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ESSAY 1
Five pillars of Islam
Islam has five basic requirements, the five pillars of Islam. They demand that Muslims make a profession of faith, give alms, fast, pray and go on a pilgrimage to Mecca for ALLAH. The first corner focuses on two testimonials. The first, "There is no god but Allah," which emphasizes the belief in the One God (Tawheed). And the second, "Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah." The second pillar, the five prayers, means that the Muslim should perform five prayers, namely Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and evening prayers. Zakah is the third pillar of Islam, which is paid to the deserving poor and needy. Muslims fast in the month of Ramadan and this is the fourth pillar. It involves fasting from sunrise to sunset. Hajj or going to Mecca for pilgrimage during the first ten days of Zul-Hijjah (twelfth month of the Islamic calendar). It is obligatory only for those Muslims who have the physical and financial ability to perform it.
Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great (July 356 BC - June 10, 323 BC) was the king of the Kingdom of Macedonia, and member of the Archean dynasty. He was the ruler of the Pan Hellenic Alliance against the Achaemenid Empire. The conquests were the foundation stone of the Hellenistic era of the Kingdoms of his successors and descendants. He was born to King Philip II of Macedonia and the Princess Olympiad of Epirus. As the king of Macedonia, he continued his forefather’s legacy who were capable generals, politicians, and diplomats and who successively reformed the Macedonian kingdom and developed it into a major force in the Greek world but, Alexander made it into a global superpower. He can easily be regarded as one of the greatest generals histories has ever seen. During his 13 years reign (336-323 BC), he conquered most of the then known world and reached the outskirts of India without being defeated in any battle. He died on June 10, 323 BC at the age of 32 years and 11 months. He has often been ranked among the world's top influential personalities of all time.
Caste System
The caste system is a social class system characterized by family name, and it includes certain characteristics attached to it. Although, the caste system is present in many religions and societies the most typical example is the caste system present in India. This system strictly divides the Indian society and its people into different groups. However, due to the further promotion of urbanization and affirmative action activities, the importance of the Indian caste system in economic activities has been greatly reduced. The Indian caste system has also been used by many scholars to study social grading systems similar to castes outside India. The term caste is sometimes used to describe the social habits of non-human animals such as bees and ants.
Indus Valley Civilization
Thousands of years ago, in the fertile valley of the great Indus River, a civilization emerged in what is now India and Pakistan. It is about the Indus civilization, which archaeologists also call the Harappa civilization, which is the name of one of its largest cities. Until 2600 BC, people from different but related societies lived in towns and small cities in different areas of the Indus region. Around that time, these groups eventually came together and created a society that built large and sophisticated cities, in addition to producing an advanced civilization with a culture that had a form of writing. This civilization lasted until 2000 BC. The Indus River is one of the largest in the world; it is born in the Himalayas, crosses Pakistan and flows into the Arabian Sea. After leaving the northern mountains, the five main tributaries run through a plain called the Punjab (which means "five rivers" in the local language). Something further south, the five join the Indus, which continues to the sea. The southern part of the plain is known as Sind, an old name for India that gave the sailor Sindbad his name.
Sunni and Shi’ites
Islam is the most widespread religion after Christianity; it has more than 1.3 billion believers. The two main currents are Sunnism (about 80%) and Shiism (about 15%). For Muslims, the Sunnis (from the Arabic word as-Sunna: "tradition") have remained faithful to the "orthodox" branch of Islam. However, some Muslims contested this after the assassination of the fourth caliph Ali in 680 AD; they called themselves "Shiites." Ali's party regarded the first three caliphs as impostors; for them, it is in Ali's lineage that the leader of the community (the Imam) must be sought after. Thus, the Sunnis are considered "orthodox" compared to Shiism, which is separated from the 1st century AH (VII century AD) for political rather than religious reasons, and on the way designation of the caliphs.
Nevertheless, for the most part, all Muslims, whether Sunni or Shiite, share the same beliefs and practices. Since the death of the Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H), Sunnis and Shiites have been at loggerheads. The antagonism between the two Muslim groups has marked much of the history of the Middle East. In Iraq, the conflict was exacerbated by the fact that the Shia majority was long led by a Sunni minority, while in Syria the Sunni majority is led by an Alawite minority whose doctrine is related to Shiism.
Germanic people
The Germanic peoples or Germans (Latin Germanus meaning "brother" of etymology uncertain, or perhaps Celtic) are ethnic Indo-European originally established in northern Europe. Their pro to history is located in the territories known as Germania (Latin Germania), Thule (Greek term probably designating Scandinavia or the north of Germany), or on the shores of the Black Sea. Better known in the Latin world from the 1st century, mainly through the work of the historian Tacitus, the original expansion of the Germans is attested to the age of the Danish bronze. It was during this period that linguistics brought linguistic differentiation back to three major groups: Eastern Germans, Western Germans, and Northern Germans. This linguistic community is constitutive of the paradigm of "Germans."
