Prehistory to 500 C.E. - AP World History: Modern

The Maori people migrated from Polynesia to the islands of New Zealand. They are considered the indigenous people of New Zealand, although it is worth noting that they arrived from Polynesia around 1000-1200 CE.

A ziggurat is an ancient structure built in Mesopotamia by the Sumerians, Babylonians, and other Mesopotamian civilizations. It generally takes the shape of a step pyramid. Ziggurats were religious buildings part of temple complexes, and many survive to this day.

Cuneiform is one of the earliest known examples of writing in human history. It emerged in Sumeria approximately six thousand years ago. It spread throughout much of the known world before eventually being replaced by the simpler Phoenician alphabet in the first millennium BCE.

Aristotle was an Ancient Greek philosopher and a student of Plato. He is most famous for establishing a system of logic that continues to be relevant to this day. The term Aristotelian Logic is named after him and was the dominant form of logical understanding up to the beginning of the Twentieth Century.

Hammurabi's Code of Laws is the earliest known written-down legal system. Hammurabi was a Babylonian king circa 1800 BCE. The Babylonian civilization existed in various forms for roughly 1500 years from 2000 BCE to 500 BCE.

The Nubian civilization is one of the earliest known civilizations in African history. It arose in modern-day Southern Egypt and Sudan in approximately 2000 BCE.

The Aborigines are the native people of Australia. They arrived there from South Asia tens of thousands of years ago, most probably between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago. They lived as the dominant people of Australia until the arrival of the Europeans in the eighteenth century, who relegated the Aborigines to second-class status.

The "Bantu Migration" is the term used to describe the movement of the Bantu people, and their culture and language, around Central and Southern Africa, starting around 1000 BCE and lasting for roughly 1300 years. Languages in Bantu language groups continue to be spoken to this day and include Swahili, Zulu, and Kirundi.

The Edict of Milan was issued by Roman Emperor Constantine in 313 C.E. It formally ended persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.

Siddhartha Gautama is often credited with founding modern Buddhism. He promoted the idea of a Middle Way - that encouraged a middle ground between sensory indulgence and complete asceticism that was popular in the India of his time.

The Neolithic revolution was marked by innovations in agriculture. As a result, not all people needed to be farmers; instead, they began to specialize in different jobs. The answer choice "job specialization" is correct.

This period led to an increase in the food supply (rather than shortages), an increase in the world population (not a decrease), and increased trade (rather than decreased). Furthermore, work done outside the home—such as herding—was typically performed by men and began to be valued more highly than work done inside the home, which was typically performed by women, leading to increased gender inequality.

The Neolithic Revolution is the first recognized agricultural revolution in human history. It marked the transition from hunter-gatherer tribes into established and settled agricultural communities - thus allowing for a massive expansion in population, as well as the development of art and culture for the first time in human history. It first occurred in what is known as the “Fertile Crescent” - particularly fertile and abundant lands in Ancient Mesopotamia (now called The Middle East). Historical sources vary, but most scholars agree that the Neolithic Revolution began around 12,000-10,000 B.C.E. and had resulted in complicated societies (like the Sumerians) by 5,500 B.C.E.

The “Fertile Crescent” is the name given to the agricultural plains of Ancient Mesopotamia, which are abundant in comparison to the surrounding desert. The land of the “Fertile Crescent” can be found around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in and around modern Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Southern Turkey, and Northern Saudi Arabia. This area's importance to history is that it was the first part of the world that we know of to inspire humanity's adoption of a settled and agricultural life, which in turn lead to the first powerful empires and cultures of the ancient era.

The Code of Hammurabi is one of the earliest known systems of law that we know about from the ancient world. Hammurabi was a Babylonian king in the 1700s B.C.E.

When you see dates written, it is traditionally in the format of B.C. (Before the birth of Jesus Christ) and A.D. (After the birth of Jesus Christ); however, in recent years, it has become more common practice to use B.C.E. (Before Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era). So this year is 2015 A.D. and 2015 C.E.; the year 432 B.C. is also the year 432 B.C.E. The years begin in the distant B.C.E., countdown to zero (Christ’s birth) and then count back up in the Common Era. So the year that is the furthest in the past is 1212 B.C.E.

The Bantu people are one of the earliest organized civilizations in African History. They originated in West Africa and, over a period of several thousand years, migrated South and East. The Bantu Migration is used to explain the similarities between languages and culture across Western, Southern, and Eastern Africa. It is estimated that the Bantu Migration (also called the Bantu Expansion) ended in South Africa as recently as 300 C.E., although historians have largely been unable to confirm this due to the dearth of archaeological evidence.

The earliest settlers of North America arrived from Asia. The people would have crossed the Bering Straight (between modern day Russia and Alaska) during an ice age and migrated south throughout the whole continent searching for food and shelter.

The Neolithic era spans from about 10,000 B.C.E. to about 2,000 B.C.E. It is marked by the movement of human society away from hunter-gatherer societies and towards settled agricultural communities. The change took place first in the fertile lands in the Middle East but spread almost everywhere where hunting was difficult or lands were fertile. The movement towards settled agricultural communities paved the way for cities, large communities, civilizations, and empires, as well as art, culture, and written language.

The Bronze Age began first in the Near Middle East in about the 4th millenium B.C.E. It provided people with new tools to manipulate the environment around them - allowing people to build better buildings, farm more efficiently, and wage war far more effectively. The Bronze Age eventually spread around much of the world (although remained absent indefinitely in some places) and contributed dramatically to the growth of civilizations.

Despite the connotation of the word "roads," exchange along the Silk Roads took place by both land and sea. These passageways greatly facilitated—rather than inhibited—the exchange of goods and ideas to and from China. The Silk Roads were established well before the fourteenth century CE.