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World History 1

<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00001" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/5a43665e14d59205d4bdd02de7d23d6c9ed26b67" alt="A picture of a landscape with a waterfall is shown. The upper portion shows blue skies with mountains in the far distance on the right and left. Trees, grass, yellow fields, and a snaking waterway are at the top of the hill. The waterway spills down a rocky mountainside in a large waterfall on the right and three small ones on the left into a rocky river with dark colored water. A rainbow forms to the right and left of the large waterfall." mediaType="image/jpg" width="1750" height="800" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="1750">
	<strong>Figure 2.1</strong> Millions of years ago, our early evolutionary ancestors roamed around today’s Ethiopia, living off the land. (credit: modification of work “Blue Nile Falls at Tis Issat near Bahir Dar, Ethiopia” by A.Savin/Wikimedia Commons, Licence Art Libre/Copyleft)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	In 1974, while on a mapping expedition in Ethiopia (<a href="#fig-00002">Figure 2.2</a>), an American paleoanthropologist named Donald <OpenstaxTerm>Johanson</OpenstaxTerm> and a colleague stumbled upon a skeletal forearm and skull in a gully. Upon closer inspection, they not only found more bones but also realized that all of them had belonged to some type of early human. After careful work, Johanson’s team was able to recover about 40 percent of the skeleton, which they named <OpenstaxTerm>Lucy</OpenstaxTerm> after the popular Beatles song, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	We now know that, though small, Lucy was an adult when she died about 3.2 million years ago. Scholars have learned a great deal since her discovery, about her but also about many of our other evolutionary ancestors. In the millions of years since Lucy walked the Earth, a number of early human species have come and gone. Some migrated out of Africa and populated portions of Asia, Europe, Australia, and the Americas. These different species developed new tools, learned to control fire, mastered language, and produced stunning works of art. Then, about twelve thousand years ago, some of our own species adopted agriculture. With this innovation, many early human groups began to end their hunting and gathering ways and establish settled communities.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00002" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/629ad60582dc18e37e9658faa9b4f8ef8d4fe3ae" alt="A timeline showing events from this chapter is shown. 3.3 million years ago: Pre-humans begin using stone tools. 2-3 million years ago: Homo habilis appears; a picture of a skull with eye sockets, a nose opening and long teeth on the right and left side of the upper jaw is shown. 2 million years ago: Homo erectus appears. 200,000 years ago: Homo sapiens start migration out of Africa; a map of the world is shown with Africa highlighted red and yellow and red arrows pointing out of the red highlighted region in Africa travelling all over the world. 100,000 years ago: Most recent glaciation period begins. 40,000 years ago: Neanderthals begin to die out; a picture of a brown skinned person is shown with messy long hair, deep, large eyes, and large teeth on a yellow background. 40,000 years ago: Venus of Hohle Fels carved from mammoth ivory; a carving with bumps at the top and two short legs coming off of the bottom is shown. 15,000 years ago: Humans arrive in North America. 12,000 years ago: Mesopotamians domesticate plants. 11,600 years ago: Göbekli Tepe founded." mediaType="image/jpg" width="1301" height="703" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="1301">
	<strong>Figure 2.2</strong> (credit “2–3 million years ago”: modification of work “Skull of Homo Habilis (Replica)” by “Luna04”/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5; credit “200,000 years ago”: modification of work “Spreading of Homo sapiens” by “NordNordWest”/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain; credit “40,000 years ago” top: modification of work “Reconstruction of Neanderthal woman (makeup by Morten Jacobsen)” by Public Library of Science/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5; credit “40,000 years ago” bottom: modification of work “Venus&quot;-pendant, mammoth ivory, Alb-Donau Region, on loan from the National Archaeological Museum in Baden-Württemberg, shown at the Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart, Germany” by “Anagoria”/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0)
</OpenstaxFigureText>

