OFFICIAL MIDTERM

His 200 Midterm
(covers chapters 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 15, 17, and 24 and any additional lecture/discussion material)

Part I: Short Answer
Please answer the following questions, using complete sentences. A sentence or two is all that is required for each question.
1. Explain the impact systematic agriculture had on the lives of Neolithic peoples. Why did farming and the domestication of animals constitute a revolution in human life?
2. What patterns of social and political organization prevailed among the peoples of Africa from 400 until 1450?
3. What were some of the distinctive features of Southeast Asian cultures?
4. Describe the period known as the Dark Ages.
5. What was the Enlightenment?
6. How did Great Britain play a central role in the integration of world trade?
7. How did the Industrial Revolution lead to a staggering disparity between the wealth and power of the industrialized nations and that of the rest of the world?
8. What or Who are the Sea People?
9. How was Christianity changed from an outlawed movement to the most important power in Rome.
10. What role did technology play in European expansion?
11. What were the consequences of the rise of modern science?
12. What is the relationship between Social Darwinism and imperialism?


Part II: Multiple Choice
Please select the most appropriate answer for each question.
1. Which was the first ancient culture to record their history?
a. Egyptian
b. Assyrian
c. Sumerian
d. Mayan

2. Who was considered a powerful ruler of Rome?
a. Julius Caesar
b. Nero
c. Pontius Pilate
d. Caligula

3. What religion did Constantine convert to?
a. Paganism
b. Islam
c. Christianity
d. Catholic

4. What ancient city was considered a second Rome?
a. London
b. Sicily
c. Alexandria
d. Constantinople

5. Which African Nation-State is considered culturally part of the Mediterranean World?
a. Ethiopia
b. Libya
c. Saudi-Arabia
d. Egypt

6. What time period in Europe was considered the Age of Discovery?
a. 1450 to 1650
b. 1350 to 1550
c. 1200 to 1400
d. 400 to 1200

7. What was Newton synthesis?
a. Mathematical laws
b. The laws of Motion
c. The laws of universal Gravitation

8. In 1780s what was the average shipment of African slaves?
a. 100,000
b. 80,000
c. 120,00
d. 56,000

Part III:
Fill in the blank

9. The Hittites and Iranians were Indo-Europeans from central______________ and southern____________.

10. ______________ was a Greek philosopher and scientist that thought the earth was the center of the universe and that the stars and planets revolve around it.

11. The most popular forms of public entertainment in ancient Rome were __________________ and ___________________.

12. The finest representative of the blending of classical and Christian ideas, and indeed one of the most brilliant thinkers in the history of the Western world was_____________________________.

13. _________________ were culturally homogeneous ethnic societies, which scholars considered all early African societies.

14. The Aztec state religion, the sacred cult of _______________, necessitated constant warfare against neighboring peoples to secure captives for religious sacrifice and laborers for agricultural and infrastructural work.

15. The scientific revolution was the single most important in the creation of the new world-view of the eighteenth century _________________.

16. Between 1880 and 1900 ____________, _____________, _____________, and ___________ scrambled for African possessions as if their national livelihoods were at stake.

Part IV: True/False
Please designate each of the following statements as true or false.
1. The Egyptian ruler came to be known as the emperor.
2. The basic pattern of Mesopotamian life was developed by the Sumerians.
3. Egyptian civilization differed from that of Mesopotamia in that in Egypt, slavery became widespread relatively late, around 1570 B.C.E.
4. The law code proclaimed by Hammurabi regulated such things as tenant-landlord relations and marriage.
5. Many people in the Roman era were attracted to Christianity because Christianity did not share any of the features of mystery religions.
6. The chief magistrates of republican Rome—the officials who administered the state and commanded the army—were known as consuls.
7. Korea was first unified as a result of Buddhism.
8. Through the tributary system, Han Dynasty leaders regulated contact with foreign powers.
9. Islam literally means “submission to God.”
10. The Muslim scholar al-Khwarizmi was a pioneer in mathematics.
11. Central Asia benefited most from the Mongol invasions.
12. Kublai Khan was the Mongol emperor of China.
13. Bengali became the common written language of Southeast Asia, breaking down barriers among diverse languages and cultures.
14. During the period of accelerated global contact, England was the country most centered on middle-class interests.
15. The rise of the Russian monarchy was largely a response to the external threat from the English monarchy.
16. The real losers in the growth of absolutism in Eastern Europe were the nobility and the clergy.
17. The Peace of Utrecht in 1713 represented the balance-of-power principle in action.
18. The country that monopolized the slave trade until 1600 was Portugal.
19. Before 1914, the economic gains from overseas empires were extensive.
20. Japan was "opened" by the United States as a result of long and arduous negotiations.

