World History and Geography: Ancient Civilizations
The rise and fall of the major Western and non-Western ancient civilizations
- The major river system and the physical setting that supported the rise of the civilzation
- The significance of the Aryan invasions
- The major beliefs and practices of Brahamanism in India and how they evolved into early Hinduism
- The social structures of the caste system
- The life and moral teachings of Buddha and how Buddhims spread in India, Ceylon and Central Asia
- The growth of the Maurya empire and the political and moral achievements of the emperor Asoka
- The important aesthetic and intellectual traditions (e.e., Sanskrit literature, including the Bhagavad Gita; medicine; metalurgy and mathematics, including Hindu, Arabic numerals and the zero)
6.6 THE GEOGRAPHIC, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL STRUCTURES OF THE EARLY CIVILIZATIONS OF CHINA
- The origins of Chinese civilizations in the Huang-He Valley during the Shang Dynasty
- The geographic features of China that made governance and the spread of ideas and goods difficult and served to isolate the country from the rest of the world
- The life of Confucius and the fundamental teachings of Confucianism and Taoism
- The political and cultural problems prevalent in the time of Confucious and how he sought to solve them
- The policies and achievements of the emperor Shi Huangdi in unifying northern China under the Qin Dynasty
- The political contributions of the Han Dynasty to the development of the imperial bureaucratic state and the expansion of the empire
- The significance of the trans-Eurasian "silk roads" in the period of the Han Dynasty and Roman Empire and their locations
- The diffusion of Buddhism northward to China during the Han Dynasty
6.7 THE GEOGRAPHIC, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL STRUCTURES OF DURING THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROME
- The location and rise of the Roman Republic, including the importance of such mythical and historical figures as Aeneas, Romulus and Remus, cincinnatus, Julius Caesar and Cicero
- The government of the Roman Republic and its significance
- The location of and the political and geographic reasons for the growth of Roman territories and expansion of the empire, including how the empire fostered economic growth through the use of currency and trade routes
- The influence of Julius Caesar and Augustus in Rome's transition from republic to empire
- The migration of Jews around the Mediterranean region and the effects of their conflict with the Romans, including the Romans' restriction on their right to live in Jerusalem
- The origins of Christianity in the Jewish Messianic prophecies, the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament, and the contribution of St. Paul the Apostle to the definition and spread of Christian beliefs (e.g., belief in the Trinity, resurrection, salvation)
- The circumstances that led to the spread of Christianity in Europe and other Roman territories
- The legacies of Roman art and architecture, technology and science, literature, language and law