Chapter 1: From the Origins of Agriculture to the First River-Valley

Civilizations 8000-1500 B.C.E.

BEFORE CIVILIZATION
Food Gathering and Stone Technology
The common understanding that the first civilizations arose in Mesopotamia and Egypt sometime before 3000
B.C.E. needs examination. Evidence of human artistic creative came near Lascaux in southwestern France Vallon
Pont-dArc.
Agricultural life and certain political, social, economic, and technological traits are indicators of civilization.

Cities as administrative centers

A political system based on defined territory rather than kinship
Many people engaged in specialized non-food producing activities
Status distinctions based largely on accumulation of wealth
Monumental building
A system for keeping permanent records
Long-distance trade
Sophisticated interest in science and art

Culture is the production of artworks and tools over wide areas and long periods of time. Socially transmitted
patterns of action and expression. Material culture refers to physical objects, such as dwellings, clothing, tools, and
crafts. Culture also includes arts, beliefs, knowledge, and technology. The study of past events and changes in the
development, transmission, and transformation of cultural practices is called history.
The Stone Age was the historical period characterized by the production of tools from stone and other nonmetallic
substances. This can be broken down into two categories: the Paleolithic and the Neolithic Age (associated with
agriculture). Foragers were hunting and food-gathering peoples during this time. Cooking makes both meat and
vegetables tastier, which humans may have discovered by accident. Proof of cooking came about 12500 years ago.
Ice Age women did most of the gathering and cooking while men were more suited for hunting, especially for large
animals.
Same studies show that people lived in groups big enough to defend themselves and divide responsibility but small
enough not to exhaust resources.
Other foundations called science, art, and religion date to the Stone Age. Paintings helped determine early peoples
religion. However, it is difficult to determine without written material.

The Agricultural Revolutions

People became food producers around 10000 years ago. The Neolithic Revolution a.k.a. Agricultural
Revolutions can be given to be as the changeover from food gathering to food producing. One example
was domestication. Selections of the highest-yielding strains of wild plants led to development of
domesticated varieties over time. Women played a role, but majority of this task fell to the men. Farmers
practiced shifting cultivation to clear fields.

The domestication of animals expanded rapidly during the same millennia. The first domesticated animal
was the dog, then followed other animals. Cattle and water buffalo were tamed and became essential to
the agricultural cycle of grain farmers. Pastoralism, a way of life dependent on large herds of grazing
livestock, came to predominate in arid regions.
Most researchers believe that climate change drove people to abandon hunter-gathering in favor of
pastoralism. Global warming started the Holocene. Lands were really warm. Therefore, some areas
continued hunting-gathering. However, the adoption of food production transformed the world.
Agriculture supported a gradual population increase.
Life in Neolithic Communities
Farmers had to work much harder and for much longer periods than food gatherers. In addition, their diet
contained less variety than of foragers. Nevertheless, farmers outnumbered non-farmers and population
densities rose.
Like forager bands, kinship and marriage bound farming communities together. The holding of land was
widely known here, called lineages, or clans. Matrilineality is decent through women, whereas rule by
women is matriarchy.
Religion of foragers tended to center on groves, springs, and animals. The ritual of farmers centered on
the Earth Mother and the Sky God.
Megaliths seem to relate to religious beliefs. Stonehenge marked the position of the sun and other bodies
at key points in the year, for example.
Jericho and atal Hyk were the first Neolithic villages. Jericho was an elaborate early agricultural
settlement, and atal Hyk had long-distance trade that featured obsidian. But hunting retained a
powerful hold on peoples minds. Yet atal Hyks economy rested on agriculture.

CHRONOLOGY
MESOPOTAMIA

EGYPT

INDUS VALLEY

3500 B.C.E.
3100-2575 B.C.E.
Early Dynastic
3000 B.C.E.
3000-2350 B.C.E

2575-2134 B.C.E.

2600 B.C.E.

Early Dynastic (Sumerian)

Old Kingdom

Beginning of Indus
Valley civilization

2350-2230 B.C.E

2134-2040 B.C.E.

