Social Studies Review Answers

You need to be able to answer these questions:

Over civilizations...
1. What is a civilization?
A civilization is a number of communities working together in a common society to try to improve their lives.
2. What does a civilization need?
A common language, shared economy, shared currency, common government and laws, progress, and AGRICULTURE
3. What evidence to we have of the Cro Magnon people?
paintings in caves in France
4. What were the first four ancient civilizations we know about?
Mesopotamia (the Sumerians), Egyptians, Indus River Valley, and Yellow River Valley
5. What was the same about all of the first four civilizations?
They were built near rivers.

Questions about Mesopotamia...
1. What was the civilization in Mesopotamia called?
Sumer
2. What are some things the people in Mesopotamia invented?
the wheel, writing, time, multiplication tables
3. What rivers ran through Mesopotamia?
the Tigris River and the Euphrates River

Questions about Egypt
1. What river ran through Egypt?
the Nile River
2. Who ruled Egypt?
pharaohs
3. How did Egyptians write?
in hieroglyphics

Questions about the Indus River Valley
1. What country is the Indus River in now?
India
2. What did the Indus River Valley civilization invent?
Zero (0)
3. The Indus River Valley had more of one thing than any other civilization. What was it? cities

Questions about the Yellow River Valley
1. What country is the Yellow River in now?
China
2. How did people in the Yellow River Valley write?
in characters
3. Who ruled the Yellow River Valley?
emperors of family dynasties

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
1. What is the only original seven wonder of the world that still exists?
The Great Pyramid of Giza
2. Why weren't any of the original seven wonders of the world in China or South America?
Because the author didn't know about those places.

Ancient Greece
1. Where was ancient Greece?
In present day Greece, and along the coast of the Mediterranean
2. What kind of government did Greece have?
Democracy
3. What are some types of art that Greece had?
architecture, sculpture, music, writing, theater
4. What special sporting event did Greece have?
The Olympics
5. What was the most important city in Greece?
Athens

Ancient Rome
1. What kind of government did Rome have?
Republic
2. Where was the Roman Empire?
It was based in Italy, but it spread throughout Europe and the Mediterranean coast
3. Why did the Roman Empire end?
It was too big and it fell apart because the Romans couldn't control everything
4. What is one famous thing the Romans built?
Aqueducts, fountains, the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum
5. What was the most important city in Rome?
Rome!

The Middle Ages
1. What was the most important part of life in the Middle Ages?
Religion
2. What kind of government did countries have in the Middle Ages?
Monarchies
3. What kind of economy did people have in the Middle Ages?
Feudalism
4. What killed almost half the people in Europe during the Middle Ages?
The Black Death (Bubonic Plague)

Religion
1. What is monotheism?
A religion with only 1 god
2. What is polytheism?
A religion with more than 1 god
3. What did the religions of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome share? (What was the same?)
They were polytheistic (Except for Egypt, which was monotheistic for a little while)
4. Which two religions in the Middle Ages were monotheistic?
Islam and Christianity
5. Why were the gods in Egypt kind, but the gods of Mesopotamia were mean?
Because in Egypt the Nile flooded at the same time every year, and the Egyptians could plan their lives around the flooding. In Mesopotamia, the rivers would flood at strange times and only some years, so they couldn't predict when the rivers would flood. Their farms could be ruined and they might not have food, so they thought the gods were punishing them.