Unit 2 Flashcards
What was the importance of Upanishads to Hinduism?
The Upanishad texts claim to be linked to the Vedic tradition but introduce entirely new ideas. They turn away from sacrificing rituals.
What is Karma and how does it translate into the life of every indian?
Karma is the idea that people’s acts in this life determined how they would be born into the next.
What were the tasks of the Brahmin caste?
To perform Vedic rituals.
How did Buddhusm and Jainism challenge old Vedic religions?
Old Vedic religion involved animal sacrifice to advance into the next stages of certain event within life, Buddhism did not involve sacrifices, and focused on the transition into the next life.
Define Bhakti
Means “personal devotion or love”, a term for Hindu poetry or cults that emphasize a strong personal tie between the diety and a devotee, and did not use priests as intermediaries
What is the literal meaning for the word Buddha?
The englightened or awakened one.
What is Varna and how does it decide who is the purist in indian society?
Varna is the Sanskrit word for color. It put people in social groups in order of purity, not power or wealth. The purest were Brahmins because they conducted Vedic rituals. Them farmers and merchants, then laborers, then dependant laborers.
What does the Bhudda ask of each individual follower?
To follow the 8-fold path
How did Ashoka spread the word of the Bhudda?
He adopted it as the state religion of the Mauryan dynasty making it spread vastly.
Why was the battle of Kalinga a turning point for Buddhism?
The huge number of deaths at the battle filled Ashoka with remorse, so he made a decision to follow the Buddha and uphold the 5 important precepts.
What do The Analects mean when translated to English?
Discussions and conversations
What is the importance of The Analects to confucianism?
They are the only record we have of confucius’s thinking.
What relationships did Confucius focus on?
Respect for one parents, parents and children.
Under which dynasty did Confucius focus on? How was Confucianism used in Chinese politics?
The Han dynasty. It was used by the government embracing it, creating better officials.
What are major similarities between Daoism and Confucianism? What characteristic do they share?
Daoism and Confucianism are both philosophies created to find a “way” to peacefulness.
Although Confucianism is not considered a religion what aspect of the philosophy may qualify as a religion?
The fact that it was the spreading of the teachings of one man, and had many followers. People built shrines and buildings devoted to him.
Why did the Roman empire have Jesus crucified?
They feared his teachings and criticism may provoke unrest or an uprising against roman rule, so out of fear, Jesus was crucified.
Why were so many converts attracted to the promises of Jesus?
The religion welcomed everyone, including the poir, and didn’t favor anyone
Who was Paul and why did he feel he was a true personal disciple of Jesus?
Paul was an early Christian leader who was born into a wealthy Roman family. He thought he was a true personal disciple because he had a vision of Jesus.
What is the major concept of Zoroastrianism?
Good vs Evil entity/spirit in life choices.
Why were Persian couriers so effiecient and what did Herodotus say about them?
Persian couriers were so effiecient because of their acccess to an extensive network of roads. Herodotus so there was nothing on earth faster than the couriers and that they travel from station to station and get a new horse at each station.
Who were the Persians unable to defeat?
The Greeks
What political structure did the persians use and why was it so successful?
The Persians used a monarchy and it was successful because Darius ruled with absolute power, had couriers, and reformed an efficent tax system.
Why did Darius 1 choose a monarchy as the poltical structure?
He believed that in a monarchy if the person in power had good character, they would experience success, and he believed he had good character.
What changes did Cyrus make to his military to make it more effective?
He made his soldiers paid full time, staffed by many other people, kept a King’s bodyguard unit, have kept up an extensive network of roads.
What was the Babylon captivity and who ended it?
The Babylon captivity was a 60 year captivity of Jews they captured and Cyrus ended it when he conquered them.
What were the characteristics of a greek city state or polis?
The majority of citizens in these city states farmed, with a small minority settling inside walled cities. These city states were small with a surrounding agricultural area, had a population between 5-10,000, was self sufficient, had its own courts, law, and army. The poleis had a temple for a guardian diety inside city walls.
Who was Solon and what did he create?
Solon was the Civilian head of state in Athens and reformed Athen’s goverment into more a democracy.
How did the role of the city staye caused the Persians to not be able to defeat Greece?
The city states were able to combine their forces into a Delian league to fight off the Persians.
What was Athens like militarily, politically, culturally, intellectually, etc. at the height of its power?
Greek genre of tragedy took shape, built amazing buildings, a strong military, became a center of studies for philosophy, they had a democracy, and were advanced intellectually.
Who was plato and what did his academy emphasize?
Plato was a student of socrates and a teacher of aristotle in philosophy and his acedmy emphasized reason.
Who was Aristotle and what did he emphasize?
