• What is the significance of the Paleolithic era in world history?

• Hunters and Gathers

• What was revolutionary about the Neolithic Revolution?

• What different kinds of societies emerged out of the Neolithic Revolution?

• Was the Neolithic Revolution inevitable? Why did it occur so l

• What distinguished civilizations from other human societies?

• In the development of the First Civilizations, what was gained for humankind, and what was lost?

• Hammurabi’s Code• Patriarchy• Cuneiform

Greek Empire

Roman Empire

Persian Empire

Classical China

Classical India

• What common features do Classical Chinese Civilizations and Classical Indian Civilizations share?

• What different features do Classical Chinese Civilizations and Classical Indian Civilizations have?

• Qin Shihuangdi• Han dynasty• Ashoka• Mauryan dynasty• Gupta dynasty• Alexander the Great• pax Romana

The Spread of Early Christianity and Buddhism

• “Religion is a double-edge sword, both supporting and undermining political authority and social elites.” How would you support both sides of this statement?

Classical Africa

Bantu Migration

Map Silk Roads

Map Sea Roads

Map Sand Roads

• What motivated and sustained the long-distance commerce of the Silk Roads, Sea Roads and Sand Roads?

• In what ways did commercial exchange foster other changes?

Map Post Classical China

The World of Asian Buddhism

• In what ways did the Tang and Son resemble the classical Han dynasty period, and in what ways had China changed?

• How did China influence East Asia from 600C.E. to 1450?

• Tribute system• Song dynasty economic revolution• Bushido• Silla dynasty

The Byzantine Empire

Europe in the High Middle Ages

The Crusades

• How did the histories of the Byzantine Empire and Western Europe differ from 600C.E. to 1450?

• Constaninople • Eastern Orthodox • Kievan Rus• Charlemagne• Crusades

Spread of Islam

The Growing World of Islam (900-1500)

• What distinguished the first centuries of Islamic history form the early history of Christianity and Buddhism?

• How led to the immense religious and political/military success of Islam in its early centuries?

• Quran• Pillars of Islam• Umma• Haji• Ibn Battuta• Mecca • Timbuktu• Baghdad• Sharia• sufis

The Mongol Empire

Trade and Disease in the FourteenthCentury

• Prior to the Mongols, in what ways had pastoral peoples been significant in world history?

• In what ways did the Mongol empire resemble other empires, and in what ways did it differ form them? Why did it last a relatively short time?

• Turks• Chinggis Khan• Yuan dynasty• Khubilai Khan• Golden Horde• Black Death/plague

The Americas in the Fifteenth Century

• Toltec culture• Maya Empire• Aztec Empire• Inca Empire• calpulli• Tribute system• chinampas• Mesoamerica• Teotihuacan• Andean Highlands