Unit 2: Early River Valley Civilizations (3,000 BC-500 BC)
Unit Overview: Early River Valley Civilizations
This Unit Covers the Bronze Age through Iron Age and rise of Persia. Some important themes covered in this unit:
Early river valley civilizations
Pastoral societies and Bronze Age trade routes
Fertile Crescent civilizations
New Bronze Age kingdoms
Unit Essay: The Cradle of Civilization
In order to get credit for this project you must write an essay on the following topic:
The Cradle of Civilization
By 2,000 BC the civilizations of the Fertile Crescent were similar, fairly stable, and civilization had at that point existed for more than a thousand years. The Fertile Crescent appears to be the first area that the Neolithic Revolution took hold and dominated society, and the civilizations of the Fertile Crescent set many of the basic patterns for civilization, which is why historians often call the region, "The Cradle of Civilization". Consider some of the civilizations and developments that you have learned about in your lessons for this unit, and write a five-paragraph essay of 600 or more words explaining why the Fertile Crescent could be called "The Cradle of Civilization."
The Fertile Crescent with Classical Civilizations featured
Helpful links for this essay:
Unit Videos:
Egypt's Golden Empire: The Warrior Pharaohs (54:42)
Unit Lectures:
The Cradle of Civilization Essay Class
Primary Sources:
World History A Unit 2 Key Terms
For this project you must define the terms listed below and explain each term's significance to the unit/era being studied. Your definition should be 2-3 sentences long and may be copied and pasted from a source like Wikipedia, but the significance of the term must be in your own words and based on your own understanding. To fill out a term's significance, ask yourself, "Why is this item included in my study of this unit? Why is this term in a history book?" The answer to this question is your term's significance.
Unit 2 Key Terms:
Bronze Age
Indus Valley Civilization
Mycenaeans/Minoans
Israelites
Sumer
Phoenicians
Aryan race
Hyksos
Cunieform
Babylonia
pastoral societies
epic literature
Upper and Lower Egypt
Code of Hammurabi
polytheism/monotheism
medes
Key Traits of
Shang Dynasty
Hittite Empire
Sargon of Akkad
Civilization
Below is an example of a key term done with the proper format:
William the Conqueror: William I (c. 1028[2] – 9 September 1087), also known as William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquérant), was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II. Before his conquest of England, he was known as William the Bastard because of the illegitimacy of his birth.To press his claim to the English crown, William invaded England in 1066, leading an army of Normans, Bretons, Flemings, and Frenchmen (from Paris andÎle-de-France) to victory over the English forces of King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest.[3] (I copied and pasted this definition from Wikipedia)
Significance: William the Conqueror is significant because his conquest of England created the first nation state in Europe. His rearrangement of English feudal territories to give himself dramatically more power than the the barons and nobles around him caused him to be the most powerful monarch in Europe and eventually led to the rise of other nation states over the next few centuries. (These are my words based on my knowledge of English and European history.)