Answer ONLY ONE of the five questions below by comparing no less than three (but no more than four) of the following twelve ancient or medieval cultures. Please note: you must select at least one culture from each of the following three categories.
Category 1: Ancient Cultures in the Fertile Crescent (Module 2)
1. Ancient Mesopotamia (including Sumer, Babylon, Assyria, etc.) before the Persian Empire. Please note: For this culture, you can decide to focus on one of the ancient Mesopotamian societies, such as Sumer.
2. Ancient Egypt before the Persian Empire
3. The Persian Empire
4. The Ancient Hebrews
Category 2: Ancient Greece and Rome (Modules 3-4)
1. The Ancient Greek City-States from around 800 to Alexander the Great
2. Alexander the Great’s Empire and the Hellenistic Kingdoms
3. The Roman Republic
4. The Roman Empire from Augustus to the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE
Category 3: Medieval Cultures (Modules 5-7)
1. The Byzantine Empire
2. Medieval Islamic Civilization (Umayyad Caliphate, Abbasid Caliphate, etc.)
3. Post-Roman Europe from the end of the Western Roman Empire (476) until the beginning of the Carolingian dynasty (751)
4. The Carolingian Empire
5. Medieval Europe after the collapse of the Carolingian Empire to 1500 CE (including the Renaissance)
Questions
1. Compare the roles of women in three western cultures (see above) before 1500 CE to explain which society gave women the most amount of rights and which society gave women the least amount of rights. or
2. Compare how the human need to adapt to the natural environment influenced government and religion in three western cultures before 1500 CE. or
3. Compare the relationship between religion, government, and society (social class, economics, gender roles) in three western cultures before 1500 CE. or
4. Compare how governments worked and justified their authority in relation to such themes as religion, social class, and gender roles in three western cultures before 1500 CE to explain which society had the most successful government and which society had the least successful government. or
5. Compare how three empires in western civilization before 1500 CE expanded, how they governed their territories, and why they eventually collapsed to explain which empire was the most successful and which empire was the least successful. Please note: By empire, I mean extensive territorial states that expand beyond the cultural homeland of their rulers and in doing so bring other foreign countries, states, and/or cities under their control. Such empires do not necessarily have emperors or empresses. But this excludes the ancient Sumerians, Egypt before the New Kingdom, the Hebrews, archaic-age and classical Greece, medieval kingdoms, medieval city-states, and other such polities.
You are required to use the assigned textbook, lecture, and primary sources for this assignment and at least four outside sources
