Laila

=India's Geography=

The Himalayas help regulate the weather of India. A lot of people of India have settled along the Indus River because of the fertile land. India is a subcontinent. The Ganges River is India's main river that runs straight through it. The Himalayas protect India from invaders and harsh weather. The Aryans were warriors who and invaded the Indus River Valley. Asoka ruled the largest empire in the ancient history of India. The Indus Valley is very dry and barren, but thousands of years ago, it was lush. Chandragupta is the founder of the Mauryan Empire. People of the Indus Valley used a barter instead of money. The two main religions of India are Hinduism and Buddhism.

=The Aryans= The Aryans lived in ganas,which is made up of several families. Each gana was ruled by a warrior chief. A gana house was very small and was built out of wood and straw and only had one room where all of the family members lived. The Aryans that lived in the Indus River Valley belonged to a caste. When you are born into a caste you can not move up or down. The Aryan priests were the highest social level. The Aryans called the indigenous people the "Untouchables". The were considered the lowest level in society. All of the caste members had to eat food that was prepared by members that were in their caste. They also had to work in caste specific jobs and marry inside their caste too. Women were taught to obey the male member of the family. The Aryan children began to work at a young age. The girls/daughters/women would do housework and would fetch water and had no form of education. In the Aryan times during mariage the groom would put a dot of his blood on their wife's forehead to prove their wedlock. Indian women still do it today. The Aryans lived as cattle herders and horsemen.

=__Religion and Beliefs__= =The Harappans= The Harappans believed and worshiped many gods. They used a form of writing or script. The Harappans worshiped many human and animal gods and spirits. The Harappans also believed in some form of life after death. When there is a death, the Harappans bury pottery jars with their their dead. The jars that the Harappans put in the graves contained food to be eaten in the afterlife. The Harappans buried their dead in pits instead of in graves. They also bury them with simple tools and jewlery.

=Aryan gods= The Aryans believed in devas or gods. They believed in gods that controlled all things in nature including weather, fire, and water. The Aryans believed in helper gods that created wealth and happiness,healed sickness, and to get people out of the bed in the morning. The god Shiva may also have been a Harappan god. The Aryans believed that each year that Varuna, the god of the heavens had fought a very big dragon. Then the monsoon rains only come if Varuna defeated the dragon. Agni was a very important Aryan god of fire. The Aryan cremated their dead so that Agni will carry their souls to heaven. The Aryans also believed in after life. The good people went to heaven and the evil people were cast into a pit of blackness. Then the pit was replaced by a belief in reincarnation where every living thing goes through a series of lives.

=Karma= Hindus believed that people were reborn(reincarnated) after they died.It depends on karma which also depends on how that person acted in their previous lives. Someone who has good karma, in their new life that person will be wealthier and have a higher caste. A person has bad karma is born into a low caste like a animal or plant.

=Jainism=

In Jainism, people have to be truthful, not want to much, and not use violence against other living things, and not to steal. Very religious Jains wear masks over their mouth so they will not breathe in and kill insects.

= = =Writing and words= The Harappans developed a system of writing which they used to record events. The Harappans wrote symbols on pottery and they made up their own alphabet. They carved only 20 symbols in a seal of tablet. When the Aryans came to the Indus Valley, they brought two languages with them. The first one was Dardic and the second one was Sanskrit. Sanskrit was developed in Europe, India, and Asia. Sanskrit is only used by Brahmans( the Hindu priests) The holy books or vedas was past down to Brahman down to Brahman. The first sanskrit writing was the Rig Veda holy book.

=Inventions= The Harappans dug wells to provide water for their cities. They built underground drains to get rid if waste from their cities and they used bronze tools. Some other inventions were bronze tools, circular saw, stoneware, and pottery for dishes. They also invented mathematics and the decimal system and the numeral system. They also invented medicine and hospitals.



=__India's Food__= =North Indian Food= In North India, two dishes that they eat are Kashmir and Saag. Saag is prepared with a leafy green vegetable called Hak.

=West Indian Food= Here they have a wide variety of fishes. A lot of countries from all over the world had influences here.

=East Indian Food= Food here is a combination of fish and rice.

=South Indian Food= Here they have great uses if spices,fishes,and coconuts.

=India's weather= India's weather is subtropical and warm with a lot of winds.

=The Kshatriyans= The Kshatriyans were the nobles of ancient Indian society. They also had special rights and duties. The main duties of the kshatriya caste was to protect the people, to bestow gifts, offer sacrifices, and to study the vedas(The holy book) The Kshatriyas were the protectors of the people and they were in charge of the government and the army. The kshatriyans also worked as merchants and artisans.

