Classical History (15% of AP Exam)

Now here's Classical History. These next civilizations are called "Classical Civilizations." They take civilization to a new level. They don't just have pictures for record keeping and religious rituals, they write monumental epics. Building projects are bigger and better, government gets more complex, etc.

Most Famous Classical Civilizations: Greeks - with all their cool philosophy and math and architecture; the Romans - seriously build an amazing empire, but in then end can't maintain it; the Han Chinese - China gets unified under the Qin, then achieve greatness and stability during the Han period; the Guptas - the Indian empire that produces great art and science.

Most of today's major world religions crop up during this time, and they're mostly polytheistic. Judaism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, Buddhism, Confucianism. A new little religion starts up in the Roman Empire, first among Jews, so it's going to keep the whole monotheistic idea, but then spreads throughout the Empire. It was called Christianity and it eventually becomes the official religion of the Empire. Today, one third of the world (2 billion people) is some type of Christian.

The end of this time period is all those big classical empires falling apart and the world descending into chaos. This will result in feudalism which will lead us into the next time period 600-1450.