| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Hunting and gathering | The killing of wild animals and fish as well as the gathering of fruits, roots, nuts, and other plants for sustenance. |
| Homo sapiens sapiens | subspecies of Homo sapiens |
| Mesolithic Age | middle part of the Stone Age beginning about 15,000 years ago |
| Neolithic Revolution/Age | the shift from hunting of animals and gathering of food to the keeping of animals and the growing of food on a regular basis around 8,000 BC |
| Sedentary agriculture | Agriculture that takes place in the immediate surroundings of a permanent settlement |
| Domestication of animals | Taming of animals |
| Surplus | excess |
| Specialized jobs | people practicing one profession only |
| Pastoral nomadism | A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals. |
| Metallurgy | the science and technology of metals |
| Civilization | a society in an advanced state of social development (e.g., with complex legal and political and religious organizations) |
| Catal Huyuk | One of first true cities in history, created in the Neolithic Era in 6500 to 5500 BC, from which were created agriculture, trading, temples, housing, and religions |
| Mesopotamia | first civilization located between the Tigris & Eurphrates Rivers in present day Iraq; term means "land between the rivers;" Sumerian culture |
| Egypt | powerful nation based along the Nile |
| Indus River Valley | Location of the first Indian Civilization |
| Northern China | Northern region of China |
| Asian steppe | the Asian part of the Eurasian Steppe; includes mainly the Mongolian steppes and the Kazakh steppes |
| Judaism | the religion of the Jewish people |
| Iron tools | tools made from iron |
| Zhou | The people and dynasty that took over the dominant position in north China from the Shang and created the concept of the Mandate of Heaven to justify their rule. Remembered as prosperous era in Chinese History |
| Qin Han | chinese dynasty, ended with emporers death in 210. built great wall |
| Confucius | Chinese philosopher, administrator, and moralist. His social and moral teachings, collected in the Analects , tried to replace former religious observances |
| Filial piety | respect shown by children for their parents and elders |
| Great Wall | a fortification 1,500 miles long built across northern China in the 3rd century BC |
| Wu Ti | Han "Warrior Emperor" who greatly expanded the empire |
| Central government | the government of a whole country |
| Professional bureaucracy | system of managing government through departments run by appointed officials |
| Confucianism | The system of ethics, education, and statesmanship taught by Confucius and his disciples, stressing love for humanity, ancestor worship, reverence for parents, and harmony in thought and conduct. |
| Legalism | In China, a political philosophy that emphasized the unruliness of human nature and justified state coercion and control. The Qin ruling class invoked it to validate the authoritarian nature of their regime. |
| Daoism | philosophical system developed by of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu advocating a simple honest life and noninterference with the course of natural events |
| Laozi | founder of Daoism |
| Patriarchal | male led society and household |
| Hierarchial | A system of ranking and organizing things or people, where each element of the system (except for the top element) is subordinate to a single other element. |
| Indus and Ganges | two important rivers in India |
| Aryan | a member of the prehistoric people who spoke Proto-Indo European |
| Caste system | a social structure in which classes are determined by heredity |
| Vedas, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Upanishads | Classic Indian stories about the ideals of Indian society |
| Mauryan | dynasty in India in 4th century BCE after invasion of Alexander the Great |
| Gupta | a dynasty of N India (a.d. 320–540) whose court was the center of classical Indian art and literature. annnnnd under which the arts flourished and a unified code of laws was promulgated. |
| Chandragupta Maurya | established the Mauryan Empire |
| Ashoka | (269-323 BCE); Chandragupta's grandson; gained control of all but India's southern tip; supporter of Buddhism; spread it throughout India but respected other religions; built extensive networks of roads |
| Buddhism | the teaching of Buddha that life is permeated with suffering caused by desire, that suffering ceases when desire ceases, and that enlightenment obtained through right conduct and wisdom and meditation releases one from desire and suffering and rebirth |
| Regionalism | a foreign policy that defines the international interests of a country in terms of particular geographic areas |