=The Council of ministers= The council of ministers have the most powerful government officials. This group was responsible for setting government policy. The council's role is to propose projects,bring works to a successful conclusion, examine new possibilities, and to maintain discipline in the administration. If the king has to make an important decision, he has to consult with the council first before he can do anything.

=The National Flag of India= India's national flag colors are saffron(top), white(middle), and green(bottom). The national emblem is the blue spinning wheel in the middle.

=New Delhi= New Delhi is India's capital and is the third largest city in the world.

=Bollywood= Bollywood is the informal name for the Hindi Film based in Mumbai. It is of the largest centers of film production which is very popular and is very common in everywhere in India.

=Chapati= Chapati is a delicous Indian flatbread.



=India's Currency= The official currency of India is the Indian Rupee.

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=Islam and Muslim= The first of the Islams came in the early 700's. The Arab traders introduced Islam to South Asia. It spread throughout Pakistan. Turkish Muslim kingdoms began to spread through Afghanistan. The Afghan kings launched raids into India to seize the wealth that was stored in the Hindu temples. A group of Muslim invaders established the Delhi Sultanate.

=Mughals= A Muslim named Babur founded the Mughal Empire. Akbar(Babur's grandson) was a ruler and extended Mughal control over most of South Asia. He had a Hinds army and government.

=The Colonial Period= The British sent the East India Company to act as its trading agent. The British took over East India Company's territories. India's textile industry was beginning to collaspe.

=Mohandas Ghandi= Mahandus Ghandi organized boycotts of British goods which led to protest marches. Ghandi urged that everyone and everything and everyone had nonviolent resistance, or peaceful protest. He believed that a nation should only be built around religion.

=**The Indian Elephant**= They are mainly found across India and Sri Lanka. The Indian Elephant eats grasses, bamboo, leaves, bark, and palms. They have also been used as weapons in war.

=Indira Gandhi= Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru. Indira became the first woman prime minister. She was then later murdered by her own bodyguards.

=Jawaharlal Nehru= Jawaharlal Nehru became the first prime minister of India.

=Mother Teresa= Mother Teresa was a Indian catholic nun who came to India to work with the poor. She worked very well with the "untouchables".

=Population and the Environment of India= South Asia's population is home to more than 1.5 billion people. This region has dense population and high birthrates. South Asia also is associated with poverty and environmental problems. In 2050, India is expected to increase in population by 500 million people and will probably overtake China. India's birthrate has dramatically slowed in recent decades, but the increases are still bound to happen. In South Asia, the populations of other nations started to grow rapidly. Afganistan's population has grown the fastest. Rising populations are putting pressure on shrinking resources. In Bangladesh, people are moving to the delta in order to farm. The people of Bangladesh are moving to the deltas because of its rich sediment that washed down from the Himalayas. Some of the reasons for India's rapidly growing population are poverty, illiteracy, high fertility rate, rapid decline in death rates or mortality rates, and imagration from Bangladesh and Nepal.

=Governments and Economies of India= South Asia has a mix of government. India has a long lasting parliamentary democracy. India also is a representative democracy. People elect the members of one house of India's parliament, or legislature. Then, one member of the parliament is chosen as the prime minister to head the government. In Nepal, they had recently ended it's monarchy. Nepal is now a democratic republic. India is a secular democracy. Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Maldives are all Islamic republics. There is a rule in Pakistan that the prime minister has to be Muslim. Indian government polices have emphasized trade and technology. India provides software services to companies all over the world. Companies in Europe and the United States use outsourcing with India. India's economy is a skilled workforce.

=India's Voting System= First, the voters elect the parliament and the state assemblies. Then the Parliament and the state assemblies elect the president. The parliament also draws a prime minister from a majority party. Some of the government officials of India are Pranab Muklterjee- the president, Manmahohan Singh- the prime minister, Sharad Pawar- the Min. of Culture, Kumari Selja -the Min. of Culture, and Mohammad Hadid Ansari- the Vice President.

