Alexander

//**__ Alexander __**//

**__INDIA__**


 * __Geography__**

India has some of the most varied geography in the world for such a small area. They have colder areas up top the Himalayas and in the south they have hotter temperatures up to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit... The Ganges river flows through the upper part of India. The south of India has monsoon season where their lack of rain is made up for, they have intense flooding and rain. India happens to be a small part of the peninsula of south Asia. The island of Sri Lanka is right to the south of the bottom of India but is not part of India. In the middle of India is the Thar dessert which is by the Indo gangetic plain.

**__Inventions & Minerals__**

The Indus civilization was a very advanced one, they had working sewage systems and were some of the first to make ships and they had a writing system to record trade. Some of the minerals they had there were flint, copper, tin, lapis lazuli, and turquoise. After the time of the Harappans the Aryans spent hundreds of years clearing out the jungles by the ganges river for farming. For trading people used pack animals over land and many ships over sea. they at first didn't use money but rather a barter swapping system. For tools and armor they used mostly bronze or sometimes iron and copper.

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**__Aryans__**

The Aryans were people who lived in the Indus valley after the Harrapans, supposedly killing them all. the Aryans had a social caste system where you were born into it and could not move up nor down. slaves and laborers are at the bottom and priests and kings the top. In Aryan society women were not treated equally to men, they could not own land they could not chose a husband and had no formal education. The Aryans were not unified by a government but rather into separate tribes of multiple families each ruled by a king known as rajah. A symbol of wealth was cattle. The more cows you had the wealthier you were so much so that it was soon illegal to kill or eat cow.



**__The Arts__**

Ancient India was a very cultural place and the arts were very important, evidence found tells that they enjoyed dance, sculpting, painting and more they were very detailed some say a bit crude but they were very finely made and hand chiseled. Some common items they used were terracotta and metals such as bronze that could be molded if heated. Musical instruments started getting popular and were somewhat common during this time period.

Art as one of the few things that was shared among the castes from theBrahmas to anywhere underneath varying in quality but still somewhat similar. Most of their art is of gods or things that went on in daily life. Some painting styles are still used today. Not it being very much of an art but a important cultural part of India is religion. Particularly Buddhism created by Siddhartha Buatamaands it was created to rid people of desire and cravings.

In India's society the king was thought to be the supreme power but that is not true, really. If the king had any new ideas he had to consult the council of ministers before hand, if they approved then the rule would be passes if not it would be forgotten, much like our system. The Mauryan Kingdom was divided into provinces governed by a member of the royal family, provinces were divided into districts who were seen too by a deputy appointed by the governor who had a council of prominent members. Districts were further divided into towns, cities and villages seen too by councils and chiefs.
 * __Society and Government__**

Some food in ancient India was rice, wheat, lentils, chickpeas and some types of meat such as cows, pigs, goats and chicken. after a while animal sacrifices became less popular due to the fact people thought it was bad for your karma made it made or reincarnation circle never stop. Meat though was not really never eaten just on special and or rare occasions.
 * __Food__**

In India Hinduism is a big religion. The three main gods in Hinduism are Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the preserver, an Shiva the destroyer. (of good and bad) Most gods have female forms and for example's sake Brahmas is Saraswati the goddess of knowledge, the arts, and music. There are so many Indian Hindu gods that there is one for about every mood, emotion or feeling.
 * __Hindu Gods__**

South Asia is not in as good condition as we are in the USA. In some places clean water is a challenge to get as well as in some places women cannot even show their face in public. Common health problems in South Asia are heart disease, diabetes, acute glaucoma and many many more. because of the fact people use the Ganges one of the most dirty rivers in the world for drinking and bathing waterborne ailments are not uncommon.
 * __South Asia Now__**

India's voting system is not like ours in many ways. When the voters vote in India it goes to the House of People in the Parliament which with the House of Representatives goes to the President and Prime Minister. the current President is Pranab Mukherjee, their current Prime Minister is Mohammad Hamid Ansari, their Ambassador to the U.S. is Nirupama Rao and their Minister of External Affairs is Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna.
 * __India's Voting system__**

