Greta

= = =__India's Geography and Climate__= India is south of the Himalayan Mountains, the Himalayas affect India in many ways.The Himalayas create the northern border for India to protect India from invaders. The Himalayas also help control India's climate, they block cold and dry air from the north and collect moisture from the warm humid winds. Then the moisture drops as rain in the south and snow on the mountains. India's climate is mainly warm and humid all year round, even in the cooler months the temperature can reach a warm temperature. Comparing India's climate to the U.S northeast climate it is very different between the two. The southern tip of India is a peninsula, most of it is very flat while northern India is not. The peninsula has two coastal mountain ranges,the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats which are both bordering the peninsula's coasts. India has many different climates and many different landforms that cause this weather and climate. In South Asia it is rich in resources, these resources help the manufacturing in India. Rivers, plateaus, mountains,and the ocean provide these resources in India. While India is rich in natural resources they are also rich in fertile soil for farming, which is very good for the huge amount of farmers.

=__**India's Early History**__= The Indus River Valley is where two of the world's greatest ancient civilizations began. One of those civilizations where the Harappans who were farmers, craftspeople, and traders. The Harappans were very advanced craftspeople, they built sewage systems for water to go in and out of homes and clay-walled cities. This civilization was the earliest civilizations of the two, 2600 B.C. to 1900 B.C.. The second civilization was the Aryans who were nomadic people that moved to the Indus River Valley, it is believed that they intermixed with the Harappans. The Aryans spread their culture further south and created the ancient India Civilization, is also believed that the Aryans destroyed the Harappans. Trading was huge in the Ancient Indus Valley, the Harappans were trading cloth, grain, and gems to a wide span on nations and civilizations. The Aryans did the same thing after the Harappans on the same route. As the Harappans traded they learned new skills from other nations, they learned how to make a simple plow from the Mesopotamians. The Ancient Indians also started to grow rice, which was brought by a Chinese trader. Rice then became a main crop in India. At the end of a period called the Vedic Period, (1700 to 500 B.C.), India was divided into sixteen kingdoms and major states.Then Chandragupta Maurya seized the throne and conquered and united the divided kingdoms of central and northern India, this founded the Mauryam Empire. The Indus River Valley Civilization had a four main class caste system, when people were born into a social class they could not get out of it. The four main classes were: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Sudras, and Dasas, in order highest to lowest.

=__**The Aryans**__= The Aryans, who lived in the Indus Valley, all lived in ganas, which means collections. The gana would be made of several families and had a territory that was ruled by a raja, a warrior chief. Usually, a gana house was a small one roomed wood and straw house where all the members of the families lived. Until around 500 B.C., Aryan women were famous warriors and were allowed to own property. Then when the brahmans became powerful they thought that women should be controlled. When this happened, women were not allowed to own property and her husband was chosen for her by her parents. In an Aryan home was a yagna, a central hearth, that was gathered around by the family to tell news of the day. The yagna's fire was always going, since fire was believed a gift from the fire god, Agni. Agni was one of the most important gods for the Aryans, many people paid big tributes to him. Fire was considered the truest and greatest of the five elements, fire was in most religious practices mostly marriage and other activities. Vedas, Ancient Indian texts, told the Aryan's religious beliefs, the religion was the start of Hinduism. The Vedas are then considered as Hindu sacred writings.

**__The Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro__**
This statue of the dancing girl was the first dancing gesture statue found in the Indian Subcontinent. This bronze statue was found in a house in Mohenjo-daro in 1926.

**__Indian games and sports__**
One game that is played in India is called Gilli-Danda, where there is a small stick and a large stick. The small stick is called a 'gilli' and the large stick is a 'danda', there is also a ball called a Gilli. A sport that is played in India is Cricket, it is the most popular sport in India. England brought cricket over when they colonized India in the 1800s.

**__Indian Classical Dance__**
In India, dance is a very influential art form since many art sculptures and paintings were some form of dance. The first evidence of dance was found in the Indus Valley Civilization, showing the developed art. In the Vedic age dance was also influenced, it was known as a social activity.

