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World History Volume 1, to 1500

Section Summary

World History Volume 1, to 1500Section Summary
Table of contents
  1. Preface
  2. Early Human Societies
    1. 1 Understanding the Past
      1. Introduction
      2. 1.1 Developing a Global Perspective
      3. 1.2 Primary Sources
      4. 1.3 Causation and Interpretation in History
      5. Key Terms
      6. Section Summary
      7. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
    2. 2 Early Humans
      1. Introduction
      2. 2.1 Early Human Evolution and Migration
      3. 2.2 People in the Paleolithic Age
      4. 2.3 The Neolithic Revolution
      5. Key Terms
      6. Section Summary
      7. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
    3. 3 Early Civilizations and Urban Societies
      1. Introduction
      2. 3.1 Early Civilizations
      3. 3.2 Ancient Mesopotamia
      4. 3.3 Ancient Egypt
      5. 3.4 The Indus Valley Civilization
      6. Key Terms
      7. Section Summary
      8. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
    4. 4 The Near East
      1. Introduction
      2. 4.1 From Old Babylon to the Medes
      3. 4.2 Egypt’s New Kingdom
      4. 4.3 The Persian Empire
      5. 4.4 The Hebrews
      6. Key Terms
      7. Section Summary
      8. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
    5. 5 Asia in Ancient Times
      1. Introduction
      2. 5.1 Ancient China
      3. 5.2 The Steppes
      4. 5.3 Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia
      5. 5.4 Vedic India to the Fall of the Maurya Empire
      6. Key Terms
      7. Section Summary
      8. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
  3. States and Empires, 1000 BCE–500 CE
    1. 6 Mediterranean Peoples
      1. Introduction
      2. 6.1 Early Mediterranean Peoples
      3. 6.2 Ancient Greece
      4. 6.3 The Hellenistic Era
      5. 6.4 The Roman Republic
      6. 6.5 The Age of Augustus
      7. Key Terms
      8. Section Summary
      9. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
    2. 7 Experiencing the Roman Empire
      1. Introduction
      2. 7.1 The Daily Life of a Roman Family
      3. 7.2 Slavery in the Roman Empire
      4. 7.3 The Roman Economy: Trade, Taxes, and Conquest
      5. 7.4 Religion in the Roman Empire
      6. 7.5 The Regions of Rome
      7. Key Terms
      8. Section Summary
      9. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
    3. 8 The Americas in Ancient Times
      1. Introduction
      2. 8.1 Populating and Settling the Americas
      3. 8.2 Early Cultures and Civilizations in the Americas
      4. 8.3 The Age of Empires in the Americas
      5. Key Terms
      6. Section Summary
      7. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
    4. 9 Africa in Ancient Times
      1. Introduction
      2. 9.1 Africa’s Geography and Climate
      3. 9.2 The Emergence of Farming and the Bantu Migrations
      4. 9.3 The Kingdom of Kush
      5. 9.4 North Africa’s Mediterranean and Trans-Saharan Connections
      6. Key Terms
      7. Section Summary
      8. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
  4. An Age of Religion, 500–1200 CE
    1. 10 Empires of Faith
      1. Introduction
      2. 10.1 The Eastward Shift
      3. 10.2 The Byzantine Empire and Persia
      4. 10.3 The Kingdoms of Aksum and Himyar
      5. 10.4 The Margins of Empire
      6. Key Terms
      7. Section Summary
      8. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
    2. 11 The Rise of Islam and the Caliphates
      1. Introduction
      2. 11.1 The Rise and Message of Islam
      3. 11.2 The Arab-Islamic Conquests and the First Islamic States
      4. 11.3 Islamization and Religious Rule under Islam
      5. Key Terms
      6. Section Summary
      7. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
    3. 12 India, the Indian Ocean Basin, and East Asia
      1. Introduction
      2. 12.1 The Indian Ocean World in the Early Middle Ages
      3. 12.2 East-West Interactions in the Early Middle Ages
      4. 12.3 Border States: Sogdiana, Korea, and Japan
      5. Key Terms
      6. Section Summary
      7. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
    4. 13 The Post-Roman West and the Crusading Movement
      1. Introduction
      2. 13.1 The Post-Roman West in the Early Middle Ages
      3. 13.2 The Seljuk Migration and the Call from the East
      4. 13.3 Patriarch and Papacy: The Church and the Call to Crusade
      5. 13.4 The Crusading Movement
      6. Key Terms
      7. Section Summary
      8. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
  5. A Global Middle Ages, 1200–1500 CE
    1. 14 Pax Mongolica: The Steppe Empire of the Mongols
      1. Introduction
      2. 14.1 Song China and the Steppe Peoples
      3. 14.2 Chinggis Khan and the Early Mongol Empire
      4. 14.3 The Mongol Empire Fragments
      5. 14.4 Christianity and Islam outside Central Asia
      6. Key Terms
      7. Section Summary
      8. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
    2. 15 States and Societies in Sub-Saharan Africa
      1. Introduction
      2. 15.1 Culture and Society in Medieval Africa
      3. 15.2 Medieval Sub-Saharan Africa
      4. 15.3 The People of the Sahel
      5. Key Terms
      6. Section Summary
      7. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
    3. 16 Climate Change and Plague in the Fourteenth Century
      1. Introduction
      2. 16.1 Asia, North Africa, and Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century
      3. 16.2 Famine, Climate Change, and Migration
      4. 16.3 The Black Death from East to West
      5. 16.4 The Long-Term Effects of Global Transformation
      6. Key Terms
      7. Section Summary
      8. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
    4. 17 The Ottomans, the Mamluks, and the Ming
      1. Introduction
      2. 17.1 The Ottomans and the Mongols
      3. 17.2 From the Mamluks to Ming China
      4. 17.3 Gunpowder and Nomads in a Transitional Age
      5. Key Terms
      6. Section Summary
      7. Assessments
        1. Review Questions
        2. Check Your Understanding Questions
        3. Application and Reflection Questions
  6. A | Glossary
  7. B | World History, Volume 1, to 1500: Maps and Timelines
  8. C | World Maps
  9. D | Recommended Resources for the Study of World History
  10. Index