The Taj Mahal was created entirely out of marble and is considered one of the eight wonders of the world and it cost 32 million rupees to build.A sitar is a musical instrument similar to a lute except it has 21 to 23 strings not all are played however.
 * __Fu__** ** __n Facts__ **


 * __Take Home Quiz__**

The Middle Ages were at time of war. People fought over religion these wars were called the crusades. They were fighting against the Muslims by the Christians to take Jerusalem back. The Christians believed Jerusalem was sacred because Jesus had lived there. Another thing that was in the middle ages was feudalism. Feudalism is sort-of like the caste system with the king at the top going to higher nobles to lower nobles to the common people at the bottom. Each caste would have members of the lower caste work for them. Sometimes common people were to become serfs to the lower nobles while the lower nobles became a knight to the higher noble or the king. It was called the Middle Ages because Renascence scholars believed it to be a time with lack of human achievement.

Early Modern Europe was a time with very big science pushes and pushes for the arts. This time is called the renascence. This is a good name because renascence because it mean "rebirth" some important people who lived during this time period were Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Another important happening in this time period was by a man named Martin Luther. He was a member of the roman catholic church he did not like that if someone did something wrong they could pay the church to have the wrong "righted". In 1597 he nailed a list of 95 of his beliefs to the church door. The church was furious and banned him from the church but his ideas spread quickly as other agreed. In Italy and northern Europe there was economic prosperity and brought back much Greek and Roman teachings. The Fertile Crescent was a very advance place for the time period it lived in. A famous person that lived during this time period is Hammurabi. Hammurabi was a king who was the first to make laws. They had to do with money, family, business life, and so on. his name is sometimes written as Khammurapikh he was the sixth ruler of the Amorite dynasty founded by Shumu-Abum in 1894 B.C. People who lived here called the Sumerians learned how to irrigate their crops making it much easier to maintain them.


 * __Oceanic Zone__**

The Oceanic Zone includes Australia, Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia and New Zealand. New Zealand is made up of several dozen small islands and two main islands, south and north islands. since the country is surrounded by the temperature is mild. Australia means "southern land" the whole continent is beneath the equator. it is a very dry continent and has a dry desert called the outback. The first people who lived in Australia came about 40,000 years ago. they were known as the Aborigines Australia is also the smallest continent so that would affect the people who lived there by bringing them together more an.d mixing tribal clture possibly making larger cities and towns.


 * __Canada__**

Canada is the second largest country in the world and has an area of 9,984,670km. Canada sits in North America right above the U.S.A. Canada is often stereotyped to be a cold tundra that only Eskimos live in. For the most part, however, this is not true, Canada is only cold in the northern parts it is just like some parts of the U.S.A. in the south. Canada has a very mountainous north Canada's capital city is Ottawa which is north of New York. Canada is been the center piece of many wars because of its many resources. It has gold and oil in the north as well as many other natural resources. in 1871 Canada becomes its own nation with its flag that of a red and white stripe with a maple leaf on top. In the south easy of Canada is Quebec this is a part of Canada that speaks French and has lots of French culture. Modern Canada has lots of laws and regulations that have come from a mix of ours England's and France's in some cases it takes the bad parts away leaving a fair to all law, but other times like with the cnadian content law or CRTC stating that radio stations must have 50% canadian music is not in everyones best interest.


 * __The Western Hemisphere__**

The Western Hemisphere is a large part of the world we live in, it has most of the consumers in the world and can bring in major money for other countries selling their good to them. The United States of America is one of the most populated part of this area of the world with about 315,000,000 people so the culture is incredibly vast Canadian and Mexican culture both being from many different places and neighboring the U.S. shows how much culture is here. The name America was first used on a map in 1507 the amp maker used information from an Italian explorer named Amerigo Vesoucci and since the new found land had no name, it went to Amerigo. One of the most famous trips to America was with Christopher Columbus he went to america in 1492 but never got to South America until 1498. South America is a pain because it blocks trade from Asia to Europe by boat, that's why the Panama Canal was built.


