1. The Growth of Civilization
Early Peoples – The Renaissance

2. Pre-Historic Americas
Last Ice Age: Glaciers cover 1/3 of the Earth, as far down as present-day Kentucky.
Glaciers lock up water and expose low lands, including a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska.
The first bands of hunters track herds of animals across the land bridge and keep moving south over time to Central and South America.

3. Early Civilizations Farming advanced – cities emerged
As people traveled deeper into the Americans, where are they most likely to settle?
Civilization: a society that has certain basic features
Olmecs: Earliest known civilization in the Americas.
Studied the stars and developed a calendar that would predict the seasons and mark the passage of time

4. Early Civilizations Mayas Aztecs
Social Classes - Priests held great power
Advances in Learning
Predict eclipses
365 Day Calendar
System of Numbers that included the Concept of Zero
Aztecs
Nomads
Tenochtitlan
Religion - Sun God – thousands of sacrifices each year

5. Early Civilizations North American Natives People of the Southwest
Irrigation to farm the desert
Roads to link towns
ADOBE HOUSES: Known as Pueblos. Sun dried brick.
Mound Builders
Originally used for burials
Later for Religious Ceremonies

6. The First Global Age
1400s: Travelers and Trade Goods moved along land and sea routes that connect Africa, The Middle East, and Asia.
For the first time, far off parts of the world begin to be linked – i.e. the first Global Age

7. The Muslim World
The growth of trade and conquest is simultaneous with the spread of Islam. Muslim merchants carry the faith to people living along trade routes of Asia and Africa and unites Muslims from many lands.
Silk Road: Overland routes that crossed the grasslands, mountains, and deserts of Central Asia and linked China to the Middle East. Prized Chinese silks were carried along them for more than 2,000 years.
Travel was dangerous.

8. The Greek Empire 500 B.C. – Greece enters a Golden Age
Socrates, Aristotle – great minds. Reason.
Lived in City-States
Athens –first created Direct Democracy – form of government in which ordinary citizens have the power to govern.
All citizens could attend assembly and make laws for the city. However, only free men whose parents were born in Athens were considered citizens.

9. The Roman Empire
509 B.C. – Rome overthrows their king and set up a Republic.
Republic: a system of government in which citizens choose representatives to govern them.
Senate & Assembly Make Laws
Everyone is equal before the law/Innocent until proven Guilty
Rules about evidence used in court
Discuss: Compare Greek and Roman ideas about Government

10. The Middle Ages
500 – 1400 A.D.
Feudalism: system of rule by lords who ruled their lands but owed loyalty and military service to a monarch.
Most Powerful Force: The Roman Catholic Church
Large amounts of land
Source of education (clergy often the only people who could read and write)

11. The Middle Ages The Crusades 1100 – 1300
Series of wars fought by the Christians to control the Holy Land (Jerusalem and other places where Jesus lived and taught). Muslims had ruled the Holy Land for centuries.
After nearly 200 years of fighting (very bloody) the Crusaders failed to win permanent control of the Holy Land
However, during the Crusades, trade increased tremendously as the Crusaders came in contact with other civilizations.

12. The Renaissance
Great “burst of learning” which occurred from the late 1300s – the 1600s
New discoveries in art, medicine, astronomy, and chemistry
Printing Press
Johannes Gutenburg (German Printer) – 1430s
Large numbers of books could now be printed quickly and at a low cost.
More people began to read, spreading learning faster

13. The Renaissance Search for New Trade Routes
European rulers began to increase their power
Eager to increase wealth, saw trade as the way to new profits
Search for valuable spices
Portugal: Early Leader
Bartolomeu Dias – 1488 – reaches southern tip of Africa
Vasco de Gama – 1497 – rounds the Cape of Good Hope and sails up the coast of East Africa, across the Indian Ocean to India.