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that those soldiers would think for themselves.

 It hurt, but I did something that might not have changed anything, but now the people of Sparta were thinking and thinking leads to ideas.  Ideas that can change the world.

"dared to challenge me in public.  Tais, you are bound to the ground you are on."  The general raised his whip and struck.  And struck and struck again.

You remember how you said all those silly things about the geography and then your clothes morphed into those tights and a short toga?" Coriander laughed.  "You looked weird for about a second and then you started crying and you looked normal again."

 I took note of a very cute, broad-shouldered, blonde as he put away his gear.  

Why in the world would you wait until tonight? I thought.  What's wrong with right now? 

as I remembered Coriander was the "very cute, broad-shouldered, blonde" I noticed three seconds ago.  

each for one side of the debate.  It was quite obvious that the pile for stopping the use of the boat was a bit larger, so without any counting, everybody declared that the majority ruled.

"At least it's not Sparta.  Oligarchies," a small woman nearby talking the elder that I had ran into before whispered.

Only a small group of probably aristocratic people can make decisions.

Starting to think about our representative democracy back in the United States of America, I headed back to my sleeping spot the previous night.  The debate had taken so long, it was almost sunset.  Direct democracies are much more different than our representative democracy, I thought. 

In a direct democracy, there are no separation of powers: citizens create laws, enforce laws, and act as judges, whereas in a representative democracy, some people have more power than others and citizens vote people to create laws, enforce laws, and act as judges.  But both direct and representative democracies are different than theocracies or monarchies.  

The vessel was trying to outrun a fleet of British warships off the island of Baru on June 8, 1708, when an explosion sent it to the bottom of the Caribbean Sea.

Without room for any doubt, we have found, 307 years after it sank,

Colombian President Juan Manuel

The geographical features of ancient Greece contributed to its advantage and disadvantage.

Greece is a strategic location for empire building because it served as the crossroads between Africa, Asia and Europe

climate, the mountains and the seas

temperate, making it comfortable to the people to be outside of their homes almost every year. This allowed them to engage in outdoor life within their city-states. They were able to interact with each other which enabled them to organize outdoor activities such as athletic competitions, public gatherings, entertainment and art shows, and meetings, which facilitate to the development of a rich and distinct Greek culture.

mountains

Almost 70 to 80 percent of Greece is covered and dominated with mountains

advantage of the mountains is that they contributed to the preservation of the purity of Greek culture.

were secluded to their area resulting to rare interactions with other cultures.

served as a natural barrier which acted like walls separating different communities.

hindered communication among communities and slowed down the introduction of new ideas and technology.

unified system of government

polis or the city-state

democratic government works better in smaller states

protection and security to the inhabitants.

disadvantage of this geographical feature is that only few lands were dedicated to farming

isadvantage is the the rocky lands and poor soil which are not suitable for the domestication of plants.

olives and grapes

domesticated sheeps and cattles as an alternative to farming

Having been surrounded by three major bodies of water served as an advantage because it allowed early Greeks to travel and trade

Greece to major trade routes allowed the prosperity in maritime commerce (

became fishers, sailors and merchants

excelled in ship buildings and voyaging because of their knowledge about seas around them

Greeks to depend heavily on trade

could not grow through trading

olive oil, wine, wool and pottery with grains and other natural resources, which had a limited supply during that time

trade encouraged cultural diffusion

Hellenistic culture

They compared tree-ring records from Europe with 7,711 historical plague outbreaks to see if the weather conditions would have been optimum for a rat-driven outbreak.

"We show that wherever there were good conditions for gerbils and fleas in central Asia, some years later the bacteria shows up in harbour cities in Europe and then spreads across the continent," Prof Stenseth said. He said that a wet spring followed by a warm summer would cause gerbil numbers to boom.

And because this was a period when trade between the East and West was at a peak, the plague was most likely brought to Europe along the silk road, Prof Stenseth explained.

"Suddenly we could sort out a problem. Why did we have these waves of plagues in Europe?

The team now plans to analyse plague bacteria DNA taken from ancient skeletons across Europe. If the genetic material shows a large amount of variation, it would suggest the team's theory is correct.

