World History Review Book

By Jose Rosario

1) 2000 million years ago life began on earth.

a) Life began only in the water; there was no life on the dry land.
b) Tiny single celled organisms’ seaweeds and soft-bodied creatures
without backbones.
2) 1200 million years ago the first multi cells organism appeared on earth.
a) Example: Jelly fish & worms.
b) Then, 900 million years ago the first shelled creatures appeared,
i) Ex. Mollusks.
3) Around 500 million years ago Oxygen reaches the present days level in
the atmosphere, trilobite’s crustaceans appeared in the oceans.
4) Around 400 million years ago the first plants & animals emerged for the
sea.
5) Creatures with backbone like scorpions & insects.
a) Primitive are the fish first creature with backbone.
6) The Age of the fishes began 300 to 200 million years ago.
7) Amphibians are the first creatures with backbone to crawl out of the
water.
8) Reptiles are the first backbone creatures to breed on land.
9) The Dinosaurs Era began at the end of this period between 150 & 65
million years ago.

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10) Foot Print of Human History:

a) Scientists in Africa found a footprint which they believed were
more than 3 million years’ old.
b) We learn about prehistory by studying artifacts & fossils.
c) Scientist use carbon-14 as a method to date the artifacts & fossils
found.
d) They estimate that some fossils are 40,000 or 50,000 years’ old.
11) Between 2,000,000 B.C. and about 35,000 B.C. is what we called the
Stone Age.
a) We divide this age in two,
i) the Old Stone Age &

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ii) The New Stone Age (Neolithic).

b) It is called the Stone Age because all the artifacts consisted of stone.
c) The early humans attached a stone to a stick to make weapons and
tools.
12) Between the 2,000,000 B.C. and 8,000 B.C. people were hunters and
food gatherers.
a) These people were nomads. They moved from place to place
gathering, berries, roots and nuts for food.
b) They also followed herds of animals. When the food was gone, they
moved to another area.
c) These early humans walked in groups of 12 or 20, usually families
or clans.
d) They lived, worked and hunted together. This was the best way to
survive.
13) Early Civilizations of Mesopotamia
a) The City of Samaria
14) Sumerians built the Mesopotamia’s cities in the southern part of the
valley. We called the people who moved in the valley Sumerians.
15) The cities of Akkad & Babylon were founded later by people who
moved to the valley they later were known by the Akkadians & the
Babylonians.
16) On the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea Jericho & Ebla were
founded by the same time.
a) Technology
i) Their houses consisted of mud & clay, while the buildings
consisted of bricks of dry mud.
ii) They irrigate their land so farming was easy.
iii) The temples were boxlike houses made of mud bricks and it
was the center of the city life.
b) Their religion ruled the life of the citizen of Samaria.
c) They believed that if the gods were pleased, the people & the city
will enjoy good times.
d) The temple was also a work place for craft’s persons, storehouses
for grain, & a place for where the written records were kept.
e) The Sumerians had schools, but very few children go to them. They
were mostly for children of priest & government officials.
f) The students spent their time in learning how to write, read,
mathematics, astronomy, agriculture & religion.

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g) They allowed the teachers to use corporal punishment.

17) A king ruled the Sumerians City & in times by priests, and later by the
military rule.
18) Akkad & Babylon
a) As the Samaria Cities began to decline, Akkad, a city to the north
rose to power.
b) These people came to the valley from the surrounding deserts.
c) They copied the writing system from the Sumerians, and their
religion and law.
d) A king named Sargon the Great (2334 BC - 2279 BC) ruled this
city.
e) He was a war leader and was not content to rule only his city.
i) Sargon made war against other cities and brought all the cities
of the valley under his rule.
ii) Sargon developed the world’s first empire and it lasted for
about two hundred years.
f) An Empire is many different lands brought together under one
government.
g) The Amorites invaded Mesopotamia around 2,000 BC and built the
city of Babylon on the Euphrates River.
h) Their greatest leader was Hammurabi (1792 BC - 1750 BC).
i) He was a warrior that supported the arts in his kingdom.
ii) Hammurabi is remembered for his code of law, which
Sargon wrote in 3,500 lines of cuneiform on a black stone.
iii) We know this law as the Eye for an Eye Law.
iv) The code divided the people in three classes: The nobles, the
free commoners, and the slaves. People under this law were not
equal.
v) The nobles had more rights and privileges.
vi) The punishments were cruel. They cut off people’s body parts
or killed the wrongdoers according to the crime.
vii) This law was based on the principle that people should be
responsible their actions

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World History Review

Ancient Egypt
19) Two large physical features have dominated Egypt — the Nile River &
the Sahara Desert.
a) The Nile is the world’s longest river & the Sahara Desert is the
largest desert on Earth.
b) The Sahara is hot & dry, rainfall is less than 4 inches of rain a year,
& during day light temperatures can reach 129º F.
c) One fifth of the Sahara consists of sand dunes.
d) The Nile is the most important physical feature of this country. It
flows north for 4,187 miles into the Mediterranean Sea.
20) Most Egyptians live along the river & its delta (land that is form by the
mud & sand as they are deposit by a large river at its end or mouth).
21) Ancient Egyptians divided their land into the Lower Egypt (the delta) &
the Upper Egypt (higher lands).
22) The river helps the Egyptians provide water (irrigation) to their farmers.
23) Mixture of water & soil called silt help the farmer to keep the land
fertile.
24) They dug irrigation ditches & built dams to control the flow of the
water.
25) Along the Nile a large reed that grows wild, called papyrus was very
important to them. They made boats, ropes & paper of this material.
26) The Nile River served as a highway to the ancient Egyptians.

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27) Ancient Egyptians Society

a) The word Pharaoh meant originally Great House, or the King place.
b) It later stood for the pharaohs themselves.
c) They have absolute power & they were considered gods.
d) The Egyptians looked upon him as the living god-king.
e) They obeyed the pharaohs because the thought that their well being
depended on their wisdom.
28) The Nile was for the Egyptians a highway; it connected them with cities
& villages.
29) They had a single ruler for all parts of the Nile (Lower or Upper Nile).
30) Pharaoh Narmer (3,000 BC) united & established his capital at
Memphis.
a) He established the first dynasty (ruling family) he passed down the
right to rule to his children.
31) Every society has unique, or special, characteristics in its culture.
32) Culture is the language, religion, customs & ways of life of a specific
group.
33) The Egyptians believed everybody had a spirit, which they called Ka (a
small copy of a person).
a) They thought that the Ka goes to live in the afterlife.
b) That the longer the body was preserved from decay, the greater the
chance that the ka achieves the afterlife.
c) A mummy is the process of preserving the body after death.
34) Egyptian Society:
a) We divide the history of the Egyptians into three periods: the Old,
the Middle & the New Kingdoms.
b) They divided the people into different classes:
i) the pharaoh, the ruling class (priests & nobles),
ii) the middle class (craftsperson & solider)
iii) the peasants & slaves (farmers & prisoner of wars)
35) Women in ancient Egypt could own properties, work in a business &
mixed freely with men in public.
36) Hatshepsut was a woman pharaoh; she built the temples & monuments.
37) Pyramids are tombs built by the pharaoh, where his body was put to rest,
with the most value possessions.
38) It took 30 years to Cheops to build the Pyramid at Giza, which is as big
as ten football fields.

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39) They were supposed to protect the Pharaoh’s body. King

Tutankhamen’s tomb is the most famous of all tombs. King Tut ruled
Egypt in the 12th century BC.
40) The Rosetta stone is a black slab of stone about 4 feet high. On it were
carved three messages, two in ancient Egyptian & one in Greek. An
Alphabet was found on it.
41) Privileged Egyptian children were allowed in school, they studied math,
geometry, astronomy, language arts & others.
42) The Egyptian calendar had 365 1/4 days, where the months have 31
days.
43) Their medicine was advance: performing surgeries, recognized diseases,
& invented medicine for them.
44) The sphinxes are statues of creatures with a body of lions & head of
human.
45) They produced sculptures & painting that show us how this people
looked like.

