Mr.

Brush
The History of the World in 2 Hours
Outline

I. The Beginning

A. The Big Bang-

1. What did it create? What were the 1st atoms called? What kept the 1st atoms from
spreading out evenly?

B. Stars are born

1. Clouds of gas, dust and gravity form stars at 18M degrees
2. Pressure and heat/H atoms slam together to make Helium, Lithium, and so on.
3. Stars are element factories: Fe, O, N, C
4. Some elements needed to be created so Supernovas are born
5. The_____________ Table is a list of elements created in the stars

C. Our Sun, a star is born

1. Contains most of the dust and gas in the galaxy but some left over w/gravity to build
planets

D. Early Earth
1. 4 and half billion years ago
2. Churning liquid metal/nickel core
3. The lighter elements form a crust/ the heavier elements sink to the bottom
4. This metal core creates a force field that will protect us from the harmful radiation of
the sun; it also gives us the chance of an atmosphere and helps to create life

E. Earth’s Moon
1. Slams into Earth/some of it is absorbed into the Earth
2. Revolves around the ___________
3. The moon keeps the Earth steady; from wobbling
4. Saves the earth from wild climate swings and the collision tilts the Earth giving it
seasons; these seasons give a steady permanence of life
5. The gravity of the moon slows down the ___________ of the Earth

F. Bacteria
1. They consume the sun’s energy to form oxygen/this oxygen coalesces with the iron of
the ocean floor and it corrodes/rusts it out until the oxygen fills the ocean and it rises out
of the ocean into the atmosphere. This oxygen eventually provides us with an ozone layer
to further protect us from harmful rays of the sun.
2. The ocean floors will eventually rise above the ocean to form our land
II. Early History

A. Cambrian Explosion (Wikipedia)

1. Was the relatively rapid appearance, around 542 million years ago, of most major
animal kingdoms, as demonstrated in the fossil record.

B. Coal-300M ago
1. Plants die, buried, compacted and cooked/later become __________

C. Permian Extinction
1. 70% of life gone
2. Dinosaurs became the rage
3. Forests appear/moon’s gravity settles earth into a 24 hour period/Pangaea

D. Extinction of Dinosaurs
1. 65 million ago
2. Primates appear
3. Breaking apart of Pangaea

E. Land masses disrupt life-10M years before us

1. Mountain Ranges settle and disrupt weather patterns setting the stage for a colder
planet/Grand Canyon is created
2. The Isthmus of Panama is created and it disrupts oceans currents

III. Game Changers

A. Grass
1. Grass appears simultaneously: African Savannah, Eurasian Steppe lands, NA Prairie,
Argentina grasslands
2. Fewer trees and greater gaps between them. Primates adapt

B. Proto-Humans/Hominids
1. They use ________ to chip and shape rocks without shattering
2. They become more efficient and thus more complex with the technology they use
3. This becomes the _________ Age
4. They sustain fire to cook food, keep warm, more energy bigger brains
5. Fire becomes the gateway technology-make clay into pottery, metal into weapons,
water into steam power

C. Language-200,000 years before us

1. Voice box descends in humans
2. Complex sounds form languages and information and communication form networking
3. They borrow personal experience and become exponentially smarter
D. Human Dispersal-100,000 years before us
1. Man can migrate, has agile hands, has primitive tools, can communicate, and controls
fire
2. Human dispersal-better insulated from ____________

IV. Final Migration

A. Ice Age-50,000 years ago

1. Glaciers move down from the pole
2. Humans reach China and Australia
3. 30,000 years ago they reach Europe
4. 20,000 years ago they reach the tundra of Northern Siberia (Russia)
5. Symbolic thought (pictures that all of us understand)
6. Bering Land Bridge allows humans to cross into _______ ___________ and eventually
migrate in South America (10,000 years before us; horses die off before First Americans
appear)

B. Post Ice Age

1. Glaciers recede and carve out the __________ Lakes, rivers and bays
2. With the temp warming, humans choose to stop moving and form permanent
settlements
3. Population grows, thus more mouths to feed and that requires an increase in food
4. Planting of seeds: Grass-wheat, sugar cane, rye, barley
5. This becomes the main calorie intake

V. Beginning of Civilizations

A. Mesopotamia
1. The Fertile __________ has the most abundant source of domesticated animals and
plants
2. People blessed with the right mix of plants and animals will become more powerful
and get a head start to the modern world
3. Horse becomes domesticated in Mongolia

