This document provides an introduction to global history, including definitions of primary and secondary sources, how social scientists study and interpret history, different types of maps, what culture is, and the differences between cultural isolation and diffusion. It also summarizes some major turning points in history, including the transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer societies to the Neolithic Revolution and agriculture, and the subsequent rise of early civilizations along rivers like the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia.