River Valley Civ
These early civilizations, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, and ancient China, practiced this type of religion, which involved belief in many gods connected to nature and daily life, though each civilization expressed it through unique rituals, deities, and sacred architecture.
What is polytheism?
Of the two major Greek city-states, this one is more closely aligned with the democratic principles found in the U.S. government, emphasizing citizen participation, public debate, and voting.
What is Athens?
While this Chinese philosophy emphasized social harmony, respect for elders, and moral duty within relationships, ancient Indian religion focused on dharma, karma, and the cycle of rebirth, forming the foundation of Hinduism.
What is Confucianism?
This leader united groups nomadic tribes and launched a series of conquests that created the largest contiguous land empire in history, establishing efficient communication systems, promoting trade along the Silk Roads, and influencing the political structures of Russia, China, and the Middle East.
Who is Chinggis (Genghis) Khan?
This religious leader, born in Mecca around 570 CE, received revelations from Allah that were later compiled into the Qur’an, and is considered the founder and final prophet of Islam.
Who is the prophet Muhammad?
This Babylonian king is best known for creating one of the earliest written legal codes, which emphasized justice through a system of strict punishments based on social class and the principle of “an eye for an eye.”
Who is Hammurabi?
These two ancient cultures both valued architecture, philosophy, and civic life, but one emphasized democratic debate and artistic expression, while the other focused on engineering, law, and expanding a vast empire.
What are Greek and Roman cultures?
This Indian empire was founded by Chandragupta and known for its centralized bureaucracy and spread of Buddhism.
What is the Maurya Empire?
Based on his travels along the Silk Road and time spent at the court of Kublai Khan, this Venetian merchant’s writings introduced Europeans to the wealth and complexity of Asian civilizations, influencing future exploration.
Who is Marco Polo?
These three major world religions share a belief in one God and trace their origins to Abraham, but differ in their sacred texts, views on Jesus, and religious practices such as prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage.
What are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam?
This pair of ancient civilizations, one nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates and the other along the Nile, shared advancements in writing and agriculture due to the Neolithic Revolution, but differed in their centralized political structures, religious views on the afterlife, and trade networks that extended from the Indus Valley to Nubia.
What are Mesopotamia and Egypt?
This empire fell in 476 CE due to a combination of internal instability, economic decline, overreliance on mercenary armies, political corruption, and invasions by Germanic tribes like the Visigoths and Vandals.
What is the Western Roman Empire?
This Indian Empire is celebrated for its golden age of science, art, and Hindu culture, and shaped the political and cultural foundations of South Asia before eventually declining due to internal strife and invasions.
What is the Gupta Empire?
This event in 1054 CE split Christianity into two branches—Roman Catholicism in the West and Eastern Orthodoxy in the East—due to disagreements over papal authority, language, and theological practices like the use of icons as a part of worship.
What is the Great Schism?
This religion, founded by the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century CE in Mecca, rapidly expanded across the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Europe, as shown in historical maps and accounts, due to its unifying beliefs, trade networks, and military conquests.
What is Islam?
These two ancient civilizations, one shaped by the Indus and Ganges rivers and the other by the Huang He and Yangtze, developed complex social hierarchies, traded along the Silk Road and maritime routes, and practiced religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and ancestor worship, but differed in their use of centralized dynastic rule versus regional kingdoms.
What are India and China?
This cultural blend, spread by Alexander the Great, combined Greek language, art, and philosophy with Eastern traditions, while Roman innovations like aqueducts, roads, and republican government laid the foundation for Western civilization.
What are Hellenism and Roman contributions?
These three Chinese dynasties laid the foundation for imperial rule, with one introducing the Mandate of Heaven, another unifying China through legalism and centralization, and the last establishing a merit-based civil service system that influenced governance for centuries.
What are the Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties?
This empire, founded by a fierce nomadic leader in the early 1200s, expanded across Asia and parts of Europe, revitalizing trade along the Silk Roads.
What is the Mongol Empire?
After the death of Muhammad, this leader was chosen as the first caliph, his leadership helping unify the Arabian Peninsula and solidify the political structure of the emerging Muslim community.
Who is Abu Bakr?
This ancient people, whose sacred texts include the Torah, are credited with developing the foundational concepts of ethical monotheism, covenant with God, and moral law, influencing later religions like Christianity and Islam.
Who are the ancient Hebrews?
These three political systems—two Greek city-states and two phases of Roman rule—differed in their approaches to citizenship, military service, and governance, with one emphasizing oligarchy and discipline, another democracy and debate, and the last transitioning from a republic to autocratic imperial rule.
What are Sparta, Athens, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire?
This dynasty moved the Islamic capital to Damascus and focused on military expansion, wealth, and Islamic conversion, while its successor emphasized scholarship (achievements in science, math, medicine, & architecture), moved the capital to Baghdad, and created a golden age of wealth through trade?
What are the Umayyad and Abbasid Empires?
This pivotal event in 1453 marked the end of the Byzantine Empire after centuries of decline due to internal strife, weakened military, and pressure from Ottoman forces, leading to the rise of Istanbul and a shift in trade and power from the Eastern Mediterranean to Western Europe.
What is the fall of Constantinople?
These Muslim trade routes helped spread goods, culture, and Islam across regions like India, China, Europe, and Africa, boosting local economies and connecting distant civilizations.
What are the Trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean networks?