Dr. Malmude Monday/Tuesday, September 28/29, 2015
HY 101 D, E, F, J Western Civilization I

Areas Covered by Next Week’s Exam
Textbook Chapters: 1 and 2

Classroom Content Through Thursday-Friday
September 24, 25, 2015

Content Areas Covered (26 Theme Areas):

1. Periods covered in Western Civilization, Parts 1 & II, from pre-historic times to the present (names of the main periods, with dates). 2. Neolithic, hunting and gathering, nomadic, mobile, non-rooted tribal societies. 3. The characteristics of the riverine environment. 4. Transitioning into a settled-irrigation-based systematic farming society with city walls and social/functional classes. 5. Warrior tribes, their common hunting and gathering ancestry, which they share with the very river-based societies whom they attack. The warrior tribes’ role in the creation of land empire. * 6. Four stages of writing and data recording. * Oral tradition- little writing passed down by word of mouth * Syllabic writing- focuses on the sound of word * Alphabet- phonecians roughly 26 symbols

7. Tangible and intangible infrastructure. * Tangible is physical infrastructure; intangible infrastructure is things such as language or attitude. Everyone has infrastructure. 8. Systematic farming and population increase. * Systematic farming leads to population increase. But how? * Systematic farming is an efficient way to feed people, it raises grain and grain is a predictable and storable food source. Leads to lower infant mortality rates, and elderly dying less easily from diseases. 9. Systematic farming, surplus labor and the growth of physical infrastructure in river civilizations. * Systematic farming is so efficient you don’t need the whole community to supply the food like you do in hunting and gathering. 80% gets food 20% builds infrastructure.
10. Early river civilizations: Sumerians, Akkadians, Old Babylonians, Egyptians, Hittites, Hyksos and pre-Greek peoples (Mycenaeans and Crete). * Sumerians had an advanced civilization with schools, lived in mesopotamia. Overtaken by Akkadians * Akkadians began to borrow Sumerian system of writing, and turned it into a syllabic language.
11. Families of peoples: the Indo Europeans and the Semites * Semites are isrealites and jews * Indo Europeans are greeks and latins
12. Types of religion: monotheism, dualism and polytheism. * Monotheism- belief in one god * Dualism- Zoroaster, belief in two gods good and evil * Polytheism- belief in more than one god
13. Types of government structures: a riverine city; a city-state system; a large-block kingdom; a land empire or a maritime empire. * Riverine city: * City state system: * Large block kingdom: * Land empire/maritime empire:
14. How warrior tribes create land empires. *
15. The Israelites and their holy texts. * Four holy texts: * Ten commandments * Torah * Talmud
16. Assyrian expansion in the ancient world: impact on Israel, Phoenicia, and the Middle East. * Assyrians came from northeast Mesopotamia, expanded between 1300-700BC, they wiped out Israel. About to wipe out Phoenicians too but they fled and established carthage. Eventually city of Babylon rebelled against Assyrians and got allies to work with them and overthrew the Assyrians. This empire ruled until 500BC.
17. New Babylonians (Chaldeans) overthrow the Assyrians in the low 600’s B.C. They create the New Babylonian Empire. *
18. In the 500’s B.C., the Persians overthrow the New Babylonian Empire and create the highly-popular Persian Empire. * Persians where Zoroastrians, followers of the dualastrian religion.
19. In the 1200’s B.C., the Greeks moved into Greece and set up a city-state system. By the 900’s B.C., Greek “sister-cities:, were becoming a network beyond Greece. * These city states where monarchies, by 900BC these city states where ruled by councils of nobles. These councils of nobles sent out teams to set up sister cities linked to founder cities in Greece.
20. Sister-city experts to the Greek mainland led to the social war, as mainland peasant feel into debt slavery. This was in the 700’s B.C. and 600’s B.C. Eventually, a compromise was reached: bi-cameral limited democracy. * These sister cities put the farmers out of businesses and the farmers fought back against the nobles. Burned the nobles cities, took kids hostage and social warfare got out of hand. * Eventually a compromise came, gave farmers limited democracy and they were working again.
21. There were 6 major types of Classical Greek philosophy. Two Classical Chinese philosophers may be referenced for comparison and contrast. * Hedonism- life is about pleasure * Sophism- life is about power * Stoicism- life is about harmony with nature * Platonism- reality is based on concepts not on material world * Socratic philosophy- truth is elusive * world is material, world is about matter and happenings
22. The geopolitics of the Persians and the Macedonians: the Macedonian (Northern Greeks) got control of Greece in the 400’s B.C. and planned to launch an attack on the Persian Empire. *
23. Philip, Alexander and the conquest of the Persian Empire in the 300’s B.C. The spread of Hellenistic Civilization in the 300’s, 200’s and later.
24. The Latins under Etruscan rule in the 700’s B.C. the founding of Carthage by the Phoenicians.
25. Stages of Roman development: * Pre-Roman * Founding and consolidation * Roman expansion * Roman Empire * Decline of Empire in the West * Byzantine identity in the East
26. Problems with Roman expansion and empire: * Latifundia creation and Plebian unemployment; * The failure of the Gracchi and the crushing of plebian reform * Bread and circus system and the addicting of the Plebian class to free food and sensational entertainment * Rome reaches the limits of expansion but insists on colonizing the Northern Europe frontier, which bankrupts the West.