=The Middle Ages= The Roman Empire lasted more than a thousand years, however, the empire began to grow weak. Warriors that came from the north attacked the borders of the empire. The Middle Ages are so called as the middle period between the decline of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. The Middle Ages is known as the time "in between". There were civilizations of Greece and Rome before the Middle Ages. Modern nations existed after the Middle Ages. The signs of a civilization that Rome brought to Europe began to crumble and trade began to disappear.A system that was developed to bring order to Europe was called feudalism. Feudalism was a type of government. People who lived under feudalism agreed that powerful people agreed to protect people who were less powerful. The king gave land to the nobles. Rich men who were from the upper class were know as nobles. The nobles were called vassals of the king. Vassals who fought for the king were called knights. Many common people were serfs. Serfs farmed land, payed rent and taxes to the nobles. Many people lived on manors in The Middle Ages. Nobles of The Middle Ages in castles with stone walls. Serfs live in villages. A small church was vital to each manor. Priests learned how to read and write in latin. Monks and Nuns usually copied books by hand. Beautiful churches were called cathedrals. Most people did not travel far from their manor. Christians to visit the city of jerusalem. Muslims in jerusalem didn't welcome christians anymore. Christians went on several journeys to try to capture. Jerusalem. The journeys were called the crusades.

=Early Modern Europe= The Crusades brought Europeans together from the east. As a result,trade increased, and towns began to grow. The period in Europe after the crusades is the time e call the renaissance. People developed new ideas about literature, art, and science. Martin Luther was a monk who had developed new ideas about Christianity. Martin Luther was angry with the Roman Catholic Church because the pope would forgive people for their mistakes if they gave money to the church. Luther nailed 95 of his beliefs on the cathedral's door and his followers were called Protestants. The news spread faster with the printing press. Despite the print revolution, most Europeans remained illiterate. The Industrial revolution was very important because new inventions were being made to make work easier and faster.

=The Fertile Crescent= Mesopotamia was one of the first civilizations. Land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers was great for farming. The Fertile Crescent is a rich food-growing area in a part of the world where most of the land is too dry for farming. First, people learned how to grow crops. They also learned how domesticate animals. People had to move from place to place because they had to follow the animals so they could hunt for food. Sumer is the first large area of farming villages. A system of writing called cuneiform was invented in Sumer. The Babylonians were the largest and the most powerful. The hebrews were turned into slaves by the Egyptians.

=Oceania= New Zealand is made up of several dozen small islands and two main islands. The two main islands are called the North Island and the South Island. Since New Zealand is surrounded by water, it has a mild climate. Australia means the "southern land". The country lies south of the equator. Australia is a very dry continent. About one third of Australia is covered by desert. The hot, dry plains are what we all know as the Outback. The Aborigines were the first people to com to Australia in the South Pacific. They hunted and gathered their food. They did not farm or build villages. They traveled throughout Australia in groups of few families.The Aboriginal flag is divided into into two equal halves of black(top) and red (bottom) with a yellow circle in the center.The black symbolizes the aboriginal people and the yellow represents the sun, the constant renewer of life. Red represents the earth.



=**Ancient Egypt**=

The Nile River is the longest river in the world. Located in Africa: the Nile River lies in the following countries: Kenya, Eritrea, Congo, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia. It flows from a lake deep in Africa to a desert in Egypt. Since there is little rain in Egypt, the people had to get their water from the Nile River. Over 10,000 years ago people began moving into the Nile River Valley. The people stayed there because the because the land near the Nile River is fertile land.When the Nile River had floods, the floods left a layer of fertile soil on the land. Due to that fertile land, farmers planted their crops in that soil. Later on, the Egyptians found that they could trap the floodwater from the river and also save. A man named Menes ruled over several villages in Egypt. Menes became the king of Egypt. The Pharaoh made laws for all the people of Egypt. Eygptians believe in many gods. They believe that the sun was a god named Ra.Egyptians thought that human life was like the sun. When a person would die, they would use mummification. First they would put chemicals on the bodies. Then they wrapped the body with long strips of cloth. Last they wrapped the bodies with a mixture like tar. That tar made their body waterproof. Today they call them mummies. The dead person was then put in a tomb.

=**Modern Day Africa**=

European explorers and traders brought news of Africa back home with them. They talked about how Africa was a land of many resources. After that the Europeans had plans to go back to Africa to become rich. The goods from Africa could be traded in Asia. Europeans built large farms called plantations. On the plantations grew sugar cane, cotton, fruits, and coffee. The Europeans got slave catchers to take people from Africa from their villages. Many people died in the result of slave trade. Many villages were destroyed in Africa also to a result of slave trade. In the 1800s, the European countries were increasing quickly.Many Europeans countries began follow imperialism. Ghana was the first African nation to become independent. Ghana's first leader was Kwame Nkrumah. The people of Ghana gained their independence on March 6, 1957. "There are over 1,500 different languages in Africa. This important to the merging of cultures because you need to know how to communicate with others who don't speak your language.

