The Three Great Kings of the Persian Empire

The three great kings of the Persian Empire were Cyrus the Great, Darius the Great, and Xerxes the Great. His empire was amongst the first to exist as a world empire (Achaemenids). In 539 B.C.E he annexed the Chaldaean Empire "ithout spilling a drop of blood". He arrested Nabonidus and claimed various titles, such as King of the Four Corners of the World.
Darius the Great came into power in September of 522 B.C.E. He organized the empire by dividing the empire into regions and hiring satraps to govern those areas. Darius died shortly after the Battle of Marathon and his son Xerxes I took the throne.
Xerxes the Great came to power immediately after the death of Darius the Great. He spent time fighting in Greece, he went back to the Empire and finished all the construction work that hadn't been finished. He was murdered in 465 B.C.E by a man named  Artabanus.

The Social System of the Aryans

1) Explain the origins of the caste system
No accepted theory has been accepted about the caste system. However the caste system in India is quite similar to its Iranian counterparts. The system consisted of Brahmins (Priests), Kshatriya (Warriors), Vaishya (Merchants, and Shudras (Artisans).
2) What does the Aryan term "varna" mean?
It is the categorization of of people into four castes.
3) Briefly explain or identify who was in each of the four main varnas.

the Brahmins: scholars, teachers, priests and sages.

the Kshatriya: kings, soldiers, and rulers.

the Vaishyas: merchants, cattle herders and agriculturists.

the Shudras: labourers, craftsmen and artisans.

4) What was the fifth varna that was added to the system?
The Dharmasastras, the untouchables.
5) What does the term "jati" mean? What were the rules? What were the punishments?
Jati was a term used to denote tribes, communities, etc.... You couldn't mix with other communities, but communities still mixed rarely. The punishments weren't capital because the Hindus opposed capital punishment.
6) What was the believed benefit of having castes and jatis in Aryan society?
The believed benefit was that they thought it would keep away people from the lower class such as Brahmins not mixing Shudras or the Dharmasastras.
7)What were the "Upanishads" ?
These were ancient texts that originated from the early Hindu religion.
8) Explain the term "Brahman", "samsara", and "karma".
Brahman is the one supreme spirit that is the origin of the universe. Samsara is the life cycle, which also includes death, and reincarnation. In simple terms, Karma is a cause and effect cycle, which originated from ancient India.
9) What was "Moksha"? What two things were required to attain it?
Moksha meant "to let go". To achieve it, you needed to learn one form of Yoga, and you needed to take one form of Vedanta (Advaita, and Dvaita).
10) Briefly explain how the Upanishads explained the caste system
The Upanishads showed that the system had four tiers and different from others.


 

Comparing Three Ancient Empires (Babylonians, Egyptians, and the Phoenicians

In terms of religion, all these empires believed in gods and godesses. In egypt, they had tombs with painting of that persons life. In Egypt, the wealthier you were, the better your afterlife was. THe Phoenicinas also believed in godesses, but adding to that, they used their babies as sacrifices to god. Finally, the Babylonians had gods and godesses, but their religious views were mostly around epics such as Gilgamesh.
In terms of writing, the Babylonians, and the Phoenicians were the first people to create a proper writing system. The Babylonians used cuneiform, and the Phoenicians writing is what looks similar to our writing today.
In terms of geography, all empires had their significant water system: The Babylonians having the Tigris and the Euphrates, the Egyptians having the Nile and the Meditteranean, and the Phoenicians having the Mediterranean too. Other than that, all the empires lied on a desert.
In agriculture, the Egyptians was most advanced because they used the Nile's annual flood with silt to irrigate their crops. The Babylonians had an advanced irrigation system which was in a way like the Egyptians. The Phoenicians didn't really have a significant agriculture system due to the fact they had the Meditteranean.
In Phoenicia, they used their daughters as prostitutes and sacrificed their babies to god. The Baylonians were among the first people to develop a proper law code, which was called the code of Hammurabi. The men were recognized as the people of the household. In Egypt, the people revolved around gods and goddesses, which people used them as rulers.When you would die in Egypt, you would have an afterlife if your heart weighed less than a feather. Also, when they would die, they would pull the brain out of the LEFT not right nostirl because of a religious belief.
Technology wise, all three empires developed a number of inventions. In Phoenicia, they invented ships for sailing, in Babylonia they invented a new agricultural system, writing, and temple like structures. Finally in Egypt, they invented new types of medicine, surgery, paper, and attendance records.
A\In terms of trade, the Babylonians travelled by the Tigris and Euphrates, and the other two empires travelled by the Meditteranean.

Life in Mesopotamia

First of all, Art. The Mesopotamian people created ritual objects, Objects of state, and personal objects. The ritual objects were used to hope to bring fertility to women and crops. The other figures were used to represent symbolic idols.
Society was very organized and was ruled as a hieracrchy. They had this irrigation system that required a lot of hard work. The system lead to much larger communities but the hard work was a setback.
One important factor of the political system was Hammurabi's Code of Law. THis was important because it brought control to his empire His system was like an "eye for an eye" type of law.
In Mesopotamia, they were the first people to develop a writing system. Since it was first developed only "special" people could use the system. Now writing has develop to such an extent that anyone can read
The Mesopotamians were among the first people to develop a religion They used ritual and religious figures to represent gods and they would hope those figures would help them
Due to Mesopotamia being in between the Tigris and the Euprathes and being one of the first civilizations, they depended mostly on agriculture. They also developed into animal products and grains.

About AP World History Video

A few days ago, I watched a video on food by the BBC. Since it was by English people, it was vile in a few ways, which I will not state. The movie stated that if we didn't learn how to cook, we wouldn't survive. It was only about 2.6 million years ago, that we developed how to cook. It made raw food more hygenic and easier to chew. Since cooked food became easier to chew, humans didn't have to eat as much because the cooked meat contained many more calories than vegetables. It' s a little bit surpriing it took humans 3.4 million year to discover cooking since humans started to walk upright 6  million years ago, but the first true humans appeared only bout 1.8 million years ago. Before cooking, we only ate fruits and vegetables. Since we developed how to cook food, we can't go back to just eating fruits and vegetables because we will die. Due to eating cooked meat, it forced us to evolve into a further stageh. Our brains also started to develop after first eating cooked meat. But it isn't the fact food was cooked, but the fact about how the food was cooked. When the Austropithecus developed into the Homo Erectus, it lost the feeeling of being an ape. Not only that but the brain grew a staggering 30 percent from being an Austropithecus. With cooked food, we rea\lease more sugars and is better for our digestive system. Finally, the reason we crave fatty food is because it makes our brain work more.