Part 1-
1. Who were the Sea Peoples? What did they do and why are they important to ancient history?
2. Who were the Stoics and Epicureans? What did each believe? Why would the Hellenistic rulers have supported the Stoics over the Epicureans?
3. How did the Neo-Assyrian kings' treatment of their own people as well as those they conquered contribute to their eventual downfall?
4. Public religious tradition in ancient Greece was observed in public sacrifices and festivals. How was personal, private religious devotion demonstrated? Provide at least two specific examples.
Part 2-
1. During the Second Punic War, and especially in light of Cannae, Hannibal could be called the general who won the battle but lost the war. Why is this so?
2. What was Arianism and how did the Council of Nicaea in 325 attempts to resolve the issue? When was the issue actually resolved?
3. Why were 11th century Muslim traders able to conduct business in such far-flung places as Baghdad, Cordoba and Cairo?
4. What was the Concordat of Worms (1122)? What impact did it have on Church-State relations in the Holy Roman Empire?
Part 3-
1. What was scholasticism? What was Thomas Aquinas' role in the movement?
2. What is the difference between the parliament of Paris and the French Estates-General? How did the Estates-General come into existence?
3. What was the Jacquerie of 1358? Explain its causes and results.
4. What were the four phases of the Hundred Years' War? What were the key events of the final phase?
Part 4-
1. Why was the idea of translating the Bible into the vernacular languages so controversial? What happened to people who tried to write / publish a vernacular Bible? Provide at least two examples of people who attempted this and explain whether they were successful.
2. While the almost constant fighting during the Thirty Years' War devastated central Europe, the situation was made worse by the new armies put into the field by the various rulers. What changes in the military made matters worse for ordinary civilians?
3. Explain how Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei each challenged the view of the universe that was based on Ptolemy's work.
4. Sir Francis Bacon and René Descartes both helped to promote the prestige of the scientific method. Explain how their approaches to scientific knowledge differed.