AP World History (WHAP) Unit 0: The First 10,000 Years of History in 20 Minutes

welcome to antisocial studies and a special bonus episode edition for those lay people out there stands for world history AP and it makes the class sound really scary and aggressive the students love it if you're listening to this episode you are probably an AP world history student or teacher and I would guess that you at some point looked at the course description and thought wait AP world history starts in 1200 but like didn't some important things happen before the year 1200 don't be quiet sit down no actually yes a lot of really important things happen

before the year 1200 but we're not supposed to cover it anymore but I'm gonna cover it anyway so welcome to what I'm calling whap unit 0 the first 10,000 years of history that the College Board decided wasn't important anymore even though we're throwing away oracle bones and alexander the great and the roman empire in the trash I figured there were a few good pieces of information from the ancient and classical eras right like there's got to be something useful there so here we go I'm gonna run down three big topics that will be useful for

you to know before we jump into the year 1200 in the global tapestry whatever that is first let's go over a quick chronology before 8000 BCE people looked like this they were hunters and gatherers they lived in small kinship tribes and they were typically nomadic then one day someone in the tribe discovered a thing called agriculture and they started to look like this this change is called the Neolithic Revolution the innovation of domesticating plants and animals so that you don't have to chase after them anymore it's pretty nice unless yes Jared Diamond but we don't

ask it this process farming especially occurred all over the world over the next few thousand years we barley yada yada yada now we have a food surplus and we can settle in permanent dwellings woohoo we're like Katniss living in the victors village at the end of book 1 no more squirrels for us with a food surplus our population grew and those small villages grew into these whoa nicely done humans ok now this is all great but like why do we care well we don't accept that this process that occurred over around 5,000 years laid the

foundations for almost every political and social structure that humans would live on until about the 20th century number one most leaders in most civilizations for most of history rule with absolute power I mean check out that guy with his jewelry like I'd follow him blindly and to patriarchy Oh patriarchy man it's the worst thinking about this way we were hunter-gatherers these guys men hunted and women gathered which one was more important well they're kind of equally important right exactly so men and women were both equally valued in the most important tasks food production but as

we domesticate plants and animals men don't need to travel for weeks following a mammoth or whatever look like there are cows right there so men start taking over farming and tending to livestock in other words now the men hunt and gather and women are slowly pushed away from food production and into domestic life raising babies and why does this matter well the earliest governments arose to manage agriculture to solve disputes like water distribution and super interesting things like that and so when early governments were formed they were made up logically of the people who knew

the most about farming men and men have been dominating social and political structures around the world ever since and everything's been going great anyway let's move on so civilizations arose in river valleys we call them river valley civilizations well you got your Mesopotamia city-states like hey there's a continuity whoever controls the Middle East is literally at the center of the known world like we're talking insane trade benefits so everyone wants that land so throughout history the Middle East is plagued with conflict and conquest because the land is so valuable and that's before everyone put their

holy cities there hello so the Mesopotamian city-states never fully unite into one big empire and then you have to Egypt I mean you know those guys pharaohs pyramids and mummies and brenden fraiser over in asia we have the Indus Valley I mean who knows what they're doing there no seriously who knows like has anyone deciphered their writing yet and then as always you have China holding down the fort China is geographically isolated and fertile prime real estate for a stable civilization that will basically crush it for the next 5,000 years and then get addicted to

British opium and get totally played by now but you'll get there okay after the ancient civilizations knew larger states arose and they started conquering other places that weren't there people whatever that means those are empires these classical empires are what people think about when I say world history Greece Persia Han China Rome but for now we're not gonna worry our pretty little heads over them all we care about with these early civilizations both ancient and classical is what did they leave behind that later people will think was valuable what continuities will we see as we

explore civilizations moving forward and web I like to think of this section as how to maintain your Empire 101 so for those listening whenever you conquer the world and inevitably name yourself czar or Khan or whatever here are a few pro tips of what the first States all did to maintain control over their States in AP language we call these continuities and state building but you can think of them as how did not get murdered by peasants one use religion to gain legitimacy and support so sometimes rulers will say they are a god oh hey

pharaohs sometimes they'll say they like chat with the gods and get some super secret information from them like in Hammurabi's code sometimes they'll just insist that you follow their religion like Rome and sometimes in the rarest cases they'll let you keep your religion so you won't be mad that they just conquered your land oh hey Cyrus number two create monumental art and architecture these show the people just how powerful you are look I can stack bricks so this could include massive building projects to create a place to throw your rulers dead body pyramids and shoot