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic, a name for the rule in Rome after the expulsion of the Etruscan kings around 500 BC. The Romans called their state "res publica," "the common cause." They made it clear that, in contrast to the monarchy, the political decisions in the state were not the cause of an individual. However, the Roman Republic was not a democracy, but always an aristocracy, since first the patricians (the Roman nobility) occupied the central political offices.
There were five principles in the system of government of the Roman Republic. On the one hand, there is the annuity principle. That is, the offices are exercised only for one year. Second, it is about the iteration ban. It was forbidden that could join a second term. The third point is that all posts were filled twice. This was called collegiality. The fourth point is that the offices were only allowed to take place in a specific order. If an office was exercised wrongly one after the other, it had serious consequences. The fifth point is that the interval had to be at least two years.
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was born on September 15, 1254, in Venice and died at age 69, on 8 or 9 (it is not known exactly) of January 1324, also in Venice. He was a Venetian explorer and merchant. He came from an illustrious family of merchants. At the age of 17 years, he begin his travel along with his father and his uncle, which turned out to be the first European explorers’ travel to China through the Silk Road, which was the commercial route for the transportation of silk in China, which use to cross Asian continent, connecting China with Mongolia, Indian subcontinent, Persia, Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Europe and Africa.
The Crusades
The Crusades began in 1096 and ended in 1291. The name is given to a series of famous military operations under the ownership of religion and carried out with the permission of the Roman Catholic Pope. The rulers of Western Europe waged war against the countries located on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It started when Jerusalem, which was originally a holy place for Roman Catholics, fell into the Muslims hands. The Roman Catholic Church launched several campaigns to regain the lost ground. While most of these battles were against Islam, however, some expeditions are also directed against Christians other than Roman Catholics, such as the Fourth Crusades against the Byzantine Empire of the Orthodox Church.
Qin dynasty
During the fourth century, the Dukes of Qin set up a centralized administration and suppressed feudalism on their territory. Very strict supervision of the population and the practice of commercial monopolies allowed them to gather in their hands a considerable power. Well equipped, their army pushed the threatening nomadic tribes back to the north (328), before entering the southern kingdom of Chou (Tchouan) in 316, thus preparing the backhand capture of the eastern principalities. The Qin Dynasty is important despite its short life span for China with a span of 15 years. Shi Huang Di, Qin leaders eliminated the other six Chinese states and created for the first time in history United China. .It opened the story to 2000 years imperial in China and exerted a large influence on the following dynasties. There was just one emperor during the Qin Dynasty (pronounced "Ch'in"), which lasted just 15 years. Emperor Qin prepared China to become a country. It was the end of the feudal system. Qin used forced labor to build the Great Wall of China. The currency was starting to be used. After Emperor Qin, the country was named China.
ESSAY 2
At about the end of the Ice Age in 12,000 BC, brings the appropriate climatic conditions for the development of agriculture and livestock farming, and the Neolithic Revolution, which drastically changed the human way of life. With grain and fruit crops, and food from domesticated animals, it made it possible to grow many dense populations, which over time were organized into nations and states.
Through agriculture, too, the surplus of food was brought forward, which could now be promoted to people who were not directly involved in their production. Thus, most populations gradually moved from nomadic life to a geographically defined and in permanent camps. With agricultural production increasing, the development of cereal crops created a need to share labor for the organization and storage of food between crops. The different types of work resulting from the division, the increase in the number of human activities and the further development of agriculture led to the emergence of a privileged upper class and the development of the first cities.
Urban areas were the focuses of trade, development and political power, and barely their agrarian generation. They set up an advantageous interaction with the encompassing farmland and retaining the rural items they delivered. Consequently, it gave back the style to developments, just as military control and assurance to differing degrees. Developments were likewise made through the conduits - the waterways and the oceans.
The advancement of urban communities was synonymous with the ascent of societies. The principal human advancements showed up in the lower Mesopotamia (3500 BC) of the Tigris and Euphrates streams, trailed by the Egyptian development along the Nile (3000 BC) and culture the Hindu Valley (2500 BC), and the early Chinese civic establishments close to the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. These social orders have built up various normal highlights, for example, a local government, an unpredictable economy and a social structure, complex dialects and composing frameworks, and unmistakable conventions and religions.
As unpredictable societies advanced, so was the situation with complex religions, and the first of these seemed to have created at that point. Special stepped areas were assembled, changed into sanctuaries, finished with an intricate order of ministers and other helping jobs. The relative security and expanded profitability brought by farming enabled networks to develop bigger and bigger regions profiting by enhancements in transport, among which the revelation of the wheel was critical, around 4000 BC, in Mesopotamia.