Hints keyed to numbered themes.

1. Paleolithic 400,000-11,000 B.C. Neolithic 11,000-3,000/4,000 Early Ancient 3,000/4,000-1,000
Ancient 1,000 B.C.-500 A.D.
Medieval 500-1400/1450
Early Modern 1450-1700
Modern 1700-1990
Postmodern 1990-Now 2. These tribal societies had three levels, and the levels were linked by representation from the level below to the next one up. 3. Riverine environment features: * Fresh water * Silt * Fertile soil * Attractive to game * Edible plants * Fish * Easy to irrigate 4. Settled, systematic farming leads to about 9 social classes, with 80% peasants. 5. Warrior tribes turn their weapons and nomadic wandering to new uses: they hunt settled riverine cities. 6. The 4 states are: * Oral tradition * Ideographic writing * Syllabic writing * Alphabetic writing A more reliable food supply supports healthy immune system, which grows the population. 7. Physical infrastructure: things 8. Intangible infrastructure: thoughts, attitudes, skills 9. When systematic farming becomes the economic system, then it takes fewer people to feed the entire community. That frees up labor to create more infrastructure.
10. Early river civilizations were city states, or networks of city states, which could become land empires. Regarding the pre-Greek peoples called Myceneans or Cretans; they farmed or traded or raided.
11. Families of peoples share broad cultural and linguistic traits.
12. Monotheism emphasizes the total power of God. This raises the question about why there is evil.
13. Government structures can be either singular or networked.
14. Warriors link riverine cities to one another. Then the warriors become overlords of these networks and stop being simply warriors.
15. Jewish holy texts: * Ten Commandments * Torah (Old Testament) * Mosaic Law * Talmud
16. In the 700’s B.C., the Assyrians smashed Israel, forced the Phoenicians to relocate and generally dominated the Middle East.
17. The takeover by the New Babylonian Empire, in the low-600’s, lasted less than a century.
18. The Persians overthrew the New Babylonians in the 500’s B.C. The Persian leader, Cyrus the Great, was popular. He let the Jews return to Israel under Persian rule.
19. The Greek city-states were established in the 1200’s B.C. They were at first monarchies. Then they were ruled by Councils of Nobles. Finally, after a social war, they became limited-democracy republics: bi-cameral.
20. East sister city outside Greece was set up as an overseas farming and trading center for mainland Greece.
21. The main philosophical movements were: * Hedonism (pleasure) * Sophism (power) * Stoicism (harmony w/nature) * Platonism (concepts/ideas) * Socratic (revealing discussion) * Aristotelianism (pre-Scientific)
22. Confucius was a social philosopher who stressed ethical relationships in society. Mencius, his follower, thought peasant were the most valuable social class.
23. Philip the Great of Macedonia—a large block kingdom in Northern Greece (modern Serbia)—planned to attack Persia with Greek and Macedonian troops, but Alexander his son, actually carried out the plan.
24. In the 700’s B.C., when Carthage was founded by the Phoenicians, Rome was of no importance at all.
25. As Rome developed, it came to be all about military and economic success and expansion, but too much expansion in Northern Europe led the Western Empire to decline.
26. Roman expansion first ran into problems with the creation of the latifundia; then with the suppression of plebian farming; then with an addiction to military expansion despite having reached geographical limits; and finally with Western expansion into the Northern European frontier.