 * __The Middle East__**

The Middle East is in between Africa, Asia and Europe. The biggest country in The Middle East is Saudi Arabia. Lots of religions have started in the Middle East Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Jerusalem, the Jewish holy city, and Mecca, the Islamic holy city, are both in the middle east. these religions being so different and so close to each other has sparked many wars. One such war was the crusades, this what when the Islamic took over Jerusalem and the Jews fought to get it back from them. when oil was discovered in the Middle East it made some countries very rich, however, it made them wanted by others. In 1990 Saddam Hussein attacked the oil fields of Kuwait, Fortunately the U.S. stepped in and stopped them. The Middle East is a very cultural diverse place because of it being in the middle of everything in between the Africans, The Europeans, and the Asians. With this in place they are quite the mix of culture and there is a lack of non-religious normal because it is so diverse.


 * __Ancient Egypt__**

Ancient Egypt is a very old civilization going back over 10,000 years. It has the biggest and longest river in the world, The Nile River, more that 4,000 miles long it flows from a lake deep in Africa to the hot, dry, Egypt. The Nile River Valley was the perfect spot to make a place to live, protected by vast deserts yet still having a way of transportation (the river), water, and arable land. A man named Menes brought a group of towns together into a bigger village, then conquering other villages to make a even bigger village, thus forming a civilization. Menes was the first king of Egypt and had large palaces built for him, after that Egyptian kings were know as Pharaohs or "grand house". The Pharaoh made laws depending on what he felt was right at the time they were one of the first to have taxes because farmers had to give some crops to the pharaoh. Egypt had little communication with other civilizations outside trading. They had lots of things that others wanted such as turquoise and other minerals. The social classes had the Pharoh at the top and slaves at the bottom with farmers artists and solders and because of this explorers that wanted to be in one of their high social classes were often ignored or even made a slave. **__Ancient Africa__**

Ancient Africa is different from Egypt because the Sahara separates them and trading was little to none between them. The land and climate of Africa is varied, it has thick rain forests but in other places there are grassy plains and large mountains. Africa is the birthplace of humanity as scientists believe that based on clear evidence man first began in Africa. The oldest human relic ever fond, Lucy, was found in Africa. 2,000 years ago an African king named Piankhi traveled down the nile river and conquered Egypt. For hundreds of years after his kingdom, Kush, was the most important city in Africa but the egyptiansdid not go without helping the people of Kush. The people of Kush learned a lot from them including hieroglyphs and how to build pyramids. Kush also had lots of natural resources such as gold, iron ore, ivory, and incense. because of this they needed people to protect all the wealth. They had the most fierce and powerful archers in the whole of Africa at the time so they were safe. Another kingdom far to the west of Kush was Ghana, Ghana means the king of gold which is a fitting title because it was full of gold in the nearby mountains. People came across many many miles of desert to trade salt for gold in Ghana because salt, being necessary for human life, was a fair trade because the people of Ghana had no salt.

**__Modern Africa__**

In the 1300s and 1400s the huge continent Africa was heard of in Europe however, the first explorers had no idea what to expect. Africa is a land of many resources ranging from rubber to diamonds and everything in between. They were wanted to be used to trade in Asia for their goods. Unfortunately the Europeans also found value in the peoples worth ethic and captured them for slaves in the late 1400s Europeans claimed land in South America and bought the Africans from slave traders to work for them on said land. The helped produce sugar cane, cotton, fruits, coffee, and tobacco. Slaves being brought from Africa to America in boats were in horrible conditions one in six Africans died on said boats. Slaves also lead to lots of racism which made it even harder for slavery to end. When slaves where captured they were inspected by the trader to look for any ailments or deformities. If they were weak or inferior to any other in any way they were rejected while those who were up to par are boarded that evening.