WORLD HISTORY

   GENERAL KNOWLEDGE FOR YOUR SSC, UPSC AND GOVT. JOBS PREPARATION(ANCIENT WORLD)

 MESOPOTAMIAN CIVILIZATION: THE OLDEST CIVILIZATION OF THE WORLD

• MESOPOTAMIAN MEANS LAND BETWEEN THE RIVERS, MESOPOTAMIA IS THE LAND BETWEEN THE TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES RIVERS.

• MESOPOTAMIA COMPRISES FOUR REGIONS:SUMMER(SOUTHERNMOST REGION), BABYLONIA AND AKKAD(MIDDLE REGION) AND ASSYRIA(NORTHERNMOST REGION)

• THE POTTER'S WHEEL WAS PERHAPS FIRST USED IN MESOPOTAMIA.

• THE MESOPOTAMIANS ALSO SEEM TO HAVE BEEN THE FIRST TO MAKE GLASS WARE.

• IN GEOMETRY, THE MESOPOTAMIANS HAD DISCOVERED WHAT WAS LATER CALLED THE PYTHAGORAS THEOREM.

    EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION

• EGYPT IS CALLED THE GIFT OF THE NILE.

• HISTORIANS DIVIDE THE HISTORY OF EGYPT INTO THREE PERIODS: THE OLD KINGDOM,THE MIDDLE KINGDOM AND THE NEW KINGDOM.

• THE OLD KINGDOM IS ALSO CALLED THE AGE OF THE PYRAMIDS.

• THE EGYPTIAN KING WAS CALLED THE PHARAOH.

• THE EGYPTIANS WERE THE WORSHIPPER OF THE NATURE AND THE SUN WAS THEIR MOST IMPORTANT GOD.

• THE PYRAMIDSAND THE SPHINXARE TWO SPECIMENS OF EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURAL EXCELLENCE.

• THE SPHINX IS A MYTHOLOGICAL ANIMAL WITH THE BODY OF A LION AND THE HEAD OF A MAN. EACH SPHINX WAS CARVED OUT OF A SINGLE SOLID STONE.

• THE EGYPTIANS DEVELOPED A DECIMAL SYSTEM OF NUMERATION.

• THE CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT OF THE EGYPTIANS WAS THE SOLAR CALENDER.

    CHINESE CIVILIZATION

• THE EARLIEST CHINESE CIVILIZATION IS THE SHANG CIVILIZATION.

• THE SHANG DYNASTY WAS OVERTHROWN BY THE CHOU DYNASTY.

• UNDER THE HANS, SILK WAS A PRINCIPAL ITEM OF EXPORT.

• TWO MAIN ROADS WERE BUILT ACROSS THE GREAT WALL TO CARRY ON TRADE WITH THE WEST.

• BUDDHISM WAS BROUGHT INTO CHINA BY INDIAN DURING THE HAN RULE.

• THE WATER CLOCK,ABACUS,UMBRELLA WERE INVENTED BY CHINESE.

• IN THE 2ND CENT. AD, CHINESE INVENTED A SEISMOGRAPH.

• THE HAN DYNASTY FOLLOWED THE CHIN DYNASTY IN 202 BC AND THE HAN EMPERORS RULED CHINA FOR ALMOST 400 YEARS 

     MEDIEVAL EUROPE

•     THE EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE OR BYZANTINE EMPIRE WAS A VAST EMPIRE AND ITS CAPITAL CONSTANTINOPLE WAS THE LARGEST CITY OF THAT TIME.

• THE OTTOMAN TURKS CONQUERED THE BYZANTINE TERRITORIES IN 1453.

           FEUDALISM:-

• THE WORD FEUDAL COMES FROM FEUD WHICH ORIGINALLY MEANT A FIEF OR LAND HELD ON CONDITION OR SERVICE.IN A FEUDAL SOCIETY, LAND WAS THE SOURCE OF POWER.

• FEUDALISM ORIGINATED IN THE 8TH AND 9TH CENTURIES.

• FIRST OF ALL IN WESTERN EUROPE THE FEUDAL SYSTEM DEVELOPED.

• THE MAIN DIVISION IN FEUDAL SOCIETY WAS BETWEEN FEUDAL LORDS, WHO EITHER GOT A SHARE OF THE PEASANTS' PRODUCE OR HAD PEASANTS TO WORK ON THEIR LANDS WITHOUT ANY PAYMENT, AND PEASANTS, WHO WORKED ON THE LAND.

    FEUDAL HIERARCHY:

• FEUDAL LORDS:- KINGS, DUKES AND EARLS, BARONS, KNIGHTS

• PEASANTS:-THREE CATEGORIES OF PEASANTS - FREEHOLDERS,VILLEINS AND SERFS

• IN FEUDAL HIERARCHY,THE KING STOOD AT THE TOP AND PEASANT STOOD AT THE BOTTOM.

• THE ECONOMIC LIFE UNDER THE FEUDAL SYSTEM WAS PREDOMINANTLY RURAL. THE UNIT OF LAND, WHICH WAS LIKE A VILLAGE-FARM, WAS CALLED MANOR.