History Flashcards
(28 cards)
Byzantine Empire
300 – 700 A.D.
- centered in Greece, Turkey and Russia
- emerged after the ‘fall’ of the Roman Empire
- Constantinople (major city)
- ‘new’ Eastern Roman (Christian) Empire
- rise of Islam; spread of Christianity
- emperors (Justinian)
Islamic Empire
600 – 1300 A.D.
- began in Arabia & spread to much of the civilized world (Europe, Asia, Mediterranean)
- Allah, Mohammed, Koran
- Mecca and Medina
- Kaba stone
- sultans (Saladin)
Medieval Period
(Middle Ages / Dark Ages)
(500 – 1500 A.D.)
- based in Europe
- rise of Catholic Church & power of the papistry / Vatican
- Christian saints (Francis of Assisi)
- Christian theologians (Thomas Aquinas)
- Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire
- proliferation of large cities
- knightly code of chivalry (King Arthur)
- feudal society; serfdom
- prevailing superstition & illiteracy
- deadly plagues (‘Black Death’)
- Norman Conquest of England in1066
- Richard the Lion-Hearted (English king)
- Joan of Arc (French heroine)
- Magna Carta (early limits on King’s power in England)
- Christian Crusades (against Muslims) in Holy Land
- Inquisition (Christian torture of heretics)
- 100 Years War between England & France
- Dante (Divine Comedy)
- Viking (Norse) explorations & invasions of Europe (Eric the Red)
- Mongol invasions of Asia & Eastern Europe
- Marco Polo (exploration of China)
Other Parts of the World
- Aztec civilization in Mexico
- Mongol invasions of Europe & Eastern Asia (Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan)
Renaissance
1500 – 1650 A.D.
– flourishing culture & intellectual life
– Italy and the Medici family
– major advances in the arts & sciences (Euclid)
– emergence of the middle class
– printing (Guttenberg Bible)
– humanism
– Black Death (bubonic plagues)
– dominance of Kings (Louis XIV of France)
– English Parliament (House of Lords & House of Commons)
– spread of Catholicism
– the Inquisition
– merchant elites (Medici family in Italy)
– political philosophy (Machiavelli’s The Prince)
– the Protestant Reformation (Martin Luther,
John Calvin, Henry VIII of England
– scientific revolution (Copernicus - Earth moves around the Sun; Galileo – gravity, telescope; Descartes – philosophic thought)
– painting and sculpture (Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt)
– age of European boat exploration (Columbus,
de Gama, Hudson, Magellan, Vespucci, Sir Francis Drake)
– Cervantes (Don Quixote); Shakespeare (Globe Theater)
– European colonialism (Dutch, French, Spanish, English, Portuguese)
– Spanish Armada (English sea victory)
– Spanish conquistadors (Cortez, Pizarro, de Soto)
– Ottoman Empire (spread of Islam)
– Joan of Arc (French defeat of England)
– Guttenberg – movable type; Bible printed
Other Parts of the World
– Inca civilization in Peru (Montezuma); Tenochtitlan)
Enlightenment
1650 – 1800 A.D.
- democratic political philosophies (Locke, Rousseau’s ‘Social Contract’
- skepticism about traditions (Voltaire’s Candide)
- scientific breakthroughs in many fields
- Newton (motion, gravitation)
- Copernicus (Earth revolves around Sun)
- Galileo (telescope, early physicist)
- feudalism in Europe
- Age of Global Exploration
- American Revolution
- French Revolution (Danton, Marat, Marie Antoinette, Robespierre); storming of Bastille
- English Bill of Rights
- divine right of kings vs. constitutionalism
- Westernization of Russia (Peter the Great)
- European colonial expansion (Asia, South America, North America, Central American, Caribbean)
- continued European exploration (James Cook)
- Napoleon conquers Europe and parts Mexico & Asia
- Czarism in Russia takes hold
Industrial Era
1800 – 1915 A.D.