The Nile is divided into sections by cataracts.  A cataract is a rocky area that creates a waterfall or rapids.  There are six cataracts in the Nile river.

 As the water level lowered, it would leave behind rich fertile soil for farmers

Fresh water, irrigation, fertile soil--this is why people called it the "gift" of the Nile.

Around 6000 BCE the climate began to change, which might explain why many humans changed from hunting and gathering to farming.  Before civilization, early humans came to the Nile River to hunt, fish, and gather food, but gradually as people learned to farm and domesticate animals (about 7000 BCE and 5500 BCE), and therefore live in permanent settlements, areas around the Nile became more crowded.

The change from nomadic hunter-gatherers to civilized living followed the same pattern as other places around the world: farming provided extra food, which allowed the division of labor, which allows the development of government and religion and creates social classes. 

Historians call them Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt

We know so much about the Egyptians because there are so many written resources and because their culture lasted so long with few interruptions

Another reason we know so much about Egypt is because they made their architecture out of stone, which has lasted for the most part. 

Religion was a the center of Egyptian life.  Egyptians believed in many Gods, so they were polytheistic.

Later Egyptians would call their kings “pharaoh”.  Egyptian people believed the pharaoh was a living God, so the Egyptians developed a theocracy, or a government ruled by religious leaders.  This is important to understanding why Egyptian people were so willing to give their grain to the Pharaoh and build him or her incredible temples—they thought the Pharaoh was a living God that would be with them forever in eternity.

The most well-known ritual was mummification.  Egyptians believed in life after death, and they wanted the body to look life-like.  Anyone could be mummified if they had enough money

Egyptians were a very advanced civilization due to their inventions and technology.  Egyptians developed a writing system called hieroglyphs that combined pictures and symbols.  Eventually, they created an alphabet from their symbols.  In 1822 CE a European explorer found what is called the Rossetta Stone (left picture)--a stone with the same message written in 3 different languages, which finally allowed historians to translate ancient hieroglyphs. Egyptians developed a 365-day calendar and used a number system based on 10. Egyptians figured out amazing ways to cut stone to use in their temples and obelisks.  An obelisk is a tall narrow monument that becomes more narrow as it goes up.  They created a writing material similar to paper called papyrus from reeds found in the Nile.  Egyptians were excellent ship builders and excelled at mathematics.  They used fractions, decimals, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and basic ideas of geometry.  Egyptian art and architecture is famous and has been reused and copied by many other civilization including Greece, Rome, and even the United States

Egyptian life depended on what social class you were a part of.

At the top of society was the Pharaoh.  Below the Pharaoh was the royal court (Pharaoh's family), high priests, government officials, and scribes and nobles (rich land owners).  Below them were doctors and engineers, craftsman, and then farmers and unskilled workers at the bottom.  Egyptians did use some slaves, but slavery is hardly mentioned in their writings.

Bread was the main food source, but they would have eaten meat during festivals. 

Egypt's history is divided into six different time periods

creating Egypt's first dynasty.  He defeated some enemies and united Upper and Lower Egypt into one civilization.

One of the first major Pharaohs of the Old Kingdom was Djoser.  His temple was one of the first pyramids Egyptians tried to build.  It was a "step pyramid" and it started the tradition of building pyramids as a burial ground for Pharaohs. Although the term "Pharaoh" wasn't used until much later, we will keep using it to refer to Egyptian kings.   

Hatshepsut was a women Pharaoh.  Her tomb is an amazingly long ramp leading to a temple that has been cut out of a mountain.  Pharaoh Akhenaten tried to start a new religious tradition of worshipping only one God.  Worshipping one God is called monotheism.  This did not sit well with the polytheistic population that has honored many gods for thousands of years.  After Akhenaten's death his monuments were destroyed and his name was removed from the list of kings. Years later he was often referred to as, "the enemy". Akhenaten's son would also become famous, thousands of years later when his tomb was found perfectly preserved. His name was Pharaoh Tutankhamen--he is known and King Tut. He became Pharaoh at age 9 or 10 and ruled for only 9 years.