Unit I: Foundations, 8000 B.C.E. to 600 C.E.

PERIODIZATION

The Foundations time period (8000 BCE to 600 CE) is so vast that there are many ways to divide it into periods or eras. However, some major breaks within the time period are these:

1) Early agricultural and technological development (about 8000 BCE to 3500 BCE) - Small groups of settlers grew into kinship-based villages that practiced both crop cultivation and domestication of animals. Tools and inventions helped villages to stabilize and eventually grow.

2) Development of the earliest civilizations (about 3500 to 1500 BCE) - Villages grew into cities that came to dominate the land around them. Collectively known as the "river valley" civilizations, they include:

• Mesopotamia (developed by 3500 BCE or so) - between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the Middle East
• Egypt (developed by 3000 BCE or so) - along the Nile River in northeastern Africa
• Indus Valley people (developed by 2500 BCE or so) - along the Indus River in south central Asia
• Shang China (developed by 1700 BCE or so) - along several rivers in the north China plains

3) Classical civilizations (approximately 1000 BCE to 600 CE) - These civilizations were generally much larger than the earlier ones, and their political economic, cultural, and military organizations usually were more complex. All traded extensively with others, and conquered many new territories. Classical civilizations include Zhou and Han China, the Roman Empire, and the Gupta Empire in India.

OUTLINE OF CONTENT

1. Locating world history in the environment and time

A. Environment

1) Geography and climate: Interaction of geography and climate with the development of human society

2) Demography: Major population changes resulting from human and environmental factors

B. Time

1) Periodization in early human history.

2) Nature and causes of changes associated with the time span

3) Continuities and break within the time span

C. Diverse Interpretations

1) What are the issues involved in using “civilization” as an organizing principle in world history?

2) What is the most common source of change: connection or diffusion versus independent invention?

2. Developing agriculture and technology

A. Agricultural, pastoral, and foraging societies, and their demographic characteristics (Including Africa, the Americas,
and Southeast Asia.)

B. Emergence of agricultural and technological change

C. Nature of village settlements

D. Impact of agriculture on the environment

E. Introduction of key stages of metal use

3. Basic features of early civilizations in different environments: culture, state, and social
structure

A. Mesopotamia

B. Egypt

C. Indus

D. Shang

E. Mesoamerica and Andean South America

(Be able to compare two of the above.)

4. Classical civilization

A. Major political developments in China, India, and the Mediterranean

B. Social and gender structures

C. Major trading patterns within and among Classical civilization; contacts with adjacent regions

D. Arts, sciences, and technology

5. Major belief systems

A. Basic features of major world belief systems prior to 600 C.E. and where each belief system applied by 600 C.E.

B. Polytheism

C. Hinduism

D. Judaism

E. Confucianism

F. Daoism

G. Buddhism

H. Christianity

6. Late Classical Period (200 C.E. to 600 C.E.)

A. Collapse of empires (Han China, western portion of the Roman Empire, Gupta)

B. Movements of peoples (Huns, Germans)

C. Interregional networks by 600 C.E.: Trade and religious diffusion

Major Comparisons and Snapshots

1. Comparison of the major religious and philosophical systems including some underlying similarities in cementing a
social hierarchy, e.g., Hinduism contrasted with Confucianism.

2. Role of women in different belief systems—Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, and Hinduism

3. Understanding of how and why the collapse of empire was more severe in western Europe than it was in the
eastern Mediterranean or in China

4. Compare the caste system to other systems of social inequality devised by early and classical civilization, including
slavery

5. Compare societies and cultures that include cities with pastoral and nomadic societies

Examples of the types of information students are expected to know contrasted with example of those things student are not expected to know for the multiple choice section:

1. Nature of the Neolithic revolution, but not characteristics of previous stone ages, e.g., Paleolithic and Mesolithic

2. Economic and social results of the agricultural revolution, but no specific date of the introduction of agriculture to
specific societies

3. Nature of patriarchal systems, but not changes in family structure within a single region

4. Nature of early civilization, but not necessarily specific knowledge of more than two

5. Importance of the introduction of bronze and iron, but not specific inventions or implements

6. Political heritage of classical China (emperor, bureaucracy), but not specific knowledge of dynastic transitions,
e.g., from Qin to Han

7. Greek approaches to science and philosophy, including Aristotle, but not details about other specific philosophers

8. Diffusion of major religious systems, but not the specific regional forms of Buddhism or Aryan or Nestorian
Christianity