Unit 2 SSWH 3&4 Study Guide

Unit 2 SSWH 3&4 Study Guide

The philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all believed that average people were not qualified to rule themselves. They thought that training and education were key to running a successful government, and Greece, at that time, contained very few such people. These same philosophers thought the Gods actually set bad examples for people in their daily lives.

The Roman way of religion included many gods adapted from the Greeks. This process accelerated in the 2nd century BCE when much of Greece was absorbed by the Roman Empire. When the Greeks had Zeus, Poseidon, and Eros, the Romans had Jupiter, Neptune, and Cupid.

Emperor Constantine was the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity. Whether this conversion was sincere- a “battlefield conversion”- or politically motivated remains unclear. However, Constantine stopped the persecution of Christians, and ordered religious toleration throughout the empire. Soon, Christianity became the official faith of the empire.

The decline of the Western Roman Empire was due to many things, the high cost of defending the empire helped to weaken the empire. The enormous expanse of the empire meant that troops had to be stationed all over the Mediterranean and Europe, causing a huge drain on the empire’s economy.

Genghis Khan united the Mongols and built an empire by combining a superior cavalry with a confederation of tribes and clans. Their expertise on horseback allowed them to ride for days at a time and fight with bows and arrows superbly on horseback. Genghis Khan had united the various Mongol tribes in the 1200s, but not along any lines of “racial superiority.”

In its early years, Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire because its teaching appealed especially to the poor and oppressed. The teachings of Jesus offered hope to those with little in this world, but people in power and with wealth often worried that the poor would rise up and overthrow them.

Greek civilization spread throughout the Mediterranean, Middle East, Egypt, and Asia as Alexander the Great conquered city after city. In order to maintain control, a strong military presence was left in each of the dominated areas. An effect on these regions was their culture was influenced by Greek Religion, art, and philosophy. 

In ancient Rome, citizens elected the members of the Senate. Thus, the type of government ancient Rome had was a republic.

Byzantine Emperor Justinian's MOST significant political accomplishment was codifying Roman law. This action in the mid-500s CE allowed the people of the Empire to know precisely what laws existed that they were expected to follow.

One of the biggest reasons the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church  split was because of no consensus on the papal primacy (the pope as the supreme leader of the church).

In 1453 Constantinople was conquered and renamed Istanbul by the Ottomans. The place has known many names, including Byzantium (named after Greek King Byzas) in the 600s BCE, , Constantinople (after Emperor Constantine I) in the 400s CE, and Istanbul (“the city” or “downtown”) to the present day.

While Mongol rule extended throughout Russia, many Russian power brokers and local leaders remained in place. In China Mongol control over government was more direct and complete. China’s bureaucracy was extensive and highly organized before Mongol invasions. This organization helped the Mongols when they gained power—they could simply order administrators to continue with existing traditions, but answering to new rulers.

The Empress Theodora impacted the Byzantine Empire in many ways, but most notably, she worked to enact laws improving the status of women. Working together with her husband, the status of women in the Byzantine Empire was greater than women in the Middle East or Europe of the same time.

The PRIMARY result of Byzantine trade with Kievan Rus', also called the Kingdom of Kiev, was that Byzantine religion, language, and architecture influenced the development of Russia. After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, Ivan III of Russia claimed the role of protector of the Eastern Orthodox religion and established himself as a direct successor of the former Byzantine Empire.

Many factors contributed to the fall of Rome. Germanic or barbarian invasions from the north contributed to the decline of Rome. The rise of the Eastern Empire in Byzantium caused a drift from the west and ultimately weakened the empire. Rome's large military contributed to overspending causing infrastructure to fall. The spread of Christianity eroded traditional Roman values and contributed to its fall.

Aqueducts were constructed by the Romans so they could bring water into cities from far away. This technology allowed Rome to support a large population, much larger than it could have if the water would not have been brought in from afar.

There were many issues that caused Rome to transition from a republic to an empire: the republic had grown farther than they could control, issues of land reform plagued the republic, civil wars broke out, and there were rivalries between classes. These rivalries were between Patricians (traditional elites), Plebeians (non-elites), and even slaves, which constituted a growing number of people in the Roman Republic.

The Great Schism (1054) resulted in the creation of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Technically, the split resulted in the creation of Eastern (Greek) and Western (Latin) branches of Christianity, though they eventually morphed into the aforementioned churches.

One major example of the long-term impact of the Byzantine Empire is the spread of Eastern Orthodoxy into Russia. After the Roman Empire split into east and west, Eastern Orthodoxy became the major religion of the eastern Mediterranean. Eventually, Eastern Orthodoxy will spread to much of modern-day eastern Europe.

Define or Explain the following terms:

Athens

Sparta

Oligarchy

Peloponnesian War

Persian Wars

Plato

Socrates

Direct Democracy