4.1 From Old Babylon to the Medes

After the challenges to Mesopotamian civilization created by the invasions of the Amorites and Elamites, a succession of new empires emerged. In the 1700s BCE, King Hammurabi transformed Babylon from a minor city-state to the center of a vast empire. At the start of the 1500s BCE, the Hittites exploded out of Anatolia, sacking Babylon and later competing with Egypt for supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean. During the Iron Age that followed, the Near East underwent an even deeper transformation as the Neo-Assyrians created the first empire to control both Mesopotamia and Egypt. Then, at the end of the seventh century BCE, a resurgent Babylonia allied with the Median Empire to destroy the Neo-Assyrian Empire and carve up the spoils.

Each empire controlled large territories that were home to diverse peoples, religions, and daily practices, often adopted from older civilizations and shaped to suit their own needs and interests.

4.2 Egypt’s New Kingdom

During the Second Intermediate Period, Egyptian influence dwindled to only the region around Thebes. Semitic-speaking immigrants from Canaan called the Hyksos flowed into the Nile delta and eventually established control there, bringing improved bronze-making technology, the composite bow, and the horse-drawn, lighter-weight chariot.

The first kings of the Egyptian New Kingdom drove out the Hyksos and extended their own influence into Nubia. Pharaohs like Thutmose III led their armies into Canaan and Syria to halt rivals like the Hittite kingdom and Mitanni. The New Kingdom also saw the rise of the cult of Amun-Re in Thebes and Akhenaten’s revolutionary transformations. Akhenaten and Ramesses II built new cities as testaments to their greatness, and many others like Hatshepsut commissioned elaborate tombs, temples, and monuments. These powerful pharaohs extended their influence into Nubia, Canaan, and Syria through a number of military campaigns that also allowed Egypt to control vital trade routes to Mesopotamia. After centuries of greatness, however, the New Kingdom’s power declined, hastened by invasions, the loss of territory, and deteriorating foreign influence, until finally the kingdom fell.

4.3 The Persian Empire

According to Herodotus, Cyrus the Great led the Persians to overthrow the Median dynasty and then by 539 BCE to defeat the Neo-Babylonians. Cyrus’s successor Cambyses II extended Persia’s control over Egypt and assembled a vast empire that stretched from the edges of India to the Nile River. When Darius I rose to power, he reorganized the empire into twenty districts called satrapies, each with its own governor or satrap, and oversaw a number of public works projects such as elaborate palaces and qanats for carrying fresh water over many kilometers.

The kings of Persia were honored as the earthly representatives of the Persian god Ahura Mazda and commanded a large army of subject peoples from around the empire. The religion of the Persians was Zoroastrianism, which saw the world as the field of competition between the forces of good and evil and predicted a final judgment after evil had been conquered. But the empire included numerous ethnicities and followers of many religions, including the Judeans with their own unique monotheistic religious tradition.

4.4 The Hebrews

The history of the Hebrew people as recorded in the Hebrew Bible tracks their emergence in Canaan, their oppression in and exodus from Egypt, their construction of a united monarchy, and their many conflicts among themselves and with empires like Neo-Assyria and Neo-Babylonia. But the archaeological record and various portions of the Bible cast some doubt on a number of aspects of this general story. For example, archaeology does not support the occurrence of Joshua’s conquest of Canaan after the Exodus, though at least some of King Solomon’s building projects have been discovered in sites like Gezer, Hazor, and Megiddo. And the stories of Hebrews migrating to Egypt may preserve much older traditions related to the arrival of the Hyksos there.

The Bible also describes the monotheistic worship of Yahweh, the definitive characteristic of the Hebrews. But contrary to what the Bible suggests, this religious practice did not arise fully formed. Rather, it developed over centuries and under unique circumstances and geopolitical pressures. By the time the Persian Empire extended its domination across the Near East, the religion of Judaism as we know it today was starting to take shape. It demanded absolute obedience to Yahweh and his many laws, including specific dietary restrictions. And the worship of Yahweh was centralized in the temple at Jerusalem.

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