=__**Government warriors and leaders**__= As well as the king, the Kshatriyas, who were nobles that had special duties, included many other people. The Kshatriyas were in charge of the army and government, most of the nobleman were a high-ranking government official while some worked in a lower rank. The council of ministers had the most powerful government officials, they were in charge of making new ideas for the administration. The council was even allowed to overrule or criticize the king if they disagreed with his decision. When the kingdom was divided into provinces, in Mauryan times, the provinces were divided into districts. The districts were administrated by deputies and by the council of prominent residents. These districts were then divided into villages, that was administrated by chiefs. There were also other minor and major officials, or civil servants, who do many helpful tasks in the town. There were also Government magistrates who judged cases. The spies were a very special part of the officials, they went around villages to find any suspicious activity for example: lying, disloyalty, and also unrest. Whatever the spy found out that was not allowed was reported, secretly, to the king. Every government official was paid a salary according to their rank with panas.

**__Pookalam__**
A pookalam is an arrangement of colorful flowers that are laid on the floor. The pookalams are found in every household during the ten-day-long celebration called Onam celebrations.

**__Bindi__**
The bindi is a dot that is found on the forehead of a Indian woman. A bindi represents a woman's marriage and it symbolizes the third eye, which symbolizes a good omen.

**__Republic Day__**
Republic Day is a day to remember when India's constitution went into effect, this happened on January 26, 1950. When this constitution went into effect, it completed India's transition toward becoming a independent republic.

**__Holi Festival__**
The Holi Festival, or festival of colors, is celebrated in India, it is called one of the most colorful and vibrant holidays. Holi festival celebrates the triumph of good over bad, it is celebrated and the end of winter and in the beginning of spring.

__**Jawaharlal Nehru**__
Jawaharlal Nehru was born on November 14, 1889. He worked hard to rise up, then over thirty years he became the top political leader of the Indian National Congress. The Congress struggled for the independence of India from Britain. While he was helping to fight for independence he was jailed seven times. After India received their independence Nehru became India's first prime minister up until he died in May, 1964.

__**Indira Gandhi**__
Indira Gandhi was born on November 19, 1917. She was the daughter of the first prime minister, Jawaharlal. Gandhi became the first female prime minister in1966 and served three terms until 1977. She then started another term in 1980 until 1984 when she was assassinated by her bodyguards.

= = =__**South Asia** **Today**__= South Asia is very densely populated, more than 1.5 billion people live there! The problems with poverty, pollution, and other environmental and social problems are associated with the high population. One of the major problems is the shortages of resources, one is food in the region. Farmland in the region is not able to provide enough food for the people in the region, the food that is available to people is sometimes not the most healthiest and nutritious. Clean water is another one of the scarce resources in the region. Rivers that usually provide clean water are being dammed, to be used for irrigating crops. The pollution of South Asia affects the region's clean water also. Factories dump waste such as chemicals into the rivers, cities also dump waste like raw sewage into the rivers. Pollution and the large population have an affect on very important resources for a person to live a healthy life in South Asia, having clean water and nutritious food. Air pollution in South Asia comes from factories, vehicles, power plants, and burning of wood and coal. The pollution that comes from these places creates smog, or a blanket of pollution, over South Asia. This pollution cloud is also called 'Asian Brown Cloud". In South Asia, the smog affects people's daily life, because of low visibility transportation is delayed making people's schedule late. South Asia's temperature has dropped and the sun is being blocked by the smog and stay like that for several days!

__**Ancient Indian Games**__ Ancient India had many games invented, a lot of them were almost like the ones we have today! People from ancient India liked to play board games, they make many of them too. Around 300 AD, a game that was almost exactly like Parcheesi was invented, it was called Pachisi. The Indians made the boards for games out of cotton, and the pieces were wood. As many people know today, India was one of the countries to be interested in chess, they also played in very their early civilizations. The people of Indian also started to play a form of the game, chutes and ladders around the 1200s AD. This was a Hindu game that had a different meanings and the snakes and ladder meant something too. The ladders represented good feelings, while the snakes represented bad feelings. While we call it chutes and ladders, they called it snakes and ladders. Two games that were played in India were originally started in Africa, these games are mancala and a game like jacks.

