Summeraging

Celina Vazquez

AP World History Summer Assignment

Chapter 1

1. Civilizations were enabled to develop because of 3 main reasons. First, the revolution of agriculture played a big role in allowing civilizations to develop. It allowed people to settle down in one spot as opposed to being nomadic and hunting for all their food. Second, the development of culture and religion helped the people to have their own identities in their civilizations. Third, the ability for people to make their own tools and weapons. Some critical characteristics for a society to become a civilization include land that is reliable for agriculture and close to a freshwater source, and formal cities and writing.

2. Compared to noncivilized societies, the major drawbacks of civilization include the fact that you can’t have special jobs for a certain individual to excel at, such as farming or making weapons. They also have to travel and hunt to keep a good amount of food in their repertoire. Last, their civilizations have to be small because they can’t gather enough food for a lot of people. They also only have clothes from the animals hides.

3. Jewish monotheism was a significant development in the religious history of early civilization because it was the worlds first obviously well developed monotheistic religion. It was very popular and a big deal. It led to a very widespread belief in one God which would eventually stem off into many other important religions. Also, it helped establish a culture, which is one of the critical characteristics for a civilization.

4. Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations were alike and different in a few ways. They were very similar in in their early stages as they both needed irrigation which introduced a need for some sort of a political structure. However, Mesopotamia was developed with no basis for their structure, whilst Egypt’s structure was based off of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia did not have a strict government, while Egypt did....