Notes

1. Buddhist missionaries went to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia in the third century B.C.
2. Around 600 B.C., Babylon became the center of a new empire. The Persians who next came to power adopted many Assyrian military, political, and artistic inventions.
3. China’s most influential scholar was Confucius (kuhn•FYOO•shuhs). Born in 551 B.C., Confucius lived in a time when the Zhou Dynasty was in decline. He led a scholarly life, studying and teaching history, music, and moral character.
4. The rest of the world paid little attention to the Persians until 550 B.C. In that year,
Cyrus (SY•ruhs), Persia’s king, began to conquer several neighboring kingdoms.
5. For a Chinese thinker named Laozi (low•dzuh), who may have lived during the sixth century B.C., only the natural order was important.
6. A powerful seafaring people, the Minoans (mih•NOH•uhnz) dominated trade in the eastern Mediterranean from about 2000 to 1400 B.C.
7. A Persian prophet named Zoroaster (ZAWR•oh•AS•tuhr), who lived around 600 B.C., offered an answer.
8. During the Middle Kingdom (about 2080–1640 B.C.), trade with Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley enriched Egypt.
9. Separate Hittite city-states came together to form an empire there in about 1650 B.C.
10. Progress was slow because of difficulties clearing the jungle for farming. This task grew easier when iron came into use in India about 1000 B.C.
11. About the year 962 B.C., David was succeeded by his son Solomon, whose mother was Bathsheba.
12. Around 1600 B.C., a series of warlike rulers began to restore Egypt’s power.
13. After overthrowing the Hyksos, the pharaohs of the New Kingdom (about 1570–1075 B.C.) sought to strengthen Egypt by building an empire.
14. Among the rulers of the New Kingdom, Hatshepsut (hat•SHEHP•SOOT), who declared herself pharaoh around 1472 B.C., was unique. Hatshepsut’s stepson, Thutmose III (thoot•MOH•suh), proved to be a much more warlike ruler.
15. From around 950 to 730 B.C., Libyan pharaohs ruled Egypt and erected cities. But instead of imposing their own culture, the Libyans adopted the Egyptian way of life.