NY Regents Global History I (Grade 9)

The Fertile Crescent — the arc of productive land stretching between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is today Iraq, Syria, and southeastern Turkey, curving toward the eastern Mediterranean…

Çatalhöyük sits in central Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey, on the plateau between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean — exactly the inland peninsula that bridges Europe and Asia. Around 7500 BCE…

Around 3100 BCE, the ruler known as Narmer consolidated Upper and Lower Egypt into a single kingdom, an event commemorated on the Narmer Palette discovered at Hierakonpolis (ancient Nekhen) in…

Around 2560 BCE the pharaoh Khufu's tomb was completed at Giza, on the west bank of the Nile near the ancient capital of Memphis in what is now northern Egypt. Originally 146 metres tall, the Great…

Around 2500 BCE Mohenjo-daro was one of the largest cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation, located on the right bank of the Indus River in the Sindh province of modern Pakistan, about 28 km south…

Around 2334 BCE Sargon of Akkad unified the city-states of Mesopotamia — the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now central Iraq — into history's first empire, stretching from…

This monument stands in Ur, in modern-day Iraq — built on the broad, river-fed plain between the Tigris and Euphrates, just inland from where those rivers once emptied into the Persian Gulf. Around…

Around 1900 BCE the major cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation — including Mohenjo-daro on the Indus in modern-day Sindh, Pakistan, and Harappa on the Ravi River in Punjab — were gradually…

Around 1754 BCE the Babylonian king Hammurabi promulgated his famous law code at Babylon, a city on the Euphrates River about 85 km south of modern Baghdad in Iraq. The stele bearing the 282 laws…

This is Anyang, in modern China, situated on the flat plains of the Yellow River basin in the interior of East Asia. Around 1600 BCE, the Shang Dynasty rose here as China's first archaeologically…

The Indus-Gangetic Plain, stretching across northern India, is where the oldest hymns of Hinduism were composed and passed down by oral tradition around 1500 BCE. The Rigveda and companion texts were…

Around 1470 BCE the pharaoh Hatshepsut completed her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahari on the west bank of the Nile, directly across from the ancient city of Thebes (modern Luxor) in Upper Egypt. The…

Around 1346 BCE the pharaoh Akhenaten established a new capital city called Akhetaten (modern Amarna) on the east bank of the Nile in what is now the Minya Governorate of central Egypt, roughly 312…

Around 550 BCE the philosopher Laozi (Lao-Tzu), traditionally described as a keeper of archives at the Zhou royal court, is said to have composed the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) — the foundational text…

Around 528 BCE Siddhartha Gautama, a wandering ascetic from a noble family, is said to have attained enlightenment while meditating under a pipal (fig) tree at Bodh Gaya, in what is now the Gaya…

In 508 BCE the Athenian statesman Cleisthenes reformed the political constitution of Athens — a city on the Saronic Gulf, a branch of the Aegean Sea, in Attica, south-eastern mainland Greece — by…

Around 500 BCE Confucius (Kong Qiu) was active as a teacher and adviser in the state of Lu, centred on the city of Qufu in what is now Shandong Province, eastern China. Qufu sits on the south China…

In 490 BCE an Athenian-led Greek force of approximately 10,000 hoplites defeated a Persian invading army estimated at 25,000 at the Bay of Marathon, a coastal plain about 40 km north-east of Athens…

In 438 BCE the Parthenon — the temple dedicated to Athena on the Acropolis of Athens — was completed under the direction of the sculptor Pheidias and the architects Iktinos and Kallikrates, during…

In 331 BCE Alexander of Macedon defeated the Persian King Darius III at the Battle of Gaugamela, fought on a flat plain near the village of Gaugamela, close to the upper Tigris River in what is now…

Around 261 BCE the Mauryan emperor Ashoka fought the Kalinga War on the plains near the Daya River (a Mahanadi tributary) in what is now Odisha, eastern India, causing estimated casualties of over…