A student of Plato in philosophy who was born in Macedon and entered Plato’s academy. He emphasized that people had to study hard to gain control over their desires.
Who was Homer and what did he write about?
Homer was a poet who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey describing the Trojan Wars.
How was Alexander’s empire more Persian than Greek?
He donned Persian clothing, he expected troops to act like Persians did to their king, Alexander married for political alliances,
What is the story behind the founding of Rome?
Romulus and Remus, were grandsons of a rightful king. The evil king ordered a servant to kill them but abandoned them instead. The twins survived and were raised by a wolf, and Romulus went on and found Rome.
What groups were among the first to settle in the Italian peninsula?
The greek, romans, and etruscans.
What empire did the Romans have their first major clash with?
The carthaginians.
What did the term latinfundia refer to?
Latinfundia were private estates held by rich landowners for mass production of crops and food to sell.
How was Julius Ceasar able to take power?
After defeating the Gauls, he led his army into Rome and declared himself dictator for life, then he was appointed dictator, then served as consul every other year.
Why was Ceasar assassinated?
The senators did not like him or what he did to become dictator because it antagonized them.
Who was Octavian and what does Augustus mean?
He was the first sole ruler of Rome, he eliminated all his competition and brought a century of political chaos and civil war to an end, he was basically Rome’s first emperor and he changed the political structure of Rome. He recieved the title “Augustus” which means “revered”.
What was the Pax Romana?
The period between 27BCE when Octavian took power, and 180CE is called the Pax Romana or Roman Peace because that was a time of stability.
Why was the use of military volunteers not successful in the Roman Empire
The soldiers loyalties were to the general who paid them, not Rome.
What was the importance of standardized coinage in the Roman empire?
It united the empire, one currency was used to make transaction everywhere in the empire.
What were the major characteristics of Roman religion before christianity?
The Romans basically had greek gods with Roman names, whom they had sacrifices for and worshipped.
Which emperor moved the capital to Byzantium?
Constantine.
What was the principate?
The system of government in Rome where the ruler is the “first citizen”.
What was the historical importance of constantine?
Constantine removed the tetrarchy in Rome and he moved the capital from Rome to Byzantium. He also launched the Edict of Milan and provoked the spread of christianity throughout the empire.
Who was Diocletian and what was his historical importance?
He launched the last persecution of christianity and divided the roman empire into east and west empire.
What was the role of the patrician in early Roman society? What was the role of the Plebian in Roman society?
The patricians were Rome’s wealthiest families and theu served on an assembly alongside Rome’s kings. Plebians were commoners in Rome.
Why were Romans so successful at expansion during years of the republic?
The Romans had a good military and good road system.
What is the historical importance of Theodosuis 1?
Theodosius 1 was the last emperor to rule over the east and west half of Rome, he issued the Edict of Thesslonica declaring christianity, as defined by the council of Nicea, the official religion of the empire. He also banned worship of pagan dieties the following year and authorized tearing down their temples.
What period followed the collapse of the Zhou?
The Warring States Period.
How did the Zhou dynasty collapse?
The Zhou coexisted with many other ruling families and Chinese characters gradually settled more and more territory at the expense of others. In all the chaos, the Qin took over the Zhou as the ruling family in China.
which dynasty was the first to unify China?
The Qin dynasty
Which religion in China emerged under the Qin?
Legalism
How did the Qin use Legalism?
The Qin didnt recognize heredity titles, not even for the ruling family, instead a meritocracy was used from Legalism.
What religion/philosophical way of thought was spread during the Han dynasty?
Confucianism.
What problems did the Han face when they took control of China?
They faced the problem of staffing a government large enough to govern the empire.
What was the Imperial Academy?
An academy established by emperor Wu to encourage the study of Confucian texts. Success in the examinations of the Imperial Academy could advance ones careers.
What was the most important technological achievement of the Han? What is its impact on world history?
Paper. It allowed information and learning to shift from oral to written.
Who founded the Mauryan dynasty and under which ruler did it reach its peak?
Chandragupta Mauryan founded it and it reached its peak under Ashoka.
What happened to Ashoka at the battle of Kalinga?
The huge number of deaths filled him with remorse and he decided to follow Bhuddism after that.
What happened to Bhuddism after the death of Ashoka?
It spread beyond India for he first time.
How did Buddhism spread during the Mauryan dynasty?
Ashoka adopted the religion, spread it all over his empire, and other rulers ruled by example from him.
What unique animals did the Mauryans used in military?
Elephants.
How had Buddhism changed by the time of the Gupta?
It had spread and been adopted within a major empire.
How was Constantine related to Christianity?
