World Civ. to the 17th Century: Test 2

What is a language family from the Jordan and Nile valleys that includes Semitic languages, Kushitic, and others?

Afro-Asiatic

What is considered the greatest monument of the Age of Augustus?

Ara Pacis

What title was given to Octavian in 27 B.C.E. and borne thereafter by all Roman emperors?

Augustus

Who was the author of The Book of the Han?

Ban Gu

What was a feature of the Chinese bureaucratic governance system introduced by Li Si, the Qin legalist minister?

Bureaucratic administration was impersonal, based on laws to which all were subject.

What is true of the reign of the first Later Han emperor?

By the end of the first century C.E., China was as prosperous as it had been during the good years of the Former Han.

What city served as the capital of both the Sui and Tang dynasties?

Chang'an

How did Christian beliefs constitute treason in the early Roman empire?

Christians refused to worship the emperor.

Through the eyes of which late republic literary figure do we glimpse the political life of the period?

Cicero

What is true about the characteristics of Africa's physical geography?

Climate bands north and south of the equator roughly mirror each other.

What is an impact of Africa's position astride the equator?

Dense rain forests dominate the region.

Why did the emperor Diocletian introduced the tetrarchy?

Diocletian believed the job of emperor was too great for one man.

What best describes the Roman emperor Diocletian's contributions to the emergence of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman empire?

Diocletian's witch-hunt against Christians actually strengthened the faith and reputation of Christians.

What changes did Augustus introduce with respect to the administration of Rome?

Equestrians and Italians who had no connection with the Roman aristocracy were admitted to the Senate.

What remained the only predominantly Christian state in Africa after the whole Nubian region was Islamized?

Ethiopia

What was unique about Gaozu becoming the first emperor of the Han dynasty?

Gaozu was the first person to rise from plebeian origins to the level of emperor.

A foreign, hereditary caste of aristocrats that increasingly supplied high administrators and even emperors originated from _________________.

Germanic mercenaries

How was the Meroitic empire different from the earlier Kushite empires?

Iron smelting and trade was an important element of the Meroitic state.

provided detailed descriptions of the vast reaches of Africa beyond Egypt, Ethiopia, and North Africa

Islamic historians, geographers, and travelers

Who was thoroughly trained in classical Latin literature and rhetoric and produced a revised version of the Bible in Latin, commonly called the Vulgate?

Jerome

What is a large desert in southwestern Africa that partially isolates southern Africa from the rest of the continent?

Kalahari

The power of Kanem originated with a nomadic federation of tribal peoples that merged to form a single people called the ______________.

Kanuri

__________ served as the capital city of the ancient Nubian kingdom of Kush.

Kerma

Who moved his capital from Karakorum in Mongolia to Beijing and rebuilt Beijing as a walled city in the Chinese style?

Kublai Khan

What was the capital of China under the Later Han dynasty?

Luoyang

The stages of the dynastic cycle are interpreted in terms of the ____________.

Mandate of Heaven

What city emerged as a great center of commerce in south China in the post-Han period?

Nanjing

Which was the capital city of the six dynasties that ruled southern China in the post-Han period?

Nanjing

What term refers to a revival of "mystery learning" that flourished as a reaction against Confucianism during the Han dynasty?

Neo-Daoism

The excavation of town cultures from the mid-fifth millennium B.C.E. in Mali and Mauritania bolster the hypothesis that ____________.

Neolithic and Early Iron Age Sudanic cultures may once have been spread in Saharan lands

What is a language family that originated in the savannah and woodlands of west and south-central Africa?

Niger-Kongo

In Buddhism, the attainment of release from the wheel of karma is known as ____________.

Nirvana

Why is it a mistake to blame the ancients and slavery for the failure to produce an industrial and economic revolution like that of the later Western world?

No one yet has a satisfactory explanation for why the Western world experienced these revolutions.

Archaeological digs in what is today northeastern Nigeria on the Jos plateau have yielded evidence of an early Iron Age people known as the ____________.