In 221 BCE the king of the state of Qin, ruling from his capital Xianyang in the Wei River valley (near modern Xi'an, Shaanxi Province), conquered the last of the Warring States and declared himself…

In 202 BCE Liu Bang, a minor village official who had risen to lead a peasant rebellion against Qin rule, defeated the aristocratic rival Xiang Yu at the Battle of Gaixia and founded the Han dynasty…

Around 130 BCE the Han diplomat Zhang Qian returned from his mission westward into Central Asia — through the Tarim Basin, across the Pamir Mountains, and as far as Bactria (modern Afghanistan) and…

This event took place in Jerusalem, a city set on the Judean highlands between the Mediterranean Sea to the west and the Jordan River valley and Dead Sea to the east — the geographic crossroads the…

In 67 CE the Han emperor Mingdi established the White Horse Temple (Baimasi) about 13 km east of the Han capital Luoyang, in what is now Henan Province, central China. According to tradition, two…

This is Jerusalem, in what is today the country of Israel, sitting on a limestone ridge in the Judean Hills — exactly between the Mediterranean coast to the west and the deep rift of the Jordan River…

Around 100 CE the port of Barygaza (modern Bharuch in Gujarat, India) at the mouth of the Narmada River on the east coast of the Arabian Sea was one of the busiest entrepôts of Indian Ocean monsoon…

This was Pataliputra, the imperial capital of the Gupta Empire, located in what is now Patna, India — sitting on the Ganges plain between the Himalayan foothills to the north and the Deccan Plateau…

This event took place in Nicaea, a city in present-day Turkey, sitting on the Asian side of the strait that separates Europe from Asia — the very crossing point between the Black Sea and the Sea of…

This is Istanbul, Turkey — built on the Bosphorus strait, exactly where Europe and Asia are separated by less than a kilometre of water, with the Black Sea to the north and the Sea of Marmara leading…

This is Rome, Italy — the city on the Tiber River, south of the Alps and just inland from the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western side of the Italian peninsula. In 410 CE, the Visigoth king Alaric led his…

Ravenna, Italy, on the Adriatic coast of the boot-shaped peninsula, south of the Alps and east of the Apennine mountain spine, was the last capital of the Western Roman Empire. In 476, the Germanic…

Constantinople — today called Istanbul, in modern Turkey — sits precisely on the Bosphorus strait, the slender waterway where Europe and Asia face each other across barely half a kilometre of water…

This event unfolded in Constantinople — modern-day Istanbul, Turkey — where a thin triangle of land juts into the waters separating Europe from Asia, with the Bosphorus strait to the east and the Sea…

This is Constantinople — modern Istanbul, Turkey — sitting precisely on the Bosphorus strait where the European and Asian continents face each other across a sliver of water, exactly where the Black…

This is Constantinople, today called Istanbul in Turkey, sitting precisely on the Bosphorus strait where Europe and Asia touch — the exact crossing point the title described. Beginning in 541 CE, the…

This is Chang'an, located in what is now Shaanxi Province in central China, sitting on the fertile Wei River plain — exactly the inland heartland the title clue pointed to, ringed by mountain ranges…

This migration ended in Medina, Saudi Arabia — an oasis city sitting in the Hejaz region of the Arabian Peninsula, roughly 400 kilometres north of Mecca across the rocky Hejaz plateau. In 622 CE, the…

This event unfolded in Naniwa — roughly the site of modern Osaka — on the eastern coast of Japan's main island of Honshu, tucked inside Osaka Bay where the island chain curves away from the Korean…

This is Karbala, in modern-day Iraq — sitting on the plains between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the ancient twin waterways that gave rise to Mesopotamia, one of humanity's earliest…

Around 700 CE the maritime empire of Srivijaya, based at Palembang on the Musi River delta in what is now South Sumatra Province, Indonesia, dominated the Strait of Malacca — the narrow sea passage…

This battle took place near Tours, in present-day France — sitting in the broad river country between the Loire and Garonne, roughly in the middle of Western Europe's largest landmass facing the…