These improvements prompted the ascent of domains. These topographically wide human advancements forced harmony and dependability through their capacity in vast territories.
Throughout the following centuries, civic establishments have created far and wide. Exchange progressively transformed into a wellspring of intensity, as the states, approaching significant assets, controlled significant exchange courses and ended up a sovereign. In 2500 BC, the Kingdom of Kerma, created in Sudan as the significant exchanging power south of Egypt, and in 2300 BC. The Akkadian Empire was established in Mesopotamia.
The thousand years from 500 BC to 500 AD, saw a progression of uncommon size empires develop. Well-prepared proficient armed forces, unionist belief systems, and complex bureaucratic frameworks empowered rulers to rule over huge territories of the populace more than 10 million. These extraordinary realms relied upon the military success of territories and the development of strengthened settlements to verify their country focus. The general times of harmony brought by the realms energized global exchange, particularly the vast Mediterranean shopping avenues, Indian sea shipping courses, and the Silk Road. In southern Europe, Greeks and later Romans created societies whose practices, laws and traditions are viewed as the basis of today’s western culture.
The principle empires of this period include:
The Persian Empire from 678 BC, situated in the zone where current Iran is found, which likewise controls the parts toward the west in the region where present Turkey is found and toward the east where present Pakistan is found. It happened amid the Hellenistic time frame and returned for quite a long time later as the Sassanid Empire (224-651 AD).
The Macedonian Empire (336-301 BC) of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), which extended from Greece to present northwest India. The Empire separated soon after his passing authoritatively with the clash of Ipsus in 301 BC, yet the Greek nearness and impact proceeded for a few centuries, at first through Alexander's successors and relatives, and after that through the different neighborhood Hellenistic kingdoms (Greek kingdom of Bactria, the Indo-Hellenic kingdom, Hellenistic realm of Kusan).
The Roman Empire, with its seat in the region where Italy is today. Beginning in the third century BC, the Roman Republic started to grow its domain through victories and states. When of August Caesar (63 BC - 14 AD), who turned into the main Roman Emperor, Rome had officially forced its control nearly over the Mediterranean. The Empire kept on developing, putting the vast majority of its region leveled out among Britain and Mesopotamia, and achieving the tallness of its geographic territory under Emperor Trajan (117 BC). In the third century AD, the domain was separated into western and eastern, some of the time with various sovereigns, individually. The Western Empire crumbled in 476 AD after the German strikes of Odoakros. The Eastern Empire, currently known as the Byzantine Empire, kept on existing for another thousand years until it was ceded to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD.
A few districts had a moderate yet unfaltering innovative improvement, with critical advances consistently. Be that as it may, there were a few regions with quick, innovative advancement, the most significant being the zone of the Mediterranean amid the Hellenistic time frame, where he developed several significant advances. Periods, similar to these, were trailed by times of mechanical decay, for example, amid the fall of the Roman Empire, and the time of the middle ages that pursued.
The focal issue of the domains was the high upkeep expenses of their enormous armed forces and the help of their focal administration. These expenses were chiefly borne by the townspeople, while the head honcho landowners figured out how to stay away from increasingly more focal control and expenses. The brute weights quickened the inside breaking down. The Khan Empire in China had a common war in 220 BC, while the Roman turned out to be increasingly decentralized and isolated in the meantime. The Great Empires of Eurasia were situated in calm fields and neighboring seaside regions. In the steppes of Central Asia, main residence based travelers (Unos, Mongolians, Tartars and different Turkish clans) commanded a significant part of the mainland. The creation of the chariots and the elevating of steeds that were sufficiently able to convey a completely equipped bowman conveyed the roaming clans to an enduring risk against the more settled societies.
It took several centuries for the gradual disintegration of the Roman Empire, after the 2nd century BC. It was a similar period when Christianity spread from the Middle East to the West. Germanic tribes started exerting pressure on Western Roman Empire which started to collapse in the 5th century AD, and as a result, various warring states came into being, which was all connected with the Roman Catholic Church in one way or another. The remaining Roman Empire left in the eastern Mediterranean changed into the Byzantine Empire later. After a few centuries, Western Europe bounded in a limited union after the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire in 962 AD. That union currently depicts Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Belgium Italy and parts of France.
After the fall of the Han Dynasty, the Chinese dynasties met a similar fate. The Nordic nomadic tribes started raids in the Chinese border towns in the 4th century AD, conquering regions of northern China and established many small kingdoms.
Works Cited
Crabben, Jan. "Empire". Ancient History Encyclopedia, 2019, https://www.ancient.eu/empire/.
