First History Test

Here is my first test in history!!

 

The Egyptian Middle Kingdom

 

     The Egyptian Middle Kingdom was an age in the Egyptian history sandwiched between two intermediate periods and the old and new kingdoms on either side of them.  An intermediate period was a time when the control of the government disintegrated.  The kingdoms were set up so that at any given time there was one ruling family, called a dynasty, in power.  However, over the span of a kingdom many dynasties might ascend to the throne.  Starting after 2100 B.C., the Middle Kingdom is often thought of as Egypt’s classical period.  During the Middle Kingdom time period, Egypt controlled the river valley.  Egypt also had natural protection against invaders with its unique placement on the map.  Part of Egypt is protected by the Red Sea, and part by the mountains below them.  They also have another body of water guarding their coast, the Mediterranean.  Even with all of this natural protection, the Middle Egyptian Kingdom was destroyed when a force called the Hyksos occupied Egypt.  I believe this knowledge on this subject is important because of the political unrest that is going on around this time.  This relates to the unrest, because knowing how the country was founded, and where things went wrong could help save our country.  The information for this paper was taken off of the class notes on blackboard.

 

 

Confucius

 

     Confucius was a philosopher who was born in China in 551 BC and died in 479 BC.  He is most remembered for founding the philosophy of Confucianism.  Confucianism is the idea that everybody has a place, and job in life, and that in order for life to go smooth everybody has to be in their place.  It also deals with rulers leading by example, instead of by force.  When Confucius first introduced his thoughts he was met with much resistance from the legalists, a group of people who were more concerned with having laws, and making people obey them.  They convinced the king to burn many of Confucius’ books and teachings.  However, Confucianism eventually gained power by defeating their legalist opponents, even though some of the principles of the government were still based on the legalist way of thinking.  This is important because Confucianism went on to become the main way of thinking for China, with bits of it showing up in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.  It also influenced the country’s future.  For instance, the Han dynasty taught Confucianism in its schools, and many of its government positions were based upon the knowledge of Confucianism.  This belief system was unique because, in that time, it was unusual for people to have a philosophy “ruling” them, instead of a plethora of gods.  For more information on this topic please see our source book, Worlds of History, Confucius.

 

 

Han dynasty

 

The Han dynasty was a Chinese power from 200B.C. to 200 A.D.  This is an important dynasty because it changed the ways that school was taught.  It started teaching Confucianism in its schools.  It did this because Confucianism was the only completed doctrine in that time.  This is related to Confucianism because it is when China started teaching it, and what a nations schools teach, changes the mindset of the whole nation.  If taught long enough, normally a couple generations, the old mind set is completely forgotten and the new one is practiced.  So in effect the Han dynasty changed itself.  It is interesting that the Han dynasty chose to do this, because of the fact that much of their government derived its power from the legalistic way of thinking.  This legalistic way of thinking was passed down to them from the dynasty that preceded them, the Qin dynasty.  They also copied many of the other factors in the Qin dynasty, the only main change was the change in what schools taught.  The text on Confucianism in the world of History relates to this piece, because that explains what was being taught.  Most of this information was taken from my notes, which were taken from class.

 

 

Persian Empire

 

The Persian Empire was the first major kingdom of the old world.  It originated in modern day Iran in 550 B.C. and spread father into Europe, into west Asia, and northern Africa.  It mainly gained its power from conquering other nations.  It did this by using a force of extremely light infantry.  At the beginning they were extremely effective, because Persia could amass large amounts of them.  They were also lightly outfitted, which was another reason why Persia could stockpile vast forces.  The main problem with them was that because they were so light, they could not withstand equal numbers of armored opponents.  One of the large trends that Persia established was the thought that it was permissible to take over other nations, if you could, to add to your own glory.  Eventually Persia found, out as all must, that you can’t keep going forever.   They launched an attack on Greece.  Greece’s threatened polios chose to work together instead of being conquered one by one.  They banded together and fought the Persians winning the war.  Later after Darius had been replaced Xerxer, Xerxer decided he would try to invade Greece.  His army went forth, and lost.  What actually happened was that the army was so big that it needed ships to supply it.  Athens picking up on this fact destroyed the Persians ships with their superior ships, and the army was left starving, demoralized, and on the run.  After this, the armies of the Greeks captured or killed the Persians, and declared victory.  This relates to the other points in a major way, first it was because of this that the Delian league was formed.  It was because of this league that Athens had the opportunity to try and take over Greece, starting the Peloponnesian Wars.  This information was gathered from lectures, and notes.

 

 

Polios

 

     A polios was a section of land, ruled by one major city, with a few smaller cities under it.  This term, polios, has gone on to become the root word for many other words, but the definition we think of when thinking of polios is city state.  The idea of a city state started during the formation period of the Greek culture, and parts of it last even to this day.  These city states could be ruled in many ways.  Some were republics, others were oligarchies, and still others closer to monarchies.  The polios was the Greek’s main form of ruling, each one having different governments, and rules, and most boasting of some sort of citizen led power, even if it was only in theory, and not in practice.  As we learned in the notes much of this is temporarily changed when Athens, one of the more powerful city states started a group of polios called the Delian league.  At first this league of city states was put together to protect Greece from the invading Persians.  This worked while all of the city states had a common goal, but after the war it was hard to keep a bunch of normally independent rulers together.  Athens, who was one of the more powerful polios, and was in charge of the league and started to take over smaller polios and force them into her league.  Sparta then took off and started its own league in defense of Athens, which leads us right into the Peloponnesian Wars.  This is an important point because the Greek culture was spread over the world later by Alexander the Great, and because of that into America, where the word polios served as the root word of many of our modern day words like city, metropolis, and politician.  All of this information was found in class notes, and blackboard slid shows.

 

 

Peloponnesian Wars

 

     The Peloponnesian Wars were a series of wars in which the Delian league lead by the Athens fought against the Peloponnesian league lead by the Spartans.  They were slightly after the Persian War, and were caused indirectly by the Persian war.  These conflicts were spread out over Greece; Peloponnesian is actually the place in Greece where the Spartan’s homeland was.  The “declared” winner of the war was the Spartans, since they eventually conquered Athens, and installed a new government.  Even though the acknowledged winner was Sparta, neither side truly won because this war weakened Greece and opened up the way for them to be controlled by the Mesopotamians.  This is a very significant war in the history of the world, the main reason being that Greece was conquered by Alexander the Great, who spread Greek influence over most of the known world.  Because of this, Greek culture became the ideal and was admired in much of the world.  This information was found in the slid shows, and class notes.