This event unfolded in Kufa, a city in what is now Iraq, sitting on the great flat plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers — the same fertile corridor that cradled some of the world's earliest…

Near the town of Taraz, on the Talas River in what is now southern Kazakhstan, the Battle of Talas was fought in 751 CE between the Abbasid Caliphate and Tang China for control of the western Silk…

This event took place in Nicaea, modern-day İznik, Turkey — a city sitting on the eastern shore of the Sea of Marmara, the small inland sea that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean and marks the…

These abandoned city-states — including Tikal in present-day Guatemala — sit in the southern lowland rainforests of the Yucatán Peninsula region, on the narrow land bridge connecting North and South…

This event unfolded in Kaifeng, China — a city sitting on the flat North China Plain, close to where the Yellow River curves eastward toward the Yellow Sea. In 960, Zhao Kuangyin founded the Song…

Around 1000 CE the island port of Kilwa Kisiwani — off the southern coast of what is now Tanzania — began its rise as the dominant trading city of the Swahili coast, the string of Bantu-speaking…

In 1025 CE the Chola king Rajendra I launched a major naval expedition from the Coromandel Coast of South India (modern Tamil Nadu) across the Bay of Bengal, raiding and temporarily occupying over a…

This is Cahokia, located near present-day Collinsville, Illinois, USA — built precisely where the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers meet in the broad, flat heartland of North America. At its peak…

This event unfolded in Constantinople — modern-day Istanbul, Turkey — precisely where a slim waterway divides the European and Asian continents, linking the Black Sea to the Mediterranean world. In…

This is Hastings, on the southeastern coast of England — perched on a low ridge just inland from the English Channel, the narrow strip of water separating the island of Great Britain from continental…

This event took place in Clermont, in what is now France — a city perched on the volcanic uplands of the Massif Central, the ancient highland core of western Europe, with the Atlantic coast to the…

This is Jerusalem, in modern-day Israel and Palestine — the ancient walled city sitting on a limestone ridge where the Levantine coast curves toward the Sinai desert and the eastern edge of the…

This is Jerusalem, in modern-day Israel — the walled hilltop city sitting on a limestone plateau between the Mediterranean coast to the west and the deep Jordan River valley to the east, exactly at…

This is Jerusalem, in modern-day Israel — the walled hilltop city sitting where the Judean Hills rise above the Jordan River valley to the east and the Mediterranean coastal plain stretches westward…

This is Damascus, the capital of modern Syria — an ancient oasis city sitting at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, exactly where the arid Syrian desert begins to the east and the fertile…

This is Jerusalem, today located within the contested territory of Israel and Palestine — the walled hilltop city perched between the Mediterranean coast to the west and the deep Jordan Rift Valley…

This event unfolded at Acre, a port city on the coast of modern-day Israel — exactly where the eastern Mediterranean meets the base of the Mount Carmel ridge, one of the Levant's most recognizable…

This event took place in Kamakura, Japan — a coastal settlement on Honshu, the main island of the Japanese archipelago, facing the Pacific and sitting east across the Sea of Japan from the Korean…

This is Constantinople — modern Istanbul, Turkey — sitting precisely on the Bosphorus strait where Europe and Asia face each other across a narrow channel, and where the Black Sea empties southward…

This event unfolded in Delhi, the city sitting on the flat Indo-Gangetic Plain in northern India, exactly where the Himalayas to the north give way to the vast lowlands stretching toward the Deccan…

Runnymede is a flat meadow on the southern bank of the River Thames in England, sitting on the island of Great Britain just west of London — exactly the kind of quiet riverside ground where a king…

The pin belongs at Kouroukan Fouga, in what is now southern Mali — right where the upper Niger River winds through the West African interior, deep in the Saharan borderlands that the clue called the…

This is Kiev, now the capital of Ukraine, sitting on the western bank of the Dnieper River — the great waterway that drains much of Eastern Europe southward into the Black Sea, exactly the flat, open…