2500 B.C.E.

Akkadian (Semitic)

First Intermediate Period

2112-2004 B.C.E

2040-1640 B.C.E.

Third Dynasty of Ur (Sumerian)

Middle Kingdon

1900-1600 B.C.E

1640-1532 B.C.E.

1900 B.C.E.

Old Babylonian (Semitic)

Second Intermediate Period

End of Indus Valley

civilization

2000 B.C.E.

1532-1070 B.C.E.
Second Intermediate Period

1500 B.C.E
1500-1150 B.C.E
Kassite

MESOPOTAMIA
Because of the unpredictable nature of Tigris and Euphrates, the ancient Mesopotamians saw themselves
at the mercy of the gods.
Babylon was the most important city in southern Mesopotamia in the second and first millennia B.C.E.
Settled Agriculture in an Unstable Landscape
Mesopotamia means, land between the rivers.
Although the first domestication of plants and animals around 8000 BCE occurred nearby in the Fertile
Crescent, irrigation came to Mesopotamia (irrigation was the artificial provision of water to crops).
They developed other technologies, for example, ox-drawn plows.
The written record begins with the Sumerians and marks the division between prehistory and history.
They spoke a Semitic language (referring to the family of languages). Soon this was replaced by
Akkadian. The Sumerian/Semitic cultural heritage remained fundamentally unaltered until the arrival of
the Greeks in the late fourth century B.C.E.

Cities, Kings, and Trade

Occasionally, as a successful village grew, small satellite villages developed nearby and eventually
merged with the main village to form an urban center. Cities depended on agriculture and therefore on
the villages. The term city-state refers to a self-governing urban center and the agricultural territories it
controlled. Disputes over land, water, etc. sparked hostilities between neighboring cities and building of
protective walls. At other times, cities cooperated.
Successful operation depended on leaders compelling or persuading large numbers of people to work
together. The palace of the king and the temple left written records. In the third millennium B.C.E.,
Sumerian documents show the coming of a lugal, or big man (king). The kings power grew at the
expense of the priesthood, however. Normally, the king portrayed himself as the deitys earthly
representative. A few kings became powerful enough to dominate neighbors. Sargon, ruler of Akkad
pioneered in uniting many cities. Their administration featured a uniform system of weights/measures
and standardization.
The Third Dynasty of Ur than the Amorites took over. Hammurabi initiated a series of military
campaigns and created the famous Law Code, providing judges with a set of examples illustrating the
principles to be used in deciding cases.
Conquest and trade gave Mesopotamians access to vital resources. Most items were barter unless a value
was calculated in weights to metal or grain.
Mesopotamian Society
Temple leaders and the kings controlled large agricultural estates, and palace administration collected
taxes from subjects.
The Law Code of Hammurabi reflects social divisions that identified three classes:
1. The free landowning class royalty, high-ranking officials, warriors, priests, merchants, artisans,
shopkeepers
2. Dependent farmers and artisans
3. Slaves
Slaves played a lesser economic role than in Greece and Rome, but the lower orders received the most
severe punishments. Peasants were a low class and left no record of their lives. The scribe male
dominated wrote things that reflect elite male activities. Women lost social standing and freedom with
the spread of agriculture. Men symbolized political life. The rise of an urbanized middle class and an
increase in private wealth declined women even further. Husbands gained authority in the household and
benefited from marriage and divorce laws.
Gods, Priests, and Temples

Sumerian gods embodied the forces of nature. Their gods were anthropomorphic humans in form and
conduct. Cities built temples and showed devotion to the divinities that protected the community. Priests
passed their office and sacred lore to their sons.
The compound of the temple focused on the ziggurat, a pyramid-shaped tower approached by ramps and
stairs. No one knows the ziggurats function and symbolic meaning yet.
The survival of many amulets and representations of a host of demons suggests widespread belief in
magic the use of special words and rituals to manipulate the forces of nature.
Technology and Science
Technology usually refers to the tools and processes by which humans manipulate the physical world.
Many scholars also use it more broadly for any specialized knowledge used to transform the natural
environment and human society. For example, writing and irrigation is technology. Writing probably
originated from a system of tokens used to keep track of property. Eventually people realized the incised
pictures, the first written symbols, provided an adequate record of the transaction and made the tokens
redundant. Each symbol represented a thing, but it could also stand for the sound of the word for that
thing when that sound was a syllable of a longer word.
Mesopotamians writing involved pressing the point of a sharpened reed into a moist clay tablet. The
combination of strokes and wedges was known as cuneiform. Mastering requires years of practice. In the
Old Babylonian period, the growth of private commerce brought an increase in the number of people who
could read and write, but literacy remained a rare accomplishment.
Economic concerns predominate in the earliest Sumerian documents, but cuneiform came to have wideranging uses beyond recordkeeping. Agriculture required the construction and maintenance of canals,
weirs, and dikes. To improve on stone tools, the Mesopotamians imported ores containing copper, tin,
and arsenic. They made bronze, a form of copper alloyed with tin or arsenic.
Clay, made mud bricks (the most abundant resource of Mesopotamia). Abundance in clay made pottery
the most common material for dishes and storage vessels. Military technology changed. The horsedrawn chariot came. Mesopotamians also made a base-60 number system. Advances in mathematics
made the Mesopotamians sophisticated practitioners of astronomy. The underlying premise was the
elements of the material universe, from the microcosmic to the macrocosmic, were interconnected in
mysterious but undeniable ways.

EGYPT
Egypts natural isolation and material self-sufficiency fostered a unique culture that for long periods had
relatively little to do with other civilizations.
The Land of Egypt: Gift of the Nile

The worlds longest river, the Nile, flows northward from Lake Victoria and draws water from several
large tributaries in the highlands of tropical Africa. The banks of the river support lush vegetation.
Desert occupies the remaining 90 percent of the country. The fifty-century B.C.E Greek traveler
Herodotus demonstrated insight when he called Egypt the gift of the Nile.
Travel and communication centered on the river, with the most important cities located upstream away
from the Mediterranean. The Egyptians called the southern part of the country Upper Egypt and the
northern delta Lower Egypt. The First Cataract of the Nile, the northernmost of a series of impassable
rocks and rapids formed Egypts southern boundary, but Egyptian control sometimes extended farther
south into what they called Kush.
The climate favored agriculture. Though rain rarely falls south of the delta, the river provided water to
irrigation channels that carried water out into the valley. Each September, the river overflowed its banks
and floods (very predictable floods). Remarkable stability characterized most eras, and Egyptians view
the universe as an orderly and beneficent place. Egypts other natural resources offered further
advantages, like papyrus (a kind of paper), clay, pottery, copper, and turquoise deposits made Egypt more
self-sufficient than Mesopotamia.
Farm villages relied on domesticated plant and animals species that relied on domesticated plant and
animal species that emerged several millennia earlier in western Asia. As climate changed and the Sahara
began to dry, displaced groups migrated into the Nile, where they developed a sedentary way of life.
Divine Kingship
The increasing population called for a greater complexity Later kings of Egypt bore the title Ruler of the
Two Lands Upper and Lower Egypt and wore two crowns symbolizing the unification of the country.
Scholars divide Egyptian history into Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms, each a period of
centralized political power and brilliant cultural achievement.
The Egyptian state centered on the king, often known as a pharaoh. He was an incarnation of a god on
earth. In this role, he maintained maat, the divinely authorized order of the universe. Deaths evoked
elaborate efforts to ensure the well-being of their spirits on their journey to rejoin the gods. Flat-topped
rectangular tombs, and later pyramids were used. Egyptians accomplished this construction with stone
tools and no machinery. Much human muscle power must have been used.
Administration and Communication
Ruling dynasties usually placed their capitals in the area of their original power base. For example,
Memphis and Thebes were places of administration. Bureaucracy kept detailed records of the countrys
resources. Bureaucrats keep charge of land, labor, products, about 50% of the annual revenues. The
urban middle class traders who increasingly managed the commerce of Mesopotamia had no parallel in
Egypt.

