Question 1

Women and men have entered the historical process under different
conditions and have passed through it at different rates of speed. If
recording, defining, and interpreting the past marks mans entry into history,
this occurred for males in the third millennium B.C. It occurred for women
(and only some of them) with a few notable exceptions in the nineteenth
century. Until then, all History was for women pre-History.
Gerda Lerner, The Creation of
Patriarchy, 1986
A) Identify and explain the authors core argument.
B) Identify and explain one piece of evidence from ancient civilizations
that supports this argument.
C) Identify and explain ONE piece of evidence from ancient civilizations
that undermines this argument.

Question 2

A) Identify and explain ONE similarity and ONE difference between the
writing systems of the Sumerians and Egyptians
B) Identify and explain ONE piece of Literature from EACH civilization
whose writing systems are pictured above.
C) Identify and explain ONE way that writing could have been used to
unify each of these civilizations.

Question 3
Use the image below and your knowledge of history to answer all parts of the
questions that follow:

A) Identify and explain TWO geographic factors which account for the
development of Greek culture prior to 1100BCE.
B) Identify and explain ONE economic pattern which developed as a result of the
geography of Greece.
C) Identify and explain ONE similarity and one difference between Minoan and
Mycenaean civilizations prior to 1100BCE.

Question 4
Use the quote below about Confucius to answer all parts of the following
question.
Chi Kang Tzu asked Confucius about government, saying, What do you think of
killing the wicked and associating with the good? Confucius replied, In your
government what is the need of killing? If you desire what is good, the people will
be good. The character of a ruler is like the wind and that of the people is like the
grass. In whatever direction the wind blows, the grass always bends.
A) Identify and explain how this quote reflects Confucius ideas on government.
B) Identify and explain how Han Feizi would dispute this quote.
C) Identify and explain one specific example from either the Qin OR Han dynasty
that explains how the ideas of Confucius OR Han Feizi were applied to Chinese
government.

Question 5
Most Westerners accept the stereotype of the 13 th-century Mongols as barbaric
plunderers intent merely to maim, slaughter, and destroy. This perception, based on
Persian, Chinese, Russian, and other accounts of the speed and ruthlessness with
which the Mongols carved out the largest contiguous land empire in world history,
has shaped both Asian and Western images of the MongolsSuch a view has
diverted attention from the considerable contributions the Mongols made to 13 thand 14th century civilization. Though the brutality of the Mongols military
campaigns ought not to be downplayed or ignored, neither should their influence on
Eurasian culture be overlookedPerhaps most importantly, the Mongol empire
inextricably linked Europe and Asia and ushered in an era of frequent and extended
contacts between East and West.
-Morris Rosabi, The Mongols Mark On Global History, Asian Topics in World
History, 2004
A) Identify and explain ONE factor not identified in the passage which enabled
the Mongols to create their empire.
B) B. Identify and explain ONE economic consequence of the Mongol empire
which would support the authors argument.
C) Identify and explain ONE cultural or technological transfer between Europe
and Asia which occurred as a result of the Mongols empire.

Question 6
[The typical story of the Crusades] is that the Catholic Church attacked the Holy
Land in 1095 and that relations between Christians and Muslims have been
poisoned ever since. However, this misses the real significance of the Crusades.
The Crusades reacquainted Europe with her past, helped bring her out of the socalled Dark Ages, and mark the beginning of a new era in Western historythat
made Europe poised to become the worlds dominant civilization.
-David Bryne, Marymount University, The Real Significance of the Crusades,
Crisis Magazine (2013)
A) Identify and explain the main point of the author of the passage.
B) Identify and explain ONE specific piece of evidence that supports the authors
interpretation of the Crusades.
C) Identify and explain a SECOND piece of evidence that supports the authors
interpretation of the Crusades.
Question 7
In 1491, the world was in many of its aspects and characteristics a minimum of two
worldsthe New World, of the Americas, and the Old World, consisting of Eurasia
and Africa. Columbus brought them together, and almost immediately and
continually ever since, we have had an exchange of native plants, animals and
diseases moving back and forth across the oceans between the two worlds. A great
deal of the economic, social, political history of the world is involved in the
exchange of living organisms between the two worlds.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/alfred-w-crosby-on-the-columbianexchange-98116477/#jWUAoEM4y8Rv3r0i.99

A) Explain ONE specific cause of the formation of the Columbian Exchange

between 1450-1750.
B) Explain ONE specific environmental effect of the Columbian Exchange,
specifying the region of the world that was most affected by this effect.
C) Explain a SECOND specific demographic effect of the Columbian Exchange,
specifying the region of the world that was most affected by this effect.