This is Baghdad, the capital of modern Iraq, sitting on the Tigris River in the broad lowland plain of Mesopotamia — the ancient 'land between the rivers' flanked by the Zagros Mountains to the east…

Karakorum sits in the grassland steppe of central Mongolia, north of China and south of Siberia, in the empty middle of Asia where the Mongol Empire built its capital. By 1260 that empire, stitched…

This event unfolded in Khanbaliq, the city now known as Beijing, in northern China — sitting on the North China Plain where the terrain flattens out just south of the mountains that separate China…

Around 1300 CE Great Zimbabwe — a walled stone city on the granite plateau of what is now south-central Zimbabwe, near modern Masvingo — reached the height of its power as the political and…

In 1324 CE Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire, departed from Niani — his capital on the upper Sankarani River (a Niger tributary) in what is now northeastern Guinea — on hajj to Mecca, crossing the…

This is Tenochtitlan, founded in 1325 on an island in Lake Texcoco — sitting in the high basin of central Mexico, exactly the highland plateau the title described, ringed by volcanic peaks. The…

This is Tenochtitlan, the island city built on a lake in the high Valley of Mexico — the same site now occupied by Mexico City, sitting on a plateau ringed by volcanic peaks in the interior of the…

This event took place at Caffa, modern Feodosia, on the Crimean Peninsula in present-day Ukraine — a port on the northern Black Sea coast, exactly where the Eurasian steppe grasslands reach the water…

This is Baghdad, the capital of modern Iraq, sitting in the flat alluvial plain where the Tigris River flows southward toward the Persian Gulf — exactly the river-valley heartland the title clue…

Florence, Italy — a prosperous city on the Arno River in the northern half of the Italian peninsula, sheltered by the Apennines and within reach of the Tyrrhenian Sea — was devastated when the Black…

Weymouth, on the southern coast of England, sits on the English Channel — the narrow strip of water separating the island of Great Britain from mainland Europe — and it was through this busy port…

This is Paris, the capital of France, sitting on the River Seine in the wide northern European plain — the lowland basin stretching from the English Channel coast southward toward the Alps. In…

This event unfolded in Nanjing, China — a city on the lower Yangtze River plain, roughly where that great river curves toward the East China Sea, deep in the heart of eastern China. In 1368, Zhu…

This policy was issued from Nanjing, China — a city on the lower Yangtze River plain, roughly midway along China's enormous Pacific-facing coastline. In 1371, the Hongwu Emperor decreed the haijin…

This event began in Nanjing, the great city on the Yangtze River in eastern China, exactly where a powerful dynasty launched its fleets toward the Indian Ocean world. In 1405, Admiral Zheng He led…

This is Beijing, the capital of modern China, sitting on the North China Plain where the mountains of the northwest give way to the broad lowlands stretching toward the Bohai Sea. In the early 1400s…

This is Machu Picchu, perched on a mountain ridge in present-day Peru, high in the Andes range that runs like a spine down the western side of South America. Around 1450 CE, Inca builders constructed…

This is Constantinople, now called Istanbul, in modern Turkey — sitting precisely on the Bosphorus strait where Europe and Asia are separated by less than a kilometre of water, exactly the narrow…

This standoff took place at the Ugra River, a tributary feeding into the Oka River system in what is now western Russia — deep in the forested interior of Europe's eastern edge, well west of the Ural…

This is Elmina, on the coast of modern Ghana — exactly on the Gulf of Guinea, where West Africa's shoreline bends southward into the Atlantic below the Sahara. In 1482, Portuguese builders completed…

On 2 January 1492 the forces of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella entered Granada as its last Muslim ruler, Boabdil, surrendered the Alhambra palace-fortress. This ended the Emirate of…

This is Goa, on the western coast of India, exactly where the Arabian Sea meets the subcontinent's Konkan shoreline — the geographic crossroads the event title pointed toward. In 1510, the Portuguese…

Florence, Italy — a city on the Arno River in the northern half of the Italian peninsula, cradled between the Apennines and the Tyrrhenian coast — is where Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince in…