Planned Cities on the Indus

46) The first Indian civilization builds well-planned cities on the banks of
the Indus River.
47) The Geography of the Indian Subcontinent
48) Indian Subcontinent
a) Subcontinent—landmass that includes India, Pakistan, and
Bangladesh.
b) World’s tallest mountain ranges separate it from rest of Asia.
c) Rivers, Mountains, and Plains
i) Mountains to north, desert to east, protect Indus Valley from
invasion.
ii) Indus and Ganges rivers from flat, fertile plain—the Indo-
Genetic
iii) Southern India, a dry plateau flanked by mountains
iv) Narrow strip of tropical land along coast
49) Environmental Challenges
a) Monsoons Seasonal winds—monsoons—dominate India’s climate
b) Winter winds are dry; summer winds bring rain can cause flooding.
c) Floods along the Indus unpredictable; river can change course.
d) Rainfall unpredictable; could have droughts or floods
50) Harappan Planning

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a) City built on mud-brick platform to protect against flood waters.

b) Brick walls protect city and citadel—central buildings of the city.
c) Streets in grid system are 30 feet wide.
d) Lanes separate rows of house (which featured bathrooms)
51) Harappan Culture
a) Language had writing systems of 400 symbols; but scientists can’t
decipher it.
b) Culture:
i) Harappan cities appear uniform in culture; no great social
divisions.
ii) Animals important to the culture; toys suggest prosperity.
iii) Harappan Culture:
(1) Role of Religion
(2) Priests closely linked to rulers.
(3) Some religious artifacts reveal links to modern Hindu
culture.
c) Trade had thriving trade with other peoples, including Mesopotamia
52) Indus Valley Culture Ends
a) Harappan Decline
b) Signs of decline begin around 1750 B.C.
c) Earthquakes, floods, soil depletion may have caused decline
d) Around 1500 B.C., Aryans enter area and become dominant

River Dynasties in China

53) Geography of China
a) Natural barriers isolate China
b) Yellow Sea, South China Sea & the Pacific Ocean to the East.
c) To the west Mountain ranges & deserts dominate about 2/3 of
China’s landmass
d) The Yellow River is a major landmark in this region; it deposits
every year large amount of sediment that made the land fertile.
54) Civilization Emerges in Shang Times
a) The First Dynasties - around 2000 B.C. cities arise; Yu, first ruler of
Xia Dynasty.
b) Yu’s flood control systems tames Huang He (―Yellow River‖)
c) Shang Dynasty, 1700 to 1027 B.C., first to leave written records.
55) Early Cities
a) Built cities of wood, such as Anyang—one of its capital cities.

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b) Upper class lives inside city; poorer people live outside

c) Shang cities have massive walls for military defense
56) Chinese Civilization:
a) They saw China as center of world & view others as uncivilized (or
barbarians).
b) For them the group is more important than the individual.
57) The Family:
a) Family is central social institution; they ask respect for parents a
virtue,
b) Elder males control family property, & Women expected to obey all
men, even sons
58) Social Classes
a) King & warrior-nobles lead society & own the land.
59) Religious Beliefs
a) Spirits of dead ancestors can affect family fortunes
b) Priests scratch questions on animal bones and tortoise shells
c) Oracle bones used to consult gods; supreme god, Shang Di
60) Development of Writing
a) Writing system uses symbols to represent syllables; not ideas
b) People of different languages can use same system.
c) Huge number of characters make system difficult to learn
d) Improvements in Technology and Trade
61) Zhou Dynasty builds roads, canals to improve transportation
a) Uses coins to make trade easier
b) Produces cast iron tools and weapons; food production increases
62) A Period of Warring States
a) Peaceful, stable Zhou empire rules from around 1027- 256 B.C.
b) In 771 B.C., nomads sack the Zhou capital, murder monarch
c) Luoyang becomes new capital; but internal wars destroy traditions
63) The Persian Empire
a) The early Persians were nomads who traveled south from central
Asia & settled in the area of Iran.
b) The founder of the Persian Empire was a Persian chieftain called
Cyrus.
c) His greatness came from his ability to conquer other kingdoms and
to rule without making enemies of his followers.
d) Cyrus's first major conquest was over the Lydians, located in
modern-day Turkey.

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e) The Lydians were the first to mint coins for trade.

64) Cyrus set out against the once mighty Chaldean Empire in 539 B.C.
a) That empire was in such a sad state that the Persian army was
welcomed, especially by the Judeans & Phoenicians.
b) He ended the Judeans captivity by Babylonian.
c) Cyrus was killed in battle in 529 B.C. by a fierce nomadic tribe in
the east that was ruled by a queen.
d) The Greatest Persian Ruler
i) Darius I, the king of Persia between 522 B.C. and 486 B.C.,
was Persia's greatest leader
ii) Darius was convinced that only by using strict control could he
keep his empire together.
iii) His government was divided into twenty provinces, called
satrapies or province, is a division of a country.
iv) Each province was headed by nobles to whom Darius gave
much power.
v) Darius sent special agents to check on his government.
(1) These agents were called the eyes & ears of King Darius.
(2) Darius enforced a system of laws that included harsh
punishments for crimes.
vi) When Darius died in 486 B.C., his son Xerxes became king.
vii) Who was far less capable than his father, & the empire began to
decline.
e) The last native ruler of ancient Persia, Darius III.
f) Darius III was defeated by one of the most brilliant leaders of all
time, Alexander the Great.
g) As province after province surrendered to Alexander, Darius III
could only keep moving eastward.
h) Finally, Darius was brutally murdered by one of his own governors.
i) This ended one of the mightiest empires in the Near East.

The Indo-Europeans
1) The Indo-Europeans were a group of nomadic people came
from the steppes dry grassland that stretched north of the
Caucasus Mountains.
2) The languages of these groups are the roots of today language.
a. Spanish,
b. English,

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c. German,
d. Hindi & Persian
3) No one knows why these people left their homeland.
4) Some scientists believe that the human population became too
large to sustain.
5) Two groups developed empires: the Hittites & the Aryans.
6) The Hittites established in Asia Minor or today’s modern
Turkey.
a. They dominated Southwest Asia for 450 years and
occupied Babylonia, and fought Egypt for control of North
Syria.
b. They borrowed ideas, laws, arts and literature from
Mesopotamia.
c. The Hittites used iron & chariots to make war against their
enemies.
d. Their Empire ended around 1190 B.C.

The Ancient Empire

7) The Aryans crossed the Caspian Sea into Indus River Valley
near 1500 B.C.
8) The Aryans were taller, had light skin color and spoke a
different language.
9) They created a society of classes (caste); people were divided
into three castes.
a. Castes determined how people will work; get marrying and
what they could eat.
b. As they moved into India struggles arrived between them
and the Krishna described as dark face people.

Ancient Israel
1) The Story of the Israelites
a. Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and back to Canaan,
after hundreds of year of slavery in Egypt.
b. We know about these people through a collection of books
known as the Jewish Bible.
c. In the second book of the Bible, the exodus (it means road-
out) when Moses led his people to the promise land.
2) Moses

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a. In the first book (Genesis) it tells the story of Abraham who

lived 3,500 years ago.
b. His descendants were nomads, until they settled in Canaan.
c. They were forced to move to Egypt by a famine.
d. They worshiped one supreme God, who they called
Yahweh (Jehovah in English).
3) The Israelites believed that God made a covenant with
Abraham.
a. They were to be God chosen people so the Israelites would
be faithful to God and not other gods.
b. The Kingdom of Israel
i. Jacob had 12 children with his second wife that
later became the twelve tribes of Israel.
ii. Joseph was one of Jacob’s youngest son &
perhaps his favor.
iii. The other brothers were jealous of him, so one day
they sold him to a group of men that were going to
Egypt.
c. In Egypt he became the Pharaoh right-hand man.
d. A famine happened where his brother’s land was. They
were forced to come to Egypt for food. In Egypt Joseph
helped them to settle.
4) The Egyptians enslaved the Israelites, and then Moses freed
them from the Egyptians, & settled them in the land of Canaan.
a. For a hundred of years they lived in this land making war to
the neighbors.
b. King Saul reigned in Israel 3,000 years ago.
c. The Israelites were at war with the Philistines in this time.
d. This is when the incident between David and Goliath
happened.
5) David was a boy when he killed Goliath, who was 9 feet tall.
a. David became a hero for the Israelites, he was so popular
that when King Saul died David became King of Israel; he
united the twelve tribes of Israel.
b. He made the city of Jerusalem his Capital. His kingdom
was not large (about the size of the State of Vermont).

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Ancient Jerusalem
1) King David’s son, Solomon, became King after the death of his
father.
a. He made Israel rich & strong by trading with tribes &
kingdoms in Africa.
b. He built the Jehovah’s Temple.
c. After the death of Solomon they divided the kingdom into
i. Judah to the South &
ii. Israel to the North.
d. The tribes began to fight each other’s and they were
conquered by the Assyrians & the New Babylonian (The
Chaldeans) which moved thousands to Babylon.
2) Religious Beliefs of the Israelites
a. The Israelites came to believe that Jehovah was the only
God.
b. Monotheism is the belief in one God.
c. They thought because they believe in one God only this
would set them apart from other ancient people.
d. According to their Bible Jehovah gave them a set of laws to
live by.
e. The Ten Commandments:
i. I am the Lord your God . . . You shall have no
other gods before me.
ii. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form
of anything.
iii. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your
God.
iv. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
v. Honor your father and mother . . .
vi. You shall not murder.
vii. You shall not commit adultery.
viii. You shall not steal.
ix. You shall not give false testimony against your
neighbor
x. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house . . . , or
anything that belongs to your neighbor.

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3) A prophet is a religious leader who speaks out against

wrongdoing & warns that punishment will come to those who
break the God’s law.