Nok culture

Who was a Roman general known for decisively altering the course of the Punic Wars in Rome's favor?

Publius Cornelius Scipio

Why were Rome's military forces less Roman under the rule of Septimius Severus?

Recruits for the army were increasingly drawn from the less- civilized provinces.

The trade route from China to the West that stretched across Central Asia is known as the _____________.

Silk Road

The Grand Canal linking the Yellow and Yangzi Rivers was constructed during the reign of _____________.

Sui Wendi

What led to the rise of the Tang dynasty in China?

Sui participation in steppe politics

Who was responsible for uniting all the Mongol tribes before the formation of the Mongol empire?

Temujin

How did the Romans keep the power of the consuls, or the chief magistrates, in check?

Two men held consulships simultaneously, and each could overrule the other.

How did Confucian ideals influence the government structure during the Han dynasty?

The Confucian idea of "Mandate of Heaven" provided an ethical justification for dynastic rule.

How did Han Confucianism contribute to Chinese unity?

The Confucian texts promoted a common written language, which bridged differences of pronunciation.

What best describes the difference between the political system of the Meroitic Empire and the Egyptians?

The Meroitic king stressed traditional laws.

What reflects the state of administration of the Roman empires during the reign of the five "good emperors"?

The ability of urban areas to grow and thrive was sacrificed in return for efficient centralized control.

Why did the Qin base its empire on the Wei River in northwest China?

The location was strategic enough to allow the territory to be easily defended.

How did Rome retain an effective administration during the century after the Flavian dynasty?

The mode of transfer of power was based on meritocracy, rather than by birth.

What was a consequence of the Roman conquest of overseas territory?

The old practice of extending citizenship to defeated opponents stopped at the borders of Italy.

How did a weakened Roman economy under Septimius Severus affect Roman society?

The social order began to reflect military characteristics in many ways, such as civilian clothing and social rank.

What was the argument put forth by quasi-Legalist officials in the "Salt and Iron Debate"?

The state should enjoy the profits from the sale of salt and iron.

What is true of the reign of the first Later Han emperor?

There was a return to strong central government and a laissez-faire economy.

What was one aspect that applied to the honestiores?

They could not be tortured.

What event led to the destruction of the Roman constitution?

Tiberius proposed and passed a land reform bill that was highly appealing to the people.

best describes the aftermath of the demise of the Later Han dynasty in south China?

Tribal peoples came to be increasingly absorbed into the mainstream Chinese society.

Who was the most important Augustan poet?

Virgil

What is true of women's role in Roman society?

Women in Roman families had the responsibility for managing the household.

The only woman in Chinese history to have held the title of emperor is ___________.

Wu Zhao

Which Han dynasty rulers' reigns marked the beginning the second phase of the dynastic cycle?

Wudi

The pilgrimage of which of the following Chinese monks to India was novelized as Journey to the West?

Xuanzang

he shortest of China's major dynasties was the ___________.

Yaun dynasty

Cicero's treatise on the laws, De Legibus, enshrined what view?

a world ruled by divine and natural law

What is a feature of the peak of the dynastic cycle?

aggressive military expansion

The curiate assembly was a branch of the Roman government that consisted of ___________.

all citizens divided into thirty groups

Nok, a West African Iron Age culture, is renowned for its __________.

artistry

What indisputably ended effective imperial government in the West?

barbarian invasions

What led to the rebellion that resulted in the collapse of the Qin dynasty?

burdensome taxes levied to pay for massive reforms

This is one of the ways in which a historian may use the techniques of anthropology to analyze early African cultures.

by directly observing present societies

Which was given to a Roman official who counted the populace and drew up the citizen roles, thereby fixing taxation and status?

censor

What factor caused the riparian communities of the Sahara to disappear after 2500 B.C.E.?

climate change

What accounts for the Khoisan's low socioeconomic status in contemporary Africa?

colonialist and postcolonial prejudice

What was the source of Rome's greatness?

