(HST) World History - The Human Experience

(HST) World History - The Human Experience - C hapter 1 :...


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Chapter 1 : Human Beginnings The first prehuman hominids may have lived about 4.4 million years ago. Some species of hominids evolved larger brains, including Homo habilis and Homo erectus. Modern humans, Homo sapiens, appeared around 200,000 years ago. Early humans lived in groups and cooperated in obtaining food. They developed language, tools and weapons, and techniques for staying warm. When conflicts between groups developed over land and water, hominids developed techniques for defense and attack. Between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago, early peoples shifted from hunting and food gathering to farming. Agriculture allowed people to give up their nomadic ways and settle in communities, usually in a river valley. With a steady food supply, people could devote their time to other economic activities. Early agricultural villages grew into the first cities, which were highly organized societies, or civilizations. Early civilizations shared certain basic features, such as specialized labor, cooperative methods for producing surplus food, organized government, a system of values and religious beliefs, and written records. Chapter 2 : Early Civilizations Civilizations arose at different times in different parts of the world. Most grew out of agricultural settlements in valleys of such rivers as the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia, the Nile in Egypt, the Indus in South Asia, and the Huang He in China. In a typical situation, villages would band together to form small kingdoms. They would later unite under a single monarch who was both a political and religious leader. As their political and military power grew, rulers would try to expand the frontiers of their territories to create empires. Although ruling power was usually hereditary, governments were often overthrown, either by rebels within the country (as in China) or by invaders (as in Mesopotamia). Chapter 3 : Kingdoms and Empires in the Middle East A region of the Middle East known as the Fertile Crescent was a land of diverse
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peoples. Despite waves of invasion and conquest in the region, the successive empires advanced trade, created new methods of government, and carried out building projects. Many made lasting cultural and economic contributions to later civilizations. For example, the Phoenicians founded new settlements across the Mediterranean. Their cultural contributions include an alphabet that became a model for others in the region. The Aramaeans' language, Aramaic, became the primary language of trade. The Lydians initiated the use of coins as a medium of exchange, replacing barter. Monotheism-the belief of the Israelites in only one, all- powerful god-became the basis of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Chapter 4 : The Rise of Ancient Greece
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