Seafaring Traders: The Minoans & the Phoenicians

1) The Minoans dominated the Eastern Mediterranean between 2000
to 1400 BC.
a. Established in Crete & other islands of the Aegean Sea.
b. Archeologists name the civilization after King Minus
c. Their main city is Knossos was excavated in the late 19
century.
d. They found a rich civilization: The Minoans were graceful,
athletic people that loved nature & beautiful objects
2) About 1100 B.C. after Crete decline, the most powerful traders in
the Mediterranean were the Phoenicians.
a. They established in the Middle East, Lebanon today.
b. Phoenicians did not have a unified country, but a number of
cities-states, which where trade center.
c. They were excellent ship builders, they were the first
Mediterranean group the venture out through the Strait of
Gibraltar.

3) Ancient Phoenicians
a. The Phoenicians most important cities were Sidon & Tyre.
b. They were known for the production of the red-purple dye.
c. Byblos was known for the trading of papyrus.
d. Phoenicians traded goods from other land:
i. Wine, weapons, precious metals, ivory & slaves.
e. But their greatest legacy was their alphabet, which use
symbols that represent sounds.
f. They introduced their alphabet to the Greeks.

The Greeks
1) The Ancient Greeks believed in many gods.
a. Greek mythology had many gods.
b. There were 12 chief gods, including Zeus, who was the
ruler of all the gods and of the world.

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c.
The earthly home of the Greek gods was thought to be
Mount Olympus.
d. The gods mingled with humans, helping or punishing them
as they saw fit.
e. The gods were worshiped at home & in public places, as
well as in temples.
2) Greek Philosophers
a. Perhaps their greatest contribution to learning was in
philosophy, a Greek word that means "love of wisdom."
b. Their philosophy was based on the idea that the universe is
an orderly system & that there is a reasonable explanation
for everything.
c. All of modern science is based on this Greek attitude.
d. The greatest philosophers were:
i. Socrates: urged that nothing be accepted without
questioning. Knowledge for Socrates was the way
to the truth & the good life.
ii. Plato taught that the goal of human beings was to
strive for perfection & the highest good.
iii. Aristotle wrote about many subjects, including
philosophy, politics, mathematics, & biology.
3) A strong & healthy body was important to the Greeks.
a. Participation in athletics became a civic duty of Greek
citizens.
b. Athletic contests were part of many religious festivals.
c. The most famous were the Olympian Games which were
held every four years at Olympia, a town in western
Greece.
d. These games were held in honor of the god Zeus.
4) Olympic Games
a. By 800 B.C. they organized into "city-state" or "city."
b. These Greek city-states grew surrounded by fortresses
c. The ancient Greek word for "a high point" each fortress on
a hill was an acropolis.
d. An acropolis was also the center of government and
religion.
e. The city-state served as a trading center for the countryside.

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f. At first, Greek city states were ruled by kings and

privileged upper-class.
5) Greece City States
6) The Acropolis
a. Greeks developed a form of government called democracy.
b. The word democracy comes from the Greek words demos
meaning "people" and kratos meaning "rule."
c. It is a government in which the people rule through free
elections & a system of representation.
d. Every city-state had an assembly of all its citizens.
e. The assembly met only on occasions when there was
something especially important to decide.
7) Homer was a trovador - poet/singer.
a. Historians believe that Homer was blind & that maybe he
didn’t know how to read or write.
b. He supposedly wrote two epic poems
i. The Iliad - Story of the Trojan Wars - Helen of
Troy, Achilles, Hector, Paris etc . . . The Movie
Troy with Brad Pitt
ii. The Odyssey - the Long journey home Odysseus
after the Trojan War.
Athens vs. Sparta

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8) Democracy in Athens
a. In the fifth century B.C., Pericles came to power.
b. Under him, the Athenian democracy & power was at its
height.
c. Pericles described Athenian democracy as a government
that "favors the many instead of the few."
d. For him democracy had 4 principles:
i. rule by the majority,
ii. equality before the law,
iii. personal freedom, &
iv. The right to get ahead through one's ability instead
of one's social class.
e. Citizens were chosen to serve on a jury, or a group of
people called into court to give a verdict, or decision, in a
dispute.
9) Militarism of Sparta
a. Sparta was ruled more like a military camp.
b. Spartan boys were at the age of seven & trained by the state
in military schools & learned to be soldiers.
c. All men were expected to serve as soldiers & lived in
barracks until age 30.
d. When their service was over, they were allowed to marry &
begin their families.
e. It was a crime not to marry & have children for the state.
f. All men were expected to marry strong & healthy women
who were able to have healthy children.
g. To insure strong & healthy citizens, all newborn babies
were examined for defects.
h. Weak or deformed babies were either left to die or thrown
from cliffs.
10) The Greek-Persian Wars
a. As the Greek city-states greatest enemies were the Persians.
b. The first man who led the Persians against the Greeks was
named Darius I.
c. Though greatly outnumbered, the Greeks won a famous
victory at Marathon.

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d. Ten years later, Darius's son invaded Greece with a great

army of 200,000 soldiers. But the Greeks were prepared.
The movie 300 shows this event from the Spartan point of
view
e. They built their own fleet & won a great victory in the
battle of Salamis.
f. Never again did the Persians try to invade Greece.
g. The Greeks had preserved their independence and their
civilization.
11) Peloponnesian Wars
a. Rivalry between Sparta & Athens led to the Peloponnesian
War.
b. The war began in 431 B.C., & it lasted for 27 years.
c. The Spartans won, & for a short time, Sparta replaced
Athens as the leading Greek city-state.
d. However, many Greek city-states did not like Spartan
leadership any more than they liked Athenian leadership.
e. For 60 years, Greeks fought Greeks.
12) Alexander the Great
a. In northern Greece a strong Greek state had formed in
Macedonia.
b. Between 359 B.C. and 336 B.C., Macedonia had a strong
king named Philip II.
c. Philip became ruler of all Greece by 338 B.C. uniting the
Greeks city-states under his leadership.
d. Philip planned to lead a campaign against the Persians, but
he was murdered at his own daughter’s wedding by one of
his officers.
e. It was left to his son, Alexander, to carry out the plan.
f. Alexander was only 20 years old when he became king of
Macedonia.
g. He went on to become the most famous ruler of ancient
Greece & ancient world.
h. In 334 B.C., he led an army into Asia Minor, where he won
the first of his battles against the Persians.
i. In few years, he conquered all the lands from Greece to the
Indus River, now Pakistan.

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j.Alexander also conquered Egypt & had himself declared

pharaoh.
k. He founded a new city in the delta of the Nile & named it
Alexandria, after himself.
l. His empire covered some 2 million square miles.
m. Alexander ruled this empire for only 13 years, until his
death in 329 B.C. at the age of 33.
13) What the Greeks Left Behind?
a. Because of Alexander's empire, the blending of Greek &
Middle Eastern cultures resulted in the Hellenistic
civilization.
b. Hellenistic civilization was centered in the great cities of
northern Africa & the Middle East.
c. Eastern & Greek learning was combined to advance
knowledge in mathematics, geography, astronomy, &
medicine.
d. Hellenistic literature, art, & architecture still exist.
e. Columns Greek builders made use of many stone columns.
f. They designed the three styles shown in the drawing.
g. It is easy to identify each column by its top part, called the
capital.
i. The Doric
ii. The Ionic
iii. The Corinthian
h. Many public buildings in Washington, D.C., and in the
state capitals are copied from ancient Greek architecture.
i. The Greek way of life is part of our heritage -- ideas and
things handed down to us from the past.

Rome
1) The Roman Republic
2) About 2000 B.C., large groups of Latin-speaking people from
central Europe moved into the Italian peninsula.
a. They lived as farmers & shepherds in villages in the fertile
plain around the Tiber River.
b. By 1500 B.C. Rome would be able to control the best trade
routes between northern & southern Italy.
c. Romulus was the first of seven Latin kings to rule Rome.

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J. Rosario

Roman Empire
1) The Italian Peninsula
a. The Etruscans were warriors who lived city-states ruled by
kings & nobles.
b. By 600 B.C. they controlled most of northern & central
Italy, including Rome.
c. In 509 B.C. the Latin rebelled, or fought, against Etruscan
rule.
d. Rome overthrew its Etruscan king & became a republic.
2) A republic is a form of government that allows the people to rule
themselves through elected representatives.
a. These representatives were responsible to those who
elected them to office.
b. The Roman government had to rule according to a specific
set of laws.
c. The Roman Republic lasted for over 450 years.
d. During that time, Rome grew from a local city state to
become the master of all of Italy.
3) Life in the Roman Republic
a. The Roman citizens were not all equal.
i. They were divided into three social classes:
1. The Patricians were the landowners, a
minority, but they had the most property,
money & power.
2. The Plebeians were merchants, artisans,
laborers, soldiers, & free farmers who
made the 90% of the population
3. Slaves were considered property by their
owners, & weren’t citizens.
b. The plebeians were free people but couldn’t be elected to
public office, & had no voice in the government.
4) The slaves had no rights.
a. They were bought & sold like any other kind of property.
b. Slaves were prisoners of war.
c. People who had fallen in debt were sold into slavery to pay
their debts.