conquests

What best describes the writers of the Silver Age?

gloomy, negative, and pessimistic

For Saharan trade, the people of Ghana relied on __________.

gold

People who publicly dissented from the officially accepted Catholic doctrines were called _____________.

heretics

What contributed to Genghis Khan's being elected the Great Khan?

his policy of alliances

Sima Guang's work, A Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, exemplifies the achievements of the Song dynasty in ____________.

history

The Roman name for a liberal arts education is known as _______________.

humanitas

What title, meaning "emperor," was given to the ruler of Rome?

imperator

The governing style practiced by the Song emperors, in which the ruler exercises unlimited personal authority, is known as _____________.

imperial autocracy

The right of Roman kings to issue commands and to enforce them by fines, arrests, and physical punishment, including execution, was termed __________.

imperium

What term refers to the tall, multiple dwellings built in Rome during the imperial period?

insulae

Since steep escarpments surmount most of Africa's narrow coasts, ___________.

it has few natural harbors

The Arabs termed all of Africa south of the Sahara and Egypt Bilad al-Sudan because ____________.

it was populated by dark-skinned peoples

Of all the sub-Saharan kingdoms of the late first millennium, Ghana was the most famous outside of the region, largely because of ___________.

its control of the gold trade

The major African export around which east coast trade revolved was __________.

ivory

What developments took place in south China in the post-Han period?

large-scale immigrations of Chinese fleeing the north

Large plantations for growing cash crops owned by wealthy Romans were known as __________.

latifundia

Roman politicians who sought to pursue a political career based on the support of the people rather than just the aristocracy came to be known as __________.

populares

The characteristics of different regions in the African continent derive largely from its ____________.

position astride the equator

Tiberius Gracchus demonstrated how to build a political career based on ________________.

pressure from the people

What was one of the duties of a patron, according to the Roman institution of clientage?

providing physical protection to his client

caused many Western intellectuals to assume that Africans lived outside of historical time around the time of the nineteenth-century European "Scramble for Africa"

racism combined with colonial self-interest

What was a feature of the reforms introduced by Wang Mang?

revival of ancient titles

What is one of the powers could men in Roman families exercise?

selling their children into slavery

Septimius Severus drew a sharp line between the humiliores and the honestiores, the latter of which was made up of ______________.

senators, equestrians, the municipal aristocracy, and the soldiers

The Mongols communicated with their gods through religious specialists called _____________.

shamans

What was one of the duties of a client, according to the Roman institution of clientage?

supporting his patron politically

The blending or fusion of different systems of religious or philosophical beliefs is called ______________.

syncretism

The most important evidence of the life and teachings of Jesus appear in ______________.

the Gospel accounts

The Council of Nicea, called to address the heresy of Arianism, resulted in what Christian statement of doctrine?

the Nicene Creed

Bantu is a large subgroup of __________.

the Niger-Congo language family

Which of the major rivers of Africa has a relatively long navigable stretch below its cataracts in upper Egypt?

the Nile

Which Chinese dynasty overthrew the Zhou dynasty in 256 B.C.E.?

the Qin dynasty

Which are the main two peoples who constitute the Khoisan speakers in southern Africa?

the San and the Khoikhoi

What is one event that led to the formation of the First Triumvirate in Rome?

the Senate's persecution of Pompey by refusing land to his veterans

Which dynasty reunified China by establishing its capital at Kaifeng on the Yellow River?

the Song dynasty

Who among the Bantu-speaking peoples of the central African rain forests are referred to as "Pygmies" in the West?

the Twa

Who were the predecessors of the Qin rulers of China?

the Zhou dynasty

What factor helped the settled peoples of sub-Saharan Africa in the first millennium B.C.E. to develop larger, more complex societies than their predecessors?

the advent of iron smelting

As Neolithic peoples moved southward, they discovered that Africa's equatorial rain forests were inhospitable to cows and horses, largely because of ___________.

the animals' inability to survive the sleeping sickness carried by the tsetse fly

