Chapter 1
CHAPTER I. What is history? A record of past events or a record of the rise and fall of civilization. 2. What is general history?
A history of all nations and peoples. 3. Into how many divisions may general history be divided? 3. 4.
What are they? Ancient, medieval, and modern. 5. What is the period of ancient history? From remote antiquity to the fall of the Roman Empire, 476 AD.
6. What are the limits of the medieval division? From 476 AD to the close of the 15th century. 7. What are the limits of the modern period?
From the beginning of the year 1500 to the present time. 8. What is biography? The history of a single individual. 9.
What is an autobiography? The history of an individual which has been written by himself. 10. What is the derivation of the word history? From two Greek words which originally meant to know by inquiry.
11. What is political history? The history of states and empires. 12. What is ecclesiastical history?
The history of the Christian Church. 13. What is meant by sacred history? The historical part of the scriptures. 14.
What is profane history? Any history written by uninspired writers. 15. How many sources have we of historical information? 3.
16. What are they? Records, monuments, and legends. 17. What people have left their history entirely in monuments?
The mound builders. 18. With what does the history of a people begin? With the formation of settled communities. 19.
What is the historic race? The Caucasians, the others having done little worth recording. 20. How is it divided? Into three great branches, the Arian, the Semitic, and the Hamitic.
21. To which do we belong? The Arian. 22. What does the Arian include?
The Persians, the Hindus, and nearly all the European nations. 23. For what has it always been noted? Its intellectual vigor. 24.
What does the Semitic branch embrace? The Assyrians, the Hebrews, the Phoenicians, and the Arabs. 25. What has been its great characteristic? Religious fervor.
26. What has it given to the world? The three faiths which teach the worship of one God. 27. What are they?
The Jewish, Christian, and Mohammedan. 28. What does the Hamitic branch include? The Chaldeans and the Egyptians. 29.
What has it been remarkable for? Its massive architecture. 30. What country is supposed to have been the birthplace of mankind? Asia.
31. What nation had made progress in civilization in a time back of all history? The Aryans. 32. What does the word mean?
Those who go straight or upward. 33. What is known of their civilization? They dwelt in houses, plowed the soil, ground their grain in mills, rode in vehicles, worked certain metals, calculated up to 100 and had family ties, a government and a religion.
34. Where does history begin? On the banks of the Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates. 35. What reason is given for this?
The rich alluvial soil, the genial climate and the abundant natural products of the earth The Nile. 36. What are the earliest cities of the world? Memphis, Thebes, Nineveh and Babylon.
37. What is the earliest account we have of Egypt? About 2700 BC, Menes, the half-mythical founder of the nation, is said to have built Memphis, which he made his capital. 38.
Describe Egypt. A flat valley, two to ten miles wide, skirted by low rocky hills. On the west the desert, on the east a mountainous region rich in quarries extending to the Red Sea. Through this narrow valley the Nile runs for 600 miles.
39. What is Egypt sometimes called? The gift of the Nile. 40. Why so called?
The Nile inundates Egypt every year and then recedes, leaving a deposit of mud which fertilizes the soil to such an extent that two crops are annually raised. 41. What other advantage is the river to Egypt? It is a means of rapid and ready communication between the remotest parts of the country.
42. How will Egypt be able to survive the cold? How was Egypt divided? Into several states but finally was united into two parts, Upper and Lower Egypt. 43.
Name the three periods of Egyptian history previous to the Persian conquest. The Old Empire, the Second Empire, and the New Empire. 44. What is the date of the Old Empire? From remote antiquity to 2080 BC.
45. What is the most interesting epoch of the Old Empire? The Fourth or Pyramid Dynasty so called because its chief monarch built the three great pyramids at Giza. 46.
Who was the best known of these kings? Khufu called Khiyaps by Herodotus. 47. What is a dynasty? A succession of sovereigns of the same race ruling a particular country.