| Hinduism | a body of religious and philosophical beliefs and cultural practices native to India and characterized by a belief in reincarnation and a supreme beingof many forms and natures, by the view that opposing theories are aspects of one eternal truth |
| polytheistic | worshipping or believing in more than one god |
| reincarnation | the Hindu or Buddhist doctrine that person may be reborn successively into one of five classes of living beings (god or human or animal or hungry ghost or denizen of hell) depending on the person's own actions |
| dharma | basic principles of the cosmos in Hinduism |
| Siddhartha Gautama | founder of Buddhism |
| Nirvana | complete bliss, delight and peace in Bhuddism and Hinduism |
| Cyrus the Great | king of Persia and founder of the Persian empire (circa 600-529 BC) |
| Zoroastrianism | system of religion founded in Persia in the 6th century BC by Zoroaster |
| City-state | a city with political and economic control over the surrounding countryside |
| Pericles | Athenian statesman whose leadership contributed to Athen's political and cultural supremacy in Greece |
| Peloponnesian Wars | a war fought between Athens and Sparta in the 400s BC, ending in a victory for Sparta |
| Sparta | Greek city-state that was ruled by an oligarchy, focused on military, used slaves for agriculture, discouraged the arts |
| Alexander the Great | successor of Philip II of Macedon; 1st global empire, but no lasting bureaucracy; spread of Hellenism is greatest achievement |
| hellenistic | relating to or characteristic of the classical Greek civilization |
| republic | a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them |
| Roman Empire | an empire established by Augustus in 27 BC and divided in AD 395 into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern or Byzantine Empire |
| Punic Wars | A series of three wars between Rome and Carthage (264-146 B.C.); resulted in the destruction of Carthage and Rome's dominance over the western Mediterranean |
| Carthage | an ancient city state on the north African coast near modern Tunis |
| Julius Caesar | Roman general and dictator. He was murdered by a group of senators and his former friend Brutus who hoped to restore the normal running of the republic. |
| Diocletian | Roman Emperor (284-305); the last systematic persecution of Christians took place towards the end of his reign |
| Constantine | Roman Emperor (4th century A.D.) who promoted tolerance to all religions in the Roman Empire and legalized Christianity. |
| Aristocracy | a government in which power is in the hands of a hereditary ruling class or nobility |
| Direct Democracy | A form of government in which citizens rule directly and not through representatives |
| representative democracy | A system of government in which citizens elect representatives, or leaders, to make decisions about the laws for all the people. |
| Senate | In ancient Rome, the supreme governing body, originally made up only of aristocrats. |
| Christianity | a monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior |
| Rationality | the quality of being consistent with or based on logic |
| Philosophy | any personal belief about how to live or how to deal with a situation |
| Socrates | ancient Athenian philosopher who advocated questioning |
| Plato | Student of Socrates, wrote The Republic about the perfectly governed society |
| Aristotle | Student of Plato, tutor of Alexander the Great |
| Kush | An African state that developed along the upper reaches of the Nile c. 100 B.C.E.; conquered Egypt and ruled it for several centuries. |
| Axum | a town of northern Ethiopia. From the first to the eighth century A.D. it was the capital of an empire that controlled much of northern Ethiopia |
| Ethiopia | a republic in northeastern Africa on the Red Sea |
| Nomadic societies | (of groups of people) tending to travel and change settlements frequently |
| Olmecs, Maya, Aztecs | first civilizations in Central and South America |
| Huns | Warlike people who migrated from Eastern Europe into territory controlled by Germanic tribes, forcing them to move into areas controlled by Rome |
| Sui Dynasty | Chinese dynasty that was succeded by the Tang Dystanty after its colapse |
| Tang Dynasty | Chinsese dynasty that came to power after the Sui Dynasty fell |
| Islam | A monotheistic religion based on the belief that there is one God, Allah, and that Muhammad was Allah's prophet. Islam is based in the ancient city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Muhammad. |
| Arabs | traveling people who lived throughout North Africa and Southwest Asia/Middle East, first followers of Islam |
| Germanic Tribes | the groups of invaders who took over the Western Roman Empire |
| Byzantine Empire | rose out of the split of East and Western Roman Empire; lasted another 1000 years; kept Hellenism alive; fell in 1453 by the Ottomans |
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