Global History II

1
Global History II

• Unit I Review of Key Terms and Concepts

2
Culture
Is this Racism or Ethnocentrism?

• Definition
• Refers to the way of life of a society that is
  handed down from one generation to the next by
  learning and experience.
• What is the difference?
• Ethnocentrism the belief in the inherent
  superiority of ones own ethnic group or
  culture.
• VS.
• Racism the belief that one racial group is
  superior to another.

• Imperialism domination by one country of the
  political, economic, or cultural life of another
  country or region.
• VS.
• Mercantilism policy by which a nation sought to
  export more than it imported in order to build
  its supply of gold and silver.

Is this Imperialism or Mercantilism?
3
Politics

• Definition
• The science or art of government, using strategy
  or intrigue in obtaining power, control or
  status.
• Anarchy to abolish all government
• Revolution a complete and forcible overthrow and
  replacement of an established government by the
  people governed.

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Politics cont

• Types of Government

This map reflects the findings of Freedom House's
survey Freedom in the World 2007, which reports
the state of world freedom in 2006. It is one of
the most widely used measures of democracy by
researchers. Note that although these measures
(another is the Polity data described below) are
highly correlated, this does not imply
interchangeability
5
5 Themes of Geography

• Geography
• Study of people, their environments and their
  resources.
• Location where a place is on the surface of the
  earth.
• Latitude distance north and south of the
  equator.
• Longitude distance east and west of the prime
  meridian.
• Climate the prevailing weather conditions of a
  region, as temperature, winds, humidity,
  precipitation are measured and averaged over a
  series of years.

Latitude
Longitude
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5 Themes of Geography

• 2. Place Areas that are described in terms of
  their physical features.
• 3. Human-Environment Interaction The process of
  humans shaping and being shaped by the places in
  which they lived. This is also known as adjusting
  to ones surroundings.
• 4. Movement The movement of people, goods and
  ideas is a key link between geography and
  history.
• a. Cultural Diffusion The spread of ideas,
  customs and technologies from one people to
  another.
• 5. Region Ways that the world can be divided,
  like physical, cultural, political or economic
  features.
• a. Topography The detailed mapping or charting
  of the features of a relatively small area.

Topographic Map
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Geographical FeatureExplain its influence on the
development of a region

• Coastline (Regular)
• A Regular Coastline is smooth with very few
  natural harbors.  Africa is an example of a
  regular Coastline.  Regular coastline make
  building ports and harbors very difficult. 
  Without these, trade, sea travel, and cultural
  diffusion are near to impossible.  But, this also
  prevents invasion from the sea.  This feature of
  Africa kept invaders out of sub-Sahara Africa for
  a millennia.

8
Geographical FeatureExplain its influence on the
development of a region

• Delta - The end of a river is called its mouth,
  and with some rivers, such as the Nile, deposits
  of silt build up creating what is called a
  Delta.  A river's delta area is very important to
  humans as the deposits of rich silt provide very
  fertile farmland.
• Isthmus - An isthmus is a narrow stretch of land
  connecting two larger areas of land.  Panama in
  Central America is an isthmus. The advantages and
  disadvantages are the same as living in any
  coastal region.

9
Geographical FeatureExplain its influence on the
development of a region

• Island - An Island is an area of land completely
  surrounded by water.  Examples include Iceland,
  Great Britain, and Madagascar.  Islands often
  lack many natural resources and are forced to
  trade with other nations. Most island nations
  develop good forms of sea travel, such as Great
  Britain and Japan. Throughout history islands
  have been used as stepping stones to cross the
  major oceans.   
• Archipelago - The Pacific Ocean is full of
  Archipelagos, which are chains of islands.  Japan
  is a prime example of an archipelago.  Most
  archipelagos have irregular coastlines which make
  them vulnerable to invasion, but also foster
  trade and cultural diffusion.  The many
  archipelagos in the Pacific helped spread
  civilizations from the Asian mainland, and would
  much later help European explorers circumnavigate
  the globe.

10
Geographical FeatureExplain its influence on the
development of a region

• Mountains - Mountains are areas of land with
  steep sides that rise sharply from surrounding
  land.  20 of the Earth's surface is mountainous
  and they present both positive and negative
  aspects to human existence.  In the positive,
  mountains often act as barriers to invasion. 
  India, protected by the Himalaya Mountains, has
  enjoyed protection from invasion from other parts
  of Asia.  However, the barrier effect can also
  have negative effects.  Cultural diffusion is
  often hampered as trade and other peaceful
  contact cannot occur.
• Mountains also usually lack arable farm land. 
  This has often resulted in sparse human
  habitation.  But, in China and Mesoamerica
  (Inca), terraces or steps, were cut into the
  mountain providing an area of flat land suitable
  for crops.  This is known as terrace farming.
• In Greece, the mountainous terrain prevented the
  development of a unified society.  As a result,
  the Greeks formed city-states with a variety of
  government systems, including the first
  democracy. Another result of the mountainous
  terrain of Greece was the reliance on the sea as
  a source of food, and later trade.