Literacy marked the administrative class. Hieroglyphics featured symbols standing for words, syllables,
or individual sounds. The Rosetta Stone lets us read ancient Egyptian writing today. They wrote with ink
on papyrus. The word paper comes from papyrus.
Egyptian literary compositions included tales of adventure and magic, love poetry, religious hymns, and
instruction manuals. Scribes made copies of traditional texts. Strong monarchs appointed an dpromoted
officials on the basis of merit and accomplishment, giving them grants of land cultivated by dependent
peasants.
Egyptian history exhibits a recurring tension between the centralizing power of the monarch and the
decentralizing tendencies of the bureaucracy.
Egypt was a land of villages without real cities stems from its capitals being primarily extensions of the
palace and central administration. A far larger percentage of the Egyptian population lived in farming
villages, and Egypts wealth derived to a higher degree from cultivating the land.
Egypt largely stuck to itself during the Old/Middle Kingdoms, all foreigners being enemies. The king
maintained limited contact with other advanced civilizations in the region. Egypts interests abroad
focused to maintaining access to resources rather than on acquiring territory usually goods from the
south (like Nubia).Egypt invaded Nubia and extended the Egyptian border as far as the Third Cataract of
the Nile, taking possession of the gold fields.
The People of Egypt
Egypt had a varied population. They had less pronounced social divisions than Mesopotamia though.
The king and high-ranking officials enjoyed status, wealth, and power. Below them were lower-level
officials, local leaders, priests, and other professionals. Peasants constituted most of the population.
Festivals to the local gods and other public celebrations occasionally brought feasting and ceremonies
into their lives; labor conscripted for pyramid construction and other state projects brought hardship. If
the burden of taxation or labor proved too great, flight into the desert usually offered the only escape.
Village life depends on guesswork. The artist employed conventions to indicate status: obesity for the
rich and deformity for the working class. Slavery existed on a limited scale and was of little economic
significance. Prisoners of war, condemned criminals, and debtors could be found on country estates or
households of kings and wealthy families. Humane treatment softened the burden.
Scarceness of sources clouds experiences of women. But they were subordinate to men. However, they
could own property, inherit from their parents, and will their property to whomever they wished. The
woman retained rights over her dowry in case of divorce. They did earn more legal rights and social
freedom than women in Mesopotamia and other ancient societies.
Belief and Knowledge
The king, represented as Horus and the son of Ra, fit into the pattern of the dead returning to life and the
sun-god renewing life. Egyptian rulers built new temples, refurbished old ones, made lavish gifts or the

gods, and oversaw their own tombs. Priests who administered the deitys wealth played an influential
role locally and sometimes throughout the land. However, little is known about the day-to-day beliefs
and practices of the common people. They relied on amulets and depictions of demonic figures to ward
off evil forces.
Egyptians believed in the afterlife. They prepared extensively for safe passage. The Egyptian Book of
the Dead explains the journeying spirit. The weighing of the deceased determined whether the deceased
had led a good life and deserved to reach the blessed destination. They perfected mummification
techniques to do so. The mummies were placed in tombs. Archaeologists though have seldom discovered
an undisturbed royal tomb.
Egyptians explored many areas of knowledge and developed new technologies. They learned chemistry,
anatomy, irrigation, mathematics, and observations of the stars, building projects, underground
passageways, etc.

THE INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

Just as each Middle Eastern civilization centered on a great river valley, the civilization started in the
valley of the Indus River. Settled farming created the agricultural surplus essential to urbanized society.
Natural Environment
Seasonal winds called monsoons bring rains from the southwest that feed a flood with the river.
Punjab receives more rainfall than Sind.
Material Culture
Although archaeologists have located several hundred communities, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.
Scholars believe that peoples here spoke Dravidian languages. There are some signs of conquering and a
change. Archaeological investigations have not revealed anything much.
The writing system of the Indus Valley contained more than four hundred signs, but no one has
deciphered them.
Metal appears more frequently in Indus Valley sites than in Mesopotamia or Egypt. Technologically, the
Indus Valley people showed skill in irrigation, potters wheel, and fired bricks. Smiths worked with
metals. Bronze was common.
We know little about the political, social, economic, and religious structures of Indus Valley society.
Further knowledge on these matters awaits additional archaeological finds and deciphering of the Indus
Valley script.
Transformation of the Indus Valley Civilization

The Indus Valley cities were abandoned. At first, archaeologists once thought that invaders destroyed
them, but now they believe this civilization suffered systems failure. Maybe also ecological changes
determined this. Little is known in general.