__**India's voting system**__
India's voting system is a democratic electoral system, that means everybody's vote count. The Electorate elects the House of the People and the State Assemblies. The State Assemblies elect the Council of States and also the president. The House of the People and the Council of States also elect the president of India. Then, drawn from majority party, the House of the People and Council of States(the Parliament), select a prime minister.

The former president is,Pranba Mukherjee. The former prime minister is, Shri Manmohan Singh.
 * Current Officials:**

__House of the People:__ Leader of the House: Sushikumar Shinde

__Council of States:__ The Chairman: Mohammad Hamid Ansari Leader of Opposition: Arun Jaitley

=__**Take Home Quiz**__=

__Fertile Crescent__
The Fertile Crescent was rich and fertile land in between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, this crescent was Mesopotamia and today is Iraq. Sumer, the first big area of farming villages, was the first civilization created in Mesopotamia, near 5,000 years ago. The Sumerians created a way of keeping track of what they sold and bought, a writing system. This writing system was called cuneiform and was used for keeping lists and records. About 4,000 years ago Sumerians reached their high point by learning how to irrigate crops, by digging canals to bring water from rivers to farm land. The Sumerians lived in walled cities that had a ziggurat, temple, in the middle. At this ziggurat villagers prayed to the gods/goddesses for good crops. About 1,000 years after Sumer's high point, 3,000 years ago, groups of people moved into Mesopotamia. The Babylonians were one of the powerful groups that came to Mesopotamia. The Babylonians built a city in the Fertile Crescent called Babylon. The Babylonians defeated the Sumerians under a king, Hammurabi, and ruled Mesopotamia. The people from Babylon, Babylonians, learned how to built big farms, write in cuneiform, and built ziggurats from the people of Sumer. Another group of people who once lived in Mesopotamia were the Hebrews. The leader Abraham led the Hebrews to Canaan from Sumer and they ended up living there for many years. Then a drought started a killed the Hebrew's crops, so The Hebrews moved to Egypt. Before Abraham went to Canaan because of God's promise for him to become the father of the nation, he was living in Ur, an ancient city in Babylon, and then Haran. North of Babylon was Assyria, Assyria overpowered the Babylonians in about 1270 BC. Then, finally in about 626 BC Babylon regained their independence.

__The Middle Ages__
The Middle Ages began when the Roman Empire ended and stopped in A.D. 1500. The Middle Ages were also known as the Dark Ages or the Medieval era. During the Middle Ages there were many battles over land and power. Many houses and farms were robbed and crops were destroyed by warriors. These warriors were from the north and were very fierce and violent. Trade stopped because of them, since they would roam the country side and scare people. Like trading, many ideas the Romans gave to Europe started to be forgotten. A system of government and life called feudalism started in Europe. Feudalism said that the higher and powerful people had to protect the less higher and powerful people. The king gave land to nobles and in return the nobles would help fight the enemies. Then there were common people or some of them were serfs, people who farm. The serfs had to pay rent and taxes to the king and also had to have permission to move away, in return the kings would protect them. During the Middle Ages nobles would live in manors while common people lived in cottages and serfs lived in hunts on the manor grounds. Most people in Western Europe during the Middle Ages were Christians and belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. The lives of people who lived then were controlled by the church. Many lives of these people were dedicated to the Roman Catholic Church. Most people were Christian since the Early Middle Ages only accepted Christianity. A big thing the church did for Europe was save education during the ages. The Christian priests knew how to write and read Latin, the language of the church, so sometimes they taught people how to read and write. Some kings and queens never knew how to read and write and there was about no chance for serfs to know how to. To not lose the history of ancient civilizations, nuns and monks copied many books for people to read and know what happened.