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World History Review

d. They worked on the farms or as household servants for the

patricians.
5) The center of Roman life was the family.
a. Indeed, our own word family comes from the Latin word
―familia‖.
b. It included grandparents, relatives, married sons, their
wives & children.
c. The father was the head of family & had absolute power
over the family & its property.
d. Roman women had very few legal rights:
i. She couldn’t vote or hold public office.
ii. Women held a respected place in society.
iii. Wives had great authority over the children.

The Influences of Julius Caesar

1) Julius Caesar was a talented young general who by 45 B.C. had
become the undisputed master of the Roman world.
a. Civil War worries many Romans so they gladly accepted
Caesar's rule.

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b. They hoped that a strong leader would bring peace to

Rome.
c. They made Julius Caesar dictator for life.
d. This meant that he appointed all officials, acted as head of
the state religion, was commander in chief, & decided on
such important matters as war or peace without having to
consult the Roman Senate.
e. Julius Caesar wanted fame and glory; he also wanted peace
for Rome & its Empire.
2) He wanted a fair government for the Roman people.
a. Caesar gave Roman citizenship to all conquered peoples.
b. Caesar tried to help poor Romans by offering free land to
those who would move to unsettled parts of the empire.
c. Caesar even reformed the calendar so that year included
365 days in 12 months.
d. One of the months in our calendar is named after him.
e. Many believed that Caesar was a wise ruler.
f. But, some feared that Caesar was too powerful. A group of
patricians planned to murder Caesar by a surprise or secret
attack, called assassination.
3) The death of Julius Caesar brought more civil war to Rome.
a. Of all of the would-be successors to Caesar, the youngest
of them all emerged as the winner.
b. His name was Julius Caesar Octavianus, called Octavian in
English. Octavian was Julius Caesar's grandnephew &
adopted son.
c. One of Octavian's strongest enemies was Mark Antony,
who wished to make himself supreme ruler in the eastern
provinces of the Roman Empire.
d. But Octavian's forces beat Mark Antony's.
4) With Anthony’s defeat at the Battle of Actium, in 30 B.C., 17
years after Caesar's death Octavian became the Roman world
ruler.
a. Octavian was the 1st Emperor of Roman; he was supreme
ruler of the entire Roman Empire.
b. Octavian was also given the title Augustus, meaning
"honored."
c. He came to be known as Caesar Augustus.

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World History Review

d. With all ruling power given to him by the Roman Senate,

Augustus ruled the Roman world from 27 B.C. to A.D. 14.
5) Roman Religion
a. Rome had an official religion, which they copied their
religion from the Greeks.
b. The chief public god worshiped by all Romans was Jupiter
(or Zeus)
c. They celebrated many holidays in honor of their gods.
d. The public religion was a badge of Roman citizenship &
loyalty to the republic.
e. However the Romans were tolerant to other religions, such
as Christianity.
6) Being a Christian in the Rome was dangerous.
a. The Empire allowed its people to have as many gods as
they wished.
b. However people were to make offerings to the state
religion, people that refused were considered traitors.
c. Christians could not worship both their own God & the
Romans gods, so they appeared disloyal.
d. In the 1st three centuries they were persecuted.
7) Paul of Tarsus, a Jew that persecuted Christians through the
Empire, converted.
a. He traveled the empire spreading Christianity; his letters
are in the New Testament.
b. Roman officials stopped the persecution, & many admired
them for their suffering, charity, hard work, & good moral
living.
c. Their message was welcomed by many.
d. In 312 AD the Emperor Constantine converted to
Christianity, making it the Official religion.
8) The Fall of the Empire
a. By 192 A.D. the Empire was taken over by a number of
generals no or little education.
b. It was too weak to protect their citizens from road robbers
& sea pirates.
c. Rome was saved by two strong Emperors.
d. Diocletian - divided it in two, east & west.

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e. Constantine - converted to Christianity & moved its capital

to Greece.
f. The Eastern Empire grew stronger, while the Western
Empire struggled with outside invaders & internal
economic problems.
g. By the 4th century, Germanic tribes moved into Roman
territory, they became a threat to the empire.
h. As barbarian invaders carved kingdom after kingdom out of
a declining Western Roman Empire, Rome itself fell to
barbarians.
i. The word barbarian meant peoples that spoke other.
j. In 476 AD, the last of the weak emperors was forced to
resign.
k. With this final act the Western Roman Empire came to an
end.
l. Languages than Latin.
9) What did Rome leave us?
a. Roman civilization created a rich culture that lasted long
after the end of the Roman Empire.
b. Rome's achievements were Roman law & government.
c. Much of our vocabulary dealing with government & law
comes from the Latin language, e.g. government, law,
constitution, court, judge, senate, president, council, and
citizen.
d. We use the Roman alphabet to write & read today.
e. Latin language gave birth to Italian, French, Spanish,
Portuguese & Romanian.
f. English is not a Romance language, but it includes many
words that come from Latin.
g. Today, visitors to Rome can marvel at the remains of the
temples, baths, arenas, arches, palaces, and amphitheaters.

Medieval the Social Classes

1) The peasants were the backbone and muscle of agriculture,
which was the economic foundation of feudalism.
a. All the peasants were either freemen or serfs.
b. The serf owed his labor to the lord.

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c. He had to work in the lord's fields for about three days a

week, and longer at planting and harvesting time.
d. The other peasants were freemen who owned land or rented
it from a lord.
e. Freemen owed few, if any, obligations to a lord.
2) Feudal Society
a. The lives of the serfs were hard.
b. They lived in thatched huts with one room, or two at most,
& dirt floors.
c. Glass windows were unknown.
d. They worked from sun-up to sun- down and in most cases
slept on straw on the floor.
e. Serfs sometimes had to share space with their animals.
f. Candles were hard to get, so they went to bed when it got
dark.
3) Training for Knighthood:
a. If the serf's job in the feudal world was to work, then the
lord's job was to fight.
b. A boy of noble birth began his training to become a knight
when he was seven years old.
c. The boy did not go to school but was sent to live with
another noble family as a page.
d. A page learned how to throw a lance, shoot a bow and
arrow, and fight with a sword.
e. He also learned how to ride a horse, take care of his armor,
and behave like a knight.
i. Squires: At about age 14 a page who qualified
became a squire to a knight.
ii. A squire's job was to serve the knight.
iii. He waited upon the knight when he ate, helped the
knight on with his armor, and kept the armor in
good condition.
iv. A squire learned how to fight by watching his
master.
v. He practiced continuously with weapons &
strengthened his body through vigorous exercise.

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J. Rosario

vi. Once the squire had become a skilled fighter, he

could become a knight upon his twenty-first
birthday.
f. The new knight was supposed to continue to keep in shape
and to sharpen his fighting skills.
4) Knights Tournaments
a. These skills were tested during tournaments that could last
as long as a week.
b. Several contests called jousts took place.
c. The contest was between two knights who rode at one
another trying to unhorse one another using blunted lances.
d. The climax of the tournament was a battle between two
teams of knights, who fought with blunted weapons, e.g. In
Ivanhoe, Sir Waiter Scott describes the tournaments.
5) Knights Tournaments
a. Code of Conduct: Knights were good fighters, but they
were often crude and brutal men.
b. Over time, a code of conduct for knights, called chivalry,
was developed.
c. Chivalry grew from several origins, the most important of
which was the Church, which hoped to improve the
conduct and manners of the knights.
d. They were brave; loyal; truthful; generous; courteous;
gracious; kind to the poor, the weak, & all women; & a
protector of the Christian church.
6) Feudalism
a. After the fall of the Roman Empire (472 AD), the European
society was organized in a system based on land & war.
i. A vassal was a person that received land (a fief)
from a landlord; the vassal will work the land &
give himself for military service to the Lord.
ii. Lords (vassals) were the servants of a king or
queen.
iii. This system of duties & exchanges based on land,
war, & tradition is called feudalism
iv. At the bottom of society lived the people called
serfs that were bound by tradition to live on land
owned by a local lord.

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7) Feudal Society
a. Religion glued the feudal society together.
b. A mostly Christian people, Europeans believed that
everything was part of a hierarchy.
c. The world hierarchy stretched from God to humans, to
animals, to plants, down to stones & other lifeless matter.
d. Europeans believed that trying to change person’s place in
society meant disobeying to God's will.
8) Charlemagne
a. The most important medieval Europe king when inherited
his throne 758 AD.
b. His name was Charlemagne or ―Charles the Great‖.
c. He was 6' 9" tall man that reigned for 46-year & died at age
72, unusual for the middle Ages.
d. He spent his adult life at war, conquering territory in
Europe.
e. By the end of his life, his kingdom included all of modern
France, Belgium, the Netherlands, & Switzerland; much of
Italy, Germany & Spain.
f. Charlemagne Empire
i. Although he was extremely intelligent, he could
not read or write.
ii. Charlemagne established schools, & had rare
books copied for others to read.
iii. He helped to spread Christianity throughout his
empire.
g. On Christmas Day, 800 AD, in St. Peter's Church the Pope
placed a crown on his head, & declared him the Holy
Roman Emperor.
h. Weak rulers followed him to the throne and his empire did
not last long after his death.
i. An Epic Poem called the Song of Roland is still learned
today by every French student.
9) Charlemagne Empire
a. Christianity Becomes the Way of Life in Europe
b. The Church had a bigger an impact on the lives of
European people than any other institution.
c. Europeans referred to this time period as the Age of Faith.