Wonka's tomb with terracotta soldiers or it could just be huge statues of you to remember you like the Olmec heads make sure the state has primary control over important economic systems this really just means taxes taxes are so important and they're so boring but they're so important check out these Persian tax rolls the Herodotus described or why do rulers put their faces on coins it's so you remember who to thank for all that money you have it's really in general super important that the economy is running smoothly agricultural productivity good trade that keeps people happy

and that leads us to number four build infrastructure build stuff and especially stuff that helps connect your fired together for one build things that make trade easier like chef wanjin china demanded that everyone's axles on carts were the exact same width and that way they could build all of the roads that exact same width and you wouldn't ever have to change carts so trade could go a lot faster well or you can build aqueducts so that crops and people have water that's kind of important thanks Rome and roads oh my gosh so many roads just

like if you conquer a place to start building roads check out this Persian Royal Road nicely done to rious sidenote merchants can use roads which is great but you know who else uses roads soldiers and tax collectors and spies for the government roads man they're so important all right now after you've conquered your empire and put in place these protips you'll probably at some point and counter a few issues so here's my FAQ portion of the state building lecture question number one what do I do with others well first you have to define what others

are and it depends you can use any of your spice tea themes to figure out who and other is most people do it on ethnic groups or language or religions but in theory it could be anything or here's a thought what if there were no others and we all live together in perfect harmony yeah I know that's stupid that'll never happen okay one you can exclude and/or enslave them just check out ancient Greece too I mean you could just respect their culture by letting them continue to practice it again Syrus or you can actively try

to mix people in cultures like Alexander the Great did his soldiers weren't super happy about being forced to marry women outside of their own culture but like it was an attempt I guess question number two how do I deal with resistance well you can like burn books that you don't like and kill those who speak out against you that's what she wanted but I mean then his dynasty ended like right after his death so or you could make an example out of those who resist through targeted persecution like the Roman Empire did with Christians I

mean you could just fight them openly and hopefully win like badass Theodora convinced her husband Justinian to do during the Nika revolts but really spoiler alert is that once resistance begins it's really hard to successfully get rid of it without just making things worse so you're really better off just making your empire nice enough that people don't want to resist good luck okay final question how do I prevent my civilization from falling sorry bud this is the ultimate continuity they all fall no matter what you do no matter how many pyramids you build no matter

how many coins you put your face on at some point all civilizations fall and now I can tell you common causes of decline so that you can try to avoid those but take it from someone who literally knows the entire history of the world you can't escape it unless you're the United States in which case we will all live forever go USA bald eagles George Washington but everyone else Falls why one main reason is that leadership grows corrupt over time in general people who have power don't want to not have power and they start doing

shady things to make sure that they never lose that power and privilege and people who are near power want it I mean basically just like watch it episode of Game of Thrones but if you insist on a historical piece of evidence then just look at the court of the Han Emperor eunuchs gained swag and became the Emperor's inner circle fighting for power with the Confucian scholars and family members were orchestrating Wars and intrigue to get their person on the throne it was a mess or check out this chart of Roman emperors over just a 50-year

period look at how many were assassinated that's insane that can't be good for stability but besides corrupt leadership which seems to be unavoidable at some point most the problems boiled down to your empire was too big problem number one your empire is large and diverse and people feel disconnected from the capital or the leadership I mean especially if it's correct and so we will see local leaders rise and become more important and trusted to the common people than the far away Emperor common problem number two I mean big empires are hella expensive every time you

conquer more land that's people who have to administer it and soldiers who have to defend it oh it's exhausting and so your economy goes into decline side tip if your economy is struggling you can't just make more money that's not how it works I don't know why because I don't teach economics but I know that it didn't work for Germany after World War one or the Roman Empire with their quote-unquote silver coins or Holland with their tulips so just don't do it problem number three you have difficulty securing your massive borders either groups from the

