World Civ

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Greek City States

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: Polis, which is translated as “city-state”. The earliest states in Summeria were also city-states, as were many of the small Mycenaean kingdoms. It was the basic political and institutional unit of ancient Greece

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Struggle of the orders

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(494 – 287 BCE) Inequality between plebeians and patricians led to a conflict know as the Struggle of orders. In this conflict the plebeian sought to increase their power by taking advantage of the fact that Rome’s survival depended on its army, which needed plebeians to fill the rank of the infantry. According to tradition, in 494 BCE the plebeians literally walked out of Rome and refused to serve in the army. Their general strike worked and the patricians made important concessions. Significance: they were then allowed to patricians and plebeians to marry one another. They also recognized the right of the plebeians to elect their own officials, the tribunes, who could bring plebeian grievances to the senate for resolution and could also veto the decisions of the consuls.

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Julius Caesar

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(100 – 44BCE): Born of a noble family, was also a brilliant politician with unbridled ambition and a superb orator wit immense literary ability. Recognizing that military success led to power, he led his troops to victory to Spain and Gaul. In 53 BCE Caesar and Pompey were left in competition for power. The result was Civil War. The Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt became mixed up in this war particularly Cleopatra VII who allied herself with Caesar and had a son by him. Caesar then became victorious and the senate began to appoint him various offices including that of consul, dictator, and impetrator, a title given to victorious commanders. Significance: Using his victory wisely he enacted basic reforms. He extended citizenship to many provincials outside Italy who had supported him. To relieve the pressure of Rome’s huge population he sent eighty thousand poor people to establish colonies in Gaul, Spain, and North Africa. They helped spread Roman Culture.

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Augustus

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(27 BCE – ce 14) After Augustus ended the civil wars, he faced the monumental problems of reconstruction, and from 29- 23 BCE he toiled to heal Rome’s wounds. He first has to rebuild the constitution and the organs of government. Next he had to demobilize much of the army and care for the welfare of the provinces. Then he had to address the danger of various groups on Rome’s European frontiers. The Senate names him consul every year and also as tribune. He kept his power in the background and his period of rule was called principate. Significance: He created the office of emperor and after he died there was to always to be only one ruler.

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SPQR

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The Roman Senate and the People: This sentiment reflects the republican ideal of shared government rather than power concentrates in a monarchy. It stands for the beliefs, customs, and laws of the republic its un written constitution that evolved over two centuries to meet the demands of the governed.

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Constantine

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Constantine legalized the practice of Christianity throughout the empire in 312 and later being baptized as a Christian. He supported the church throughout his reign, expecting in return the support of church officials in maintaining order. He also freed the clergy from imperial taxation and endowed the building of Christian churches. He allowed others to make gifts to the church as well, decreeing in 321 that “Every man, when dying, shall have the right to bequeath as much of his property as he desires to the holy and venerable Catholic Church.

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Qin Shihuangdi

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221-206 BCE: Once Qin ruled all of China, the First Emperor and his shrewd Legalist minister Li Si embarked on a sweeping program of centralization that touched the lives of nearly everyone in China. the first Emperor ordered the nobles to leave their land and move to the capitol. The first emperor also standardized weights, measures, coinage, and even the axle lengths of carts. some Twentieth-century Chinese historians have glorified him as a bold conqueror who let no obstacle stop him. Assassins tried to kill him three times and failed. After the first Emperor died in 210 BCE the Qin state unraveled. Great wall project and terra cotta Army

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The Silk Road

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the trade routes across central Asia through which Chinese silk and other items were traded significance: promoting long distance trade across Eurasia.

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Shinto

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The way of Gods, it was the native religion espoused by he Yamato rulers in Japan.

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Prince Shotoku

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(574-622): undertook a sweeping reform of the state designed to strengthen Yamato rule by adopting Chinese-style bureaucratic practices. His “Seventeen Principles” of 604 drew from both Confucian and Buddhist teachings. He instituted a ladder of official ranks similar to China’s admonished the nobility to avoid strife and opposition, urged adherence to Buddhist percepts. Near his seat of government Prince Shotoku built the magnificent Horyuji Temple and staffed it with monks from Korea. He also opened direct relations with China, sending missions during the brief Sui Dynasty.

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Nicene Creed

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defined he orthodox position that Christ is “eternally begotten of the Father” and of the same substance as the Father.

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Charlemagne

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The most powerful of the Carolingians was Charles the Great (r 768-814) generally know as Charlemagne. In the autumn of the year 800. He visited Rome, where on Christmas day Pope Leo III crowned him emperor. His crowning as emperor thus marks a decisive break between Rome and Constantinople. Continuing the expansionist policies of his ancestors, he fought more than fifty campaigns, and by around 805 the Franklin kingdom included all of continental Europe except Spain, Scandinavia, southern Italy and the Slavic fringes if the East.

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Treaty of Verdun

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A treaty ratified in 843 that divided Charlemagne’s territories among his three surviving grandsons; their kingdoms set the pattern for the modern states of Germany, France, and Italy.

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The Five Pillars

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The basic tenets of the Islamic faith; they include reciting a profession of faith in God and in Muhammad as God’s prophet, praying five times daily, fasting and praying during the month of Ramadan, making a pilgrimage to Mecca once in one’s lifetime, and contributing alms to the poor.

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Caliphate

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Also know as caliph a term combining the ideas of a leader, successor, and deputy.