Final Exam Study Guide

World History Final Exam Study Guide

For the final exam, you should be able to reconstruct our timeline by putting the major eras, and the four bullet points that describe each era, in their proper order. A full summary is copied below.

You should also be able to write 2-3 paragraph discussions on the following questions or statements:

1) The Mongols should be given more credit for the role they played in Eurasian history. Discuss.

2) What was the caste system and how did Buddhism challenge it?

  

3) Was Socrates a humanist? Explain.

4) Briefly discuss the rise, fall & lasting significance of Byzantium.

5) From a world historical point of view, the period from 500 AD to 1500 AD was not a "post"-Classical period but simply a continuation of the Classical period. The experience of Islamic and Chinese civilizations during this period illustrates why. Discuss.

6) The "kelp highway" theory makes a convincing argument for the existence of a coastal route that led to human settlement in the Americas during the late Paleolithic era. Discuss.

7) The "Polynesian thesis" makes a convincing argument for the existence of oceanic routes from the South Pacific that led to human settlement in the Americas during the Ancient and/or Classical eras. Discuss.

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Paleolithic

1) We evolved as Homo sapiens

2) We used basic (old) stone tools (lithic = stone)

3) Socially, we formed ourselves into moving bands of gatherer-hunters

4) We migrated out of Africa to other continents

Neolithic

1) We outcompeted all other species of Homo

2) We used advanced (new) stone tools for more complex purposes

3) We formed ourselves into small, settled agricultural communities

4) All continents except Antarctica inhabited by Homo sapiens

Ancient

1) Homo sapiens competed with each other for wealth, power, status à social hierarchy

2) We developed more sophisticated technologies, including writing

3) Agricultural surpluses à specialization à civilizations & city-states

4) Interaction between humans from different continents increases due to trade

Classical

1) Competition for dominance between civilizations

2) Unique thinkers develop the seminal ideas that still define us as peoples

3) Formation of complex Empires & cosmopolitan urban centers

4) Political units arise which straddle more than one continent

Modern

1) Capitalism intensifies competition within and among peoples

2) Industrial Revolution multiplies human productivity and output

3) Development of Colonial Empires and relationships

4) Western European civilization asserts superiority over all others

Post-Modern?

1) Regulation of capitalism & cooperation among peoples

2) Environmental sustainability becomes a critical goal of technology

3) Government is increasingly global with emphasis on cooperation

4) Western European civilization recognizes co-equality of other peoples

Things to think about while reading the documents on Islam

1.) Students can think about how they would feel if they were to follow the Quran.

 

 2.) Students can think about what jihad means to them.

 

3.) Students can think about what impression they get of Islam and Muhammed and how do these impressions compare to feelings they get when they see religious paintings of Jesus or Buddha.

Additional Extra Credit Opportunity this Friday

Students, extra credit will also be awarded to students who attend and write up a summary of this talk:

On Friday, November 8 from 2-4:30, you are invited to join Professor Miriam Zimmerman’s Holocaust Class to meet Holocaust Survivor Annemarie Yellin.  She will talk of her experience of Krystallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, which occurred on November 9 and 10, 1938, 75 years ago.  Hear of her escape from Germany and rescue by nuns in a convent school in Belgium.  This is a unique opportunity to meet one of the last living survivors of the Holocaust and to hear her story.  Meet at the Province center of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur at 1502 Ralston Avenue (lower campus, opposite Ralston Hall).

Guiding questions for Wednesday's documents reading

1. In the documents of the men; what motivated them to travel so far? 

2. What similarities or differences did they see compared to their own and the ones they visited?

3. What can we take from these documents about the men (travelers) who wrote them?

4. Looking at the visual sources what can you identify that was most prominent during the Silk Road Trading?

Reading for Monday

Students:

Your assignment for Monday indicates that you should choose either an Africa or Americas focus. This means that you should choose a focus area - either Africa or the Americas - and read carefully the sections in the chapter that pertain to that focus area. Skim the sections of the chapter that do not pertain to your focus area.

Please feel free to comment on this post if you have questions about the homework.

PA

Take-Home Midterm due Monday, October 14, 8:50 am

World History Fall 2013

Take-home Midterm

Please respond to five (5) of the following questions. Spend approximately ten minutes on each question. If you finish early, spend the extra time going back and revising / improving your answers. You have a total of 50 minutes to complete the exam.

