Civ 101: Common Final Identification List

The following list of terms, events, ideas, people and concepts represent the minimum knowledge CIV faculty consider essential for all students taking this course.  Therefore, this lest will be the basis for all questions on the common objective portion of the final examination required of all students in the course.  Most of these items can be found in your textbook.  Ask you instructor for help in finding items not in the textbook.  In developing this list, faculty used the following criteria:

1. The important social, economic, political, cultural features of civilizations most useful for comparison;
2. Concepts basic to understanding the social science disciplines;
3. Information a literate college graduate should know (see “Characteristics of the MSU Graduate” in the university Bulletin).
Basic Concepts Useful in Understanding World Civilizations
civilization                              social stratification                         bureaucracy
feudalism                               ethnocentrism                                culture
cultural relativism                   cultural diffusion                            sovereignty
monarchy                              oligarchy                                       democracy
urbanization
 
Prehistory
Paleolithic Era                     agricultural revolution                        Mesolithic Era
horticultural societies            hunting and gathering societies           pastoral nomadism
Australopithecine                 Homo erectus                                   Pleistocene
Homo sapiens sapiens          Homo sapiens neanderthalensis          Neolithic Era
 
Ancient Civilizations-Near East
Mesopotamian empires          Sumerians                                       cuneiform
Polytheism                           pharaoh                                           pyramids
Hammurabi                          Persian Empire                                 iron technology
Hebrews                              Yahweh                                           Zoroastrianism
Epic of Gilgamesh                 Egyptian kingdoms
 
Ancient Civilizations-Asia
Harrapan Civilization               caste system                                 Aryans
reincarnation                           Hinduism                                      Buddhism
Hindu Epics                            Mandate of Heaven                       Legalism
Taoism                                   Confucius                                     Great Wall
ancestor worship                     Han Dynasty                                 Silk Road
Shang Dynasty                        Shi Huangdi
 
Classical Mediterranean Civilizations
Phoenicians                           polis                                                 Homer
Athens                                  Pericles                                            Greek drama
Sparta                                   citizenship                                        Peloponnesian Wars
Socrates                                Aristotle                                           Plato
Persian Wars                         Roman Empire                                 Punic Wars
Hellenistic                             Alexander the Great                          Julius Caesar
Pax Romana                          Roman Law                                     Octavian/Augustus
Constantine                           Attila the Hun                                   stoicism
Justinian                                Diogenes                                          Jesus
Mycenean                              humanism
 
South and East Asia
Mahayana Buddhism              Sui Dynasty                                   Tang Dynasty
Sung Dynasty                        Ming Dynasty                                 Kublai Khan
Genghis Khan                        Marco Polo                                    civil service exams
wood block printing                Grand Canal                                   Asoka
Kamakura Shogunate              Shinto                                            Taika Reform
Gupta                                    Zheng He (Cheng Ho)                     Tale of Genji
Tamerlane                              Samurai
 
Islamic World
Five Pillars of Islam              Muhammad                                       Mecca
Shari’ah                               Caliph                                              Umayyads
Abbasids                               jihad                                                Shia/Sunni
Koran (Qu’ran)                     Ottoman Turks                                 Moors
Delhi Sultanate                      Battle of Talas River                        Averroes
Muslim Spain                        Battle of Manzikert                           Battle of Tours
 
Medieval World
Charlemagne                         Vikings                                           manorialism
the crusades                           heavy-wheeled plow                       guilds
Gothic architecture                 Magna Carta                                  Black Death
Holy Roman Empire               monasticism                                  Aquinas
William the Conqueror             the Renaissance                            Divine Comedy
Innocent III                           church-state conflict                        Hundred Years War
Byzantine Empire                  Orthodox (Greek) Christianity
 
Africa and the Americas
Ghana                                 Mali                                                     Songhai
Axum                                  Bantu migrations                                   Kush
Zimbabwe                           Mansa Musa                                         Swahili culture
Ibn Battuta                          Olmec                                                  Maya
Mississippian culture             Aztec                                                  Quetzalcoatl