Chapter 3: The Middle East

1. Chapter 3: The Middle East History and Test-taking strategies

2. The Assyrians • The Assyrians created the largest empire in the world at the time. • This was mostly due to their military. They had great technology/ideas: • Cavalry • Battering rams • Advanced engineering • Spies • Couriers and signal fires • Professional soldiers instead of mercenaries • Iron weapons • How would each of these technologies increase the military strength of the Assyrians?

3. The Assyrians • The physical weapons were great. It was the psychological weapons, though, that made the Assyrians powerful. • Brutal treatment of civilians • Torture of prisoners • Displays of violence toward enemy leaders • Mass deportations • How would each of these techniques increase the military strength of the Assyrians? • The Assyrians were much better at conquering than ruling, though. Ruling was tough due to their multiethnic society. • The divine-right king demanded loyalty from the working class, including frequent tributes and periodic forced labor. • Elites swore their loyalty and were rewarded with money, property, and/or status.

4. The Assyrians Socially, most Assyrians were agricultural peasants. Conquered people were considered equal with native-born Assyrians, and could move up in society. Even slaves had the possibility of upward mobility- they had legal rights and could be promoted just like everyone else. The Assyrian empire was a center of learning and science, with many libraries and schools. Their academic tradition built on discoveries from their ancestors, the Mesopotamians.

5. Israel Israel in the ancient world was a small country at the crossroads of three continents. Because of its location, it was often invaded by rival tribes. Israel is/was mostly desert, with some ports on the Dead Sea that allowed for trade. One of Israel’s most important contributions to history is the Hebrew Bible, which Christians call the Old Testament. Many of the people and stories from the Hebrew Bible are also included in the Qu’ran. Because of these similarities, adherents of these three religions are often called “people of the Book.”

6. Israel A note about our study of world religion. In the Hebrew Bible, the Jewish people are considered God’s chosen people because of the covenant- a promise that God will protect them if they follow the laws provided. The Hebrew Bible was an entirely oral tradition for centuries. How might that affect its reliability? Important stories in the Judeo-Christian tradition include creation, the covenant, and the Exodus. Jerusalem, where the holiest documents were brought, became a center of conflict for the three religions that claimed holy sites there. This conflict continues today- 2,000 years later.

7. Israel The Jewish people endorsed the world’s first monotheistic religion. The God of the Hebrew Bible is omnipotent and all-powerful. He required sacrifice of many kinds- physical harm, suffering, animals, etc. One of the biggest sacrifices of the Israelites was their diaspora. A diaspora is a scattering or dispersion of a cohesive group of people. This is a general word that can be applied to many historical events and groups: the African slave trade, modern refugees, etc. Despite the diaspora, the Jewish people forged a powerful group identity and sense of protection.

8. History Test Preview • History questions ask for much more analysis than government questions, even on the multiple choice. • History tests are going to look a little different: 40multiple choice questions, worth 1points each, and two responses of your choice, worth 25 points each. • Some multiple choice questions will ask you to make value judgments between civilizations- for example, which government was MOST centralized. • Others will be vocabulary questions, like ma’at. • Others will ask about specifics in a society, such as which of the following items was NOT produced in Egypt. • Let’s answer a few practice questions.

9. History Test Practice Items • The word Mesopotamia means • a. the “pure land.” • b. the “land of the strong.” • c. “the blood of Gilgamesh.” • d. “wedged-shaped.” • e. “the land between the rivers.” • Social distinctions in Mesopotamia • a. were much less pronounced than they had been during the Neolithic age. • b. were much less pronounced than they had been during the Paleolithic age. • c. did not exist. • d. were much more pronounced than they had been during the Neolithic age. • e. Both a and b are true.

10. History Test Practice Items • Mesopotamia developed into • a. a strict patriarchal society. • b. a society where the sexes enjoyed relative equality. • c. a predominantly matriarchal society. • d. a society with few social distinctions. • e. a society dominated by a growing mercantile middle class. • If the Greek historian Herodotus had known of the Harappan society, he might have used the phrase “the gift of the __________” to describe it. • a. Nile. • b. Tigris. • c. Indus. • d. Yangtze. • e. Euphrates.

11. History Test Preview • Extended responses will ask you to compare and contrast different civilizations, or tell me about one aspect of a civilization in detail. For example: • Compare and contrast the religions of Egypt and Mesopotamia. • Explain the techniques and tools that the Assyrians used to conquer and control their population. • How did Chinese technology allow the continued practice of agriculture in China’s many inhospitable environments?