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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.

helped to undermine feudalism

Thousands of barons and knights mortgaged or sold their lands in order to raise money for a crusading expedition

they helped to break down the power of the feudal aristocracy, and to give prominence to the kings and the people.

The Crusades were therefore one of the principal fostering influences of Chivalry

They went out from their castles or villages to see great cities, marble palaces, superb dresses, and elegant manners; they returned with finer tastes, broader ideas, and wider sympathies

helped to awaken in Western Europe that mental activity which resulted finally in the great intellectual outburst known as the Revival of Learning and the period of the Renaissance.

They paid 10% of what they earned in a year to the Church (this tax was called tithes)

What the Church got in tithes was kept in huge tithe barns;

You also had to pay for baptisms (if you were not baptised you could not go to Heaven when you died), marriages (there were no couples living together in Medieval times as the Church taught that this equaled sin) and burials – you had to be buried on holy land if your soul was to get to heaven. Whichever way you looked, the Church received money.

The Church also did not have to pay taxes.

most simply collapsed after a while as they were so poorly built.

Important cities would have cathedrals in them.

Their sheer size meant that people would see them from miles around, and remind them of the huge power of the Catholic Church in Medieval England.

However, if you were killed in an accident while working in a cathedral or a church, you were guaranteed a place in Heaven – or so the workers were told.

Bleeding and the use of leeches to draw "bad blood" from the patient were typical. Some surgeries were performed to cure patients of hernias, cataracts, for the removal of gallstones. Surgery was often more precarious than the actual problem. Folk cures and poultices made from herbs were options for the peasant class. There were those who would risk being called "witch" to provide these remedies, although many found themselves tied to a burning stake.

the Church was often called to exorcise demons and say prayers and incantations over the patient.

The very fact that the curriculum was structured by the church gave it the ability to mould the students to follow its doctrine

Unofficially, education started from a very young age. This sort of early education depended on the feudal class of the child’s parents

Even the children of serfs would be taught the skills needed to survive by their parents. The boys would be taken out into the fields to observe and to help their parents with easy tasks, while the girls would work with the animals at home, in the vegetable garden with their mothers, or watch them weave.

Children of craftsmen and merchants were educated from a very young age in the trade of their fathers. Trade secrets rarely left a family and they had to be taught and understood by all male (and unusually, female) heirs, in order to continue the family legacy.

Young boys of noble birth would learn how to hunt and swing a weapon, while the young ladies of nobility would learn how to cook

The main subject of study in those schools was Latin (reading and writing). In addition to this, students were also taught rhetoric – the art of public speaking and persuasion – which was a very useful tool for both men of the cloth and nobles alike.

Lessons frequently started at sunrise and finished at sunset

University education, across the whole of the continent, was a luxury to which only the wealthiest and brightest could ever aspire

Since the creation of the first university in 1088

Students attended the Medieval University at different ages, ranging from 14 (if they were attending Oxford or Paris to study the Arts) to their 30s (if they were studying Law in Bologna)

The dynamic between students and teachers in a medieval university was significantly different from today. In the University of Bologna students hired and fired teachers by consensus. The students also bargained as a collective regarding fees, and threatened teachers with strikes if their demands were not met

A Master of Arts degree in the medieval education system would have taken six years; a Bachelor of Arts degree would be awarded after completing the third or fourth year. By “Arts” the degree was referring to the seven liberal arts – arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music theory, grammar, logic, and rhetoric

The sons of the peasants could only be educated if the lord of the manor had given his permission

Any family caught having a son educated without permission was heavily fined

Historians today believe that this policy was another way in which authority figures attempted to control the peasants, since an educated peasant/villein might prove to question the way things were done and upset the balance of power which kept the nobles strong.

Students held the legal status of clerics which, according to the Canon Law, could not be held by women; women were therefore not admitted into universities.

There were at least 17 rules to the knights code of chivalry and vows of knighthood. The most important were to serve God, serve their liege lord (the King), be courteous to all women (though what they meant was all women of the noble class), and to defend the weak. Other rules included to fight for the welfare of all, to live by honor and glory, and to refrain from the wanton giving of offence; basically, don’t act like ye olde arse.

this was meant to defend the elderly, women and children, but of the upper class. Knights were often brutal to peasants and it was considered acceptable because of the low social status of the peasants. 

From this, came rules like if a woman was of equal or higher status, he should stand when she enters a room and sit only after she does, the best foods at a meal should be offered to her, and when walking on the sidewalk, the man should walk closest to the street. This was to protect the woman from getting spattered with mud and the contents of chamber pots (buckets that were used as toilets) that were thrown out windows. It was a way to show that the gentleman honored the woman to have the poop hit him instead.

nights kept their skills sharp by competing in tournaments known as jousts where two heavily armored horseman race at another at high speed

Medieval tournaments brought knights and lords together in friendly competitions to show off their skills at hand to hand combat, horse back riding, and of course, jousting

A head shot for example was the most damaging but also the most difficult target, and therefore was awarded the most points.

Cash prizes, called a purse, would be given to the winners and this was the best way to move up the social ladder if you didn't get a chance to show off your skills on the battle field. 

To become a knight was a long and difficult path.

sent to live in the castle with his Lord where his training would begin around the age of seven

road to knighthood he was known as a page. A page's training involved learning to ride a horse and receiving religious instruction from the priest of the manor. And, when he wasn't riding or praying, a page spent his days running errands and serving the ladies of the manor. He would also be taught to dance, sing, and play a musical instrument which were considered honorable qualities for a knight to have.

a page would be promoted to the role of squire. A squire worked directly with his knight. The squire learned skills from his knight (who was also his Lord) such as sword fighting and hand to hand combat. The squire pretty much acted as personal assistant to his knight, polishing his armor, caring for his horse, and even waiting on him at meal times. During times of battle, it was the job of the squire to help his Lord into the armor and look after him if he was wounded. He also had the awful task of cleaning out the armor which, after a long day on the battle field would be covered in all sorts of bodily fluids.

After Rome fell, however, during the Middle Ages, people forgot all these things.

that led to the birth of modern science

for themselves instead of accepting how things were

Muslims in Asia and Africa, though, were able to preserve the ideas of these great Greek and Roman thinkers. They translated them and then added their own ideas to them--to learn more about muslim thinkers, see this link. As the Europeans came out of their Dark Age, they began to learn from the muslims when trade and conflict brought Europeans and Arabs together. As they read and learned, their own view of the world became more rational and expanded their view of the world.

Rome and Greece the idea of humanism was passed on to the Arabs. When the Europeans started to make contact with the Arabs, these ideas were brought back. Education, government, technology, and science made it possible for this time of major change, discovery and exploration. Many discoveries and inventions were made in this time period by great thinkers still impact the world today.

It sparked their curiosity, and started the Scientific Revolution.

began to explore the world around them.

Together, education, government, technology, and science created the perfect mix for the Scientific Revolution and exploration.

read and write by themselves and the printing press made books much cheaper and available to a wider audience. When the time came, the government provided money, supplies and education for explorers.