1. CRITICAL
CONCEPTS
These are the tools you will need to understand this
entire class.

2. CRITICAL CONCEPTS UNIT
 Nationalism
 Government Your goal:
 Economy Learn the definitions
 Religion of these concepts
 Geography
and use them
effectively when
talking about world
history.

3. NATIONALISM
 Love your country (nation).
 Do you love it more than ____ ?
Basic definition:
The belief that people should be loyal to their
nation.

4. NATIONALISM IS A COMPLEX CONCEPT.
 How do you define your nationality?
 What makes an American an American?
 What do you want for your nation?
 What would you do to make it happen?
 Nationalism is NOT loyalty to a government.
 Why not?

5. GOVERNMENT
 What is government?
 What does government do for us?
 Do we need it?
 What different types of government are there?

6. CATEGORIES
 Think about how you would put the following
governments into categories.

7. AUTOCRACY
 a form of government in which one person
possesses unlimited power.

8. MONARCHY
 Nation is ruled by a king or queen
 Royal family
 Princes, Princesses
 Bloodlines
 William and Kate

9. DICTATORSHIP
 You do what I say, and I don’t have to care what
you think.
 Basically the same as autocracy: a form of
government in which one person possesses
unlimited power.
 That one person is the dictator.

10. OLIGARCHY
 Nation ruled by a small GrOup of individuals.

11. TOTALITARIANISM
 Total Control
 A single person in charge has no limits

12. FASCISM
 Everything for Your
Nation
 War Is Power
 Totalitarian
 One Political Party

13. DEMOCRACY
 Everybody Votes
 Athens
 Perfect Democracy?
 Direct Democracy

14. REPUBLIC
 Voting
 Representatives
 Established laws
 The citizens have control.

15. SOCIALISM/COMMUNISM
 Government & Economic System
The idea:
 Everyone has a right to something.
 No one can get rich while another person starves.
How it actually usually works:
 One party takes control.
 One party gets privileges and power.
 The rest of the country suffers in poverty.

16. THEOCRACY
 God is the nation’s leader.
 The religious leaders are in control of the nation.
 Vatican City
 Pope
 Afganistan
 Taliban

17. FEUDALISM
 Everyone has power (except peasants)
 Middle Ages
 Social Rank
 $$

18. ECONOMY
 What is an economy?
 The system of making and using money and resources.
 Does it matter what kind of economy your country
has?

19. COMMAND
 Lots of government control.
 Government tells you everything about how to run
your business.
 How much stuff to make
 How to make stuff
 What prices to sell stuff for
 How much people get paid

20. Type of
Economy Who makes decisions about
Production? Prices? Ownership?
Command The The All land and
Economy government government resources are
plans how controls all the owned by the
products are prices. government.
created Consumers
produced. have a small
selection of
goods and
services to buy.

21. MARKET/CAPITALISM
 You could get rich or you could go broke.
 Less government control

22. Type of
Economy Who makes decisions about
Production? Prices? Ownership?
Market Production is Prices are People are free
Economy based on determined by to buy or sell
Capitalism market supply and land, resources
demand demand in the and property.
among market. Consumers
consumers. have a large
Don’t produce selection of
it if no one goods and
wants it. services to buy.

23. TRADITIONAL/ BARTER
 Trade
 I’ll trade you my white pig for your gray one.

24. Type of
Economy Who makes decisions about
Production? Prices? Ownership?
Traditional The community Prices may not The community
Barter produces its apply. People may or may not
Economy own goods trade things. recognize
based on Barter. They private
traditional may not need ownership of
methods. markets land and
outside the natural
community. resources;
generally,
goods are
owned by the
community.

25. MERCANTILISM
 A belief that a nation’s power comes from its
wealth.
 Do you agree?
 The strategy:
 Keep the wealth at home (in your nation).
 Sell more than you buy.

