Western Civilization I / Unit 5 WC1 0422 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Reading a Map of Alexander's Route and the Successor Kingdoms
The idea
The exam shows either Alexander's route or the three kingdoms and asks a location question. The method for the route is a clockwise loop: Macedon, across to Anatolia, down the Syrian coast to Egypt, back up through Mesopotamia to Persia, east to the Indus, south along the coast to Babylon. The method for the kingdoms is three blocks: Macedon and Greece in the west, Egypt in the south, everything from Syria to Persia in the east.
In practice
Four questions. Where did Alexander fight his first battle on Persian soil: on the loop's first leg, western Anatolia, the Granicus. Where did he burn a capital: on the leg from Mesopotamia into Persia, Persepolis. Which kingdom held the cheapest wheat in the Mediterranean: the southern block, Ptolemaic Egypt. Which kingdom lost its eastern provinces first: the eastern block, the Seleucids, who gave India to Chandragupta and lost Parthia. A fifth: which block was nearest Rome and fell to it first. The western block, Antigonid Macedon, beaten in the second century.
Where people slip
The route crosses the kingdom map. The Indus lands Alexander reached belong to no successor kingdom by two eighty, so a shaded Seleucid realm stopping at Persia is correct, not an error. Check whether the map is dated three twenty-three or two eighty before you answer.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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