Chapter 2: New Civilizations in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres

Early China, 2000-221 B.C.E.
A more complex civilization evolved in China. This formed near the Yellow River and Yangzi River and
its tributaries.
Geography and Resources
China is isolated from the rest of the Eastern Hemisphere by natural barriers: the Himalayas, the Pamir,
Tian, the Takla Makan Desert, and the Gobi Desert. Its development was distinctive although Chinas
separation was not total.
Most of East Asia is covered with mountains. However, the north and south had strikingly different
environments. Monsoons drench southern China (most beneficial time for agriculture), where Northern
China did not get much rain. Chinas early history started north, an environment that stimulated
technologies, and then slowly caused the peoples to move south.
Eastern river valleys and North China Plain contained timber, stone, scattered deposits of metals and
productive land. Loess, yellow winds give the yellow river its distinctive hue and name. Lack of
compactness of this soil accounts for the severity of earthquake damage in the region.
Agriculture demanded coordinated efforts of large groups of people. Floods from the Yellow River made
construction of dikes and channels. Droughts made basins. People made crops (millet, wheat, rice, etc.).
Rice can feed more people per cultivated acre than any other grain, which explains why the south became
more important than the north.

CHRONOLOGY

2500 B.C.E.

China
8000-2000 B.C.E.

Nubia

Americas

4500 B.C.E.

3500 B.C.E.

Early agriculture in
Nubia

Early agriculture in
Mesoamerica and
Andes

2500 B.C.E.

Neolithic cultures

2600 B.C.E.

Rise of Caral
2000 B.C.E.

2000 B.C.E.

2000 B.C.E.
2200 B.C.E.

Bronze metallurgy
Harkhufs
expeditions to Yam
1750-1027 B.C.E.

1750 B.C.E.

Shang dynasty

Rise of Kush

1500 B.C.E.

1500 B.C.E.
1027-221 B.C.E.

1500 B.C.E.

1200-600 B.C.E.

Zhou Dynasty

Egyptian
of Nubia

Olmec Civilization
in San Lorenzo and
La Venta

conquest

1000 B.C.E.

1000 B.C.E.
600 B.C.E.

1000 B.C.E.

900-250 B.C.E.

Iron Metallurgy

Decline of Egyptian
control in Nubia

Chavn civilization
600-400 B.C.E.

750 B.C.E.

Ascendancy of Tres
Zapotes and Olmec
decline

Rise of kingdom
based on Napata

712-660 B.C.E.
Nubian kings rule
Egypt
The Shang Period
Early populations grew millet, raised pigs/chickens, and used stone tools. They made pottery, built walls
of pounded earth, and began to make bronze in 2000 B.C.E. Later generations told about the Xia, but
proper history begins with the Shang, which coincides with the earliest written records anywhere in
China.

