Early Civilizations of India, China, and the Americas

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• Early Civilizations of India, China, and the
  Americas

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China

• The Huang He Valley Huang He is "the cradle
  of Chinese civilization"

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• The black haired people
• In the valley of Huang He (Yellow River)
• Isolated because of geography steep mountains,
  wide deserts and deep seas
• Mostly farmers
• Had terrible floods Huang He - Chinas
  sorrow

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• Pit-like houses for farmers and palaces for
  kings.
• In 1700 BC, the early Chinese learned to write -
  Had one of the oldest written histories.

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• Carved bones with Chinese writing

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• People in the Huang He valley made fine cloth
  with silk.
• They honored their ancestors Large families
  lived together.

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Chinese Dynasties

• Shang dynasty c. 1750 1050 BCE - First
  dynasty- ruled the Huang He Valley for about 500
  years
• Zhou dynasty around 1028 B.C.- Warlike people-
  Developed irrigation systems and flood control-
  Huang He to Chang Jiang (or Yangtze River)-
  Lasted for more than 750 years

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Confucius (551 479 B.C.)

• Chinese philosopher
• His ideas developed during late Zhou period - a
  social code of behavior
• Had the strongest influence on Chinese life

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• Confucius taught 1. How to treat each
  otherNever do to others what you would not like
  them to do to you.
• 2. Importance of family life, respect and
  honor old people, ancestors3. education is
  important China had the worlds first civil
  service system

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What was Happening Outside China during Shang
period?

• Hammurabis code
• Mycenaean Civ. In Greece
• Stonehenge
• Moses led Israelites out of Egypt
• Mayans processed rubber
• Trojan War - Homers Troy fell
• Ramses III of Egypt (signed the peace treaty with
  the Hittites)

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• Qin Dynasty from 221 to 206 B.C. (short)- Shi
  Huangdi the first Qin emperor, a cruel ruler-
  strong central government

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• Shi Huangdi planned the Great Wall of China-
  over 4,000 miles long, the longest structure
  in the world!- to protect the northern
  borders from invaders- further isolated China
  - very expensive, high taxes ? a civil war
  broke out!

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• Han dynasty gained control in 206 B.C.- The Qin
  dynasty collapsed

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• The Silk Road

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The Americas

• From Asia - traveled across the Bering Strait (a
  land bridge)
• Probably following herds of animals
• Farming settlements began about 5,000 years after
  the people in the Middle East and Asia began
  farming.

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What did Native Americans farm?

• Maize, squash, tomatoes and beans
• South Americans grew cotton
• They raised llama for wool.

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The Olmecs

• Probably built the first real city in the Americas

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• The Olmecs- City in Mexico, just west of the
  Gulf of Mexico
• Giant heads out of stone
• Shrines (without metal tools or wheels)
• A system for counting
• A simple calendar
• Civilization lasted formore than 1,000 years

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Olmec Head at La Venta
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The Maya

• Right after Olmec Civilization
• Began in southern Mexico and Central America

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• Studied Olmec calendar and made their own
  calendar
• Astronomy
• Strongest fromabout 250 B.C. to A.D. 800

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maize

• Indian corn

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shrine

• A place of worship believed to be sacred or holy

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New Technologies

• Excelled in astronomy and mathematics
• Could predict eclipses of the sun and moon
• Invented the concept of zero and used a symbol to
  represent zero
• By combining astronomy and mathematics,
  calculated the length of the solar year at
  365.242 days about 17 seconds shorter than the
  modern figure

Mayan numerical system