- invention of the Steam Engine and emergence of the railroad
- Industrial Revolution (introduction of mass production, rapid technological advances and the factory system)
- technological advances (Edison, Faraday, McCormick)
- extensive urbanization
- exploitation of the working class
- monopolies and Robber Barons
- Napoleon Bonaparte (conquest of Europe)
- Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations
- textile factories
- Ben Franklin – electricity
- Eli Whitney (cotton gin); Adam Smith (laissez-faire economic system); Malthus (dangers of extreme population growth); Marx & Engels (Communist political philosophy); Charles Darwin (The Origin of Species, theory of evolution); John Stuart Mill (utilitarianism)
- Louis Pasteur (medicine & nutrition)
- Freud and the psychology of the unconscious
- Von Bismarck (Germany)
- Mormonism (Joseph Smith)
- Mozart & Beethoven (music)
- Suez Canal
- Alexander Graham Bell (telephone)
- Charles Darwin (evolution; Origin of Species)
Modern Period
1920 – present
- Russian Revolution (Bolsheviks, Socialism, Lenin, Trotsky)
- World War I (1914 -18); sinking of the Lusitania; Treaty of Versailles
- rise of Hitler (Nazism) in Germany & Mussolini (Fascism) in Italy
- World War II (1939-46), Holocaust (concentration camps); Stalin, Churchill, de Gaulle; Warsaw Pact; Marshall Plan (Post WW2 European recovery); Holocaust (concentration camps)
- United Nations
- NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization; a mutual defense alliance formed after WW2 between the US and Europe to combat the global spread of anti-Western regimes)
- European & American colonialism
- Curies; radiation
- Wright brothers – air flight
- Charles Lindbergh – transatlantic flight)
- Great Depression in America
- Franklin Roosevelt
- Einstein; theory of relativity (physics)
- Henry Ford (Model T car; assembly line production)
- modern warfare (weapons of mass destruction)
- League of Nations, United Nations
- the Iron Curtain & Cold War (atomic bomb); Khruschev
- Korean War
- Frank Lloyd Wright (architecture)
- widespread electricity (Faraday)
- globalization
- Panama Canal
- Picasso & Dali (abstract art)
- détente with Communist East
- emergence/development of Third World countries
- atomic theory / nuclear weapons (Manhattan Project)
- advanced technology and the Information Age
- apartheid in South Africa (begins & ends)
- Freud (psychology), Gandhi (anti-colonialism); Einstein (science)
- Watson & Crick (genetics. DNA)
- air & space travel (Neil Armstrong)
- state terrorism
- Iran; overthrow of Shah
Constitutional Government
governmental powers are defined in a written document
Democracy
representatives from an established electorate rule on behalf of citizens
Dictatorship
final authority is held by one person; no real sharing of power
Monarchy
power is held by one person (e.g., King, Queen) based on heredity or marriage; may have absolute or limited power
Oligarchy
led by a few equal leaders who have absolute power
Republic
combination of overall central authority and autonomy by individual geographic areas
Theocracy
led by one or more religious leaders
The Prehistoric Period
– Paleolithic Era (500,000 – 6,000 B.C.)
advanced hominids; precursors of modern humans (Neanderthal and Cro Magnon people); emergence of modern humans; primitive hunting & food gathering communities; crude stone tools; fire and language; artistic cave paintings
– Neolithic Era (6,000 B.C. – 1,500 B.C)
beginning of cooperative agriculture and domestication of animals; pottery & weaving, earliest year-round villages; advanced stone weapons and tools; use of metals (bronze, copper) for weapons & tools; sophisticated systems of irrigation
Mesopotamia
– centered in what is now known as Iraq
– between Tigris and Euphrates rivers
– “Cradle of Civilization” (Fertile Crescent)
– invention of alphabetic writing, wheel, calendar, astronomy
– advances in pottery, metallurgy & weaving
– Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires
– Sargon (1st large-scale empire); Hammurabi
(1st detailed law code)
– Copper Age (1st use of metal)
Canaan / Palestine
- development of ethical monotheism (Judaism)
- Jerusalem
- Abraham, Moses, kings David & Solomon, prophets (Judaism)
- birth of Christianity (Jesus Christ)
- Hebrew and Christian scriptures
- Saint Paul (great Christian missionary & early Church leader)
Egypt
- the Nile river valley
- Pharaoh as a living God (Tutankhamen, Ramses)
- pyramids, the Sphinx, mummification
- hieroglyphic writing, papyrus
- controlled Mesopotamia for thousands of years