The Shang originated in the part of the Yellow River Valley that lies in the present-day province of Henan.
Their society was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. The king and his court ruled the core area of the
Shang state directly. Aristocrats were generals, ambassadors, supervisors of public projects. Nomadic
peoples were known as barbarians. They were used as slaves.
Common people lived in agricultural villages outside these centers. Buildings were set on foundation
platforms of pounded earth and construction with wooden posts and dried mud. The cities were laid out
on a grid plan aligned with the north polar star and had gates opening to the cardinal directions, known as
feng shui, symbolizing the order imposed by gods/monarchs.
Writing was important Mandarin and Cantonese
The king was the indispensable intermediary between the people and the gods. They worshiped the spirit
of their male ancestors. The Shang rulers used divination to determine the will of the gods. Possession
of bronze objects was a sign of authority and nobility. They made weapons, chariots, music instruments,
etc.
The Zhou Period
The last Shang king was defeated by Wu, ruler of Zhou, where the Zhou line was the longest and most
revered of all dynasties. The chief deity was now referred to Heaven, the monarch was called the Son of
Heaven, and his rule was the Mandate of Heaven. It was the prerogative of Heaven to grant power to the
rule of China and to take away that power if the ruler failed to conduct himself justly and in the best
interests of his subjects.
The Zhou kings continued some rituals, but there was a decline in the practice of divination and in
extravagant and bloody sacrifices and burials. The priestly power faded away. It promoted the
development of important philosophical and mystical systems in the Zhou period. The early period of
Zhou rule is sometimes called the Western Zhou era because of the location of the capitals in the western
part of the kingdom. Building all faced south to be in a harmonious relationship with terrain, forces of
wind, water, sunlight, and invisible energy.
Zhou power began to wane around 800 B.C.E. Members of the Zhou lineage relocated to an eastern
capital starting the Eastern Zhou (divided into Spring and Autumn Periods. After the Warring States
Period, occurred with the reunification. The Chinese put fighters on horseback. Iron began to replace
bronze as the primary metal for tools and weapons Demands for obedience and standardization were
justified by an authoritarian political philosophy that came to be called Legalism.
Confucius had roots in a small community. He emphasized veneration of ancestors, elders, and the deity
Heaven. He drew a parallel between the family and the state. He emphasized benevolence toward
humanity and for government to serve the people. Confucianism became the dominant political
philosophy and the core of the educational system for government officials.
The Warring States Period also saw the rise of Daoism, from Laozi. They avoided violence whenever
possible.

Social organization changed. Grandparents, parents, and children was the fundamental social unit.
Private property: Land belonged to the men and was divided equally among sons. Women played the
subordinate position in the strongly patriarchal family. It was common for the grooms family to offer a
bride-gift to the family of the prospective bride.
Differences in male and female activities were explained by yin/yang.

NUBIA, 3100-350 C.E.

Nubia refers to the thousand mile stretch between Aswan and Khartoum. Egyptians called it Ta-sety,
Land of the Bow. It was richly endowed with resources as gold, copper, and stones. There was an early
rise of civilization with a complex political organization, social stratification, metallurgy, monumental
building, or writing.
Early Cultures and Egyptian Domination:2300-1000 B.C.E.
The central geographical feature of Nubia was Egypts Nile River.
In the fourth millennium B.C.E., bands of people made the transition to a settle life on agricultural
villages. Nubia served a s a corridor for long-distance commerce. Egypt adopted a more aggressive
stance toward Nubia. They took control of the gold mines and named it Kush. Then the Egyptians
penetrated more deeply into Nubia. The Egyptian government imposed Egyptian culture on the native
population.
The kingdom of Mero
Egypts weakness led to the collapse of its authority. Nubia became powerful in the south. The Egyptian
headquarters were located here in Mero. Nubia ruled over Egypt until they made a mistake to help local
rulers in Palestine who were struggling against the Assyrians. They drove the Nubian monarchs back.
The center of gravity shifted south to Mero. Egyptian cultural influences remained strong. A new
language came. Women played an important role in Meroitic politics. A queen named Candace came
here. Mero was a huge city for its time. Mero collapsed soon. Nomads could have overrun it. The end
of this kingdom was linked to Nubias role in long-distance commerce as had been its beginning.

FIRST CIVILIZATIONS OF THE AMERICAS: THE OLMEC AND THE CHAVN

These peoples were virtually isolated from the world for at least fifteen thousand years. Two of the
hemispheres most impressive cultural traditions were Mesoamerica and the mountainous Andean region.
It inspired social stratification, the introduction of new technologies, beginnings of urbanization, and a
limited development of trade, etc. The had become civilizations the Olmec and the Chavn.
The Mesoamerican Olmec, 1200-400 B.C.E.

