1. Consider these questions in reference to the empires that we have studied:

i. What were the main empires that existed in the period between about 800 BCE and 600 CE?

ii. What was the role of population and natural resources in the growth of these empires?

iii. What was the role of existing social and cultural developments in the growth of these empires?

iv. Were the empires we have studied mainly the products of powerful personalities (such as Alexander the Great)? Or were they more the result of underlying long-term conditions (social, economic, geographic, cultural, etc.)?

2. What factors led to the decline and/or fall of major empires between about 800 BCE and 600 CE?

3. What thinkers are associated with the "Axial Age"? What ideas and approaches to knowledge did they share? What unique contributions did each thinker make? What major religions have begun to take shape by the end of the Axial Age? Does it make sense to speak of an "Axial Age" even though these thinkers were widely separated in time and place and never met each other (or even read each others' writings)?

4. What made some smaller states viable alternatives to empires in the period we have been studying?