After having read the chapter and listening to this podcast, students should be able to

Identify the main tenets of Islam and understand how it compares with Judaism and Christianity.

Understand the reasons for the Arabs’ rapid expansion in the seventh and eighth centuries and their success in creating an empire.

Appreciate the main features of Islamic society and culture during the era of its early growth.

After having read the chapter and listened to this podcast, students should be able to

• Appreciate the various theories about how, when, and from where the first Americans arrived in the Western Hemisphere.

• Identify the main characteristics of religious belief in early Mesoamerica.

• Understand the role the environment played in the evolution of American civilizations.

• Grasp the main characteristics of stateless societies in the Americas, and how they resembled and differed from American civilizations.

 After having read the chapter and listen to this podcast, students should be able to

Discuss the policies and institutions that contributed to the Romans’ success in conquering Italy.

Understand why Rome was able to achieve an empire between 264 and 133 B.C.E., and the problems that this imperial expansion caused.

Grasp the key features of the Roman empire at its height in the second century C.E.

Discuss the reforms of Diocletian and Constantine, and appreciate the extent to which they were successful.

Understand which characteristics of Christianity enabled it to grow and ultimately dominate the Roman world.

Discuss the chief features of the Han empire, how it was similar to and different from the Roman Empire, and the role played by the Silk Road that prospered between them.

After having read the chapter and listened to this podcast, students should be able to

Appreciate how Greece’s geography affected Greek history. 

Be familiar with Homer and why his work was used as the basis for Greek education.

Understand the chief features of the Greek city-state (polis) and the major differences between Athens and Sparta.

Know what the Greeks meant by democracy and to what degree Athens was a democracy.

Understand the effects that the two great conflicts of the fifth century—the Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War—had on Greek civilization.

Comprehend how Alexander the Great was able to conquer as much territory as he did and what  kind of legacy he left.

Understand how the political and social institutions of the Hellenistic world differed from those of Classical Greece.

After having read the chapter and listened to this podcast, students should be able to 

Understand the influence that geography has had on the development of Chinese civilization.

Appreciate the importance of Chinese belief systems in shaping Chinese culture. In particular, students will be familiar with the major tenets of Confucianism, Legalism, and Daoism, and the role they played in early Chinese history.

Understand the important political, economic, and social developments of the Zhou and Qin dynasties.

Understand the role that nomadic people played in early Chinese history and how that role compared with the role of nomadic people in other parts of Asia.

Grasp the key aspects of social and economic life in early China.

Understand the chief characteristics of the Chinese writing system and how it differed from the scripts used in Egypt and Mesopotamia.

After having read the chapter and listened to this episode, students should be able to

Understand the major aspects of Harappan civilization and the ways in which it was similar to Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations.

Understand what was distinctive about the class system introduced by the Aryans and how this system affected Indian civilization.

Grasp the main beliefs of Brahmanism and Buddhism, and how each religion influenced Indian civilization.

Understand why India was unable to maintain a unified empire in the first millennium B.C.E., and what enabled the Mauryan Empire to overcome the tendencies toward disunity. 

Appreciate how the culture of ancient India resembled and differed from those of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Understand the major reasons that India became home to an advanced society, and the degree to which it merits comparison with Mesopotamia and Egypt as one of the first civilizations.

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