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History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | anatomically modern human beings have been on this planet for roughly 200,000 years. And even though that's a small fraction of the amount of time the Earth has been around, which is over four billion years, on a human scale, it's an incredibly long amount of time. Just to put it in perspective, if this is present time, if you wanted to put, when was the Roman Empire, well, if we're talking about about 2,000 years ago, it would show up on our timeline right about, right about there. If you wanted to talk about when the pyramids were constructed, it would be right about there. You can hardly see the time difference between now and several thousand years ago. If you wanna see how long we've had writing, about 5,000 years is our current best estimate. Once again, it barely shows up on this timeline. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | If you wanted to talk about when the pyramids were constructed, it would be right about there. You can hardly see the time difference between now and several thousand years ago. If you wanna see how long we've had writing, about 5,000 years is our current best estimate. Once again, it barely shows up on this timeline. How long have we had agriculture? Well, 10 to 15,000 years. Once again, it's a small fraction of this. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | Once again, it barely shows up on this timeline. How long have we had agriculture? Well, 10 to 15,000 years. Once again, it's a small fraction of this. Another way to think about it, think about all of our ancestors, the various generations that have passed since the first emergence of, the first appearance of anatomically modern human beings. This is over 6,000 or 7,000 generations into the past. Think about all of the stories that must have happened, a lot of simple things. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | Once again, it's a small fraction of this. Another way to think about it, think about all of our ancestors, the various generations that have passed since the first emergence of, the first appearance of anatomically modern human beings. This is over 6,000 or 7,000 generations into the past. Think about all of the stories that must have happened, a lot of simple things. It might be a founding of a village, a killing of an animal, a very simple courtship, a tenderness between a mother and their child. Think about the big things, the wars, the battles, the natural disasters. It's hard for us to imagine how much has occurred even in the last 100 or 200 or 1,000 years, much less 200,000 years. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | Think about all of the stories that must have happened, a lot of simple things. It might be a founding of a village, a killing of an animal, a very simple courtship, a tenderness between a mother and their child. Think about the big things, the wars, the battles, the natural disasters. It's hard for us to imagine how much has occurred even in the last 100 or 200 or 1,000 years, much less 200,000 years. But we seek to understand regardless. That is what history is all about. As we'll see, history is in general trying to understand the stories of our past. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | It's hard for us to imagine how much has occurred even in the last 100 or 200 or 1,000 years, much less 200,000 years. But we seek to understand regardless. That is what history is all about. As we'll see, history is in general trying to understand the stories of our past. And if we wanna get a little bit more technical, we can also think about prehistory, which is technically the things that happened before we had writing. Because writing is our main tool for history. What I have right over here, this picture, this is Egyptian hieroglyphs. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | As we'll see, history is in general trying to understand the stories of our past. And if we wanna get a little bit more technical, we can also think about prehistory, which is technically the things that happened before we had writing. Because writing is our main tool for history. What I have right over here, this picture, this is Egyptian hieroglyphs. And Egyptian hieroglyphs are over 5,000 years old. So you could write 5,000 years before the present. But even when you have writing, it's not enough. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | What I have right over here, this picture, this is Egyptian hieroglyphs. And Egyptian hieroglyphs are over 5,000 years old. So you could write 5,000 years before the present. But even when you have writing, it's not enough. As we'll see, not only in this video, but in many videos as we study history and world history, it's really a lot of science and a lot of detective work to make sense of what has happened. And that understanding will constantly evolve. For example, we didn't know what these hieroglyphs said until 1799 when we found the Rosetta Stone. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | But even when you have writing, it's not enough. As we'll see, not only in this video, but in many videos as we study history and world history, it's really a lot of science and a lot of detective work to make sense of what has happened. And that understanding will constantly evolve. For example, we didn't know what these hieroglyphs said until 1799 when we found the Rosetta Stone. And what was useful about the Rosetta Stone is that they had some text written in the hieroglyphs and they had the same text then written in a Greek that we were able to understand. And that started to help unlock what these hieroglyphs said. But even once you have a sense of what they say, and even if you understand it quite well, you still have to do a lot of detective work and take everything with a grain of salt. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | For example, we didn't know what these hieroglyphs said until 1799 when we found the Rosetta Stone. And what was useful about the Rosetta Stone is that they had some text written in the hieroglyphs and they had the same text then written in a Greek that we were able to understand. And that started to help unlock what these hieroglyphs said. But even once you have a sense of what they say, and even if you understand it quite well, you still have to do a lot of detective work and take everything with a grain of salt. You can imagine if one, you can imagine if one, if there's a bunch of groups of people here and we get the history from this group, for some reason we're able to find what they wrote, well, it might not be completely unbiased. They might have a negative view of this group or that group. And so you have to take it with all the grain of salt. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | But even once you have a sense of what they say, and even if you understand it quite well, you still have to do a lot of detective work and take everything with a grain of salt. You can imagine if one, you can imagine if one, if there's a bunch of groups of people here and we get the history from this group, for some reason we're able to find what they wrote, well, it might not be completely unbiased. They might have a negative view of this group or that group. And so you have to take it with all the grain of salt. At the extreme form, they might have eliminated some of these groups and then only they were around to say what actually happened. You also have to be skeptical because you don't know whether these stories are actual accounts or whether someone just made it up to fit a worldview. You also have to keep in mind that these stories, whether they were transmitted written or orally, they're oftentimes retransmitted from generation to generation. