Essential Questions
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PrehistoryClick to listen to McDougal Littell's "Voices from the Past" MP3 about Otzi the Iceman, a prehistoric man from about 3300 BC discovered in the European Alps in AD 1991.
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Neolithic Revolution
The Neolithic Revolution changed the way humans lived. The use of agriculture allowed humans to develop permanent settlements, social classes, and new technologies. Some of these early groups settled in the fertile valleys of the Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, Yellow, and Indus Rivers. This resulted in the rise of the great civilizations in China, India, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.
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Characteristics of a Civilization
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Mesopotamia The Tigris and Euphrates River create an arc of rich land in Southwest Asia--called the Fertile Crescent--when they flood each year. This is where the people of Ancient Mesopotamia established the first civilization.
The people dug irrigation ditches from the rivers to their fields so they could water their crops, and they built walls of baked mud around their villages for defense. They engaged in trade, increased in population, spread ideas, and established polytheistic religion (belief in many gods). The famous ruler Hammurabi made his Code system the law of the land. Hammurabi's Code was harsh and punished people for wrongdoings, but it made clear that the government was responsible for the people. For more on Mesopotamia, hit play on the video below. |
Indus River Valley The subcontinent of India is separated from the rest of Asia by tall mountains. Just below the mountains are two large plains that hold the Ganges and Indus rivers. The high mountains protected the people from invaders, and the nearness of the sea enabled them to travel over the water for trade.
Though the Indus River flooded yearly and left good soil for farming, the floods did not occur at the same time each year. Also, the river sometimes changed course, and weather was a problem. Monsoon winds blew strong, dry winds in the winter and heavy rains in the spring. Historians cannot understand the writings of the people who settled in the Indus Valley, so much is unknown about these people. We do know, however, that the first cities were built about 2500BC and were carefully planned with a grid of streets, a citadel, and a system for carrying water and sewage. Evidence of trade with Mesopotamia has been found, but around 1750BC, the cities began to show signs of decline. By 1500BC, the Indus Valley civilization collapsed, and no one knows the exact reason. |
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Ancient Egypt In east Africa, the Nile River flows to the north, toward the Mediterranean Sea, and floods every year, leaving rich soil on the river banks. This is where the people of ancient Egypt grew food and began to build their own culture.
Ruling over the land was the pharaoh. He was not only a king but also considered a god. This type of government is called a theocracy. Pharaohs built magnificent pyramids and believed they would rule the land after their death. The Egyptians developed a system of writing called hieroglyphics in which pictures could be combined to form words and sentences. They invented papyrus on which to write, and invented a system of written numbers and a calendar. |
Ancient China Deserts in the north, oceans in the east, and high mountains and plateaus to the south and west isolated China from other cultures. Inside China, there are 2 rich rivers-- the Huang He and the Yangtze. Flooding waters made farming between the two rivers possible and led to the rise of the early Chinese dynasties.
The people built their buildings of wood, not mud-dried brick as the other early cultures did. Huge walls made of earth surrounded these buildings to protect them from frequent attacks and invasions from the north and west. In about 1027 BC, a new dynasty of rulers, the Zhou, took control of China. Good rulers, they believed, got their authority to rule from heaven. This was known as the Mandate of Heaven. When disasters such as floods or war happened, this indicated that the ruler had lost the support of the gods and needed to be replaced. Until the early 1900s, the Chinese had one dynasty after another. This pattern of rise, fall, and replacement of dynasties is known as the dynastic cycle. |
Click on Each Visual Summary to Expand
Extra Video Lectures
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TEKS for Unit 1
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