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Geographical FeatureExplain its influence on the
development of a region

• Peninsula - A peninsula is an area of land
  surrounded on three sides by water. Italy,
  Greece, and the southern part of India are all
  peninsulas.  The advantages and disadvantages of
  living on a peninsula are the same as living in
  any coastal region.
• Plain - areas of level land, generally at a low
  elevation.  Examples include the Eurasian Plains
  and the Russian Steppes. Plains generally have
  fertile soil and are attractive to settlement as
  they are easy to reach, provide good road
  building, and have good farmland.  The negative
  aspects of plains as a geographic feature are
  that they are hard to defend as they are easy to
  reach.  Plains also provide no natural protection
  from the elements.

12
Geographical FeatureExplain its influence on the
development of a region

• Sea - a large body of salt water. The difference
  between an ocean and a sea is that a sea is
  smaller than an ocean, and is generally
  surrounded by land. An example of a sea would be
  the Red Sea which lies between Africa and Asia in
  the Middle East.
• Seas have positive and negative effects on human
  civilization.  They often act as a barrier to
  both cultural diffusion and invasion.  However,
  many civilizations developed good sea travel and
  were able to overcome this effect.  Great
  Britain, Portugal, Spain, Greece, the Roman
  Empire, the Netherlands, Early China, and Japan
  all were major naval powers at one time or
  another. In fact, for many of these
  civilizations, oceans and seas acted as highways
  of trade, cultural diffusion, and invasion. 
• Countries like Japan have a diet composed mainly
  of sea products and farmed vegetables.  Great
  Britain, in the twentieth century, began drilling
  for undersea oil off the north shore of
  Scotland.  Today, this valuable resource provides
  much of their energy needs.

13
Geographical FeatureExplain its influence on the
development of a region

• Desert - Deserts are areas of land with sparse
  vegetation, no arable farmland, and a very poor
  climate, usually hot and dry. Deserts often act
  as barriers to civilizations, as crossing a
  desert is often very difficult, if not
  impossible.  The Sahara Desert in North Africa
  effectively cut the southern part of Africa off
  from the Mediterranean world for centuries. 
  Also, through the process of desertification, the
  Sahara has been slowly claiming the arable land
  in Northern Africa.  Modern technology, such as
  the building of the Aswan Dam, has attempted to
  halt this process, and has met with some
  success.  The desert as a barrier also has
  positive effects.  The Sahara protected Southern
  Africa from invaders from the north, while also
  providing a secure western flank to the
  Egyptians.  It is not until World War II that
  serious warfare can occur across the desert.
• The Gobi Desert in China has acted as a barrier
  to both invasion and cultural diffusion.  China
  developed a very ethnocentric outlook due to
  their isolation.  Contributing to this isolation
  are rainforest and mountains.  The Gobi Desert
  has also forced most of China's people to live in
  the more fertile east, as no good farmland
  exists.  Despite the negatives, the Gobi Desert
  is a fantastic resource of fossils.  Many
  different species of dinosaurs have been
  identified from remains found in this desert,
  including an Oviraptor, sitting on a nest of
  fossilized eggs.

14
Geographical FeatureExplain its influence on the
development of a region

• Rivers River Valleys - Rivers and river valleys
  have been very important in the development of
  civilization. 
• Over time, many rivers have carved out river
  valleys as they flow.  Early civilizations formed
  in these river valleys because they provided a
  water source, good farmland, and a source of
  trade.  Civilizations such as Egypt on the Nile,
  Mesopotamian cultures on the Tigris and
  Euphrates, Early China on the Huang/Yellow and
  the Yangtze Rivers, and Early Indian civilization
  on the Indus all benefited from the river's
  resources. Many early civilizations developed
  irrigation systems to further take advantage of
  the river.  This adaptation allowed these
  civilizations to grow and flourish. 
• In modern times, other technologies have been
  developed to also make use of the river.  The
  Aswan High Dam on the Nile provides Egypt with a
  hydroelectric power source that is beneficial to
  the country. It also has allowed the Egyptians to
  reclaim many acres of land lost to
  desertification.  Careful management of this
  resources has created more arable farmland, and
  provided a source of life to the people in the
  region. 

15
Geographical FeatureExplain its influence on the
development of a region

• Steppe - a plain without trees (apart from those
  near rivers and lakes) it is similar to a
  prairie, although a prairie is generally
  considered as being dominated by tall grasses,
  while short grasses are said to be normal in the
  steppe. It may be semi-desert, or covered with
  grass or shrubs or both, depending on the season
  and latitude. The term is also used to denote the
  climate encountered in regions too dry to support
  a forest, but not dry enough to be a desert.
• Strait - a narrow stretch of water connecting two
  larger bodies of water.  Examples would be the
  Strait of Gibraltar connecting the Atlantic Ocean
  to the Mediterranean Sea, and the Strait of
  Magellan, which is at the tip of South America,
  connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific
  Ocean.  Straits are strategically important due
  to the control of trade or control of military
  access to a specific area. Controlling the Strait
  of Gibraltar means controlling access in and out
  of the entire Mediterranean Sea until the
  building of the Suez Canal on the Red Sea.

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Economic Systems

• What are they, what do they do?
• Economic systems include traditional, market,
  command, and mixed economies.  All of these
  systems attempt to answer the same questions.
  What should be produced?  How much? How should
  goods be produced? And, for whom? 
• A Traditional economic system relies on farming
  and very simple barter trading. Examples include
  Neolithic farming villages and the first river
  civilizations.
• Two Major Types of Economic Systems