AP World Unit Two Starter
Period 2: Organizing and Reorganizing Human Societies (600BCE-600CE)
Key Concepts
Key Concept 2.1
As states and empires increased in size and contacts between regions multiplied, religious and cultural systems were
transformed. Religions and belief systems provided a bond among the people and an ethical code to live by. These
shared beliefs also influenced and reinforced political, economic and occupational stratification. Religious and political
authority often merged as rulers, some considered divine, used religion, along with military and legal structures, to
justify their rule and ensure its continuation. Religions and belief systems could also generate conflict, partly because
beliefs and practices varied greatly within and among societies.
Key Concept 2.2
As the early states and empires grew in number, size and population, they frequently competed for resources and came
into conflict with one another. In quest of land, wealth, and security, some empires expanded dramatically. In doing so,
they built powerful military machines and administrative institutions that were capable of organizing human activities
over long distances, and they created new groups of military and political elites to manage their affairs. As these empires
expanded their boundaries, they also faced the need to develop policies and procedures to govern their relations with
ethnically and culturally diverse populations: sometimes to integrate them within an imperial society and sometimes to
exclude them. In some cases, these empires became victims of their own successes. By expanding boundaries too far,
they created political, cultural and administrative difficulties that they could not manage. They also experienced
environmental, social and economic problems when they over-exploited their lands and subjects and permitted
excessive wealth to concentrate in the hands of privileged classes.
Key Concept 2.3
With the organization of large-scale empires, the volume of long distance trade increased dramatically. Much of this
trade resulted from the demand for raw materials and luxury goods. Land and water routes linked many regions of the
Eastern Hemisphere, while somewhat later separate networks connected the peoples and societies of the Americas.
Exchanges of people, technology, religious and cultural beliefs, food crops, domesticated animals and disease pathogens
developed alongside the trade in goods across far-flung networks of communication and exchange.
Big Picture Questions (Broader)
1) What common features can you identify in the empires described in this unit?
2) In what ways did these empires differ from one another? What accounts for those differences?
3) “Religion is a double-edged sword, both supporting and undermining political authority and social elites.” How would
you support both sides of this statement?
4) What is the difference between class and caste?
5) Why was slavery so much more prominent in Greco-Roman civilization than in India or China?
6) “Social inequality was both accepted and resisted in classical civilizations.” What evidence might support this
statement?
Unit Review Questions (Focused)
1) Why did semidemocratic governments emerge in some of the Greek city-states?
2) What were the consequences for both sides of the encounter between the Persians and the Greeks?
3) What changes did Alexander’s conquests bring in their wake?
4) In comparing the Roman and Chinese empires, which do you find more striking—their similarities or their differences?
5) What different answers to the problem of disorder arose in classical China?
6) How did the Daoist outlook differ from that of Confucianism?
7) In what ways did Buddhism reflect Hindu traditions, and in what ways did it challenge them?
8) How would you compare the lives and teachings of Jesus and the Buddha? In what different ways did the two
religions evolve after the deaths of their founders?
9) What class conflicts disrupted Chinese society?
10) What set of ideas underlies India’s caste-based society?
11) In what ways did the expression of Chinese patriarchy change over time, and why did it change?
12) How did the patriarchies of Athens and Sparta differ from each other?
Terms to Know
Ahura Mazda (pron. ah-HOOR-a MAZdah)
Alexander the Great
Aryans
Athenian democracy
Caesar Augustus
Cyrus (the Great)
Darius I (pron. most commonly in
American English DAHR-ee-us)
Greco-Persian Wars
Gupta Empire. (pron. GHOOP-tuh)
Han dynasty (pron. hahn)
Hellenistic era
Herodotus (pron. hair- ODD-uh-tus)
hoplite
Ionia
Mandate of Heaven
Marathon, Battle of
Mauryan Empire
Olympic Games
Patricians
pax Roman (pron. pox roh-MAHN-uh)
Peloponnesian War
Persepolis (pron. per-SEP-oh-lis)
Persian Empire
plebeians
Punic Wars
Qin dynasty (pron. chin)
Qin Shihuangdi (pron. chin sheehwang-dee)
Solon
Wudi (pron. woo-dee)
Xiongnu (pron. shong-noo)
Yellow Turban Rebellion
Ahura Mazda (pron. ah-HOOR-ah
MAHZ-dah)
Angra Mainyu
Aristotle
atman (pron. AHT-mahn)
Ban Zhao (pron. bahn joe)
satraps
Zoroastrianism
Sasanids
Four Noble Truths
Gupta
Hinayana
Hinduism
Bhagavad Gita (pron. BAH-gah-vahd
GHEE-tah)
bhakti movement (pron. BAHK-tee)
Brahman (pron. BRAH-mahn)
Brahmins (pron. BRAH-min)
Buddhism
Confucianism
Confucius (Kong Fuzi) (pron. of
Chinese form of name: kuhng fuhtzuh)
Constantine
Daodejing (pron. dow-day-jing)
Daoism (pron. dow-ism)
filial piety
Greek rationalism
Hinduism
Hippocrates
Isaiah
Jesus of Nazareth
Judaism
karma
Laozi (pron. low-tzuh)
Legalism
Mahayana (pron. mah-hah-YAH-nah)
moksha. (pron. mokeshuh)
nirvana (pron. ner-VAH-nah)
Plato
Pythagoras (pron. pith-AG-or-us)
Saint Paul
Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha)
(pron. sidd-ARTH-uh gow- TAHMuh)
Patriarchy
Secular
Wuwei
Xiao
Yellow Turban Uprising
Jainism
Achaemenid
Socrates
Theodosius
Theravada (pron. THAIR-ah-VAH-dah)
Upanishads (pron. ooh- PAHN-ishahds)
Vedas. (pron.VAY-dahs)
Warring States period
Zarathustra (pron. zah-rah-THOOStrah)
Zhuangzi. (pron. jwang-tzuh)
Zoroastrianism (pron. zor-oh- ASTree-an-ism)
Ban Zhao. (pron. bahn joe)
caste
jati
varna
dharma
Greek and Roman slavery.
helots
karma
Ksatriya (pron. kshah-TREE-yah)
latifundia (singular latifundium).
Pericles. (pron. PEAR-ih-klees)
“ritual purity”
scholar-gentry class
Spartacus
Sudra (pron. SHOOD-rah)
untouchables
Vaisya (pron. VIESH-yah)
Wang Mang. (pron. wahng mahng)
Wu, Empress
Wudi (pron. woo-dee)
Analects
Li
Jati
Skeptics
Stoics