1. Indo-European Migration

2. The Indo-Europeans were a group of seminomadic peoples who came from the steppes (dry grasslands that stretched north of the Caucasus, mountains between the Black and Caspian seas).

3. Primarily pastoral people who herded cattle, sheep, and goats
Tamed horse and rode into battle in light, two-wheeled chariots.

4. Indo-European nomads begin to migrate outward in all directions between 1700 and 1200 B.C.E.
Didn’t happen all at once but in waves over time.

5. About 2000 B.C.E. a group called the Hittites occupied Anatolia, or Asia Minor.

6. Rich in timber and agriculture
Nearby mountains held important mineral deposits.
City-States came together to form the Hittite empire with Hattusas as its capital.

7. Hittites used their own Indo-European language with each other.
For international discussions the Hittites adopted Akkadian, the language of the Babylonians, whom they had conquered.

9. Hittites blended their culture with the Babylonians, spreading their ideas.
Hittites borrowed ideas about literature, art, politics, and law from the Mesopotamian people.
Similar legal code to Hammurabi’s code but more forgiving.
Controlled most of Mesopotamia for 450 years

10. Contributions to Society
Smelting (the process of extracting ore) and using iron
First to use iron weapons
First ever peace treaty in the 1200s B.C.E.(between Hittites and Egypt)

11. Background
Classical Indian civilization began in the Indus River Valley, and later spread to the Ganges River Valley. Eventually, Indian civilization spread South throughout the entire subcontinent.

12. Indian civilization was not interrupted by invasion in its early history due to its relative isolation by natural barriers such as
the Himalayas
Hindu Kush Mountains
Indian Ocean

13. Eventually, invaders entered India through mountain passes in the Hindu Kush mountains. These invaders were known as the Aryans.

14. Aryans (Indo-Aryans)
Semi-nomadic people who crossed the mountains into the Indus Valley around 1500 BCE
The Indo-Aryans asserted their dominance in India and over Indian people by creating a rigidly structured society, called the caste system.

15. Caste System Social classes based on skin color and heredity Castes:
Meant that the classes were not flexible (rigid)
Castes:
Brahmins: priests and religious scholars on top
Kshtryiyas: lawmakers and warriors
Vaishyas: merchants and traders
Shudras: laborers
Untouchables: butchers, trash collectors
Your caste influenced
All social interactions
Your choice of occupation

16. Mauryan Empire: 305 BCE-230 BCE
Founded by Chandragupta Maurya
Expanded by Ashoka, who continued the political unification of India
Ashoka converted to Buddhism after seeing the devastation that war caused.

17. Contributions: Buddhism Free hospitals Veterinary clinics
Improved roads

18. Gupta Empire: 320 CE-420 CE
Reigned during the peak of classical Indian culture- “the Golden Age”
Significant contributions:
Mathematics (zero, modern numbers, decimals)
Medicine (setting bones)
Astronomy (First to think the earth was round)
New textiles (middlemen for the silk trade on the Silk Roads)
Literature (poems, dramas)