World History
385 flashcards by MentisLibrary
A single timeline of world history in 385 cards, from the first farming villages to the twenty-first century. Covers every inhabited continent, with the date, the region and why it mattered on every card, so the connections between events in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas stay visible.
- What change defines the Neolithic Revolution?
- The shift from foraging to farming and herding, with permanent settlements
- What is Gobekli Tepe?
- A monumental temple complex in southeastern Turkey built by hunter-gatherers
- What was Catalhoyuk?
- A large Neolithic settlement in Anatolia whose houses were entered through the roof
- Which civilization produced the first known writing system?
- Sumer, with cuneiform pressed into clay
- What was Uruk?
- The Sumerian city often called the world's first true city, with tens of thousands of residents
- Which single technology most changed the pace of history?
- Writing, because it let knowledge accumulate beyond one lifetime and one memory
- Who unified Upper and Lower Egypt?
- Narmer, often identified with the Menes of later tradition
- What was Norte Chico?
- An early complex society on the coast of Peru, centered on sites like Caral
- When was Stonehenge's main stone construction?
- Between roughly 3000 and 2000 BC, in several phases
- What was the Bantu expansion?
- The spread of Bantu-speaking farmers from West-Central Africa across much of the continent
- Which civilization built Mohenjo-daro and Harappa?
- The Indus Valley, or Harappan, civilization
- Who built the Great Pyramid of Giza?
- Pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty
- Who was Sargon of Akkad?
- The ruler who conquered the Sumerian city-states and built the first known empire
- What is a ziggurat?
- A stepped temple platform at the center of a Mesopotamian city
- What is the Epic of Gilgamesh?
- A Mesopotamian poem about a king of Uruk who searches for immortality
- What was the Minoan civilization?
- A Bronze Age palace society on Crete, centered on Knossos
- What was the Code of Hammurabi?
- A Babylonian law code of 282 provisions carved on a stone stele
- Who were the Hittites?
- An Anatolian empire that rivaled Egypt for control of Syria
- What was Mycenaean Greece?
- A warrior palace civilization on the Greek mainland, centered on Mycenae and Pylos
- What were the Vedas?
- The oldest Sanskrit scriptures, transmitted orally for centuries before being written
- Who founded Zoroastrianism?
- Zarathustra, also called Zoroaster
- What was Akhenaten's religious reform?
- He elevated the sun disk Aten above all other gods and moved the capital to Amarna
- Whose intact tomb did Howard Carter find in 1922?
- Tutankhamun, a minor pharaoh who died young
- What was the Battle of Kadesh?
- A huge chariot battle between Ramesses II of Egypt and the Hittites in Syria
- What did Shang dynasty oracle bones record?
- Divination questions put to royal ancestors, scratched on ox bones and turtle shells
- What was the Late Bronze Age collapse?
- The rapid fall of the Hittites, Mycenaeans and other eastern Mediterranean states
- What was the Olmec civilization?
- The earliest major Mesoamerican civilization, known for colossal carved stone heads
- What was the Kingdom of Kush?
- A Nubian kingdom on the Nile south of Egypt, centered later at Meroe
- What were the Phoenicians best known for?
- Seaborne trade across the Mediterranean and an alphabet of about 22 consonant signs
- What doctrine did the Zhou dynasty use to justify its rule?
- The Mandate of Heaven