The Mongol Empire

3 dominant concepts of revolution:

Marxist	Western (Max Weber)	Sociological – “deprivation theory”
revolution is the “history of class struggle.” Class is defined in terms of relationship between the forces of production and the forces of exploitation	revolution is first and foremost a political and ideological transformation	When a majority of people feel that their most basic needs - for food, cloth, housing, personal identification - are suppressed or unfulfilled, revolution is most likely to happen

Home assignments are evaluated by the following criteria:

• Thesis – 20%
• Does the introduction contain a clearly defined thesis stating an
• arguable point? Does the introduction provide 2-3 general points that will be offered as proof to be defended in the body of the essay?
• Body - 55%
• Do the body paragraphs take the 2-3 points mentioned in the
• introduction and analyze (rather than narrate) the topic, making good use of evidence drawn from the text book (cite page numbers) and lectures?
• Sentence structure, grammar, style – 25%
• While the content and structure of the essay form the basis of the grade, poor handwriting and gross spelling errors will have a negative impact on your grade.

Comprehensive essay sample:

• Question: Compare the basic principles of Judaism and Christianity. Why, in spite of its humble beginnings, did Christianity achieve the status of a world religion?
• Although early Christians were persecuted, specific socio-economic and political circumstances forced Roman Emperors to embrace the new creed as a crucial universal bond that helped them solidify their rule and hold together the multicultural and multiethnic Roman Empire.
• Judaism and Christianity are two related world religions. Judaism was founded by Abraham as a monotheistic religion – that is the belief in one, universal god. According to Judaist teachings, God and Abraham struck an agreement – the Covenant – according to which ancient Jews would believe and revere only one God. In exchange, God would love and protect Jews as the chosen people (I/34-35). The second important premise of Judaism is that God’s love to Jews is contingent upon their belief in him. If they stop following his guide, they will be punished. The oral traditions of Judaism were written down in the series of books called the Old Testament roughly between 500 and 300BC (II/143). Christianity took its roots from Judaism, and also is a monotheistic religion.
• Yet, despite their close relationship, Christianity and Judaism took a different path of development eventually became hostile to each other. The point of rupture between the two religions was teachings of Jesus Christ, who defied the Jewish traditional religious establishment, and whose appeal to the masses won him a significant popular backing (I/46-47).