The Questions to Consider will be part of the midterm and final exams in the course. You should study these questions using your textbook, but you are also encouraged to use any other sources, such as Wikipedia. A good answer to a question to consider should be about a long paragraph. Check out an example.
- How has geography influenced the course of history?
- What is human progress?
- What role did technological innovation play in the development of early humankind?
- What was important about the shift to the use of systematic agriculture in the Neolithic period?
- Why did cities first form in Mesopotamia?
- What enabled ancient Egypt to exist for so long a period of time as a cultural unit?
- Why were the Ancient Greeks so interested in questions of philosophy?
- What factors enabled Alexander the Great to build a large empire?
Unit 5 Classical Rome and Christianity
- What factors contributed to the eventual destruction of the Roman empire?
- What was the role of Saint Paul of Tarsus in shaping the early Christian church?
- How did Islam continue the traditions of Christianity and Judaism?
- How did the Islamic empire of the Abbasid era mirror some of the features of the late Roman Empire?
- Why did Charlemagne distrust the pope's motives in crowning Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor?
- What factors enabled Charlemagne to create such a powerful empire?
- What were some of the distinctive features of early Russian civilization based in Kyiv?
- What factors enabled Byzantine civilization to last until the fifteenth century?
- Why was the Magna Carta an important step in the political evolution of England in the Middle Ages?
- What was chivalry?
- What impact did the Crusades have on the development of European civilization?
- Why did feudalism develop after the fall of the Roman empire?
- How did the Mongols affect the development of Russia?
- How did Muscovite Russia compare with other European states of the period?
- What caused the rise of national monarchies in the Middle Ages?
- Why was Joan of Arc burned at the stake?
- Why did these reform movements in the Catholic Church succeed at this moment in time?
- What was the impact of the Council of Trent on the Catholic church?
- What was the role of the church in the Renaissance?
- Why did the Renaissance begin in Italy?
- How did the discovery of other world societies change Europe's view of itself?
- What specific technologies did Europeans develop that allowed them to sail the open seas?
- How has geography influenced the course of history?
- What is history?