26. IMPERIALISM
 Empire – Imperialism
 A strong nation dominates other countries
politically, economically or socially.

27. IMPERIALISM
 Colonialism
A place governed internally by a
foreign nation.
 Sphere of Influence
A place where a foreign nation
claims exclusive privileges.
 Economic Imperialism
A place where private businesses
have control.

28. RELIGION
 What is religion?
 Why is religion important in studying history?
 How does religion influence our values?
 and our culture?

29. TOP FIVE RELIGIONS
What are the top five religions in the world?
1. Christianity
2. Islam
3. Hinduism
4. Buddhism
5. Judaism

30. CHRISTIANITY
 One god
 Abraham
 Isaac
 Jesus

31. ABRAHAM

32. THREE RELIGIONS
 Islam: Descendents of Ishmael will be a great
nation.
 Judaism: Descendents of Jacob will be a great
nation.
 Christianity: Judaism plus Jesus

33. FAMILY TREE OF RELIGION
Abraham
Ishmael Isaac
Jacob
Jews
Jesus
Muslims
Christians

34. ISLAM
 One god
 Abraham
 Ishmael
 Mohammed
 Muslims

35. HINDUISM
 lots of gods

36. BUDDHISM
 spiritual leader

37. JUDAISM
 One god
 Abraham
 Jews

38. ANIMISM
 a belief in spirits
 animals, trees, rocks are important

39. GEOGRAPHY
 What Is Geography?
 Why is geography important to a country?

40. 5 THEMES OF GEOGRAPHY
1. Location
2. Place
3. Human-Environmental Interactions
4. Movement
5. Regions

41. LOCATION
 Relative Location
 North of …
 South of …
 In between … and ….
 Absolute Location
 EXACTLY where.
Written as:
 21°N 158°W

42. PLACE
 Human Characteristics
 Physical Characteristics

43. HUMAN-ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTIONS
 Humans adapt to the environment.
 Humans modify the environment.
 Humans depend on the environment.

44. MOVEMENT
 People
 Goods
 Ideas

45. REGIONS
 Formal
 Functional
 Perceptual

46. CONTINENTS
 Asia
 Africa
 Europe
 Australia
 Antarctica
 South America
 North America

47. OCEANS & SEAS
 North Atlantic Ocean
 North Pacific Ocean
 South Pacific Ocean
 Indian Ocean
 Mediterranean Sea
 Baltic Sea

48. THE COMPASS ROSE
 What are the points of the compass?

49. REGIONS
 Northern Hemisphere
 Southern Hemisphere
 Western Hemisphere
 Eastern Hemisphere
 Tropic of Cancer
 Equator
This is an entire sphere.

50. THE GLOBAL GRID
The Earth is divided by latitude and longitude lines. There are
several important lines to know on the earth's surface:
#1 is the ARCTIC CIRCLE found at 66 ½ o NORTH
of the Equator
#2 is the TROPIC OF CANCER found at 23 ½ o
NORTH of the Equator
#3 is the EQUATOR which splits the earth
into two hemispheres at 0o Latitude
#4 is the TROPIC OF CAPRICORN found
23 ½ o SOUTH of the Equator.
#5 is the ANTARCTIC CIRCLE
6
#6 is the PRIME MERIDIAN which runs north to south at 0o LONGITUDE

52. WHY GEOGRAPHY MATTERS:
 90% of the world lives north of the equator.
 Most of the world’s dry land is north of the equator.
 The area between the Arctic Circle and the Tropic
of Cancer is temperate. It has seasons. (Good for
agriculture)

53. WEATHER ZONES
 Polar
 Too cold
 Tropical
 Too hot
 Temperate
 Just right
 How might weather conditions be helpful to a
country?

54. NATURAL RESOURCES
 Coal
 Iron
 Water
 Oil
 Diamonds
 Coltan
 What can a country do if it doesn’t have the
resources it needs?

55. SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
 Where do people want to be?
 What would make people move?
 Migration: Moving
 Immigration: Moving INTO a country.
 Emigration: Moving OUT of a country.