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | And so you have to take it with all the grain of salt. At the extreme form, they might have eliminated some of these groups and then only they were around to say what actually happened. You also have to be skeptical because you don't know whether these stories are actual accounts or whether someone just made it up to fit a worldview. You also have to keep in mind that these stories, whether they were transmitted written or orally, they're oftentimes retransmitted from generation to generation. And especially in the oral case, but even in the written, you gotta wonder what's added over each generation. You can imagine people embellishing, making the story a little bit better, or taking out things of the story that really doesn't fit in with their worldview. So even when we have the writing, and this is, once again, some images of early writing. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | You also have to keep in mind that these stories, whether they were transmitted written or orally, they're oftentimes retransmitted from generation to generation. And especially in the oral case, but even in the written, you gotta wonder what's added over each generation. You can imagine people embellishing, making the story a little bit better, or taking out things of the story that really doesn't fit in with their worldview. So even when we have the writing, and this is, once again, some images of early writing. This is the famous Sumerian cuneiform, this is a Sumerian cuneiform tablet here. Even when we have it, and obviously we have much, much more writing as we get to the more recent past, we have to be very, very, very skeptical. We know today, even if two observers observed something yesterday, something that just happened, they might have very, very different perceptions of what happened. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | So even when we have the writing, and this is, once again, some images of early writing. This is the famous Sumerian cuneiform, this is a Sumerian cuneiform tablet here. Even when we have it, and obviously we have much, much more writing as we get to the more recent past, we have to be very, very, very skeptical. We know today, even if two observers observed something yesterday, something that just happened, they might have very, very different perceptions of what happened. So even if there's writing, we have to be skeptical. But things get, in some ways, even more interesting before we have writing, when we go into prehistory. You might wonder, how do we know anything about what happened if there's no written accounts? |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | We know today, even if two observers observed something yesterday, something that just happened, they might have very, very different perceptions of what happened. So even if there's writing, we have to be skeptical. But things get, in some ways, even more interesting before we have writing, when we go into prehistory. You might wonder, how do we know anything about what happened if there's no written accounts? Well, that's where the science, and we get even more detective work. For example, this is a Neanderthal skull. And the type of people, the scientists that will study this, you'll hear terms like anthropologists, anthropologists, or anthropology. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | You might wonder, how do we know anything about what happened if there's no written accounts? Well, that's where the science, and we get even more detective work. For example, this is a Neanderthal skull. And the type of people, the scientists that will study this, you'll hear terms like anthropologists, anthropologists, or anthropology. This is a study of present and past humans in human society. And then a subset of anthropology, which is really delving into prehistory, and even history itself, is archeology. Archeology. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | And the type of people, the scientists that will study this, you'll hear terms like anthropologists, anthropologists, or anthropology. This is a study of present and past humans in human society. And then a subset of anthropology, which is really delving into prehistory, and even history itself, is archeology. Archeology. Which is the subset of anthropology that focuses on the past study of humans in human society. And they're mainly going to do it through remains. Now there's other fields. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | Archeology. Which is the subset of anthropology that focuses on the past study of humans in human society. And they're mainly going to do it through remains. Now there's other fields. You might associate the term of, the field of paleontologist. Paleo, paleon, paleontologist. Untalo, untal, logi. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | Now there's other fields. You might associate the term of, the field of paleontologist. Paleo, paleon, paleontologist. Untalo, untal, logi. Paleontology. You might associate this with things like dinosaur bones. But their techniques are also useful for old human remains, or even pre-human remains. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | Untalo, untal, logi. Paleontology. You might associate this with things like dinosaur bones. But their techniques are also useful for old human remains, or even pre-human remains. And so it might inform archeology and anthropology. So for example, an archeologist might unearth this Neanderthal skull. They will use some science in order to figure out when did this skull enter into the ground? |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | But their techniques are also useful for old human remains, or even pre-human remains. And so it might inform archeology and anthropology. So for example, an archeologist might unearth this Neanderthal skull. They will use some science in order to figure out when did this skull enter into the ground? They might use a technique like radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon dating. Which could be used for things up to around 50,000 years old. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | They will use some science in order to figure out when did this skull enter into the ground? They might use a technique like radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon dating. Which could be used for things up to around 50,000 years old. So around that time span on our timeline. And it's based on this idea that you have this atmospheric carbon-14 that actually comes from nitrogen-14 that gets between interactions with the solar wind and these cosmic particles becomes this radioactive carbon-14 and that carbon-14, which can become part of carbon dioxide, incorporated into plants through photosynthesis, which then get eaten into animals. So while something is living, they will have a certain amount of carbon-14 in their tissue. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | Which could be used for things up to around 50,000 years old. So around that time span on our timeline. And it's based on this idea that you have this atmospheric carbon-14 that actually comes from nitrogen-14 that gets between interactions with the solar wind and these cosmic particles becomes this radioactive carbon-14 and that carbon-14, which can become part of carbon dioxide, incorporated into plants through photosynthesis, which then get eaten into animals. So while something is living, they will have a certain amount of carbon-14 in their tissue. But then once they die, they're no longer adding more carbon-14. And the carbon-14 decays into the more stable carbon-12. And so based on the ratio between the carbon-14 to the carbon-12, and it takes roughly 5,000 years, 5,730 years to be exact, for roughly half of the carbon-14 to decay into carbon-12. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | So while something is living, they will have a certain amount of carbon-14 in their tissue. But then once they die, they're no longer adding more carbon-14. And the carbon-14 decays into the more stable carbon-12. And so based on the ratio between the carbon-14 to the carbon-12, and it takes roughly 5,000 years, 5,730 years to be exact, for roughly half of the carbon-14 to decay into carbon-12. So based on this ratio, and I go into much more detail in other videos, you can figure out how old these things are. And you get reasonably precise within a couple of hundreds of years. If you wanna go further into the past, there's things like potassium-argon dating, which is once again taking a radioactive form of potassium and using the idea that it decays into argon, and that when a volcano releases, the argon in that rock is able to go into the atmosphere, but then once it hardens, you have the decay. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | And so based on the ratio between the carbon-14 to the carbon-12, and it takes roughly 5,000 years, 5,730 years to be exact, for roughly half of the carbon-14 to decay into carbon-12. So based on this ratio, and I go into much more detail in other videos, you can figure out how old these things are. And you get reasonably precise within a couple of hundreds of years. If you wanna go further into the past, there's things like potassium-argon dating, which is once again taking a radioactive form of potassium and using the idea that it decays into argon, and that when a volcano releases, the argon in that rock is able to go into the atmosphere, but then once it hardens, you have the decay. And so you can see how long since that volcanic eruption are we looking at. And so for example, you can dig, you can do stratigraphic techniques right over here. Stratigraphy, I have trouble saying these words, that's looking at the various layers of the Earth. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | If you wanna go further into the past, there's things like potassium-argon dating, which is once again taking a radioactive form of potassium and using the idea that it decays into argon, and that when a volcano releases, the argon in that rock is able to go into the atmosphere, but then once it hardens, you have the decay. And so you can see how long since that volcanic eruption are we looking at. And so for example, you can dig, you can do stratigraphic techniques right over here. Stratigraphy, I have trouble saying these words, that's looking at the various layers of the Earth. And you might use some dating techniques, for example, potassium-argon, say, okay, this is that, a certain amount of age, that is a certain amount of age, these were maybe, this was volcanic rock from a volcanic eruption. And then you can look at the fossils. You could say, okay, a fossil that I found here is going to be newer than the stuff here, and it's gonna be older than the stuff here. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | Stratigraphy, I have trouble saying these words, that's looking at the various layers of the Earth. And you might use some dating techniques, for example, potassium-argon, say, okay, this is that, a certain amount of age, that is a certain amount of age, these were maybe, this was volcanic rock from a volcanic eruption. And then you can look at the fossils. You could say, okay, a fossil that I found here is going to be newer than the stuff here, and it's gonna be older than the stuff here. This might be the newest of all. So you can look at relative dating, and if you're lucky enough to have some volcanic rock, you could do some of this potassium-argon dating. And there's many, many, many other techniques. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | You could say, okay, a fossil that I found here is going to be newer than the stuff here, and it's gonna be older than the stuff here. This might be the newest of all. So you can look at relative dating, and if you're lucky enough to have some volcanic rock, you could do some of this potassium-argon dating. And there's many, many, many other techniques. And it isn't just about saying, oh, this skull was in this place in the world at this time. You can start to infer other things. You can look for fossils of the type of animals, the type of plants near these burial sites. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | And there's many, many, many other techniques. And it isn't just about saying, oh, this skull was in this place in the world at this time. You can start to infer other things. You can look for fossils of the type of animals, the type of plants near these burial sites. You could see how dense these burial sites were, what type of cultures were there. You can start to make inferences. You can try to infer how these people died. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | You can look for fossils of the type of animals, the type of plants near these burial sites. You could see how dense these burial sites were, what type of cultures were there. You can start to make inferences. You can try to infer how these people died. You might have some trauma fractures here, and you might say, okay, that was a violent death. You might look at their teeth to think about the type of things they might have eaten or their general health. You might look at the tools that are buried near them. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | You can try to infer how these people died. You might have some trauma fractures here, and you might say, okay, that was a violent death. You might look at their teeth to think about the type of things they might have eaten or their general health. You might look at the tools that are buried near them. This right over here, these are Paleolithic arrow, I guess, spearheads or tools right over here. Paleolithic is defined by more of these harder edges. You have Neolithic tools, which have more of these smoother edges. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | You might look at the tools that are buried near them. This right over here, these are Paleolithic arrow, I guess, spearheads or tools right over here. Paleolithic is defined by more of these harder edges. You have Neolithic tools, which have more of these smoother edges. The Old Stone Age, New Stone Age right over here. And by looking at all of that, you have all of these scientists, you have these anthropologists, archeologists, paleontologists who are starting to piece together prehistory. And sometimes these techniques are done together. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | You have Neolithic tools, which have more of these smoother edges. The Old Stone Age, New Stone Age right over here. And by looking at all of that, you have all of these scientists, you have these anthropologists, archeologists, paleontologists who are starting to piece together prehistory. And sometimes these techniques are done together. Sometimes we have writing and we have these techniques to try to get a more complete picture. Now I wanna end with just a note of caution. Even though we have all of these techniques and we're learning more every day, our understanding of all that has happened is very, very incomplete. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | And sometimes these techniques are done together. Sometimes we have writing and we have these techniques to try to get a more complete picture. Now I wanna end with just a note of caution. Even though we have all of these techniques and we're learning more every day, our understanding of all that has happened is very, very incomplete. And even more, it constantly gets challenged the more we learn. There are things that very serious people believed 50 or 100 years ago that we have now proven to be false. And things that we now take very seriously, it's likely that in 50 or 100 years, people might prove some of that wrong. |