48. What may be said of the progress of arts in Egypt? The useful arts made rapid progress under the Pyramidic dynasties. 49. Where did they get their copper?
From the peninsula of Sinai. 50. What is the date of the Second Empire? From 2080 BC to 1525 BC. 51.
What famous works were accomplished in the Second Empire? The Labyrinth and Lake Merus. 52. What was the Labyrinth? A magnificent group of palaces containing 3,000 rooms, half of them underground, built
as a tomb for kings and sacred crocodiles. 53. What was Lake Merus? A gigantic reservoir built to divert the waters of the Nile during an inundation and hold them for the use of the neighboring lands in time of drought.
54. Who were the first to invade Egypt? Tribes from Asia under the Shepherd Kings. 55. Who were they?
The Hyksos, a rude barbarian race who overran the whole region and ruled it for 400 years. 56. When did Abraham visit Egypt? During the reign of the Shepherd Kings. 57.
What was the date of the New Empire? From 1525 BC to 525 BC. 58. What is said of this epoch? During this period there was a national life of 1,000 years which exalted Egypt to the
height of its glory. 59. What great temple was built at this time? 60. The great temple of Karnak, now one of the most wonderful ruins of the world.
It was connected with the temple of Luxor by an avenue of Sphinxus, two miles long. 60. What was the capital of the New Empire? Thebes. 61.
Who was the greatest monarch of Egypt? Ramses II. 62. What was he called in sacred history? Pharaoh, the oppressor of the Israelites.
63. What did he do for Egypt? He covered the land with magnificent works of art and carried the Egyptian arms in triumph into Asia. 64.
What was the employment of captives who were brought to Egypt? Working in the mines and making brick. 65. What cruel act was Ramses guilty of? He ordered the Hebrew boys to be thrown into the Nile.
66. What ruler was visited by the plagues of Egypt? The son of Ramses II. 67. What was his name?
Meneftha. 68. When did the decline of Egypt begin? In the seventh century B.C. when it was conquered by the Assyrians. 69.
Who revived the Egyptian power? Pesach Medicus and his successor Neko, who completely subdued all the enemies. 70. What great event occurred during Neko's reign? The circumnavigation of Africa.
71. What other country besides Egypt did Neko rule? All the country between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Euphrates. 72. How did Neko lose his possessions in Asia?
By his defeat in the Battle of Kharkamish. 73. Who commanded the victorious army in this battle? Nebuchadnezzar. 74.
When did Egypt pass into the control of the Persians? In the sixth century when they were conquered by Cambyses and became part of the Persian Empire. 75. When did Egypt throw off the Persian yoke? Under Alexander the Great, 334 B.C.
76. What did Alexander do in Egypt? Built a new city, Alexandria, at the mouth of the Nile. 77. Who was the father of Alexander?
King Philip of Macedon. 78. What happened to Egypt after the death of the king of Egypt? The death of Alexander. It passed into the rule of the Ptolemies from 323 B.C. to 30 B.C.
79. Name some improvements in Egypt during the reign of Ptolemy I. The erection of magnificent buildings, among them a white marble lighthouse called Pharos, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and the founding of the greatest library of the ancient world at Alexandria. 80.
What kind of volume did the Alexandrian Library contain? A translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek. 81. What was this translation called? The Septuagint.
82. Why so named? Because there were 70 persons who translated it from the Hebrew. 83. How many Ptolemies were there?
13 in all. 84. Who was the last Ptolemy? Cleopatra, a brilliant princess. 85.
What happened during her reign? Egypt was conquered by Rome. 86. How did Cleopatra come to her death? She killed herself rather than be seen on the triumphal procession of her Roman conqueror Octavius.
87. When did Egypt come into the control of the Romans? In the year 30 BC. 88. How long did Rome control Egypt?
Until the fall of the Roman Empire. 89. Who has controlled Egypt since the fall of the Roman Empire? The Turks principally. 90.
