socrates ideas still exist today and he is still known as the global philosopher.

Seneca is known as the most famous Stoic philosopher. Seneca's belief that one should always have inner peace no matter the situation did not come easy. During Seneca's youth he had tuberculosis as well as depression so serious that suicide was often a thought of his. In addition, he lived in a dangerous time of Rome. Later he was forced to be a tutor of a twelve year old boy who later became the emperor Nero. Nero was considered angry and psychotic by many. Nero was the opposite of everything Seneca believed in. His beliefs were no never be angry and that we should be ready for the world, for he believed anger was dangerous. In order to be more ready for the world, we need to be more pessimistic. We should prepare for the worst in case something we expect does not happen, we imagine the world to conform to our ideas even though it cannot. Although Seneca was very wealthy, he stated that prosperity can foster bad tempers and their expectations of the world are too high. This idea is still relevant today by the saying, "Money is the root of all evil." Nero the emperor forced Seneca to commit suicide because he believed he was implicated in a conspiracy to kill Nero. What made Seneca's beliefs still important today is that when he died, he died the way he encouraged us to live. Philosophers are not just famous by their teachings and their books, but by the way they lived theirs lives.