__Early Modern Europe__
In Early Modern Europe there was a time called the Renaissance which means rebirth in French. During this time period Europe change a lot from the Middle Ages to this period. A big change was when people started to have ideas about art, literature, and science. The new artists were inspired by the work from the Latin and Greek artist and also came up with other new ideas. Some of the artists are; Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Francesco Petrarch, and William Shakespeare. Now in the Renaissance it didn't matter is a person was a serf, it matter what a person could do. The Reformation, or the "age of Christian war, of Europe was a religion based problem. The Reformation happened all over Europe, for example in Spain, France, and Australia. The act that started the Reformation happened in 1517 by Martin Luther. Luther was angry at the church for the pope telling people that they are forgiven from their mistakes if they pay money to the church. Since Luther was angry he wrote 95 of his beliefs and nailed them to the door of the cathedral in Germany.Since he did this, he was told that he could not belong to the church. Luther's thoughts spread over Europe and some people agreed with him. When Luther left the Catholic church, many followed him, these followers were called Protestants. Luther's ideas about the churches spread quickly because of the printing press. The printing press was invented for books and news to be past along faster and easier, so that is how Luther's beliefs were read all over Europe.

__The Middle East__ The Middle East is made up of countries including: Saudi Arabia,Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Sudan, Cyprus, and Iran. The Middle East is between Asia, Africa, and Europe and has the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea bordering some countries. The main religion in the Middle East is Islam and the people who follow this religion are Muslims. Islam was started in the Middle East by a religious leader named Muhammad who taught the people of Mecca about Allah. When Muhammad died Islam was still past on to this day. People today are taught about Islam by the teachings of Koran, the book of Islam. Five Islam duties make up most of Muslim's everyday life. These five pillars are faith, prayer, alms, fasting, and pilgrimage.The religious rules of Koran have structured the culture in the Middle East in many ways. Since Koran doesn't allow artists to paint or sculpt, many amazing pieces of poetry and architecture has been achieved. Poetry was very big in the Middle east, because of the rules. Poetry has been popular since the pre-Islamic period and has changed over time with new subjects and formats. There are duties that Muslims must do in their family. Most families in Islamic countries live in an extended family, a family that has cousins,aunts, uncles, grandparents, and parents living together. One of the Islamic laws is that men can have up to four wives when women can have only on husband. Women in Islamic countries have to wear chadors and sometimes a veil in public because of laws from the Koran. It said that no men outside the family are allowed to see the women in the family unless she is wearing a chador. Koran rules are the many things that shape the Islamic culture and shape how people live and act.

__Ancient Egypt__ The longest river in the world is in Egypt, it is called the Nile River. The people who live in Egypt need the water from the Nile because of Egypt's climate. Egypt receives little rain each year, so the people of Egypt need the river water to survive. One of the world's first civilization began on the shores of the Nile River. Many people settled here because of the fertile land near the river. The farmers in this area would work together which made people get along and form villages.The Egyptians believed in many gods, just like the people from India and some other religions do. The Egyptians believed that the sun was just like human life. They said that when the sun rose, a person was born and when the sun set, a person died. The Egyptians also believed that people would live after they died. To make sure people would live after they died they would have to do somethings to the person. First they would protect the body by doing something called mummification,which used chemicals, strips of cloth, and a waterproof mixture. After that they would put the dead person in a tomb and place things the person might need in the next life nearby. These tombs help historians and scientists to know what Egyptians had back then and their history. Mummification was used in other cultures but eternal life was closely focused in Egypt. Egyptians were some of the first people to understand how human bodies decay and human internal organs. When the Egyptians discovered new things long ago, it has helped us be knowledgeable about many things today.