fringes start gaining influence along your border regions or just a massive influx of immigrants maybe fleeing the Huns for example enters your empire and you start losing control here's the deal at some point you're gonna be tempted and you're gonna want to fill your military with foreigners I get it I know but don't do it seriously students pay attention this year every time you read in your textbook and then blank civilization hired insert foreign group here to fight for them just like start a countdown and see how many pages before that civilization Falls I'm looking

at you out of seeds okay so that's topic number one but like there's more to app than just state building right sure one of the other really important developments that arises in the ancient classical and early post-classical eras is the rise of modern religions now I'm not a religion expert and frankly you don't need to be either but I'm gonna point out to you a few things that you should keep in the back of your mind as you learn about Hindu kingdoms or Islamic empires that might be helpful first let's start with China because China

is always very unique so at some point between the ancient and classical eras China had a period where a lot of states were at war with each other we call it the warring States Period genius during that time a lot of philosophers started thinking about how to bring order to China and a guy named Confucius won at least as far as China was concerned Confucianism is the single most important continuity in Chinese history and you need to know it forever or at least until you've taken the AP test so Confucius believe that the world or

China really would be stable if everyone knew their place and acted ethically within that place in society his philosophy is centered on relationships that include things like husband wife father son and most importantly ruler subject each person in the relationship had a part to play the superior the husband or father a ruler was to act ethically and respectfully while the inferior the wife or son or subject was to obey or show filial piety what does that look like well you have to consult Confucius as teachings to know how to act ethically if you think about

it Confucius had a great pyramid scheme going on here like want to be a great husband want to work your way into the powerful government see calm down and get the Analects for just five installments of $9.99 there is another religion in China Taoism but it doesn't have a huge impact on big picture world history because its whole teaching was to remove yourself from the material world as much as possible and seek introspection and this is really different from Confucianism that emphasized the need for educated gentlemen to become very involved in public life and importantly

to run the government throughout most of Chinese history the government will be run by scholar gentry meaning men highly educated in Confucian ethics who passed civil service exams to get their position in society this makes Confucian civilizations way more socially mobile than others because in theory anyone could take and pass the exams even you peasants but in reality rich kids got the best education and had the best chance of succeeding sound familiar the other thing that is consistent in Confucian societies is patriarchy you again stop it in general whenever you learn about a civilization that

is emphasizing traditional values or people knowing their place that means that that civilization is not gonna be super progressive toward women okay so Confucianism reigned supreme in China but what other belief systems were developing well in the rest of the Asian world three ancient religions developed in India you had Hinduism similar in some ways to the Confucian relationships you had a religious concept of hierarchy but this was much more strict the caste system the only way to move up live life well and move up in the next life good luck you know the caste system

benefits people in power so you know who really benefits from a Hindu State with an entrenched caste system people in power more on that in a second and in the Middle East two ancient religions developed Judaism and Zoroastrianism the important aspects of Judaism as far as web is concerned is that it's an ethnic religion this doesn't mean other ethnicities are excluded it just means that for the most part Judaism stayed within its original community this is partly because Judaism like Hinduism for example doesn't emphasize going out and converting people they've a uniquely tight-knit culture and

community that makes them distinct from the majority cultures they live in and this will have important and really bad implications later on because Jews throughout the Middle East in Europe will much always be seen as others by the larger community sir Austrian ISM was the awesomely named religion of the Persians and we don't need to know too much about that just know as a popular religion across the Middle East until it was mostly supplanted by Islam which brings us to three newer religions and by newer I mean like new within the last two thousand years

or so they rose across the Middle East and South Asia as well and they arose out of the ancient religions but they had a new characteristic they were universalizing religions meaning that their followers believed it was important to spread the word of their faith and this has huge implications for world history first there was Buddhism it arose out of Hinduism and kept a lot of the teachings but the Buddha rejected the caste system you know who loved that people in lower castes especially merchants merchants were often resentful of their low status across many societies Confucian