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d. The Church spread a belief system that gave meaning to

people's lives.
e. It said that right will win over evil, giving people hope that
they could find a better life in heaven, after death.
f. If they did not lead a good life on earth, then they go to
hell.
10) Christianity
a. The men, called monks, lived in monasteries. The women,
called nuns, lived in convents.
b. Both devoted their lives to God and to their religion.
c. Monasteries & convents were clusters of stone buildings
linked by a defensive wall.
d. Inside were a church, a courtyard, & a bakery.
e. Other buildings included a small hospital, a stable, &
workshops.
f. There were always rooms available to house travelers.
g. Outside the walls were fields used for farming.
11) Monastery
a. Whoever joined these communities gave up all their
possessions, promised never to marry, & obey the abbot,
head monk or nun.
i. Monks :
1. devoted to prayer,
2. intellectual & physical work,
3. copied classic books,
4. had the largest libraries,
5. Improved the glass making,
metalworking, & wine making.
ii. Nuns:
1. devoted to prayer,
2. To intellectual & physical work.
3. Similar in many ways to monasteries.
4. Copied Latin & Greek books.
5. provided education for girls
6. Served as nurses.
12) The Crusades
a. Pope Urban II announced that "God Wills It!" would be the
Christian cry for taking part in a holy war.

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b. The purpose of this war was to free the Holy Land –the
land where Jesus lived-- from Muslim control.
c. The Muslims are people who follow the teachings
Muhammad, Islam’s prophet.
d. This holy war was called Crusade.
e. Knights heard Pope Urban II speech, in 1095, & ripped
their cloaks into strips to make crude crosses to wear on
their chests.
f. The Crusaders
i. The 1st Crusaders motives. Faith & getting the
Holy Land were driving forces.
ii. Others though that they might get more land &
acquire wealth. Some wanted glory & adventure.
iii. Many believed that their sins would be forgiven.
iv. Serfs saw it as an escape from the manor.
g. Merchants saw the possibilities of trade & profit.
13) The Christian forces (knights & nobles) from Western Europe
numbered in the 90,000.
a. After 3 years of war only 12,000 Christian’s fighters
survived, they siege Jerusalem & captured it; the streets ran
red with blood.
b. After 90 years of Christian occupation Jerusalem was
recaptured by the Muslims.
c. Several more Crusades were attempted, but they all failed.
d. The Holy Land remained Muslim hands & would remain so
until 1948.
e. War and Disease Kill Millions
14) The Black Death: was the most
a. Destructive force ever to invade Europe.
b. A disease, called bubonic plague.
c. It entered Europe from Asia in 1348.
d. It was carried ashore in the blood streams of fleas riding on
the backs of rats.
e. It was called the Black Death because dark blotches on the
victim's skin.
f. It could kill a person in less than a day; however it usually
lasted from three days.
15) The Black Death

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16)

a. Between more than half of Europe population died from it.

b. In Paris, 800 people died a day cutting the city population
in ½.
c. Food ran short during those years b/c few people were alive
to farm.
d. In spite of the destruction caused by the Black Death, the
Hundred Years' War continued.
17) The Hundred Years' War:
a. A series of conflicts began between England & France in
1397.
b. The English king claimed the kingdom of France after the
death of French king.
c. The Hundred Years' War, which was actually a series of
wars separated by periods of peace, was fought on French
land.
d. The war ended in 1453, the same year as the Byzantine
Empire.
e. Knights & castles were obsolete as the fifteenth century
drew to a close.
f. Saint Joan of Arc was a peasant girl born in eastern France.

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g. Joan led France army to several important victories during

the Hundred Years' War, claiming divine guidance.
h. She was indirectly responsible for the coronation of Charles
VII.
i. She was captured & sold to the English, tried by a religious
court, & burned at the stake when she was 19 years old.
j. 24 years later the Pope reviewed the court decision & found
her innocent, & declared her a martyr.
18) By the 1400s, Europeans' technology took the lead.
a. They could sail great distances & return safely with their
cargoes.
b. Gunpowder gave Europeans an advantage in warfare.
c. By about 1500s twenty million books had already been
printed.
i. The Printing Press
ii. The Caravel
iii. Gunpowder - Muskets & Cannons
19) By 1200 A.D., 700 years had passed since the fall of the
Roman Empire &/so people began to forget its greatness.
a. The feudalist society began to change by the 1300s.
b. After long periods of war & plagues, people were ready to
celebrate life.
c. Many began to question the church authority & its teaching
of “suffering while people waited for the salvation & the
havens.”
20) In1271, Marco Polo, his uncle & father left their native
Venice on a journey.
a. After traveling for 3 years, they arrived at the court of the
emperor of China.
b. The Polos remained in China for17 years.
c. After he returned to Venice, Marco Polo wrote about his
experiences.
d. This sent European merchants hurrying to set up trading
expeditions to eastern Asia.
e. After the crusades merchants began to trade with the
east, &/so fortunes were made.
21) The Medici was an Italian family that created an economic
empire through trading & banking.

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J. Rosario

a. In this period scholars wanted to return to the learning of

the Greeks & Romans.
b. Many Artists got inspire from the Roman & Greek ruins.
c. They studied manuscripts filled with classic ideas of the
ancient civilizations.
22) Lorenzo de Medici
a. "The Adoration of the Magi"
b. The study of the classic text led to Humanism, an
intellectual movement that focused on human
potential & achievements.
c. This movement influence writers & artists to look &
understand ancient Greek values.
d. The spirit of the renaissance was secular – worldly rather
than spiritual & concerned with the here & now.
e. Church leaders & rich merchants became patrons of the
arts, by financially supporting the artists, like the Medici
Family
23) The European Renaissance, which started around 1300, was
the rebirth of quest for knowledge.
a. The word "renaissance" means "rebirth."
b. European scholars began to look critically at the world
around them.
c. Many studied the sciences, especially mathematics, a
discipline in which Muslim scholars had made great
advances.
d. Music, arts, architecture, literature & others.
i. Leonardo DaVinci – The Renaissance Man
24) Michelangelo Buonarroti

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Causes of the Reformation

a. Church’s authority is challenged
b. Secularism, individualism of Renaissance challenged the
Church authority
25) European rulers challenged Church’s power
a. The printing press spread secular ideas, and
b. Northern merchants resent paying church taxes
26) Criticisms of the Catholic Church were that:
a. Corrupt leaders, extravagant popes
b. Poorly educated priests
c. Desiderius Erasmus & Thomas Moor are vocal critics of
the Church.
d. Reading religious works, Europeans form bad opinions
about Church.
27) Martin Luther’s Conversion
a. How to get to paradise?
b. Luther Nailed the 95 Thesis
28) B. Luther Challenges the Church
29) The 95 Theses
a. Martin Luther protests the selling of indulgence—a
pardon releasing a person from penalty for a sin
b. In 1517 Luther posts his 95 Theses attacking ―pardon-
merchants‖
c. His theses circulated throughout Germany
d. Luther launches the Reformation—a movement for
religious reform
e. Reformation rejects pope’s authority
30) Luther’s Teachings
a. People can win salvation by good works & faith
b. Christian teachings must be based on the Bible, not the
pope
c. All people with faith are equal, can interpret Bible without
priests
31) Counter Reformation
a. Catholics seek to reform their Church from within, ex.
Ignatius of Loyola – led reformer

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b. His Spiritual Exercises (1522) calls for meditation, prayer,

and study
c. Pope creates Society of Jesus religious order, the Jesuits -
start schools & convert non-Christians
d. Pope Paul III calls Council of Trent to lay out reforms:
e. Church’s interpretation of Bible is final
f. Christians need faith & good works for
salvation
g. Bible & Church traditions equally important
h. Indulgences are valid expressions of faith
i. Use Inquisition to seek out heresy
32) Calvin Leads the Reformation in Switzerland
a. Calvin says ideal government is theocracy—rule by
religious leaders, ex. Geneva becomes a theocracy
b. John Knox brings Calvinism to Scotland, followers are
Presbyterians - Church governed by laymen called
presbyters, or elders
c. Calvin’s followers in France called Huguenots were
massacred by Catholics in Paris (1572)
d. Anabaptists believe in separation of church and state,
oppose wars
33) Forerunners of Mennonites & Amish
34) World History
Reading Study Guide
a. You are going to read and answer the questions of pages
157, 158, 159 & 160
b. By the 1400s the feudalism gradually began to change.
c. In its place, kings organized some of the modern European
nations, ex. France, England, & Portugal.
d. In 1418, Prince Henry of Portugal, the Navigator,
established a navigation school.
e. It helped Develop the caravel ship.
f. In 1488, Bartholomew Dias rounded the southernmost
cape of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope.
g. And 9 years later Vasco De Gama sailed to India.
h. Queen Isabella married King Ferdinand of Aragon;
unifying Spain and later in 1492 they expelled the Moors
out Granada.