Pyramids are large tombs built for the pharaohs. Pyramids are tall and made of heavy stone blocks, so Egyptians made a way to make building the pyramids easier. Scientists believe that they used three simple machines to help them: the lever, the ramp, and the wedge. Pyramids helped the idea of simple machines today and gave very skilled architecture to us. Ancient Egypt helped us today by giving us the idea of simple machines and advanced architectures.

__Oceania__
There are three groups of islands that make up Oceania. These groups are Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia and they make up the Pacific Islands. Two main islands and many small islands make up the country of New Zealand. The country of New Zealand is surrounded by ocean, so the climate is mild. Australia is a dry continent northwest of New Zealand. The first people to live in Australia came about 40,000 years ago from islands in the South Pacific. These first people are known as Aborigines today. The Aborigines traveled with family and hunted and gathered food to live.Since Australia is a dry place, tools were needed for the Aborigines to survive. They used stone axes, spears, and boomerangs to survive in the outback. While the first people of Australia are called Aborigines, the first people of New Zealand are known as the Maori. It is believed that the Maori sailed in canoes from Polynesia to New Zealand. Instead of traveling, like the Aborigines, the Maori built houses. The Maori were hunters, like the Aborigines, but they also grew some crops. The Aborigines and Maori people still have generations of people still living in Australia and New Zealand. Much of the cultural history of Aborigines is past down through their arts like paintings and songs.The Aborigines' art shows and explains how they live and work through dance, paintings, or songs. Oceania is another place where the history has a impact on the arts today and the arts show the history.



__Ancient Africa__
The huge Sahara desert is located in northern Africa. The climate of northern Africa is hot and dry when southern Africa's climate is different. In one part of southern Africa it has grassy plains, while in another part it has rain forests. Africa is known for their long and important history of many kingdoms. A very interesting thing that scientists believe is that humanity's birthplace was in Africa. The Kingdom of Kush was first started when an African king and his army defeated Egypt. Kush had a beautiful capital called Meroe. An amazing thing about Meroe was that elephants roamed the streets! These animals were used to carry iron tools and gold to places, as well as the people of Kush. The people of Kush learned how to build pyramids and write hieroglyphics from the Egyptians along with other things. The Kingdom of Kush was one of the most important kingdoms of Africa for hundreds of years until the people of Axum destroyed Meroe. The city of Axum was a powerful trading place where people sailed from Asia to Axum to trade. People traded ivory, gold, clothing, and other riches of Africa. Another kingdom in Ancient Africa started to thrive 1,800 years ago. This kingdom was named after the ruler named Ghana, which means "king of the gold". This name's meaning goes well because of the amount of gold found in some parts of Ghana. When people from different places heard about the gold there they would come and trade for the gold. The traders would come to Western Africa through the Sahara desert for the precious gold. There are routes that run north and south through the Sahara desert. Ghana was the first kingdom to have complete control over the Sahara trade and be very popular in the trading business. Ancient Africa had many kingdoms that are now important to life today because of the history and science behind them.

__Canada__
Explorer from Europe came to Canada and wanted to have colonies there. The Europeans wanted these colonies there because of the rich resources in Canada. Many English explorers settle in Canada in 1600s and built log cabins out of the huge amount of trees. When English exploring settled in Canada, a French explorer named Samuel de Champlain started the city of Quebec around the same time. Because Canada has many resources, English traders founded the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670. This company controlled the fur trade of the area of Hudson Bay. Trade and land owning made problems between the French and the British. These problems led to the French and Indian War, 1754-1763. In the end of this war the British won and had control of Canada for about 100 years. A good thing about the control the British had was that they let French Canadians have their laws, language, and religion. The British rule over Canada actually helped Canada. New inventions including the locomotive were created during the British rule. Canada started to become a nation when they won the right to run their own government and elect leaders in 1867. Then Canada received the that is today British Columbia which made Canada's borders wider. Near the same time they gained British Columbia, the Canadian Pacific Railroad was finish. With help from the British and French, Canada is a strong and huge country with many different cultures. French, English, and native people are have homes in Canada. These different cultures were the reason multiculturalism was started by the government. The government made this program for the people of Canada. Since there are very different cultures in one places, the government wants the people of different cultures to work together to make a stronger country. Because of multiculturalism, Canada is a country where keeping your culture in encouraged and shocks some governments who don't allow different cultures. With multiculturalism, Canada is a rich and strong nation because of the different cultures merging.