B. Sumerians-First Civilization
1. Humans become so efficient from domestication that it supports thousands
2. Because wheat and barley ripen at the same time famine may occur. This leads to the
first inventory of crops.
3. This leads to the first writing system, first army to protect crops and first appearance of
governments to govern the dispersement of crops
4. Settlements become cities
5. Most civilizations cluster around _________
C. Cities to Civilizations
1. Must master trade and communication
2. The more they exchange goods and learn the faster they grow
3. ____________ caravan becomes the interstate and high speed internet of the day,
spreading goods like timber and bronze and ideas and stories. It becomes the cultural and
material exchange.
4. We trade and form networks which create hubs and throughout history the amount of
ideas and cargo that pass through a region seems to have a direct correlation to how
powerful and important they are

D. Humble huts to massive monuments-2,000 years before us

1. To cement these massive structures together they use bitumen which later is used for
asphalt. The lighter and thinner substance burns quite easier and is later called
____________
2. Sumeria: First Civilization, wheel is most likely created there plus the chariot leads to
a military superpower

VI. Empires Emerge

A. Empire Building
1. 1200 BC-higher temps lead to a discovery of iron-Iron Age
2. 600 BC human ride on horseback into battle with iron weapons
3. This leads to =a series of military empires: Persian 500 BC, Alexander 323 BC, Han
Dynasty 50 BC, Roman 117AD. Uniting massive areas under control
4. New Beliefs spring in the form of monotheism-Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism

B. Trade Networking
1. 100 BC Chinese Emperor send an envoy in search of an alliance with Europe. This
becomes the _____________ -a massive trading network from China across Central Asia
to the Roman Empire.
2. Trade and Cultural exchange produce good and bad results: G-Spread of Religion;
B-disease.
3. 312 AD Constantine converts to ________________ and the religion becomes
dominant in Europe and the West

C. Arab Trade Network

1. 600 AD Islam emerges
2. Arab trade expands
3. The camel replaces the donkey for the most efficient way to move items across long
distances
4. As a result it produces: words in our vocabulary, using a standard numerical system,
gun powder, they move salt to Europe, rice to India and paper secrets to Europe
5. First government states in West Africa
VII. Connecting the World and Transforming it

A. The ____________ Exchange-500 Years before us

1. Columbus uses sails from Arabs
2. Compass from China
3. Ancient electromagnetic force field to guide them
4. Rise of the European powers by looting the New World of gold and silver, sugar cane
and wiping out indigenous population (95%) with weapons and disease

B. 300 years before us-The _____________ Revolution

1. World hits a wall with humans still making 70% of workload
2. British need a new source of fuel since trees in the England are dwindling. Coal
becomes the source but as miners go deeper to seek more coal, the mines flood with
water.
3. Hence, the invention of pumping out water in 1712 with the first practical steam
engine: a) pump powered by burning coal, b) driven by steam. Energy, engine, fuel and
machine frees man from the limits of his own muscle.
4. The Industrial Revolution begins and with other political revolutions in America
(1776) and France (1789), the Atlantic world becomes the economic, cultural, political
and military leader of the rest of history up to this point.
5. The IR produces trains, cars, and planes to move goods and the telegraph and
telephone to move communication faster.
6. The IR allows population to explode.
7. __________ fuels and the internal combustion engine amplified everything. Its
application is reached with technological machines that destroy people in wars in the 20th
century

C. Present Day-Change on such a scale

1. Energy plus technology equals creativity.
2. We can harness energy more efficiently: cars, planes, heating, space shuttle, Mars
exploration, human population, internet, I-pod.
3. This energy drives our fast-paced life.
4. Networking has been in the making as long as humans walked the earth
U.S. History
History of the World in Two Hours
Quiz #1

1. What three domesticated animals become dramatically important in the development

of warfare and moving goods from one place to another?

2. What was the Big Bang?

3. Why was human dispersal important to our survival?

4. Why are the creation and destruction of stars vital to our way of life on earth?

5. Why has gravity been significant for the big picture of the universe, our galaxy, our
planet and our existence as humans?

6. How did humans acquire coal from the earth?

7. Explain and describe the various ways throughout the history of the universe where the
more energy there is at one point, the more complex systems can result from it?

8. Explain the ways in which we have created and used energy recently which was made
in the big bang.

9. How were grass and language game changers in the scope of human existence? What
were other game changers, in your opinion?

10. How is the Earth’s moon important?

11. Why was it significant to have a variety of domesticated animals in order for a region
to grow exponentially?

12. What conclusions and inferences can be drawn from the documentary?