2 Early Humans

1 Understanding the Past

1.1 Developing a Global Perspective

1.1.1 World History as Preparation for Life after College

1.1.2 World History and Global Citizenship

1.1.3 Features of This Textbook

1.2 Primary Sources

1.2.1 Learning to Evaluate Documents and Images

1.2.2 Documentary Sources: Competing Narratives

1.2.3 Textual Sources: The Importance of Language

1.2.4 Hidden in History

1.3 Causation and Interpretation in History

1.3.1 Levels of Causation

1.3.2 Interpretation in History

2.1 Early Human Evolution and Migration

2.1.1 Human Evolution

2.1.2 Why Did Humans Move and Where Did They Go?

2.1.3 Early Human Technologies

2.2 People in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.1 Ice, Ice, and More Ice

2.2.2 Life in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.3 Diverse Paleolithic Peoples

2.3 The Neolithic Revolution

2.3.1 The Development of Agriculture

2.3.2 How Farming Changed the Human Experience

2.3.3 Neolithic Peoples

3 Early Civilizations and Urban Societies

3.1 Early Civilizations

3.1.1 Attributes of Early Civilizations

3.1.2 The First Urban Societies

3.2 Ancient Mesopotamia

3.2.1 The Rise and Eclipse of Sumer

3.2.2 The Rise of the World’s First Empire

3.2.3 Later Empires in Mesopotamia

3.2.4 Society and Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia

3.3 Ancient Egypt

3.3.1 The Origins of Ancient Egypt

3.3.2 The Age of Pyramid Building

3.3.3 A Second Age of Egyptian Greatness

3.4 The Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.1 The Origins of the Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.2 Trade, Writing, and Religion

3.4.3 The Era of Decline

4 The Near East

4.1 From Old Babylon to the Medes

4.1.1 Power Politics in the Near East

4.1.2 Foreign Affairs and Trade

4.1.3 Daily Life and the Family in the Near East

4.2 Egypt’s New Kingdom

4.2.1 The Hyksos in Egypt

4.2.2 The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom

4.2.3 Egypt’s Foreign Policy

4.3 The Persian Empire

4.3.1 The Rise of Persia

4.3.2 Darius I and the Reorganization of the Empire

4.3.3 Persian Culture and Daily Life

4.4 The Hebrews

4.4.1 The History of the Hebrews

4.4.2 The Culture of the Hebrews

5 Asia in Ancient Times

5.1 Ancient China

5.1.1 Prehistoric China

5.1.2 Early Dynastic China

5.1.3 The Zhou Dynasty

5.1.4 The Warring States Era and Qin Unification

5.2 The Steppes

5.2.1 The Nomadic Culture of the Steppes

5.2.2 Tribes, Confederations, and Settled Neighbors

5.3 Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia

5.3.1 Ancient Korea

5.3.2 Ancient Japan

5.4 Vedic India to the Fall of the Maurya Empire

5.4.1 Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

5.4.2 The Aryans and Brahmanism

5.4.3 Buddhism

5.4.4 The Mauryan Empire

5.4.5 The Gupta Dynasty

6 Mediterranean Peoples

6.1 Early Mediterranean Peoples

6.1.1 The Late Bronze Age World

6.1.2 Phoenicians, Greeks, and Etruscans

6.2 Ancient Greece

6.2.1 Archaic Greece

6.2.2 Sparta and Athens

6.2.3 Classical Greece

6.3 The Hellenistic Era

6.3.1 The Kingdom of Macedon

6.3.2 Hellenistic Culture

6.4 The Roman Republic

6.4.1 The Foundation and Function of the Roman Republic

6.4.2 The Expansion of the Roman Republic

6.5 The Age of Augustus

6.5.1 The First Triumvirate

6.5.2 From Republic to Principate

7 Experiencing the Roman Empire

7.1 The Daily Life of a Roman Family

7.1.1 The Structure of Roman Families

7.1.2 A Day in the Life of a Roman Family

7.1.3 What Family Meant in Rome

7.2 Slavery in the Roman Empire