__Africa__
When Europeans came to Africa for the first time, they brought back stories of the huge amount of resources that were found there. When Europeans heard of the continent full of resources they started to come. The Europeans first only took trips to Africa in order to become rich because of the rich resources. Then, when the Europeans founded the Americas, the Europeans found something else to be happy about. When Europeans started to build plantations in North and South America, they needed help with taking care of the farm so they wanted slaves. Europeans would hire people, slave catchers, to take Africans from their homes and sail them to the Americas. The long and cruel journey to North and South America would some times kill people because of the amount of people packed tightly together. Just because the Europeans didn't understand that the people of Africa had rights also, tens of thousands of slaves died. Most of the Europeans didn't care that they were pulling people from their homes and forcing them to work for them and to leave their families. Because of slave trade many Europeans started to believe that they were better than the people of Africa and that is when racism started. Racism is a very wrong thing, people shouldn't be judged on what race they are or where they are from since everybody's equal. Imperialism is when country has control of the another country's government and economy. Many of the countries from Europe started to follow the imperialism policy around 1951. In 1951 the French, Belgian, British, Spanish, and Portuguese still had colonies in Africa. These countries that ruled the African countries didn't care about the Africans and didn't know them. Since the European countries didn't care for the Africans and didn't bother to try to know them, Africa and Europe had some difficulties together. Europeans were interfering with Africans' culture and invading land, so the people of Africa started to become very annoyed and upset. Many different individuals started to lead some movements and started to inspire people to join them. These movements were the start of the fight for freedom. Europeans started the fight for freedom because of their wrong beliefs about Africans. The slaves fought for what was right and didn't let anyone boss them around anymore, even if the Europe was a strong continent.

__The Western Hemisphere__
The Western Hemisphere includes the continents North and South America. Many explorers started to cross the Pacific ocean around the later 1400s. Christopher Columbus came to the Americas around 1492 with some other explores after him. Christopher Columbus came out of Spain to go to the Americas before an Italian explorer was sent in 1496. The Italian sailor was named John Cabot and went in a small ship looking for gold with 18 men, but Cabot unfortunately didn't find gold when he hit Canada. Canada has a very cold climate in the fall and, on the west coast, a warm climate in the winter. When Cabot when looking for gold when he sailed over he did not find gold in the place of Canada he hit. Canada does have gold though and they have a large supply of lumber too. Gold is a very good resource to help countries become rich, like the kingdoms in Ancient Africa. It is good Canada has good resources like those, but Canada doesn't have good farming land of farming weather. A mountain range in Canada are the Rocky Mountains, which are west of the Interior Plains. The Rocky Mountains are also in the United States in the west and also go through a little of Mexico as they are in Canada. The United States have many of the same land forms as Canada. Canada and the US both have plains, mountains, and even fjords in Alaska! South of the US is Mexico and Central America, Mexico and the counties in Central America have warm climates. Mexico and Central America don't have fjords and plains but they do have rain forests, which makes it hard to farm. Panama is a country in Central America that is very narrow, which is why there is a canal through it today. The Panama Canal was built to connect the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean so trips from Europe to Asia didn't take very long. South of Central America is South America which is very set up like North America. Both continents are shaped similarly, have mountains on the east side, and in the small tip of South America the climate is similar to Northern North America. The mountains in the United States and Canada are called the Rockies, when they go into South America they are called the Andes. There are differences in the geography also, there are rain forests and volcanos in South America. The geography of North and South America has shaped the cultures of these places. Agriculture has had a change of culture because of the way people who have farms live. Almost everything in nature has effected the way people live and the culture they are surrounded by. Geography affects the history of places and culture of the people today.