What is the title of the ruler of Egypt? Kadeiv. 91. What were the rulers called from 1250 to 1517? The Mamluks Sultans.
92. Who conquered the Turks at the end of the 18th century? The French under Bonaparte. 93. What was Bonaparte's charge to his soldiers at the Battle of the Pyramids?
Soldiers from yonder pyramids 40 centuries looked down upon you. 94. How long did Egypt remain under French rule? The French were expelled by the British in 1802 and the province was restored to Turkey. 95.
Mention two powerful rulers of Egypt after this period? Mohammed Ali and his grandson Ismael Pasha, the first of the Kadeivs. 96. What great undertaking was attempted by Ismael Pasha? The conquest of Central Africa called Sudan and the suppression of the slave trade.
97. What Englishman was appointed governor of the Sudan in the service of the Kadeiv? General Gordon in 1874. 98. What great revolt against Egyptian power took place in Sudan?
The revolt of the Mahdi. 99. What is the meaning of Mahdi? According to Mohammedan belief, a spiritual ruler who is to appear on earth during the last days. 100.
Who had himself proclaimed as Mahdi? Mohammed Ahmed, a man of low birth. 101. What did he do? He gathered an insurgent band of Mohammedans around him and the tide of insurrection was a source of serious peril to Egypt.
102. What was the fate of Gordon? He was besieged by the Mahdi at Khartoum and killed in the storming of the city 1885. 103. Name some great curiosities in Egypt.
Pyramids, Sphinxes, obelisks, etc. 104. Where are the pyramids? In the western valley of the Nile from near Cairo, the pyramids were found in the city of Cairo. To about 100 miles up the river.
105. How many pyramids were there at first? Over 165 yet remain. 106. What was the purpose of the pyramids?
Monuments over the remains of noted rulers. 107. What is the shape of the pyramids? Foresighted, directed toward the cardinal points. 108.
Give dimensions of the largest pyramid. Each side of base 746 feet, height 450 feet. 109. Of what material are the pyramids built? Stone or a mass of rubble with an external casing of stone.
110. Do they still maintain their original size? They do not. They are often partially destroyed for their building material. 111.
What is a sphinx? A fabulous monster of mythology. 112. What were the sphinxes of Egypt? Large statues representing the head of a man and the body of a lion.
113. What is an obelisk? A large shaft of stone usually square and covered with hieroglyphics. 114. Where are they most numerous?
In Egypt. 115. What has been done with some of them? Presented to different nations for monuments or statues. 116.
Has the United States received any? There was one presented to the city of New York by the Khedive of Egypt. 117. How has the history of ancient Egypt been preserved? By the hieroglyphics on the walls of the palaces, temples, monuments and tombs.
118. What are hieroglyphics? A series of pictures and characters symbolizing ideas, letters, syllables and words. 119. How did their meaning become known to the scholars of today?
Through the discovery of the Rosetta Stone when it was discovered by the ancient Egyptian one of the greatest discoveries of modern times. 120. What is the Rosetta Stone? An Egyptian tablet discovered at Rosetta and containing an inscription written in both hieroglyphics and Greek.
By comparing the two, Champollion, a celebrated French scientist, found the meaning of a few characters and from that beginning the whole of the ancient Egyptian writing has been deciphered. 121. On what was Egyptian literature written? On scrolls of papyrus or paper read which flourished luxuriantly in ancient times on the banks of the Nile.
122. What is the most celebrated Egyptian book? The Book of the Dead, a ritual for the use of the soul in its journey after death. A copy was enclosed in every mummy case. 123.
How did the Egyptians care for their dead? They embalmed them and placed various articles in the tombs with them, especially images of the deceased persons and utensils connected with their profession or trade. 124. What did the religion of ancient Egypt teach?
A judgment after death, immortality and transmigration of the soul, and it had many gods growing out of one. 125. What was its form? A ceremonial worship of animals as emblems of deity.
End of chapter 1