What prevented the first Tang emperor from completely centralizing authority in his own person?

the aristocrats who staffed the government

Which region constitutes the Sudan?

the broad belt of Sahel and savannah below the Sahara, stretching across the entire African continent

The high culture of China was influenced very little during Mongol rule because ____________.

the centers of Chinese culture were in the south, the area least affected by Mongol rule

What invention during the Han period was also known as the "south-pointing chariot"?

the compass

What rightly suggests that the Nok culture influenced later central and West African life?

the continuities between the Nok culture's extraordinary sculptural art—especially magnificent burial or ritual masks—and later West African sculptural traditions

From about 2500 B.C.E., climatic changes in the Sahara led to ____________.

the disappearance of the riparian communities of this vast territory

What could be a possible explanation for the dominance of the Bantu people in the African sub-continent?

the diseases they carried

What led to the early civilization of "Great Zimbabwe" and Mapungubwe in the upper Limpopo region?

the dispersion of Bantu peoples into south-central Africa, coastal East Africa, and southern Africa

What was characteristic of Chinese history in the post-Han period?

the dominant role played by the great aristocratic landowning families

What characterized Roman policy during the Principate?

the elevation of urban centers to the status of Roman municipalities

Who was the empress dowager?

the emperor's wife whose child had been named as the heir to the throne

Through what is it most evident that the Tang dynasty rule favored the aristocrats?

the equal-field system

Which characteristics best describes the Roman government?

the granting of great power to executive officers contingent on the approval of the Senate and ultimately the people

What event led to the increase of trans-Saharan trade around the beginning of the Common Era?

the introduction of the domesticated camel from the East

What led to the end of the weakened Kushite kingdom around 330 B.C.E.?

the invasion of the Aksumites

The Khoisan language group that apparently covered most of the southern half of the African continent by late Neolithic times was largely displaced due to _____________.

the migration of Niger-Kongo Bantu speakers

Nilotic Africa is comprised of ____________.

the modern states of Egypt and Sudan

What factors attracted farmers to the Qin region from other parts of China?

the order and stability of the Qin society

What best explains the movement of peoples from Saharan lands to the south?

the progressive desiccation of the second millennium B.C.E.

A major accomplishment of the early Han was __________.

the recovery of written works that had been lost during the Qin persecution of Confucian scholars

What proved a hallmark of Augustan administration?

the renewal of small farming on the lands granted to Octavian's veterans

What helped the Tang dynasty defend its Central Asian border from 744 to 840?

the rise of the Uighur Turks

What increased the mobility of the Mongol army?

the system of each man carrying his own supplies

Which of the following best explains ancient contact between East Africa and East Indies?

the use of Malagasy, an Austronesian language of Madagascar

The states developed by the Fulbe people of Takrur and the Soninke people of Ghana depended on __________.

their ability to draw gold from the savannah region west of the upper Senegal into the trans-Saharan trade

How has Christianity managed to survive through the ages?

through strong internal organization and government

How did the Song Empire ensure that revenues were higher than those during the Tang period?

through the establishment of government monopolies on salt, wine, and tea

Why was there a running dispute in the 1990s about whether ancient Egyptians were more "black" or "white"?

to determine if they should be characterized as Mediterranean or African

The goal of anthropology in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was

to give formal structure to observations of "Other" people

Archeologists find it difficult to decipher African history because the ________.

tropical climate in much of sub-Saharan Africa ruins many types of artifacts

What powers did a tribune allow the plebeians to exercise?

vetoing any action of a magistrate or any bill proposed in a Roman assembly or by the Senate

Which factors encouraged the development of absolute monarchy in the Song period?

Government officials were commoners.

____________ drove the Kushite dynasty centered at Napata out of Egypt proper.

Assyria around 650 B.C.E.

What economic reform did Wudi introduce to punish merchants who had amassed fortunes in untaxed commodities?

He reestablished government monopolies on copper coins, salt, iron, and liquor.

