Just to be clear, questions 1 and 2 cover the entire time period of the course. This means that you will need to mention some of the material you discussed in the midterm as you answer these questions. Most of the midterm essays I graded could have been improved in two ways: editing down the general statements and finding better historical examples that substantiate the thesis.

As always, plagiarism is a “flunkable” offense and this includes close paraphrasing. Since you’re submitting an electronic test, plagiarism is very easy for me to find. Write everything in your own words. If you have to cite someone else’s words, use quotation marks and write exactly where you found the quote.

The limit for each of the essays is 1,200 to 1,500 words. I’ll apply this loosely, but I will take off points if you go more than 10% past the limit. I’m doing this to get you to edit your answer to make it more concise and more convincing. The deadline for submitting your answers is 10 am Wednesday, August 8. Send them to garrigus@uta.edu. Answers received before 4pm Tuesday will get a 5% bonus.

Question 1. Many of the civilizations we have studied this semester continue to play a very important role in world history up to the present day. What were the common ingredients behind the long-term success of these three civilizations: China, the Islamic World, and western Europe? By “long-term success” I’m referring to three things. BUT DON’T WRITE ABOUT THESE THINGS. Write about their causes. Here are the successes you could think about: these civilizations all had: ability (up to 1500, and after) to attract and/or conquer people outside their borders, to develop ideas and technologies that other cultures adopt, and to create identities that are still alive and evolving today. Answer this question using evidence from the period 3,000 BCE to 1500 CE (though obviously your knowledge of later events will shape your answer.)

2. As we said at the beginning of the semester, students of history sometimes make the mistake of thinking that history’s “star civilizations”[see Question 1] necessarily represent the best ways of living humanity has devised. But there are many important areas of our planet that did not produce large, long-lasting violent empires and this does not indicate that their value to humanity is any less than those that did have such empires. In other words, I’m not suggesting that these areas “failed” in any way. Still, the contrast is interesting and this is why many people have asked themselves this question: “Why is it that large, long-lasting [over a thousand years] empires did NOT emerge the Americas, in Africa and in India?” Your answer should discuss the common elements of the history of these areas that help explain this? It should also describe the distinctive forces that act only on one or two of these areas?

3. Primary source question — what does Marco Polo’s account of the military tactics of the Mongol Empire tell us about world history? [note that I'm not limiting this to the history of Asia ... Polo was a European, writing for Europeans.] Your answer should include historical context [that is, background and outside information] as well as analysis of this primary source.

Scheduled Email Outage

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) has scheduled an outage of the university’s email system this weekend to provide enhancements for the Office of Admissions. The outage is scheduled to last from Saturday, August 4^th at 10:00pm until Sunday, August 5^th at 5:00am, chosen to have the least impact on campus needs. All other IT services will continue to be available.

If you have any questions about this scheduled outage or its effect on your unit, please contact the HelpDesk (helpdesk@uta.edu or 817-272-2208).  

The 2nd powerpoint project is due this Thursday at 6pm, just like last week.

Someone showed me that Monday August 6 is the last day of the UTA summer II semester. So we won’t be having class at all on Tuesday August 7, as scheduled.  The final exam will be due at 10 am Wednesday August 8, but you can get a 5 point bonus [half a letter grade] if you turn it in to me Tuesday, before 4 pm.

Dr.G.

History 2301 Mid-Term Exam

3 questions of equal weight

Directions:

Due: Email it to me [Garrigus@uta.edu] as an attachment before 2 pm on Monday, July 23, 2007.

Word Limit: Your answer to each of these questions should be no longer than 2 pages of single-spaced text. Contrary to what I said in class, this gives you about 1,200 words for each answer.

Attachment: Please put all the answers in the same word processing file, and put your last name in the name of the file. In other words, don’t send me a file named “HistoryTest.doc”. Instead name it something like “Jones_midterm.doc”.

Questions:

A. What are the conditions and events that allow for the emergence and the persistence of great empires? Answer this question using specific names, places, and stories from the following examples to prove your point. Your answer should have a thesis statement that answers the question in general terms, and then the body of your essay should prove that statement using facts, etc.

1. Ancient Egypt
2. Persia
3. Rome
4. Han China

Grading grid for this question (all 6 elements weighted equally):

B. What are the conditions and events that allow for the emergence and the persistence of great cultural zones, outside of imperial structures? Answer this question using specific names, places, and stories from the following examples to prove your point. Your answer should have a thesis statement that answers the question in general terms, and then the body of your essay should prove that statement using facts, etc.

1. Mayan civilization
2. Greek civilization
3. Classical Indian civilization
4. Hebrews/Phoenicians

Grading grid for this question (all 6 elements weighted equally):

C. What does the primary source entitled “Israelites’ Relations with Neighboring Peoples” on page 50 in Bentley and Ziegler tell us about the history of Middle Eastern states in the middle of the 900s BCE? Be sure to cite specific words and phrases in your answer [you don’t need footnotes for these quotes]. There are some important background circumstances that the document doesn’t tell us and which shape our understanding of the text. Your answer should describe which contextual facts [background information] you think are essential to understanding the document, and explain they are so critical.

Grading rubric for primary source question (all 6 elements weighted equally):

It focuses on Irish history, starting in the medieval period, so it is fair game for your project!

 
Instructions for reading the graded test: To read my embedded comments in older versions of Microsoft WORD, click “View” and “Comments” on the menu. In Word 2003 and after, click “View” and then “Print Layout View”.  I highlighted [in green] words and phrases that contain obvious errors; ask me if you have trouble figuring out what the mistake is!

The “5 Cs of historical thinking” are:

Cause and effect

Change over time

Context

Complexity

Contingency

A. What are the conditions and events that allow for the emergence and the persistence of great empires? Answer this question using specific names, places, and stories from the following examples to prove your point. Your answer should have a thesis statement that answers the question in general terms, and then the body of your essay should prove that statement using facts, etc.

1. Ancient Egypt
2. Persia
3. Rome
4. Han China

B. What are the conditions and events that allow for the emergence and the persistence of great cultural zones, outside of imperial structures? Answer this question using specific names, places, and stories from the following examples to prove your point. Your answer should have a thesis statement that answers the question in general terms, and then the body of your essay should prove that statement using facts, etc.

1. Mayan civilization
2. Greek civilization
3. Classical Indian civilization
4. Palestine\Syria

C. Analyze/contextualize: King Solomon / Hiram of Tyre [page 50 in B&Z]