The Battle of Chaldiran took place in 1514 near what is now Caldiran, in the Van Province of eastern Turkey — on the high Anatolian plateau where the highlands of Anatolia give way toward the Zagros…

This is Cairo, Egypt — where the Nile Delta meets the northeastern edge of Africa, just west of the Sinai Peninsula that links Africa to Asia. In 1517, the Ottoman Sultan Selim I crushed the Mamluk…

On 31 October 1517, the German monk and theology professor Martin Luther nailed a list of 95 arguments — known as the 95 Theses — to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The list…

Seville, Spain — sitting on the Guadalquivir River in the southwestern corner of the Iberian Peninsula, where Europe reaches closest to Africa across the Strait of Gibraltar and the Atlantic…

This event unfolded in Tenochtitlan, the island capital of the Aztec Empire, built on a lake in the high Valley of Mexico — a volcanic plateau sitting at roughly 2,200 metres above sea level, almost…

The city is Worms, Germany, sitting on the western bank of the Rhine River as it flows northward across the broad central European plain toward the North Sea. In 1521, the religious reformer Martin…

The battle unfolded near Mohács, Hungary, on the broad floodplain beside the Danube that sits almost exactly midway between the Carpathian arc and the Adriatic coastline. On August 29, 1526, the…

This is Vienna, now the capital of Austria, sitting on the Danube where the Alps give way to the vast flat basin stretching east toward the Black Sea — exactly the geographic bottleneck the title…

In Westminster, England — on the north bank of the Thames just inland from the channel that separates the island from the continent — Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy in 1534, declaring King…

This event took place in Rome, Italy — the city on the Tiber River at the heart of the Italian peninsula, south of the Alps and surrounded by the Mediterranean world. In 1540, Pope Paul III…

In 1541 the French-born reformer John Calvin returned to Geneva and, through his Ecclesiastical Ordinances, reorganised the city as a Reformed Protestant republic governed by scripture. Geneva sits…

In 1543, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus published De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, arguing that the Sun — not the Earth — sits at the centre of the universe, and that all planets…

This was Trent, a city in what is now northern Italy, sitting in the Adige River valley just south of the Brenner Pass — the great Alpine gateway connecting the Italian peninsula to central Europe…

This event unfolded in London, England — on the large island of Great Britain, sitting off the northwestern edge of continental Europe and separated from France by the narrow English Channel. In…

Manila, the capital of the Philippines, sits on the western edge of a vast Pacific archipelago roughly 1,000 kilometres east of the Vietnamese coast and directly across the South China Sea from…

The Battle of Lepanto was fought in 1571 in the Gulf of Patras, off the western coast of Greece, exactly where the Ionian Sea narrows into the mouth of the Gulf of Corinth — the geographic…

This event unfolded in Abomey, the inland capital of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in what is today the country of Benin — a narrow strip of West Africa wedged between the Niger delta region and the Gulf…

This event unfolded in Venice, Italy — the famous lagoon city perched at the northern end of the Adriatic Sea, exactly where the Italian peninsula tucks under the Alps. In 1610, Galileo Galilei…

This conflict erupted across England, the southern and largest part of Great Britain — the large island sitting northwest of mainland Europe, separated from France by the narrow English Channel and…

Fontainebleau, a town in north-central France roughly 55 kilometres south of Paris, is where Louis XIV signed the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685, revoking the religious protections that French…

In 1687, Isaac Newton published Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica from Cambridge University, England. The book set out three laws of motion explaining how and why objects accelerate and…

This event unfolded in London, England — on the large island off northwestern Europe's Atlantic coast, separated from France by the narrow English Channel that the invading fleet had just crossed. In…

This was London, England — a city straddling the River Thames on the large island separated from mainland Europe by the English Channel and the North Sea. In 1689, John Locke published his Two…

Moscow, Russia — a fortress city on the Moskva River, which feeds into the Oka and then the Volga, sitting west of the Ural Mountains in the vast country that straddles both Europe and Asia, exactly…