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i. Prince Henry of Portugal also known as the Navigator.

j. Queen Isabella of Castile & King Ferdinand of Aragon
k. Queen Isabella will help Columbus with his voyage of
discovery.
35) The Age of Discovery & Exploration
a. In the 15th century, Europeans began to explore and form
colonies around the world.
b. Europe depended on other areas of the world for spices,
cotton, various woods, & precious gems & metals.
c. Many Europeans wanted to trade directly with the places
where these goods could be had without going through
Muslim-occupied lands.
d. At the same time, many Europeans were trying to spread
Christianity throughout the world.
e. Overland travel to those places was difficult & even
dangerous. They hoped to find new ways to reach these
lands more easily by water.
36) New Technological Skills
a. Many ordinary people in the 15th century believed that the
earth was a disk from whose edge one could fall.
b. Educated Europeans knew that the earth was a sphere but
did not know just how big it was.
c. Geographical knowledge increased with advances in
navigation.
d. Magnetic compasses showed the 4 cardinal points.
e. The astrolabe made it possible to measure time & location
using the sun, the planets, and the stars.
f. Navigators could determine latitude, longitude, & the time
of day.
37) The Portuguese hoped to reach India & China by sailing around
Africa.
a. Prince Henry the Navigator started a navigation school.
b. The Search for New Routes
c. Bartholomew Dias sailed around the southernmost part of
Africa, the Cape of Good Hope.
d. Vasco Da Gama rounded Africa, sailed all the way to India,
and returned to Portugal in 1498 with a cargo of spices.

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38) Christopher Columbus, an Italian sea captain, was convinced

that he could find a route to China & India by sailing west
across the Atlantic.
a. He persuaded the rulers of Spain, Queen Isabella & King
Ferdinand, to pay for an expedition, or a journey of
exploration.
b. In August 1492, he left Spain in three small ships.
c. In October 12, 1492, he discovered the island, which he
named San Salvador - ―Holy Savior.‖ an islands in the
Bahamas.
d. Columbus was sure that he was in the East Indies that
called the natives on the island Indians.
39) Other Europeans Sail West
a. Americus Vespucci wrote letters describing the lands
Columbus had explored. One of his letters came into the
hands of a German mapmaker.
b. The map-maker named the newly discovered land America,
based on Americus, the Latin version of Vespucci's first
name.
c. Scandinavians had sailed west ware to North America
almost 500 years earlier. However, their discovery had no
effect on Europe.
d. Columbus, on the other hand, went back & forth between
Europe and the shores of America there were more times.
Other sea captains, merchants, and adventurers followed
his route.
40) Other Explores:
a. John Cabot, supported by England, sailed westward to seek
a sea route to Asia, explored northern Canada on an island
he called Newfoundland.
b. Spaniard Vasco Nunez de Balboa in 1513 he sighted what
would be called the Pacific Ocean
c. Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sailing for Spain,
crossed the Atlantic Ocean & sailed around South America.
He named the Pacific Ocean, which means ―peaceful.‖
d. Magellan was killed in the Philippines by an arrow.

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e. One of his ships continued across the Pacific & Indian

oceans back to Spain. This was the first time in history that
anyone had circumnavigated the earth.
f. Although Columbus discovered America, Magellan
discovered what Columbus was looking for--the western
sea route from Europe to Asia.
41) Explorers
a. Juan Ponce de León conquest the island of Puerto Rico and
later discovered the Florida peninsula.
b. Hernando De Soto headed an expedition to North America;
he was the first European to discover the Mississippi River.
c. Giovanni de Verrazano explored the coast of Canada and
became the first European to discover what would later be
named New York Bay.
d. Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence River in the
country of Canada all the way to what is now the city of
Montreal.
e. The Europeans thought that the entire world that had been
unknown to them was theirs for the taking. It did not occur
to them that those lands had already been discovered and
were owned by people who had lived there for centuries.
42) New World Rivalry
a. A rivalry between Spain & Portugal grew. Each country
disputed the right of the other to explore new lands.
b. To keep the peace, the pope of Rome divided the newly
discovered areas between Spain & Portugal.
c. In 1494 the two countries signed a treaty, the Treaty of
Tordesillas, which divided the New World between them.
d. A treaty is an agreement between two or more countries.
e. Needless to say, the pope did not ask the natives of those
areas whether they wished to be a part of a Portuguese or
Spanish empire.
f. Nor did he ask permission of the rulers of the other
countries of Europe.
g. Others brought knowledge, religion, and new ways of
living.

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The Mesoamerican Civilization

43) The First Americas may have arrived to the Americans as early
as 22,000 years ago.
a. Ice glaciers had frozen vast quantities of the Earth’s water,
lowering the sea levels.
b. This exposed a land bridge between Asia and Alaska.
c. Hunters and food gathers crossed this land bridge into
North America.
44) Experts believe that people came by foot evidence says that
they were big time hunters.
a. The most challenging & rewarding prey was the woolly
mammoth.
b. But as the Ice Age ended 10,000 to 12,000 years ago,
people switched to hunting smaller game, fishing, and
gathering nuts, berries and fruits alone with grain, beans
and squashes.
c. Agriculture developed between 10,000 & 5,000 years ago
around Mexico and Central America.
45) Agriculture made it possible for people to remain in one place.
a. Storing surplus of food contributed to be development into
villages and later cities.
b. People had more time to develop more complex societies,
but some remained nomadic.
c. Around 3,000 years ago, larger communities and
civilization began to develop.
d. Archeologists believe that the first empires of the
Americans developed 1200 years ago.
46) 1200 years ago the Olmec developed a civilization along the
Gulf of Mexico.
a. The Mayas appeared in the Yucatan Peninsula in 400 B.C.
b. Between 250 to 900 A.D. the Aztec established theirs in the
Valley of Mexico.
c. And in Peru, the Incas developed near 1200 A.D.

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d. In North America around 300 A.D. the Hohokam and the

Anasazi developed theirs civilization in what is today
Arizona.

Empires of the Americas

1) Archeologists suggest that separate waves of migrations
a. By the 1400s there were 700,000 to 800,000 Native
Americans living in the continental United States.
b. The Native Americans adapted to their environment, and
looked to the family to fulfill many of their social needs.
c. Their society was organized in a network of Kinship or a
clan (grandparents, parents, uncles, cousins etc. . . .)
2) The Maya Empire
a. The Maya had a fully developed written
language.
b. They also had:
i. spectacular art,
ii. monumental architecture,
iii. sophisticated mathematical &
iv. Astronomical systems.
c. They were established in Central America & the
Yucatan Peninsula between 250 to 900 AD.
d. By the Spaniards’ arrival, their civilization was not longer
there.
e. At its peak, the Maya cities were densely populated &
culturally dynamic.
3) Their 1st settlements were established near 1800 BC in the Pacific
Coast.
a. Their 1st constructions in the area were set by 1000 BC.
b. The Classic period was the peak of large-scale construction
& urbanism.
c. They developed an empire consisting of numerous
independent city-states.
d. Including the cities of Tikal, Palenque, Copán &
Calakmul.
e. They built pyramids as their religious centers & palaces of
their rulers. & carved stone slabs.

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f. The Maya Cities declined by 9th centuries & were

abandoned.
g. There is no universally accepted theory to explain this
―collapse,‖ two theories exist:
h. Non-ecological theories: foreign invasion, peasant revolt,
&/or the collapse of key trade routes.
i. Ecological hypotheses: environmental catastrophe,
epidemic disease, & climate change.
The Aztecs
4) The true origin of the Aztecs is uncertain.
a. According to their legends, the Aztec's place of origin was
Aztlán.
b. It is generally thought that Aztlán was somewhere to the
north of the Valley of Mexico; some experts have placed it
as far north as the Southwestern United States.
5) It appears that the Mexicans arrived at Chapultepec in or around the
year 1248 AD.
a. At the time of their arrival, the Valley of Mexico contained
many city-states, like Culhuacan & Azcapotzalco.
b. According to Aztec legend, the Aztecs were shown a vision
of an eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus, clutching a
snake in its talons.
c. This vision indicated that this was the location where they
were to build their home.
d. The Aztecs arrived on a small swampy island in Lake
Texcoco where they founded the town of Tenochtitlan in
1325.
e. In 1376, the Mexicas elected their first Huey Tlatoani,
Acamapichtli, who was living in Texcoco at the time.
f. The Aztecs is a collective term used for all of the Pre-
Columbian Mesoamerican peoples under the control of the
Mexica, founders of Tenochtitlan, & their two principal
allies, who built an extensive empire in the late Post-classic
period in the 14th, 15th & 16th centuries in Central Mexico.
6) The nucleus of the Aztec Empire was the Valley of Mexico, where
their capital Tenochtitlan was built upon raised islets in Lake
Texcoco.

