Reference no: EM132458235

Chapter 4 Review Questions: West Asia, Inner Asia, and South Asia to 1000 C.E. (Please just put the answers under each question, and again please no plagiarism. Thanks a bunch!!)

1. Why was the Achaemenid Empire successful for so long? What was the political basis for Achaemenid power?

2. How was the Maurya Empire created? What role did Greeks play in its creation? How did Ashoka developMaurya power and prestige?

3. How did the role of religion in the Achaemenid Empire compare to its role in the Maurya Empire?

4. Compare the historical importance of the Achaemenid and the Maurya empires. How does each compare to the empires of Rome and Han China?

5. Compare the major features of the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Why do you think Buddhism and not Hinduism spread to much of Asia?

6. How did the Kushans, Scythians, and other inner Asian groups play important roles in world history?

7. What are the key elements of Manichaean religion? How was it related to Christian and Zoroastrian traditions?

8. How did the Sasanid Empire develop after the fall of Parthians? What were the principal economic basis of the Sasanid?

9. What were the major religious issues in the Sasanid Empire? What role did Zoroastrian "orthodoxy" play in Sasanid affairs?

10. How did new religious ideas come to Central Asia and China in these centuries?

11. In what sense can the high Gupta period (ca. 320-450 C.E.) be considered a "golden age"? What was the extent of the empire? Why did it collapse?

12. What factors in Persia and India in the seventh century might have made the Arab invasions possible?

13. What major affinities and differences do you see between the classical Buddhist and Hindu traditions that had crystallized by 500 C.E.?