AP World History Ch. 3

The Mediterranean and Middle East, 2000 – 500 BCE

This will be a quick overview of the Chapter!

• Why?• Remember an AP World History course is not

like a traditional history course. Typically, a history course will examine the shifts form one type of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern empire to the next. In an AP course we move quickly through the details of empires so we may focus on broad comparisons of these empires within this chapter and others.

COSMOPOLITAN MIDDLE EAST• Hittites (HIT-ite) – most formidable of the states to emerge

from this region during this period. • 1600 to 717 B.C.E.• Upper Mesopotamia/Anatolia• Developed a new feared technology of horse drawn war

chariots• First to develop the process of making iron weapons • Primarily a trading society; large metal deposits allowed them

to quickly become a key player in international commerce. • Polytheistic- Hattia, Battle god• Indo-European language family

Why Cosmopolitan?1. Familiar with and at ease in many different countries and cultures.2. Including people from many different countries

• Stability was restored with large states controlling vast land.

• Shared Culture • Shared Lifestyles • “elite” groups shared similar values and had a high

standard of living. • Trade was important

New Kingdom Egypt

• 1532 - 1070 BCE

• Overthrew Hyksos (Bronze)

• 4M people

• Bureaucracy that separated gov’t

• Akhenaton – monotheism

• Rameses II - expansion

• Aggressive

• Conquered by Kushites then Assyrians (Iron)

• What factors led to Egypt losing its isolationist perspective in the Near East?

Aegean World

• Minoan Crete• MINOANS: c. 2200 MINOANS: c. 2200

B.C.E. (very B.C.E. (very approximate) to about approximate) to about 1450/1400 B.C.E.1450/1400 B.C.E.

• Europe’s first advanced Europe’s first advanced civilization- CRETEcivilization- CRETE

• Very advanced culture, Very advanced culture, peacefulpeaceful

• Strong commercial ties Strong commercial ties (especially with Egypt (especially with Egypt and Sumer)and Sumer)

• Mycenaean Greece• Migration to southern

Greece c. 2,000 BCE of Indo-Europeans

• Lots of contact with Minoans- traded, adapted parts of their culture

• Attacked Crete (Knossus) c. 1,450 BCE

• Very prosperous

• What are the similarities and differences between the rise of civilization in the Aegean Sea area with the rise of earlier world civilizations?

• What are the benefits and limitations of oral histories?

Assyrian Empire

• 911 to 612 BCE• BIGGEST EMPIRE WE’VE SEEN SO FAR• Would DESTROY those who opposed them/take

into slavery• Transplant across empire BUT opportunities for

conquered to rise within the military/government• Military• All powerful kings• Libraries

• Why have historians called the Assyrian Empire of the first millennium BCE the first true empire?

• How were the Assyrians able to conquer and control such a large and diverse empire?

• How should the Assyrian Empire be judged?

Israel

• Existence CONFIRMED by outside sources (Egyptian steles) in second millennium

• Pastoral nomads from Mesopotamia• Monotheistic• Many connections to other Middle Eastern

civilizations• Monarchs- 1020-930 BCE- Saul, David,

Solomon• TEMPLE• Role of prophets• North kingdom conquered by 722 BCE

Judea conquered 586 BCE

• How reliable are religious documents as records of history? (Bible)

• What were the causes and consequences of the migrations of the people ultimately known as the Israelites?

PHOENICIANS

PHOENICIANS• 1200-800 BCE (Dominated trade)• Present-day Lebanon• Established the “Phoenician Triangle”• Similar in many ways to Mesopotamia• Carthage (monopoly/navy)

• Trade: Purple dye, glass, lumber, high-quality metal goods, pottery, art, textiles

• Traveled all over the place- esp. in search of raw materials, also because the Assyrians were pushing them out of Lebanon

• Not much literature, culture mostly destroyed by Romans, but Alphabet- 22 letters

• Same religion and political structure as in Mesopotamia- also reformed cuneiform

• Founded Carthage- huge city- 814 BCE- military superpower until Rome destroys in the Punic Wars

Key Questions?

• What is meant by the description of Carthage as a commercial empire?

• Some civilizations still obviously very closely linked to rivers, but why are others not so directly centered on rivers?