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a.After the 1521 conquest of Tenochtitlan by Spanish forces

and their allies which brought about the effective end of
Aztec dominion,
b. The Spanish founded the new settlement of Mexico City on
the site of the now-ruined Aztec capital.
c. The capital of the modern-day nation of Mexico, the greater
metropolitan area of Mexico City now covers much of the
Valley of Mexico and the now-drained Lake of Texcoco.
7) Aztec culture had rich & complex mythological & religious
traditions.
a. For Europeans, the most striking element of the Aztec
culture was the practice of human sacrifice which was
conducted throughout Mesoamerica prior to the Spanish
conquest.
b. While human sacrifice was practiced throughout
Mesoamerica, under the Aztecs this practice to an
unprecedented level. Ex., for the reconsecration of Great
Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that
they sacrificed 84,400 prisoners in four days,
8) Human Sacrificed

The Incas
Machu Picchu
9) The Inca people began as a tribe in the Cuzco area around the 12th
century.
a. They formed the small city-state of Cuzco.
b. In 1438 they began a far-reaching expansion under the
command of Sapa Inca Pachacuti.
c. He reorganized the kingdom into an empire, a federalist
system which consisted of a central government with the
Inca at its head
d. His spies brought reports on the political organization,
military might & wealth.
10) The Inca Empire
a. The most powerful figure in the empire was the Sapa Inca
(the unique Inca).
b. Only descendants of the original Inca tribe ever ascended to
the level of Inca.

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c. Most young members of the Inca's family attended Yachay

Wasis (houses of knowledge) to obtain their education.
d. There were separate chains of command for both the
military & religious institutions, which created a system of
partial checks & balances on power.
11) Architecture was by far the most important of the Inca arts, with
pottery & textiles.
a. The breathtaking site of Machu Picchu was constructed by
Inca engineers.
b. Amaranth was one of the staple foods of the Incas, and it is
known as kiwicha in the Andes today.
c. Native Americans were responsible for some of the world’s
most prolific crops, including tomatoes, peppers, lima
beans, squash, potatoes & Maize (corn).

Spanish’s Empire in the Americas

12) European Exploration Timeline
a. 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas
b. 1497 -98 John Cabot Explored the North America
c. 1500 – 01 Pedro Cabral explored and conquered Brazil.
d. 1502 – 04 Columbus explored Central America
e. 1513 Vasco de Balboa found the Pacific Ocean
f. 1534 – 35 Cartier explored the St. Lawrence River.
g. 1577 – 80 Francis Drake sails around the world.

13) After Columbus, Spanish explorers took to the sea to claim

new lands in the Americas.
a. Know as Conquistadors (conquerors), they pushed into the
Caribbean region, Central America, Mexico & South
America.
b. Hernando Cortes conquered the Aztecs in Mexico, later
called New Spain.
c. Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas in Peru.
d. Juan Ponce de León in Puerto Rico & Florida.
e. They used same patterns of conquest they used in Spain to
expel the Moors from Granada.
f. Holland artist Theodore de Bry in his visit to Hispaniola
was a witness to horrible scene, which he drew later.

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14) Bartolome Diaz De Las Casas called the attention of the Spanish
Monarchy on the native’s bad treatment in the New World.
a. In his letter to the Spanish King, Charles V, he suggested
that the Africans were better to work in the West Indies
plantations
15) Spaniards destroyed the culture they found in the Americas.
a. They forced the Indians into Spanish culture.
b. The Spanish employed the encomiendas (or assignments)
system.
c. Native Americans were required to farm, ranch, or mine for
the profit of an individual Spaniard.
d. The wealthy controlled land worked by the poor.
16) The first Spanish settlers were mostly men.
a. These settlers will intermarry with the native women, & the
product of that union will be a large population of
Mestizos.
b. The Indian population was oppressed by the system of
encomiendas established by the Spaniards to control &
exploit them.
c. Gold the Human Obsession
17) By 1650, 450,000 Spanish immigrants moved to the Americas,
but few moved to the southwest U.S.
a. They established Presidios (Forts) in Florida & the
Caribbean.
b. They tried to extend mining Northern Mexico & California
c. Franciscan priests established missions, towns like San
Antonio, San Francisco, San Jose . . .
d. These priests forced the Indians to follow European
customs in this congregations (or congregaciones),
e. Indians farmed & worshiped like Catholic Europeans,
thousands converted.
18) Their colonies helped Spain to become the richest country in the
world in 16th century.
a. Spain built a powerful navy to protect the gold galleons that
were coming from Mexico & Peru.
b. Francisco Coronado explored the Gran Canyon, the Great
Plains & the Colorado River.

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c. He helped to the expansion of the Spanish Empire in North

America
19) The Native American groups refused to cooperate with the
Spanish.
a. Resistance broke out occasionally in the 1600s.
b. In the early 1500s, around 248,000 pure Indians lived in
New Mexico.
c. In New Mexico, Pueblo people expelled the Spanish in
what is called the Revolt of 1680.
d. By 1706, the Pueblo population had shrunk to only 9,000.
In the 1700s they accepted Spanish rule to gain protection.

Europeans in North America

1) Jamestown, Virginia
2) The English were not the only Europeans interested in
establishing settlements on the east coast of North America.
3) The French in Canada
a. In 1608, the French explorer Samuel Champlain founded
the Town of Quebec.
b. By the late 1600s, New France was a long & narrow colony
extending far into the interior of Canada, through the St.
Lawrence River & the Great Lakes.
c. They trade fur (deer & beaver skin) with the Indians,
forming ties with the hunters & trappers.
d. French were few in number & operated between the
Indians who trapped animals & European merchants who
resold the skins to be made into hats & other items
4) Samuel Champlain
5) St. Lawrence River & the Great Lakes

6) The Dutch in New York

a. In 1621, they had formed the Dutch West India Company
to develop trading opportunities in the Americas.
b. Dutch settlers established New Amsterdam (now New
York City) in 1626 to control the fur trade along the
Hudson River.
c. Later, Fort Orange (Albany), founded in 1624, became the
center of the trade with the Native Americans.

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7) Puritans in New England

a. The Pilgrims in the Mayflower numbered only 102 people
when they landed.
b. They settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.
c. These colonists left England for many reasons, but more
often feared religious persecution in England.
d. They were mainly farmers that saw themselves as better
than the Indians
e. In 1630 the Great Migration began – a wave of English
migration across the Atlantic Ocean– to reach the shores of
New England.
f. By 1643 the colony's population had increased to 16,000
people living in 20 towns, including its capital, Boston.
g. Pilgrims (Puritans)
8) Mayflower Compact
a. The original plan of the Pilgrims was to take themselves to
Virginia, but winds on the Cape Cop did not allowed them
to do so.
b. So they broke contract with the Virginia Company and
created their own compact.

Iroquois vs. Huron Indians

9) The Native Americans in the Northeast
a. Iroquois lived in what is now New York State between the
Hudson River and Lake Erie.
b. In the mid- to late 1600s, the Iroquois engaged in a series
of struggles called the Beaver Wars.
c. In the end, they pushed the Huron's and other Native
American groups out of their homelands to an area west of
the Great Lakes.
d. They produced furs for European markets and became
consumers of European goods, including guns, cloth, &
jewelry.
e. Some adopted the Catholic faith & rituals.
f. Alone with new ways Europeans also brought the disease
to the Native Americans.
g. Native American fought one another over hunting ground.

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British Monarchy
1) Events in England, 1640-1660
a. England could pay little attention to its North American
colonies.
b. In the 1640s England was involved in a full-scale civil war.
2) Two opponents faced off in the clash:
a. King Charles I - He believed that his power was coming by
the hand of God.
b. Parliament, England's governing body. They believed that
the Kings power was given by Parliament or the people.
3) Parliament believed that Charles intended to limit the power of
English property owners.
a. After defeating the king's army, Parliament ordered the
execution of Charles in 1649.
b. Oliver Cromwell governed England under the title "Lord
Protector," until he died.
c. In 1660, Parliament restored Charles II, the exiled son of
the executed king, to the throne.
d. Before 1650, the people of England were too busy pursuing
– and beheading – their king to be concerned with their
colonies on the other side of the Atlantic.
i. King Charles I Execution
ii. Oliver Cromwell the Lord Protector
4) Mercantilism
a. This economic theory was meant to increase a nation's
wealth & power.
b. This theory had several key elements.
c. A country should try to get as much bullion, or gold &
silver, as possible.
d. To boost its balance of trade with its colonies.
e. The colonies were not allowed to sell products to other
nations, or even to manufacture goods.
f. The parent country required colonies to use its ships to
transport raw materials, not their own. And to buy their
finished goods.
g. British Port of London
5) In the early 1700s the British Gov. Rarely tried to interfere
with its colonies.