What mistake led to Julius Caesar's downfall?

He threatened the republic traditions to which his fellow Romans were passionately attached.

What describes a similarity between the Meroitic Empire and the kingdom of Ghana in the first millennium?

Both followed a system of matrilineal succession.

Which pre-Roman group established themselves in the north around 400 B.C.E.?

Celts

The branch of the imperial Chinese government that reported instances of misgovernment directly to the emperor was called the _______________.

Censorate

What was the similarity between the Sui and the Qin?

Each brought all of China under a single government after centuries of disunity.

What was Song philosopher Zhu Xi's contribution to Chinese thought?

He joined Buddhist and native metaphysical elements to Confucianism.

The Moroccan Muslim scholar and explorer who traveled throughout much of the Mongol world in the fourteenth century was ____________.

Ibn Battuta

How did the Grand Canal benefit the conquerors in the north of China?

It enabled the northern conquerors to tap the riches of central and southern China.

How did the end of the equal field system impact farmers during the period of the Song dynasty?

It freed the farmers to buy and sell land and gave them greater independence.

How did the replacement of labor taxes with money taxes affect Chinese farmers during the Song dynasty?

It gave them more control over their time.

What purpose was fulfilled by the first dictionary compiled from classic Confucian texts?

It helped promote a uniform system of writing.

Why did Ovid's Ars Amatoria anger Augustus and contribute to the poet's exile?

It ridiculed the seriousness and family-centered life Augustus wanted to foster.

What strategic advantage did the Qin dynasty derive from its location on the Wei River?

It was easier to defend as it controlled the passage to the Yellow River plain.

What led to the isolation of the Napatan kingdom from Egypt?

It was limited and controlled above the lower cataracts of the Nile by the Assyrians and the Persians.

Why did Roman boys of the upper class study rhetoric?

It was of great use in legal disputes.

About 1000 B.C.E., bands of warlike peoples speaking a set of closely related languages called __________began to infiltrate the Italian peninsula?

Italic

What was one aspect of Gaius Gracchus' tenure as tribune?

establishing colonies for landless veterans

The most important and influential historian of the Augustan era was __________.

Livy

Who was the Venetian trader who transmitted knowledge of China in Europe through his book A Description of the World?

Marco Polo

___________ served as the capital of the ancient Napatan Empire.

Meroe

Which group was the strictest in its adherence to Jewish law?

Pharisees

Who was the famous poet of the Northern Song?

Su Dungpo

What was the impact of the Song Commercial Revolution?

permeation of cash and credit in the economy

What is true of the Roman conquest of the Hellenistic world?

The Roman treasury benefited so much from the wars with Philip V and Antiochus that Rome abolished direct property taxes on its citizens.

What best describes Rome's foreign policies?

The Romans established permanent colonies of veteran soldiers in conquered lands.

Why did Jesus' teachings provoke suspicion among the upper class and hostility from the religious establishment?

The Romans saw Jesus as a revolutionary ready to establish an earthly kingdom.

Why did the Senate put Nerva on the throne?

The Senate wanted to avoid chaos.

How did Christianity come to be the official religion of the Roman Empire?

The conversion of the Roman emperor Constantine to Christianity provided the necessary impetus for Christianity to rise to official status.

What was one of the key aspects of Augustus' administration?

The distinction between Romans and Italians, senators and equestrians diminished.

What is true of the aftermath of the Punic wars involving Rome and Carthage?

The divide between the rich and poor, the landed and landless, grew wider.

When the emperor was weak or ascended to the throne when still a child, others competed to rule in his name. Which contenders staffed the apparatus of government and advised the emperor directly?

court officials

What shows that, despite Africa's natural barriers, Africans have moved extensively?

cultural and linguistic diffusion

What contributed to the disintegration of the Yuan dynasty in China?

cultural differences from the Mongol empire

What was Augustus' legacy to Roman society?

curbing adultery and divorce

Who supplied goods and services to the Roman state and collected taxes in the provinces?

equestrians