Please type your responses and email them to me (in the body of the email, please, not an attachment… email to me at pandrews@ndnu.edu) no later than 8:50 am on Monday, October 14.

Because this is a take-home midterm, our class will not meet in person on Monday 10/14.

The “non-written” portion of the midterm will take place on Wednesday, October 16 and will be based on your written responses.

1) What was the significance of the development of agriculture?

2) Why was early agriculture less widespread in the Americas that it was in Afro-Eurasia?

3) Discuss the evidence that Paleolithic societies were more egalitarian than later societies. Is this evidence convincing? Why or why not?

4) What did it mean to be civilized to the Mesopotamians who created the Gilgamesh story?

5) Please list the four eras we have discussed so far, along with their date ranges. How much can you recall of the four comparative bullet points that go with each era?

6) Is subjugation inevitable in human societies? Cite examples that might make you more confident in your answer.

7) Strayer changes the term “hunter-gatherer” to the term “gatherer-hunter.” In what way is this change consistent with the values of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur as expressed in the Hallmarks? Should other scholars who write textbooks on World History adopt this change?

8) Please discuss the ideas and impact of two of the “seminal thinkers” we have studied so far.

Reading for Friday, October 4

The Superior Man (chün-tzu)

from The Analects of Confucius

XX.3: The Master said, "Without recognizing the ordinances of Heaven, it is impossible to be a superior man (chün tzu)."

XV.17: The Master said, "The superior man in everything considers righteousness to be essential. He performs it according to the rules of propriety (li ). He brings it forth in humility. He completes it with sincerity. This is indeed a superior man."

XV.31: The Master said, "The object of the superior man is truth, not food. . . . The superior man is anxious lest he should not get truth; he is not anxious lest poverty should come upon him."

IV.16: The Master said, "The mind of the superior man is conversant with virtue; the mind of the base man is conversant with gain."

IV.5: The Master said, "Riches and honors are what men desire. If they cannot be obtained in the proper way, they should not be held. Poverty and baseness are what men dislike. If they cannot be avoided in the proper way, they should not be avoided. . . . The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it."

XV.20: The Master said, "What the superior man seeks, is in himself. What the mean man seeks, is in others."

XII.4: Ssu-ma Niu asked about the superior man. The Master said, "The superior man has neither anxiety nor fear." "Being without anxiety or fear!" said Ssu-ma, "does this constitute what we call the superior man?" The Master said, "When internal examination discovers nothing wrong, what is there to be anxious about, what is there to fear?"

XIV.24: The Master said, "The progress of the superior man is upwards; the progress of the mean man is downwards."

XVI.8: Confucius said, "There are three things of which the superior man stand in awe. He stands in awe of the ordinances of Heaven. He stands in awe of great men. He stands in awe of the words of the sages. The mean man does not know the ordinances of Heaven, and consequently does not stand in awe of them. He is disrespectful to great men. He makes sport of the words of the sages."

XIV.29: The Master said, "The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions."

XV.18: The Master said, "The superior man is distressed by his want of ability. He is not distressed by men not knowing of him."

XV.21: The Master said, "The superior man is dignified, but does not wrangle. He is sociable, but not partisan."

XVII.24: Tzu-kung asked, "Has the superior man his hatreds also?" The Master said, "He has his hatreds. He hates those who proclaim the evil of others. He hates the man who, being in a low station, slanders his superiors. He hates those who have valor merely, and are unobservant of propriety (li ). He hates those who are forward and determined, and, at the same time, of contracted understanding."

XVI.10: Confucius said, "The superior man has nine things which are subjects with him of thoughtful consideration. In regard to the use of his eyes, he is anxious to see clearly. In regard to the use of his ears, he is anxious to hear distinctly. In regard to his countenance, he is anxious that it should be benign. In regard to his speech, he is anxious that it should be sincere. In regard to his doing of business, he is anxious that it should be reverently careful. In regard to what he doubts about, he is anxious to question others. When he is angry, he thinks of the difficulties his anger may involve him in. When he sees gain to be got, he thinks of righteousness."

XIX.9: Tzu-hsia said, "The superior man undergoes three changes. Looked at from a distance, he appears stern; when approached, he is mild; when he is heard to speak, his language is firm and decided."

XV.36: The superior man is correctly firm, and not merely firm.