History and prehistory The Origin of Humans and Human Societies World History Khan Academy.m4a | Even though we have all of these techniques and we're learning more every day, our understanding of all that has happened is very, very incomplete. And even more, it constantly gets challenged the more we learn. There are things that very serious people believed 50 or 100 years ago that we have now proven to be false. And things that we now take very seriously, it's likely that in 50 or 100 years, people might prove some of that wrong. So history, even though it's about the past, it is constantly evolving. We're constantly learning more. And we should have a very solid humility about what we know and what we don't know. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | So get ready to grow your brain as we do a little bit of the giddying up for the learning. Here we go. Let's get it done right now. Alright before we get to the good stuff guys, we're going to talk about what we always talk about when we talk about history and that's the impact of geography. Well number one, when you look at a map of China you can see that it's huge, completely big country. But it's also isolated in a sense by all of the geographical features that surround it. Right to the east you're going to be in the Pacific Ocean if you want to go swim with the fishies. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | Alright before we get to the good stuff guys, we're going to talk about what we always talk about when we talk about history and that's the impact of geography. Well number one, when you look at a map of China you can see that it's huge, completely big country. But it's also isolated in a sense by all of the geographical features that surround it. Right to the east you're going to be in the Pacific Ocean if you want to go swim with the fishies. And if you go to the north you have the Gobi Desert. And directly next to that desert you have another desert, the Taklamakan Desert. And then if you want to get even groovier you have the Plateau of Tibet which is directly to the west about 14,000 feet that it rises. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | Right to the east you're going to be in the Pacific Ocean if you want to go swim with the fishies. And if you go to the north you have the Gobi Desert. And directly next to that desert you have another desert, the Taklamakan Desert. And then if you want to get even groovier you have the Plateau of Tibet which is directly to the west about 14,000 feet that it rises. And then you have the Himalayan Mountains to the southwest which are some of the biggest peaks in the world. Now we have good news. Even though two-thirds of China is covered by desert or mountain, we have 90% of the fertile soil that's going to be trapped between two glorious rivers that you should know the name of. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | And then if you want to get even groovier you have the Plateau of Tibet which is directly to the west about 14,000 feet that it rises. And then you have the Himalayan Mountains to the southwest which are some of the biggest peaks in the world. Now we have good news. Even though two-thirds of China is covered by desert or mountain, we have 90% of the fertile soil that's going to be trapped between two glorious rivers that you should know the name of. In the southern part of China we have the Yangtze River which is flowing off those Himalayan Mountains into the Pacific Ocean. And then directly to the north we have off the Plateau of Tibet the Huangshi River flowing into the Pacific Ocean. And it's going to be the Huangshi, I'm going to say Yellow River. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | Even though two-thirds of China is covered by desert or mountain, we have 90% of the fertile soil that's going to be trapped between two glorious rivers that you should know the name of. In the southern part of China we have the Yangtze River which is flowing off those Himalayan Mountains into the Pacific Ocean. And then directly to the north we have off the Plateau of Tibet the Huangshi River flowing into the Pacific Ocean. And it's going to be the Huangshi, I'm going to say Yellow River. Why don't we just call it the Yellow River? The Huangshi River is the Yellow River. It's called the Yellow River because of all the desert sands that are yellow that blow into the river and when it floods you get a yellow silt that's going to be 90% of the fertile soil of China and that's why the ancient civilization is going to grow up on the Yellow River or the Huangshi. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | And it's going to be the Huangshi, I'm going to say Yellow River. Why don't we just call it the Yellow River? The Huangshi River is the Yellow River. It's called the Yellow River because of all the desert sands that are yellow that blow into the river and when it floods you get a yellow silt that's going to be 90% of the fertile soil of China and that's why the ancient civilization is going to grow up on the Yellow River or the Huangshi. You could say either one. I'm good with either one, I really am. But at the end of the day we want to understand that China's isolation is going to be really important to their growth in terms of them seeing themselves as the center of the world and also that there's going to be much less trade with the other civilizations. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | It's called the Yellow River because of all the desert sands that are yellow that blow into the river and when it floods you get a yellow silt that's going to be 90% of the fertile soil of China and that's why the ancient civilization is going to grow up on the Yellow River or the Huangshi. You could say either one. I'm good with either one, I really am. But at the end of the day we want to understand that China's isolation is going to be really important to their growth in terms of them seeing themselves as the center of the world and also that there's going to be much less trade with the other civilizations. But if you remember anything, remember the power of water. The Huangshi River, the Yellow River in 1887, it flooded, killed like I don't know a million people. That's how powerful it is. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | But at the end of the day we want to understand that China's isolation is going to be really important to their growth in terms of them seeing themselves as the center of the world and also that there's going to be much less trade with the other civilizations. But if you remember anything, remember the power of water. The Huangshi River, the Yellow River in 1887, it flooded, killed like I don't know a million people. That's how powerful it is. So let's go back in time and see how these early people of China mastered the water. So let's start in the very beginning. You probably don't want me to start in the very beginning because we have found our evolutionary ancestors in the land known as China that are two million years old. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | That's how powerful it is. So let's go back in time and see how these early people of China mastered the water. So let's start in the very beginning. You probably don't want me to start in the very beginning because we have found our evolutionary ancestors in the land known as China that are two million years old. Direct lineage to human beings, we have Peking Man who's 500,000 years old and we know that these people lived in those river valleys and that they built small villages and they began to domesticate animals and plant food. So they were there a really long time. Where can I start? |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | You probably don't want me to start in the very beginning because we have found our evolutionary ancestors in the land known as China that are two million years old. Direct lineage to human beings, we have Peking Man who's 500,000 years old and we know that these people lived in those river valleys and that they built small villages and they began to domesticate animals and plant food. So they were there a really long time. Where can I start? So legend has it that the first dynasty and the dynasties are going to be kind of the periods of rules by different families throughout Chinese history. The first one is called the Xia Dynasty and the Xia Dynasty is thought to be originated around 2000 BCE and legend has it that it was an engineer mathematician, a shout out to the nerds of the world who end up ruling the world. Now you, this mathematician engineer, was the first one who could figure out actually doing flood controls on the Yellow River which made him the man and that legend has it is the first dynasty. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | Where can I start? So legend has it that the first dynasty and the dynasties are going to be kind of the periods of rules by different families throughout Chinese history. The first one is called the Xia Dynasty and the Xia Dynasty is thought to be originated around 2000 BCE and legend has it that it was an engineer mathematician, a shout out to the nerds of the world who end up ruling the world. Now you, this mathematician engineer, was the first one who could figure out actually doing flood controls on the Yellow River which made him the man and that legend has it is the first dynasty. How do we know it if it's a legend Mr. Hughes? We know it because the Shang Dynasty which ruled from 1532 BCE to about 1027 BCE actually wrote stuff down. How about that? |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | Now you, this mathematician engineer, was the first one who could figure out actually doing flood controls on the Yellow River which made him the man and that legend has it is the first dynasty. How do we know it if it's a legend Mr. Hughes? We know it because the Shang Dynasty which ruled from 1532 BCE to about 1027 BCE actually wrote stuff down. How about that? A shout out to the Shang for writing stuff down. We know that because we have found what are called Oracle Bones and their religious beliefs took to them writing questions on these animal bones then they put a hot poker in it and crack it and read it. How about that? |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | How about that? A shout out to the Shang for writing stuff down. We know that because we have found what are called Oracle Bones and their religious beliefs took to them writing questions on these animal bones then they put a hot poker in it and crack it and read it. How about that? But that symbology, those ideas that they wrote down are going to carry on to the Chinese writing system that we know today. But talking about the Shang Dynasty is pretty easy because they had written records and controlling knowledge back then, controlling history, you control the Middle Kingdom which is what they called themselves because they were all isolated and they thought that their stuff was the best in the world. But whatever we are going to move on. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | How about that? But that symbology, those ideas that they wrote down are going to carry on to the Chinese writing system that we know today. But talking about the Shang Dynasty is pretty easy because they had written records and controlling knowledge back then, controlling history, you control the Middle Kingdom which is what they called themselves because they were all isolated and they thought that their stuff was the best in the world. But whatever we are going to move on. Now what else do we know about the Shang Dynasty? We know that their capital was at Angyang and this was a city that was built differently than the other cities we have looked at in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and in Egypt. They are not using brick stones, they are literally using wood. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | But whatever we are going to move on. Now what else do we know about the Shang Dynasty? We know that their capital was at Angyang and this was a city that was built differently than the other cities we have looked at in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and in Egypt. They are not using brick stones, they are literally using wood. It's a city of wood. And we also know that there was a very strict social class system that developed in the Shang Dynasty. We know that the upper class lived within the city walls. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | They are not using brick stones, they are literally using wood. It's a city of wood. And we also know that there was a very strict social class system that developed in the Shang Dynasty. We know that the upper class lived within the city walls. You want to talk about walls? These guys had walls that were 118 feet wide of just packed earth. It's thought that these 1.2 square miles of walls took about 10,000 men 12 years to build. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | We know that the upper class lived within the city walls. You want to talk about walls? These guys had walls that were 118 feet wide of just packed earth. It's thought that these 1.2 square miles of walls took about 10,000 men 12 years to build. So what I do know is that they had some type of organized government and they could get slaves and they could get peasants to do stuff like build those walls to protect the upper class who lived in timber framed houses. They were living like gangsters back then. And outside the walls, bum bum bum bum, that's where the peasants and the artisans lived. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | It's thought that these 1.2 square miles of walls took about 10,000 men 12 years to build. So what I do know is that they had some type of organized government and they could get slaves and they could get peasants to do stuff like build those walls to protect the upper class who lived in timber framed houses. They were living like gangsters back then. And outside the walls, bum bum bum bum, that's where the peasants and the artisans lived. They lived in these little hovels and they scattered around for food. So a very strict social class system is evident from the Shang Dynasty. We also know that military and defense was very important to the Shang Dynasty. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | And outside the walls, bum bum bum bum, that's where the peasants and the artisans lived. They lived in these little hovels and they scattered around for food. So a very strict social class system is evident from the Shang Dynasty. We also know that military and defense was very important to the Shang Dynasty. Now I talked about all those awesome geographical features that protected them forever. Well, not forever. That means that a lot of their technology is going to be focused on military. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | We also know that military and defense was very important to the Shang Dynasty. Now I talked about all those awesome geographical features that protected them forever. Well, not forever. That means that a lot of their technology is going to be focused on military. First with bronze, later with steel. But these are the guys that are going to come up with the cool swords and axes and knives and things to protect themselves from invasion. So let's talk a little bit about Shang culture, which is really Chinese culture because unlike these other civilizations that disappear from the face of the earth and don't affect the real now today, the Chinese early civilization did. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | That means that a lot of their technology is going to be focused on military. First with bronze, later with steel. But these are the guys that are going to come up with the cool swords and axes and knives and things to protect themselves from invasion. So let's talk a little bit about Shang culture, which is really Chinese culture because unlike these other civilizations that disappear from the face of the earth and don't affect the real now today, the Chinese early civilization did. And what's most important to know is that it's actually the group that is more important than the individual. Family is the most important thing. And a lot of the religious beliefs actually revolved around family. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | So let's talk a little bit about Shang culture, which is really Chinese culture because unlike these other civilizations that disappear from the face of the earth and don't affect the real now today, the Chinese early civilization did. And what's most important to know is that it's actually the group that is more important than the individual. Family is the most important thing. And a lot of the religious beliefs actually revolved around family. It was thought that when you died, these ancestral spirits would hang out. That they would kind of rule the roost. And that they weren't gods, but they were kind of like spirits you had to deal with. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | And a lot of the religious beliefs actually revolved around family. It was thought that when you died, these ancestral spirits would hang out. That they would kind of rule the roost. And that they weren't gods, but they were kind of like spirits you had to deal with. So they'd give them sacrifices. They would honor them. And at the heart of Chinese civilization is honoring thy father, honoring thy parents. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | And that they weren't gods, but they were kind of like spirits you had to deal with. So they'd give them sacrifices. They would honor them. And at the heart of Chinese civilization is honoring thy father, honoring thy parents. Really the dad. Because at the end of the day, it's very patriarchal. Individuals were married off at the age of 13. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | And at the heart of Chinese civilization is honoring thy father, honoring thy parents. Really the dad. Because at the end of the day, it's very patriarchal. Individuals were married off at the age of 13. They have to listen to their brothers. They have to listen to their fathers. And they live in the shadow of men. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | Individuals were married off at the age of 13. They have to listen to their brothers. They have to listen to their fathers. And they live in the shadow of men. But this obedience, this kind of idea that you have to listen to your elders, is going to translate into you have to listen to the ruler. You have to listen to the king. There's a sense that you have to bend yourself to authority in early Chinese civilization. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | And they live in the shadow of men. But this obedience, this kind of idea that you have to listen to your elders, is going to translate into you have to listen to the ruler. You have to listen to the king. There's a sense that you have to bend yourself to authority in early Chinese civilization. And that probably carries on to today when we're talking about modern political systems in the evolution of China. Now if we go back to religion, they worshiped a god called Shangdi. But they also believed that Shangdi was in charge of other gods. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | There's a sense that you have to bend yourself to authority in early Chinese civilization. And that probably carries on to today when we're talking about modern political systems in the evolution of China. Now if we go back to religion, they worshiped a god called Shangdi. But they also believed that Shangdi was in charge of other gods. So they're polytheistic. They believe that there's a god for the sun and the moon and all of that great stuff. And again, back to oracle bones. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | But they also believed that Shangdi was in charge of other gods. So they're polytheistic. They believe that there's a god for the sun and the moon and all of that great stuff. And again, back to oracle bones. If you don't learn anything, learn about the oracle bones for goodness sake so you can write about that. So the first writing systems developed writing questions to ancestral spirits and gods on these animal fragments. They would stick those hot pokers in them, crack them, and then the mystics would read them in order for the king to rule wisely. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | And again, back to oracle bones. If you don't learn anything, learn about the oracle bones for goodness sake so you can write about that. So the first writing systems developed writing questions to ancestral spirits and gods on these animal fragments. They would stick those hot pokers in them, crack them, and then the mystics would read them in order for the king to rule wisely. So again, this writing system which is really revolving around ideas rather than sounds is going to carry on to Chinese writing today. You can speak the Chinese language, but you might not be able to read the Chinese word. So that's going to be really important in the sense of you're going to have a lot of different languages that are spoken throughout China. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | They would stick those hot pokers in them, crack them, and then the mystics would read them in order for the king to rule wisely. So again, this writing system which is really revolving around ideas rather than sounds is going to carry on to Chinese writing today. You can speak the Chinese language, but you might not be able to read the Chinese word. So that's going to be really important in the sense of you're going to have a lot of different languages that are spoken throughout China. But the written language will unite them all. Of course, it means you're going to have a lot of people who can't read as well. You have to know like a thousand symbols to be able to read a sentence. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | So that's going to be really important in the sense of you're going to have a lot of different languages that are spoken throughout China. But the written language will unite them all. Of course, it means you're going to have a lot of people who can't read as well. You have to know like a thousand symbols to be able to read a sentence. It's ridiculous. And again, if we take a look at kind of that technology and artisan department of world history, we can see that the Chinese are masters at weapons, at jewelry, jade, at clothing like cloth and silk. They figured out the silk thing. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | You have to know like a thousand symbols to be able to read a sentence. It's ridiculous. And again, if we take a look at kind of that technology and artisan department of world history, we can see that the Chinese are masters at weapons, at jewelry, jade, at clothing like cloth and silk. They figured out the silk thing. I was like 19 until I figured out where silk comes from. Come from a silk worm. How about that? |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | They figured out the silk thing. I was like 19 until I figured out where silk comes from. Come from a silk worm. How about that? So that silk, which is some of the finest threads in the world, are going to be in China and China alone. It was actually a capital offense to try to smuggle silkworm out of the country. They're also at the forefront of things like music and calendar systems, mathematics, astronomy. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | How about that? So that silk, which is some of the finest threads in the world, are going to be in China and China alone. It was actually a capital offense to try to smuggle silkworm out of the country. They're also at the forefront of things like music and calendar systems, mathematics, astronomy. So at the end of the day, the ancient Chinese, the Shang Dynasty, they're going to be the bomb, but they're not going to be the bomb forever because of something called dynastic cycles, which I have to explain to you in the next section, which we're going to do right now. All good things must come to an end. And I'm telling you, the Shang, 500 years. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | They're also at the forefront of things like music and calendar systems, mathematics, astronomy. So at the end of the day, the ancient Chinese, the Shang Dynasty, they're going to be the bomb, but they're not going to be the bomb forever because of something called dynastic cycles, which I have to explain to you in the next section, which we're going to do right now. All good things must come to an end. And I'm telling you, the Shang, 500 years. They had a 500 year run. 500 years is a very long time, but eventually their day is going to come and they're going to be replaced by the next dynasty, which is called the Cho Dynasty, the vocab right up on the wall. And they're going to rationalize them taking over because really they're going to keep a lot of the Shang culture. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | And I'm telling you, the Shang, 500 years. They had a 500 year run. 500 years is a very long time, but eventually their day is going to come and they're going to be replaced by the next dynasty, which is called the Cho Dynasty, the vocab right up on the wall. And they're going to rationalize them taking over because really they're going to keep a lot of the Shang culture. The Chinese culture is a continuous culture. Different families, dynasties are going to come and go. There's going to be like 24 of them, but at the center of Chinese civilization are going to be the things that we talked about, like the importance of family and your elders and rulers. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | And they're going to rationalize them taking over because really they're going to keep a lot of the Shang culture. The Chinese culture is a continuous culture. Different families, dynasties are going to come and go. There's going to be like 24 of them, but at the center of Chinese civilization are going to be the things that we talked about, like the importance of family and your elders and rulers. But what the Cho figure out is that they can justify themselves taking over with something called the mandate of heaven. And the mandate of heaven basically says that I have the right to rule you because God told me I had the right to rule you. But what the Cho Dynasty explains is that this is a cycle that doesn't last forever. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | There's going to be like 24 of them, but at the center of Chinese civilization are going to be the things that we talked about, like the importance of family and your elders and rulers. But what the Cho figure out is that they can justify themselves taking over with something called the mandate of heaven. And the mandate of heaven basically says that I have the right to rule you because God told me I had the right to rule you. But what the Cho Dynasty explains is that this is a cycle that doesn't last forever. Now first you're going to have the mandate of heaven obviously give power to the Cho because they're the most powerful and the wise. But with that mandate of heaven comes a responsibility. And like in most cases, when you're in power a long time, you're going to see corruption. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | But what the Cho Dynasty explains is that this is a cycle that doesn't last forever. Now first you're going to have the mandate of heaven obviously give power to the Cho because they're the most powerful and the wise. But with that mandate of heaven comes a responsibility. And like in most cases, when you're in power a long time, you're going to see corruption. And the cyclical nature of the mandate of heaven says that eventually when that corruption comes you're going to have revolt. You're going to have the gods putting down natural disasters. You're going to have invasions because you're not doing the right thing. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | And like in most cases, when you're in power a long time, you're going to see corruption. And the cyclical nature of the mandate of heaven says that eventually when that corruption comes you're going to have revolt. You're going to have the gods putting down natural disasters. You're going to have invasions because you're not doing the right thing. And that this loss of the mandate of heaven gives the people the right to rebel. It justifies rebellion. And that eventually through these revolutions you're going to have a new dynasty which is going to bring peace and order. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | You're going to have invasions because you're not doing the right thing. And that this loss of the mandate of heaven gives the people the right to rebel. It justifies rebellion. And that eventually through these revolutions you're going to have a new dynasty which is going to bring peace and order. The mandate of heaven is going to give you justice. And eventually that dynasty is going to get corrupt and that's going to justify. You get it? |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | And that eventually through these revolutions you're going to have a new dynasty which is going to bring peace and order. The mandate of heaven is going to give you justice. And eventually that dynasty is going to get corrupt and that's going to justify. You get it? It goes on forever and ever and ever. So the mandate of heaven is going to be what the Chinese people believe in terms of where the power comes to the rulers. Now let's look a little bit at the Cho dynasty itself. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | You get it? It goes on forever and ever and ever. So the mandate of heaven is going to be what the Chinese people believe in terms of where the power comes to the rulers. Now let's look a little bit at the Cho dynasty itself. Luckily for us the Cho dynasty isn't going to be a lot different culturally than the Shang dynasty. That's going to carry on. But they are going to develop a different type of system for controlling the vast amount of land under their umbrella. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | Now let's look a little bit at the Cho dynasty itself. Luckily for us the Cho dynasty isn't going to be a lot different culturally than the Shang dynasty. That's going to carry on. But they are going to develop a different type of system for controlling the vast amount of land under their umbrella. And this is a system of feudalism. You better know what feudalism is because it's going to be popping up all over in Japan and Europe. So you might as well learn it now. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | But they are going to develop a different type of system for controlling the vast amount of land under their umbrella. And this is a system of feudalism. You better know what feudalism is because it's going to be popping up all over in Japan and Europe. So you might as well learn it now. And the main idea in feudalism is that the king can't control everything. He's got all these cities. There's no like internets or anything like that. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | So you might as well learn it now. And the main idea in feudalism is that the king can't control everything. He's got all these cities. There's no like internets or anything like that. So he has to figure out that he's going to have to delegate power. So he might give a town to his son or maybe a noble in order to rule over it. In order not only to protect the king's assets but to protect the populations themselves. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | There's no like internets or anything like that. So he has to figure out that he's going to have to delegate power. So he might give a town to his son or maybe a noble in order to rule over it. In order not only to protect the king's assets but to protect the populations themselves. Now the Cho, they also developed vast bureaucracy systems in order to run government more efficiently. They built roads to connect their cities and canals in order to irrigate the fields in a more proficient way. And they really mastered iron. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | In order not only to protect the king's assets but to protect the populations themselves. Now the Cho, they also developed vast bureaucracy systems in order to run government more efficiently. They built roads to connect their cities and canals in order to irrigate the fields in a more proficient way. And they really mastered iron. And iron's a big deal. You got an iron sword and I got a copper sword. That's not going to be a very good battle. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | And they really mastered iron. And iron's a big deal. You got an iron sword and I got a copper sword. That's not going to be a very good battle. I think I'm going to get my head chopped off. So by developing iron swords and axes and knives and farm tools, not only are they going to be able to kill more efficiently, but they're going to be able to grow rice more efficiently as well. All right. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | That's not going to be a very good battle. I think I'm going to get my head chopped off. So by developing iron swords and axes and knives and farm tools, not only are they going to be able to kill more efficiently, but they're going to be able to grow rice more efficiently as well. All right. It's almost time to take down the Cho because like I said before, all good things must come to an end. All right guys. Now even though the Cho dynasty ruled from about 1027 BCE to 256 BCE, which is an awesome 700 years, they really didn't rule for 700 years. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | All right. It's almost time to take down the Cho because like I said before, all good things must come to an end. All right guys. Now even though the Cho dynasty ruled from about 1027 BCE to 256 BCE, which is an awesome 700 years, they really didn't rule for 700 years. We know through written records that around 771 BCE, different nomadic tribes from the north conquered their capital city of Hau. They sacked it. They killed the king. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | Now even though the Cho dynasty ruled from about 1027 BCE to 256 BCE, which is an awesome 700 years, they really didn't rule for 700 years. We know through written records that around 771 BCE, different nomadic tribes from the north conquered their capital city of Hau. They sacked it. They killed the king. What are you doing? Kill him. The king. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | They killed the king. What are you doing? Kill him. The king. But enough royal family members escaped to the east where they still kind of grasped to the dynasty. So they're in power, but they're really not in power. It's a breakdown in law and order. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | The king. But enough royal family members escaped to the east where they still kind of grasped to the dynasty. So they're in power, but they're really not in power. It's a breakdown in law and order. The different nobles and feudal lords are really running the show. If you have any doubt about how chaotic it was, historians refer to this time period as the time of the warring states. And for about 500 years of Chinese history, they're confused. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | It's a breakdown in law and order. The different nobles and feudal lords are really running the show. If you have any doubt about how chaotic it was, historians refer to this time period as the time of the warring states. And for about 500 years of Chinese history, they're confused. They're lost in the wind. Now they did make some awesome weapons. They've mastered the crossbow. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | And for about 500 years of Chinese history, they're confused. They're lost in the wind. Now they did make some awesome weapons. They've mastered the crossbow. They're using mercenaries and cavalries and it's really awesome warfare, but there's no real centralized authority to be heard of. So we hope you guys know something about early Chinese civilization, the geography, the beginning of the dynasty, the oracle bones. You've got to remember the oracle bones. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | They've mastered the crossbow. They're using mercenaries and cavalries and it's really awesome warfare, but there's no real centralized authority to be heard of. So we hope you guys know something about early Chinese civilization, the geography, the beginning of the dynasty, the oracle bones. You've got to remember the oracle bones. So I'm going to end it here, guys. We hope your brain is nice and big and bubbly. And I'm going to say it because I say it at the end of every video lecture because I know it's true with all my heart. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | You've got to remember the oracle bones. So I'm going to end it here, guys. We hope your brain is nice and big and bubbly. And I'm going to say it because I say it at the end of every video lecture because I know it's true with all my heart. Where tension goes, energy flows. We'll see you guys next time that you press my buttons. I want to give a huge shout out to our first hip-hues here, studentsofhistory.org. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | And I'm going to say it because I say it at the end of every video lecture because I know it's true with all my heart. Where tension goes, energy flows. We'll see you guys next time that you press my buttons. I want to give a huge shout out to our first hip-hues here, studentsofhistory.org. That's designed for social studies teacher. If you're teaching US history or world history, you want to check out this website. Interactive lessons up for the grabs. |
Ancient Chinese Civilization Explained.m4a | I want to give a huge shout out to our first hip-hues here, studentsofhistory.org. That's designed for social studies teacher. If you're teaching US history or world history, you want to check out this website. Interactive lessons up for the grabs. There are editable tests and quizzes and worksheets, online notes, all kinds of PowerPoints, resources that you're going to want to get your hands on. So go check that out right now. That's studentsofhistory.org. |
How did Russia begin 1450 - Present AP US History Khan Academy.m4a | And in particular, we're gonna talk about the Eastern Slavs who, not just modern Russians, but also Ukrainians and Belorussians view as their ancestors. So let's think about the world in the ninth century. The early ninth century, we see the reign of Charlemagne which we talk about in some depth in other videos. As we get into the 10th century, you see the reign of Otto the Great, Holy Roman Emperor over the Germanic kingdoms. The ninth century is also the time of Tang China. You have the Abbasid Muslim Caliphate in control over most of the Middle East and North Africa. And it is also the Viking Age. |
How did Russia begin 1450 - Present AP US History Khan Academy.m4a | As we get into the 10th century, you see the reign of Otto the Great, Holy Roman Emperor over the Germanic kingdoms. The ninth century is also the time of Tang China. You have the Abbasid Muslim Caliphate in control over most of the Middle East and North Africa. And it is also the Viking Age. So what we have here in this magenta color, this would be modern day Sweden. But it was also the home of the Varangians or whom we later would refer to as the Vikings. And we know them to be great seafarers. |
How did Russia begin 1450 - Present AP US History Khan Academy.m4a | And it is also the Viking Age. So what we have here in this magenta color, this would be modern day Sweden. But it was also the home of the Varangians or whom we later would refer to as the Vikings. And we know them to be great seafarers. In Western Europe, they're viewed as raiders of towns along the coast. But you have to remember, these histories are often written by the Western Europeans, not by the Vikings themselves. But they were also known as traders. |
How did Russia begin 1450 - Present AP US History Khan Academy.m4a | And we know them to be great seafarers. In Western Europe, they're viewed as raiders of towns along the coast. But you have to remember, these histories are often written by the Western Europeans, not by the Vikings themselves. But they were also known as traders. What you see here are two of the major centers of power and trade in the ninth century. You have Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, and you have Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. You also see these major waterways in Eastern Europe, in particular the Dnieper and the Volga Rivers. |