Virginia Standards of Learning World History and Geography to 1500
Ancient civilizations, classical empires, and world geography through the year 1500.
These questions are original. This is not an official Virginia Standards of Learning test, and FreeExam is not affiliated with the Virginia Department of Education.
1.Along which river did ancient Egyptian civilization develop?
2.Before farming spread, how did Paleolithic communities usually feed themselves?
3.What shift defines the Neolithic way of life in several world regions?
4.A farming village harvests more grain than the farmers eat that year. What can that surplus make possible?
5.Which activity is an example of domestication?
6.Early Jericho had massive stone works, including a tower. What do those works show?
7.Why do historians study Catalhoyuk in central Anatolia?
8.What is Stonehenge, on Britain's Salisbury Plain?
9.A researcher lifts a painted clay bowl from the floor of a buried house. In archaeological terms, the bowl is what?
10.Which item is a primary source for studying trade in ancient Sumer?
11.On a timeline, why does 800 BCE come before 200 BCE?
12.What geographic advantage gave the Fertile Crescent its name?
13.Mesopotamia, a center of early cities, lay mainly between which rivers?
14.Which description fits Sumer in southern Mesopotamia?
15.How did Sumerian scribes produce cuneiform?
16.Why do historians treat Hammurabi's Code as a landmark in law?
17.What was the main purpose of a Sumerian ziggurat?
18.In Egyptian belief, what kind of ruler was the pharaoh?
19.For what purpose were the great pyramids at Giza built?
20.Hieroglyphs were the formal picture writing of which civilization?
21.Egyptian papyrus was made from what material?
22.Farmers along the Nile counted on the annual flood because it was comparatively what?
23.Harappa and Mohenjo-daro were leading cities of which ancient civilization?
24.Grid streets, standard bricks, and covered drains at Mohenjo-daro are evidence of what?
25.What made Swahili ports such as Kilwa busy in the centuries before 1500?
26.Early Chinese states rose beside which river, also called the Yellow River?
27.People called the Huang He China's Sorrow for what reason?
28.Shang diviners used oracle bones for what purpose?
29.According to the Mandate of Heaven, when could a Chinese dynasty lose the right to rule?
30.What pattern do historians call the dynastic cycle?
31.Ancient Hebrew religion stood out from most neighboring cults because it taught what?
32.The Ten Commandments belong to which tradition?
33.How did the Babylonian Exile affect the Judean community?
34.Why does the Phoenician alphabet matter for later writing?
35.The Phoenician port of Tyre grew rich mainly through what?
36.What is an accurate link between Kush and Egypt?
37.Cyrus the Great is remembered as the founder of which empire?
38.In the Persian system set up under Darius, a satrap was what?
39.The Persian Royal Road strengthened the empire because it did what?
40.Zoroastrian teaching, associated with ancient Persia, stresses a struggle between what?
41.Cyrus's policy toward some conquered peoples is often called tolerant because he did what?
42.In Hindu thought, karma is best described as what?
43.Which list names the four classical Hindu varnas?
44.The Vedas are which kind of texts?
45.Siddhartha Gautama taught that suffering is rooted mainly in what?
46.What is the Eightfold Path in Buddhism?
47.After the war in Kalinga, the Mauryan ruler Ashoka is known for what change?
48.The Mauryan Empire matters in the history of South Asia because it did what?
49.Why is the Gupta era in northern India often called a classical age?
50.How did decimal numerals that include a symbol for zero reach medieval Europe?
51.Confucius taught that a stable society depends especially on what?
52.Daoist teaching, associated with Laozi, advises people to do what?
53.Legalist thinkers who influenced the state of Qin argued that order comes mainly from what?
54.Qin Shi Huangdi, after unifying the Warring States, is connected with which project?
55.The Han dynasty is closely tied to which long-distance network?
56.Han rulers began using written examinations for some officials. What was the aim?
57.Which set of inventions was in use in China before 1500?
58.How did geography encourage the Greek polis, or city-state?
59.Who could vote in the assembly of classical Athens?
60.Spartan society was organized above all around what?
61.What was the result of the Persian invasions of Greece in the early fifth century BCE?
62.During the age of Pericles, Athens is best known for what?
63.Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are central figures in what tradition?
64.What was the outcome of the Peloponnesian War?
65.Alexander of Macedonia changed Southwest Asia and the eastern Mediterranean by doing what?
66.Hellenistic culture, after Alexander, is best described as what?
67.Which geographic facts shaped early Rome?
68.Consuls and the Senate show what kind of government in the Roman Republic?
69.Why did plebeians demand the Twelve Tables?
70.Rome fought the Punic Wars against which rival?
71.How did Julius Caesar's career shake the Roman Republic?
72.Augustus is called Rome's first emperor because he did what?
73.The Pax Romana refers to what stretch of Roman history?
74.Roman arches, roads, and aqueducts mattered to the empire because they did what?
75.Christianity began in which setting?
76.What change did Constantine's government make for Christians in the early fourth century?
77.In 476 CE the line of western Roman emperors ended. Which account fits that fall?
78.Constantinople could watch major trade routes because the city stood where?
79.Justinian's law collection matters to later history because it did what?
80.The church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is a landmark of what?
81.The Great Schism of 1054 divided which two Christian communions?
82.In medieval Japan, who held real military power while the emperor stayed a sacred figure?
83.How is the Cyrillic alphabet tied to Byzantine missions?
84.Kievan Rus drew close to Byzantine culture when its ruler Vladimir I did what?
85.Which set lists the Five Pillars of Islam?
86.In Islam, the Quran is regarded as what?
87.The Hijra of 622 CE marks what event?
88.The split between Sunni and Shia Muslims began mainly over what question?
89.Abbasid Baghdad became a famous center of learning because scholars there did what?
90.By the middle of the eighth century, rule under Muslim governments had spread from Arabia across which broad region?
91.The empire built by Genghis Khan and his heirs is known for what?
92.Charlemagne's coronation in the year 800 matters because it did what?
93.In the feudal ties of medieval Europe, a fief was what?
94.On a medieval manor, how did serfs differ from wage workers in a town?
95.In western Europe before 1500, why did the Catholic Church hold political as well as religious power?
96.Scandinavian Vikings affected medieval Europe as which kind of people?
97.Magna Carta, which King John sealed in 1215, is remembered because it did what?
98.Which result of the Crusades mattered for Europe's links with the eastern Mediterranean?
99.The Black Death of the mid-1300s changed European society because it did what?
100.The medieval kingdom of Ghana, in the western Sahel, drew wealth mainly from what?
101.Why is Mansa Musa's pilgrimage in the 1300s famous?
102.Under Mali and later Songhai, Timbuktu became renowned as what?
103.The kingdom of Aksum is historically important for which development?
104.Great Zimbabwe, famous for its stone enclosures, was what?
105.Classic Maya political life was organized mainly as what?
106.Where did the Aztec, or Mexica, build their capital Tenochtitlan?
107.Inca officials, who did not use an alphabetic script, kept many records by what method?
108.Which description fits Europe in the decades just before 1500?