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a. It allowed them to have legislative bodies with extensive

power over local affairs.
b. Colonial assemblies consisted of :
c. Upper House - colonists appointed by the king &
d. Lower House - elected by voting landowners.
e. The colonists recognized the authority of the king &
Parliament without being forced too.
f. Historians would call British colonial policy during the
early 1700s - salutary neglect.

The 13 Colonies
1) The Southern Colonies
a. Colonies in the South –
i. Virginia,
ii. Maryland,
iii. South Carolina,
iv. North Carolina, &
v. Georgia
b. Their economy was based on growing staple crops that
were in constant demand.
c. In Virginia & North Carolina was tobacco;
2) In South Carolina & Georgia, it was rice.
a. Enslaved Africans supplied the labor.
b. Virginia planters purchased a large numbers of Africans in
the mid-1600s.
c. In Virginia the number of Slaves went from
d. 500 slaves in 1650, which accounted for 3% of the colony's
population.
e. 16,000 slaves in 1700 or 28% of the colony.
f. About 1750, the figure was 40%.
3) The Middle Colonies
a. Their economy was a mixture of farming & commerce.
b. New York & Philadelphia were the largest cities in North
America by the1700s.
c. They composed of English, Dutch, French, Scots, Irish,
Germans, Swedes, Portuguese, Welsh, Africans & Native
Americans.

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d. Massachusetts residents were still of English descent, and

almost everyone in the South was either of African or of
English descent.
4) The New England Colonies:
a. Developed a business of carrying crops & goods from one
place to another – a "carrying trade.”
b. They carried china, books, & clothes from England to the
West Indies.
c. Then transport sugar back to New England, where it was
distilled into rum;
d. Then trade rum & firearms for slaves in West Africa; &
then carry slaves to the West Indies for more sugar.
e. This trade was called the triangular trade.

The American Revolution

1) The British & their colonists waged a war against French & their
Native American allies.
a. The British Population in North America grew in
population and wealth during the 1700s. Their prosperity
led to look at themselves as less British.
b. The High cost of the French & Indian War pushed
Parliament to pass taxes over the colonies.
c. Because the colonists never before paid taxes directly to the
British government, they reacted angrily.
d. The taxes violated their rights since Parliament did not
have colonial representation.
e. They boycotted & refused the buy British goods until the
taxes were repealed
f. Over the next decade the colonies grew apart from the
Mother Country, eventually the conflict led to war.
2) In July 1776, in the 2nd Continental Congress the colonies
announced that they were Independent from Great Britain.
a. Congress issued the Declaration of Independence, written
by Thomas Jefferson, who based on the ideas of Hobbes,
Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire.
b. From 1775 to 1781 the British & the US fought a war in
North America.

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c. Colonists, who were poorly equipped, face the mightiest

force on the face of the Earth.
d. However the war took a long time & the British people
grew tired of the conflict, so they pushed Parliament to end
the conflict.
e. The Peace Treaty was signed in 1783, America got their
independence.
f. The 13 States formed a new government, under the Articles
of Confederations, which were too weak too keeping the
nation together.
g. In July 1787 the 13 States met in Philadelphia to write a
new constitution, which was written by James Madison
adding many Enlightenment Ideas.

The French Revolution

1) Three factors led to the revolution.
a. Enlightenment spreads the Idea that everyone should be
equal.
b. The French economy was failing & high taxes kept
profit low & food supplies were short.
c. Louis XVI was a weak leader & his wife was unpopular,
France was in debt, tried to tax the nobles, but the king
was forced to Estates-General (an assembly of
delegates).
2) The General Estate began in May 1789
a. At the assembly, 3rd estate wanted to count all delegates,
but the King people disagreed.
b. In June 1789, the 3rd estate had their own & called it the
National Assembly.
c. Tennis Court Oath was to make a new constitution.
d. In July 14, 1789, a rumor that soldiers were attacking
(not true), an angry crowd stormed the Bastille (a Paris
prison).
e. Peasants revolted & burned noble’s homes, & in late
1789 an angry mob marched on Versailles, they forced
the King & Queen to move to Paris.
f. Taking of the Bastille
3) The Revolution Brings Reform & Terror

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a. Meanwhile, the people of France

i. In August 1789 the National Assembly wrote the
Declaration of the Rights of Man.
b. It ended special rights of the 1st & 2nd estates.
c. It gave men equal rights but not women.
d. Put the church under the government, it made peasants to
choose the church over government.
e. The king tried, unsuccessfully, to escape with his family,
the royal family was unpopular.
f. The Taking of the Bastille
4) In the fall of 1791 the Assembly wrote a new Constitution
a. A new Legislative Assembly was formed, however
divided in three factions:
i. The Radical – wanted sweeping changes in the
government.
ii. Moderates – wanted some changes.
iii. Conservatives – wanted a limited monarchy.
b. Other countries felt threaten by the revolution &
wanted to restore the King Louis in the throne.
c. People believed the King had a part with the other
countries, imprisoned & trialed him for treason.
d. The King was then executed in the guillotine.
5) Maximiliem Robespierre became the leader of France.
a. He led the Committee of Public Safety that trailed & put to
death the enemies of the Revolution.
b. Thousand were killed (estimated to 30,000).
c. This period was called the Reign of Terror. (July 1793 –
July 1794). Robespierre was executed too
d. French people got tired of the killing.
6) Napoleon Bonaparte takes over . . .
a. Napoleon was born in 1769 in the Island of Corsica.
b. At age 9 he was end to military school & became an
artillery officer.
c. He joined the army of the new government.
d. In 1795, he becomes a hero after defeating French royalist
army.

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e.
By 1799 people lost confidence in the new government in
bold move Napoleon & his troops seize control staging a
coup-d'état.
7) Napoleon Bonaparte takes over . . .
a. Napoleon pretended to be the rightfully elected leader
of France
b. In 1800 French people voted overwhelmingly for the new
constitution.
c. He made changes to the revolution:
i. Fair tax collection.
ii. Removed dishonesty from government
iii. Started public school - lycees
iv. Gave the church some powers back
v. The Napoleonic Code – gave citizen the same
right, but took some rights from the people, ex.
freedom of speech & restored slavery in the
colonies.
8) Napoleon Creates an Empire
a. In 1801 Napoleon sent his soldiers to retake the island of
Haiti, after the slave revolution 1798, however they failed.
b. He later sold the Louisiana to the U.S.
c. In 1804 he made himself Emperor of France, & then took
control of Austrian Netherlands, part of Italy &
Switzerland.
d. He was only defeated by the British Admiral Lord Nelson
in the Battle of Trafalgar.
9) Napoleon’s Empire Collapses
a. Napoleon’s personality threat his empire, his love of
power push his expansion.
b. He made three costly mistakes:
c. In 1806 he ordered a blockade to the British Islands, trying
to destroy their economy. The British broke the blockade.
d. In 1808 he made his own brother King of Spain, the
Spanish people revolted.
e. In 1812, Napoleon tried to conquer Russia with 400,000
soldiers. The Russian used the scorched-earth policy not
allowing the French troop to eat.

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f. The French troops got as close as Moscow but the winter

destroyed them, only 10,000 survived.
10) Napoleon’s Retreat from Russia
a. Britain, Russia, Prussia Sweden & Austria joined
forces to attack France
b. In 1813, Napoleon was defeated at Leipzig, Germany.
c. The next year he gave up his throne & was exiled in the
island of Elba, Italy. Louis XVIII took the French’s throne.
d. But Louis unpopularity helped Napoleon’s comeback. He
took power & raised an army.
e. Duke of Wellington, a British admiral defeated Napoleon at
Waterloo, ending the 100 days.
f. He then was exiled again at the Island of St. Helen, in the
South Atlantic Ocean, where he died in 1821.
11) The Congress of Vienna
a. In 1814, European leaders met to draw a peace plan,
meets were know as the Congress of Vienna
b. Austria foreign Minister, Clemens von Metternich shaped
the peace treaty.
c. The treaty had three goals:
i. That France will never attack anyone.
ii. Create a balance of power between the Nations of
Europe
iii. Legitimacy for the monarchies Napoleon
conquered, to restore them.
d. France was not punished for the war, so the treaty was
implemented, for 40 years the peace stand.
12) European Monarchs were nervous about the effect of the French
Revolution.
a. Alliance were formed after the signing of the treaty:
b. Russia, Austria & Prussia create the Holly Alliance.
c. The Concert of Europe was created so nation could each
other in case if revolution happened in their territories.
d. Conservatives were people that opposed the French
Revolution & its ideas of individual freedoms, & wanted to
restore values of the monarchy.

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e. The final effect of the French Revolution was that inspire

other revolution in Spain, Germany, Greece, Italy, and
Latin America.

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