- polytheism; many gods & goddesses (Isis, Osiris)
India
- Indus & Ganges river valleys
- caste system
- scriptures (Vedas)
- Brahmanism, Hinduism, Buddhism (Siddhartha Gautama)
- many gods & goddesses (Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma)
China
- Ch’in and Han dynasties
- Emperor as god-like
- Taoism (inner-directed spirituality)
- Confucius (stress on tradition, family, good government)
- the Great Wall, uniform standards, invention of paper, gunpowder, high literacy rates
- great Silk Road (trade)
Africa
- Olduvai Gorge (fossil remains of hominids)
- - tribal societies, music, dance, elaborate mythology, animism
Greece
- precursor Crete/Minoan (Greek islands) civilizations
- Trojan War, Persian War, Peloponnesian War
- city-states, Athens, Sparta, birth of democracy
- monumental buildings (Acropolis), statues
- beauty of the human form
- polytheism (many gods and goddesses on Mt. Olympus: Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, Apollo)
- epic poetry (Homer - Iliad & Odyssey, Hesiod)
- Trojan War, Peloponnesian War (Athens & Sparta)
- Pericles (great military leader)
- Acropolis
- Olympic games
- heroes (Achilles, Agamemnon, Orpheus)
- drama (tragedy: Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus / comedy: Aristophanes)
- Socrates (teacher of Plato, drank hemlock to commit suicide when put on trial for ‘blasphemy’ against the Gods
- Plato (theory of Ideal Forms, The Republic about the ideal type of society)
- Aristotle (helped establish the philosophical basis for psychology, aesthetics, government, ethics, the performing arts)
- Hippocrates (medical science)
- Solon (enlightened political leadership, democratic principles)
- Alexander the Great and Macedonia (conquered and Hellenized much of the civilized world)
- historians (Herodotus, Thucydides)
- beginning of Iron Age (in Europe)
Roman Empire
– Roman Republic came before it
– controlled the Mediterranean Sea areas and much of Europe (Britain, Gaul) and Asia
– many gods & goddesses (Poseidon, Jupiter, Juno)
– emperors Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar,
Marcus Aurelius
– Marc Antony (led plot to assassinate Julius Caesar and hooked up with Cleopatra in Egypt)
– epic poetry (Virgil – Aeneid, Ovid)
– took much of Greek religion, art, drama, politics etc.
– great civil and structural engineers (roads and aqueducts)
– made Christianity a state and world religion
– overtaken by internal corruption, military overextension & invading ‘barbarians’
– Plutarch, Livy (historians)
– Saint Augustine (early Christian theologian)
– Nicene Creed (Christianity: God & Jesus are of the same essence)
– philosophies (Stoicism, Epicurianism)
Colonial Period
1600 – 1776
– Christopher Columbus (late 1400s)
– Henry Hudson
– Jamestown Va. (early English settlement)
– Puritans (Mayflower, Plymouth Rock)
– Continental Congress (pre-Revolutionary War)
– George Washington
– Revolutionary War (Stamp Act, Boston Tea Party, ‘taxation without representation, Boston Massacre/Tea Party, Battles Lexington & Concord and Bunker Hill, Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold)
– Treaty of Paris (ends Revolutionary War)
– Federalists (Alexander Hamilton)
– Tories (British loyalists) & Whigs (patriots)
– Thomas Paine (Common Sense)
– Articles of Confederation (precursor to US Constitution; stressed states’ rights under a central US government)
– Declaration of Independence (all men created equal; right to life, liberty & pursuit of happiness; powers of government come from the consent of the governed)
– US Constitution (system of strong federal government powers & limitations; 3 branches – Executive (President), Legislative (Congress: Senate & House of Representatives), Judicial (Supreme Court); electoral college); checks and balances; electoral college
– Bill of Rights (add-on to US Constitution; first 10 amendments) 1 freedom of religion, press & assembly; 2 militia & right to bear arms; 4 protection against unreasonable search & seizure; 5 due process of law; 6 right to speedy & public trial; 8 protection against cruel & unusual punishment
– other Constitutional amendments, especially
13 abolition of slavery; 14 extension of citizenship & protection under the law; 15 right to vote regardless of race; 19 right to vote regardless of gender; 26 right to vote at age of eighteen
People
- Francis Scott Key (National Anthem)
- westward exploration (Daniel Boone)
- Ben Franklin (statesman & inventor)
- Cotton Mather (preacher)
- Thomas Paine (Common Sense)
- Eli Whitney (cotton gin)
- Joshua Reynolds & Gilbert Stuart (artists)