=Canada= The Vikings were the first Europeans to visit Canada. The vikings traveled across the Atlantic in small ships. The Vikings reached the region called Newfoundland in A.D 1000. John Cabot claimed Newfoundland for England in 1497. Jaques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence river in 1534. Europeans wanted to make colonies in Canada because of all of its resources. Furs were very valuable. French traders bought skins of beavers from American Indians and sold them in Europe. Samuel de Champlain founded the city of Quebec. The Hudson's Bay Company controls fur trade. British and the French fought the French and Indian war. Great Britain won the war in 1763and gained control of Canada. The British allowed the French canadians keep their laws, language, and religion. Canada won the right to self government in 1867. Canada officially got its own flag on February 15, 1965. The Canadian government started a program called multiculturalism. In the 1990s', Kim Campbell became Canada's first woman prime minister.

=Ancient Africa = Egypt was the first civilization in Africa. Egypt is located in northern Africa. The Sahara desert separates Egypt from the rest of Africa. Egypt was conquered by other kingdoms. Some of those kingdoms were found in Africa. The land south to the Sahara is called the sub-Saharan Africa. The Sahara had a different climate thousands of years ago. There used to plants, animals, and humans that used to live in the Sahara desert. There even used to be rain. An African named Piankhi traveled down the Nile with his army and defeated Egypt more than 2,000 years ago. Hundreds of years later, the kingdom of Kush was the most important civilization in Africa. Kush was located south of Egypt. The capital of Kush was a city called Meroe. The streets of Kush were filled with elephants. The people of Kush used them to carry iron tools and gold to faraway places. The people of Kush were some of the first traders. Kush was surrounded by very powerful neighbors. Aland called Ethiopia was south to the land Kush. Axum was avery important city in Ethiopia. Axum became a great trading city. Some people sailed their boats from Asia to ports along the Ethiopian coast. The people had come to trade clothing and jewels for gold, ivory, and other riches from Africa.1,800 years ago there was a kingdom called Ghana. In south Ghana, there was a lot of gold there. Traders from North Africa and Egypt came all the way to Ghana just for the gold. Traders traded large blocks of salt for gold. back then, slat was very necessary. It was used to keep food from spoiling. The people of Ghana did not have any salt, as a result, they were willing to trade salt for gold. The kingdom of Ghana remained strong for almost 800 years. Warriors from the north invaded Ghana and took over their gold trade.Warriors from the north conquered Ghana. The civilizations that flourished in ancient west Africa were all based on trade, so successful west African leaders tended to be peaces makers rather than warriors.

=The Western Hemispere= In the Western Hemisphere there are North and South America. The name Amerigo was first to be used on the map of South America in 1507. It was named after Amerigo Vespucci. Amerigo Vespucci was a navigator and explorer and was born on March 9, 1451 in Florence, Italy. An Italian sailor named John Cabot sailed to America in 1496. John Cabot did not sail to Canada in the fall. The climate was very cold because it was very far off to the north. Parts of Canada is covered with snow and ice all year round. The west coast of Canada is the warmest part of the country in the winter time. from the South pacific ocean currents move up from it. The currents make the air warmer and the warm air warms the west coast. Southeastern Canada has short summers and cold winters. Half of the people who live in Canada live in the Southeast part of Canada. Montreal and Toronto are two of Canada's biggest cities. Five of The Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River form the lower border. Canada's largest part is the Canadian Shield. It is a flat region that borders the Hudson Bay. There are a lot of lakes in the Canadian Shield. The weather and land is not good for farming. But, gold and lumber can be found here. The Interior Plains lies west of the Hudson Bay. Very big farms are found in the southern part of the Interior plains. Large forests cover the northern part of the Interior Plains. To the west of the Interior Plains are the Rocky Mountains and then the Pacific Ocean. The United States and Canada have very similar land regions. The Appalachian Mountains go from Canada to almost the Gulf of Mexico( In the east). The Rocky Mountains go from Canada to through the U.S and through Mexico. The Great Plains are part of the same land region as Canada's Interior Plains. Alaska's climate and land region is the same as Canada's cold climate. The islands of Hawaii has a tropical climate. There are also deserts in the United States. One is in California and gets really hot. It is called Death Valley. It is the hottest region in the U.S. North and South America look somewhat alike. On both if the continents, flat plains lie in the middle of each of them. The flat land in South America there is a bowl like area called the Amazon Basin. The Amazon River flows through the Andes, through the Amazon Basin, and then into the Atlantic Ocean.