- Claimed he had a vision of the christian cross which meant he should rule
- worshipped god and ended christian persecution in the empire, issued Edict of Milan
How was Theodosius related to Christianity?
-Theodosius declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire
What did Herodotus do, what is he known as, where is he from, what form of government did he support and who was in power when he wrote?
Herodotus wrote about events of his time, he wrote Historia and he is know as the Father of history. Persia was in power at the time. He was from Halicarnassus and supported monarchy.
What are the major ideas/concepts of Zoroastrianism and how do they play out?
- We know most of our information about this religion from The Avesta
- Believe in the supreme diety Ahura Mazda(The Lord of Truth)
- Ahura Mazda gave birth to twin entities, a good and evil spirit
- Each follower must prepare for the day of judgement where they appear before Ahura Mazda
- Good and Bad spirit were always in conflict, good gained ground with good deeds, bad gained grohnd with bad deeds
- Humans shape their world by choosing between good and bad
- Magis guarded fire altars, worshippers fed them 5 times a day
- Let dead people rot, then buried their bones
Why did the Persian empire last so long?
They were tolerant of other people’s way of life.
What was the first unified empire in China and who unified it?
Qin unified by Shi Huangdi
Why is Athens studied more than Sparta?
Athens had a democracy, more conplexity, was more advanced, had a more expansive military, and record more history.
What two dynasties is the warring states period in between?
Zhou and Qin
What kind of government does Sparta have?
An oligarchy
What was Bhakti Hinduism?
A branch of Hinduism where one god was worshipped, the god was picked by the family.
Who could have political power in Athens?
Land owning greek men.
What was the Delian League?
An alliance between greek city states made to keep out the Persians, the Athenians ended up exploiting it.
What were the levels of the Hindu Caste system divided by?
Purity.
What are the levels of the caste system from least, to most pure?
Untouchables Shudra Vaishya Cheti&kshatriya Brahman
What was the job of each level of the Hindu Caste system?
Untouchables- dealt with human waste Shudra- Farmer and laborer Vaishya- Merchant, trader, Artisan Cheti&Kshatriya- Ruler and warrior Brhman-Priest and Scholar
What years did the East and West half of the Roman Empire fall?
West-476 CE
East- 1453 CE
Who split the empire into east and west halves and why?
Diocletian because he believed it was too big
How does the geography of India affect the people there?
Indian was politically fragmented due to the terrain, which led different languages and cultural beliefs.
What is Sanskrit and how does it apply to Hinduism and Bhuddism?
It is an ancient Indian language, and it is the language most of the ancient Hindu and Bhuddist texts were written in.
What are the two different expressions of Bhuddism?
Theravada Bhuddism- Believed Bhudda wasn’t divine, but he was a wise teacher and model.
Mahayana Bhuddism- Budda became a god who postponed his own entry into nirvana to help others.
What were the two social classes of Rome?
Patrician-Wealthy elite who ran the government
Plebians-Commoners who lived daily life
What kind of government did early Rome have?
A republic
Who was Hannibal and what did he do?
Hannibal was a Cartaginian general who had elephants in his army and marched around the Mediteranean and through the Alps where much of his army died but still won a battle against Rome.
What do people start doing for land in 3rd century Rome?
The move out of the city and pledge themselves landowners, this is the beginning of Feudalism.
What is Despotism?
The foundation for absolute rule.
What land owning policy did the Zhou use?
Feudalism-Land=Wealth
What emerges during the warring states period thay is really important to chinese history?
Daoism, legalism, and confucianism
What are the goals of Daoism/Taoism, Legalism, and confucianism?
To create peace and unify China.
How was Confucianism used in Chinese government?
Confucianism was made a state religion, and they used it in the Civil state exam so that the people running the government had good Confucian values.
What is the main focus in Daoism/Taoism and what does ‘The Tao’ mean?
- Yin and Yang
- focuses on harmony and nature
- The tao means the way
How long will China have an Emperor?
From the Qin dynasty until the 1900’s
What philisophical/religious belief did the Qin use?
Legalism.
Who was Lui Bang and what did he do?
Lui Bang lead peasant revolts after the death of Shi Huangdi and eliminated almost all competition through diplomacy and military might. He established the Han dynasty.
What were the three main groups in the Han dynasty?
- Landowners and educated beaurocrats
- Peasants and aritisans
- Merchants, actors, and musicians
What did the Civil service exam test?
It tested confucian values in government candidates so that the best confucian people ran the government.
Why was confucianism used in Han government?
Confucianism creates respect between leaders and subjects.
How does Confucianism change over time?
It goes from an idea/philosophy to a religion and people start to make shrines for confucious.
What was China’s big product of the Han time?
Cast iron
Why is the Han more successful than the Qin?
They are more tolerable.