saw them as ungentlemanly because they didn't create anything useful for society they just made money off other people's labor and in Hinduism merchants were just one caste above the bottom tier so when Buddhism showed up in South Asia merchants especially took hold of this religion and spread it along trade routes Buddhist monasteries became important stops along the Silk Roads as it spread into China and Southeast Asia but it was never successful spreading westward because of Zoroastrianism and then eventually Islam similarly out of Judaism arose Christianity just like Buddha was a Hindu who rejected the caste

system and preached individual introspection Jesus was a Jew who advocated equality of all believers and a more personal relationship with God I mean do I really need to go into Christianity's impact on world history like just wait until you get to the unit on imperialism and prepare to feel super uncomfortable but for now just know that Christianity also spread quickly especially amongst the lower classes or those who resented Roman rule sidenote pay attention to the fact that Christianity rose independent from the state so early leaders of Christianity were just religious leaders because there was already

a powerful Emperor even when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire the president had been established of separation between church and state in the Christian world and this is fairly unique among world religions especially when compared with Islam Islam rose in the Arabian Peninsula out of the polytheism of the bedouin tribes Muhammad was similar to Jesus and the Buddha and that he preached a new religion that modernized a lot of ancient or pagan beliefs of the time Aslam at its core is a religion of equality similar to Christianity and Buddhism and it was

actually very progressive for the seventh century for our purposes there are two key points about Islam that we need to know number one Muhammad was not just a religious leader he was also a political and military ruler when he marched back to Mecca with an army he established a precedent that has continued for the most part in the Islamic world up until today Islam in the state are closely connected the second point is that Islam saw merchant's way more highly than any other religion why well Mohammed was a merchant he worked in a trading caravan

for his wife Khadija who was his boss again very progressive for the six hundreds Muhammad encouraged his followers to seek knowledge and this led to a wave of Muslim merchants fanning out across the known world spreading the faith and it created a culture of innovation and scholarship in the Islamic world that Europe will be very grateful for when it decides to Renaissance but you'll get there okay the last thing you need to know from the pre 1200 era is that extensive trade networks had been developed and these would continue to grow and reach their height

from 1200 to 1450 until the Europeans bump into America and throw everything out of whack I'll be honest I've been trade routes and economics and general quite boring so let's just see how quickly I can cover these networks of exchange all right across Eurasia there was a network of roads that traded luxury goods most notably silk we call this the Silk Road two things this trade was expensive because camels can't carry as much as a ship sorry camels and so the Silk Road was not for mass goods it was for special things that made the

elite feel elite you know like silk also pastoral nomads were critical in connecting this trade network nomadic groups reached their height of importance in the late post-classical era as they were the ones facilitating all of this land trade Thanks nomads another land network went across the Sahara Desert we call this the Saharan trade the Sahara was uncrossable until camel showed up and people invented a camel saddle to ride those humps this happened somewhere around 500 CEO and then the Saharan trade exploded sidenote y'all camels they're just so important like when in doubt if you get

to an essay on trade just like throw in something about camels and you'll probably be good so the Saharan trade connected sub-saharan Africa to the rest of the known world and it led to the rise of large trading kingdoms profiting off Africa's natural wealth most notably gold I'll hate Timbuktu I see you finally the most important trade network in the world until the Atlantic trade begins in 1492 is the sea routes across the Indian Ocean we call this you guessed it the Indian Ocean trade just like we had to wait for camels and saddles to

show up in Africa it wasn't until improved knowledge and better technology allowed sailors to harness the power of monsoon winds that this trade network really became a thing sidenote just like camels if you get an essay on Indian Ocean trade just say the phrase lateen sails over and over again the college board will love you compared to the Silk Road the Indian Ocean trade did carry bulk goods in addition to luxury items because again a ship could hold more stuff than a camel and these sea routes are what made the products of India Southeast Asia

and China so highly coveted by elites in the rest of the world some foreshadowing when Europe is going to wake up from its Middle Ages and decide that it wants spices it's gonna have two options travel to India and China on land and have to pay taxes to the Muslims that is not an option for those devout medieval Christians or find another way what could go wrong whoa so there you have it by 1,200 rulers have learned the do's and don'ts of state-building all the major religions have formed and trade networks are facilitating the exchange

of goods people and cultures at faster and faster rates Oh nicely done Emily that normally would have been my entire first semester well have fun in the year 1200 [Music] you [Music]