Question 8
Source 1
Had it not been for the Spartans remarkably successful organization of their society
into a well-oiled military machine, and their diplomatic development of a
rudimentary multi-state Greek alliance well before the Persians came to Greece,
there would have been no core leadership around which the Greek resistance could
coalesce. Had it not been for the Spartans suicidal but heroic stand at
Thermopylae, which showed that the Persians could be resisted, it is unlikely that
the small, wavering, and uncohesive force of loyalist Greeks would have had the
nerve to imagine that they one day might win. -Paul Cartledge, To Die For, 2002
Source 2
All were willed. No Spartan survived the final day of the Battle of Thermopylae.
Deserted by their allies, even the Thespaseans, who had stood by the longest, the
survivors of the three-hundred-man contingent sent by Sparta to face the massive
invading army of Xerxes stood firm and fought. Each knew his fate: death on this
day in battle. No one lived to give an account of the slaughter and desperate valor
of the final hours. Byron Farwell, The Spartan Way, 1999

A) Identify and explain ONE difference between Cartledges and Farwells

interpretation of the Battle of Thermopylae.
B) Identify and explain one specific example not mentioned in the passage
above that would REFUTE Cartledges argument about the Spartans.
C) Identify and explain ONE reason not mentioned in the passage above to
explain Cartledge and Farwells characterization of the Spartans.

Question 9
The political landscape of the Classic Maya resembles many in the Old World
Classical Greece or Renaissance Italy are worthy comparisons where a
sophisticated and widely shared culture flourished among perpetual division and
conflict. MARTIN AND Grube wrote in Chronicles of the Maya Kings and Queens
(2000) It was a world crisscrossed by numerous patron-client relationships and
family ties, in which major centers vied with one another in enmities that could last
for centuries Maya civilization indeed bore striking similarity to that of Ancient
Greece. The Greeks were divided into numerous fractious communities, some of
which were able to dominate others by threat of force, unequal alliance, or
commerce. And just as the conflicted relationship among Athens and Sparta was
leitmotif of Greek life, so Maya society resounded for centuries with echoes of the
struggle between Mutal and Kaan
-Charles Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before
Columbus

A) Identify and explain one similarity in the Mayan Civilization and the Greek
civilization based on the passage above.
B) Identify and explain one similarity between Mayan and Greek civilization not
mentioned in the passage above
C) Identify and explain one difference between Mayan and Greek civilization not
mentioned in the passage above.

Question 10
Inca Empire, ca. 1500

A) Identify and explain one specific piece of evidence to suggest the Inca
invested heavily in public works projects.
B) Identify and explain one specific piece of evidence showing how the Inca
adapted to different climates or terrains.

C) Identify and explain one specific example of how the Incan ruler and the
Mochica ruler ran their governments differently.

Question 11

the maritime forces sent abroad in the first third of the 15 th century were
intended to achieve the recognition of Ming dominance of (or perhaps suzerainty
over) all the polities of the known maritime world. To achieve this they used
force, or the threat thereof. The number of Southeast Asian rulers travelling to
China with the Zheng He missions suggests that coercion must have been an
important element of the voyages. It was almost unheard of for Southeast Asian
rulers to travel to other polities, because of both for ritual and security concerns
at home. That such a large number of rulers did travel to the Ming court in this
period suggests coercion of some form. Gunboat diplomacy is not a term
which is usually applied to the voyages of Zheng He. However, given that these
missions were nominally involved in diplomacy and it appears that the ships
were indeed gunboats, with perhaps 26,000 out of 28,000 members of some
missions being military men, this seems the appropriate term to apply to the
duties of these armadas.
-Geoff Wade, The Zheng He Voyages: A
Reassessment
A) Identify and explain one similarity between the voyages of Zheng He as
described above and Portuguese voyages of the 15th Century.
B) Identify and explain one difference between the voyages of Zheng He as
mentioned above and the voyages of the Portuguese.
C) Identify and explain one example that refutes the authors claim.
Question 12
the Mandate of Heaven could be conferred on anyone: any individual from any
strata of society. The emperor did not have to be of royal or noble birth, he only had
to be fit to rule. Thirdly and most significantly, the Mandate of Heaven held the
emperor accountable to certain standards. He was answerable to Heaven and
indirectly answerable to the Chinese people. If the emperor and his
government failed to govern responsibly, mistreated the people or abused their
power, their authority to rule could be withdrawn. Some of the signs that Heaven
had withdrawn its royal mandate included natural disasters such as floods,

droughts, famines or pandemics. Peasant rebellions were also construed as

evidence that the emperor had lost the support of Heaven.
-http://alphahistory.com/chineserevolution/mandate-of-heaven-confucianism/
A) Identify and explain one reason why the Mandate of Heaven was developed
by the Zhou Dynasty in China
B) Identify and explain one similarity between the power of the Chinese ruler
under the mandate and the power of the Egyptian pharaoh
C) Identify and explain one difference between the Chinese ruler under the
Mandate and the power of Islamic Caliph