Part V: Short Answer
1. How did the Greek cultures and the east cultures react to each other as the Greeks expanded?

2.Why did the Romans city state constitution break down after they conquered the Mediterranean?

3. What did Constantine do to mark the way for the new epoch in Western history

4. How did Christianity grow during the Middle ages?

5.What values did Africans express through art, architecture, and religion?

6. When the new philosophies and ideas formed in the 17th century, what was happening to the public’s opinion and world view?

7.What were the reasons the West sent out millions of emigrants to build vast empires over Africa and Asia?

8.What did the Treaty of Westphalia do?

Part VI: Short Essay
Answer four of the following, providing a 2-3 paragraph response for each question.

1. Explain how early civilizations evolved from nomadic tribes to established cultures through the development and use of technology, religion, and organized warfare. Also note the similarities and differences between the major cultures of the time.
2. Describe in detail the way in which Greek politics and society was influenced by its geography. What were some of the major developments made by the Greek’s that allowed them to become a major presence in the ancient world?
3. Briefly explain the major influence Rome left on the world, both immediately after its decline and also its lasting impression on cultures across the world that came centuries later.
4. Describe the Christian Church in the Holy Roman Empire. Explain the role of the major leaders in the Empire, both political and spiritual, and what their influences and goals were. Compare this society to the Byzantine East and Germanic West.
5. How were the African Kingdoms and Empires different from those in the Middle East? What were the primary reasons for these differences?
6. What are the positive and negative aspects of global contact? Give specific examples of both as they relate to the “Age of Discovery.”
7. Name some of the major players of the Scientific Revolution and briefly explain their discoveries or inventions and their importance.
8. Explain the effect that industrialization and imperialism had on third world countries. Who benefited and who suffered from these changes, and in what ways?

Part VII: Matching—you know what to do.
a. Pharaoh
b. acropolis
c. barbarians
d. typikon
e. Mogadishu
f. astrolabe
g. tabula rasa
h. Copernican theory
i. empiricism
j. Enlightenment
k. jihads
l. janissary corps
m. traditionalists
n. lopsided world
o. quinine

1. __ the sultan’s slave army
2. __ placed the Sun at the center of the universe
3. __ local chiefs, landowners, and religious leaders
4. __ used to determine the altitude of the sun
5. __ God-king of Egypt
6. __ a world of rich and poor lands
7. __ major port city founded by the Muslims
8. __ general theory of inductive reasoning
9. __ religious wars
10. __ people living outside the borders of the Roman Empire
11. __ a set of rules for organization and behavior
12. __ idea that the human mind is a blank tablet at birth
13. __ a world-view based on reason and progress
14. __ the first effective treatment for malaria
15. __ elevated point containing temples, altars, and public monuments

Part VIII: Essay--Please complete one of the following. Your essay should be well organized and about a page-and-a-half long double-spaced. Please give it a compelling title.
1. Discuss the fundamental Neolithic contributions to the rise of Western civilization.
2. What forces helped to shape Hebrew religious thought, still powerfully influential in today’s world?
3. Describe what the Greek intellectual triumph entailed and its effects.
4. Explain what the meeting of West and East held for the development of economics, religion, and philosophy, providing specific examples.
5. How did Rome rise to greatness? Please elucidate.
6. Why did Christianity, originally a minor local religion, sweep across the Roman world to change it fundamentally?
7. What elements went into the making of a distinctly European civilization, and how did these elements interact?
8. Describe both the immediate and lingering effects of the Enlightenment on world history.
9. Describe the idea that "all great nations" need to become imperialists-or fail. Why did this idea gain great following in the later nineteenth century, and how was it received in the non-Western world?