Amerindian peoples developed specialized technologies that exploited indigenous plants and animals.
The most influential were the Olmec. The center of Olmec civilization was located near the tropic
Atlantic coast of Veracruz and Tabasco. Its early development was made possible by earlier advances in
agriculture. Canals and large-scale religious and civic buildings became the cultural signature of Olmec
civilization.
The cultural core of this civilization was in San Lorenzo and La Venta, later Tres Zapotes. No one knows
if they were city-states or a centralized political authority. Each Olmec center was abandoned, defaced,
buried, or destroyed. It could be military defeat or rituals associated with the death of a ruler. The Olmec
laid out their cities in alignment with the paths of certain stars.
Platforms and mounds dominated Olmec urban centers Little is known about Olmec political structure.
There is a form of kingship and religious roles. There are a series of colossal carved stone heads There is
a diverse diet. Bloodletting and human sacrifice were elaborate religious rituals. Rulers were especially
associated with the jaguar. They produced a calendar. This influence would endure for centuries.
Early South American Civilization: Chavn, 900-250 B.C.E.
This was one of the most impressive of South Americas early urban civilizations.. It had many trade
routes to allow rulers to control trade among these zones and gain an important economic advantage over
regional rivals. Its dominance was a ceremonial and commercial center depended on earlier
developments in agriculture and trade. Its trade kept this place alive. Roads bridges, temples, places,
large irrigation and drainage projects as well as textile production.
The increased use of llamas promoted specialization of production and increased trade. They were the
only beasts of burden in the Americas. The scale and dispersal of pottery styles, motifs, and architecture
showed that this area had some political integration and trade dependency. A jaguar deity was dispersed
over a broad area. Packed earth was important here, along with metallurgy. Class distinctions appear to
have increased during expansion. The eclipse of Chavn was associated with conquest or rebellion. It
could be warfare. But this area influenced the Andean region for centuries.

Chapter 3: The Mediterranean and Middle East, 2000-500 B.C.E.

By the end of the second millennium B.C.E., many of the societies of the Eastern Hemisphere had entered
the Iron Age. Iron was an advantage. It was a single metal more potential sources. They were harder
and sharper.

CHRONOLOGY
Western Asia

Egypt

Syria-Palestine

Mediterranean

4500 B.C.E.

2040-16400 B.C.E.

2000 B.C.E.

Horses in use

Middle Kingdom

Rise of Minoan
civilization on Crete;

2000 B.C.E.

early Greeks arrive

in Greece
1700-1200 B.C.E.

1640-1532 B.C.E.

Hittites dominant
in Anatolia

Hyksos
dominate
northern Egypt

1600 B.C.E.

1532 B.C.E.

Rise of Mycenaean
civilization
in
Greece

Beginning of New
Kingdom
1500 B.C.E.
1500 B.C.E.

1470 B.C.E.

1500 B.C.E.

1450 B.C.E.

Hittites
develop
iron metallurgy

Queen Hatshepsut
dispatches
expedition to Punt

Early alphabetic
script developed at
Ugarit

Destruction
of
Minoan palaces in
Crete

1460 B.C.E.
1353 B.C.E.

1250-1200 B.C.E.

1200-1150 B.C.E.

Kassites
assume
control of southern
Mesopotamia

Akhenaten launches
reforms

Israelite occupation
of Canaan

Destruction
of
Mycenaean centers
in Greece

1200 B.C.E.

1200-1150 B.C.E.

1150 B.C.E.

Destruction
of
Hittite kingdom

Sea Peoples attack

Egypt

Philistines
settle
southern coast of
Israel

1070 B.C.E.
End
of
Kingdom

New

1000 B.C.E.
1000 B.C.E.

750 B.C.E.

1000 B.C.E.

1000 B.C.E.

Iron
begins

metallurgy Kings
of
Kush
control Egypt

David establishes
Jerusalem
as
Israelite capital

Iron metallurgy

814 B.C.E.
911 B.C.E.

671 B.C.E.
969 B.C.E.

Rise
of
NeoAssyrian Empire

Assyrian
of Egypt

conquest

Foundation
Carthage

Hiram of Tyre
comes to power

744-727 B.C.E.
960 B.C.E.
Reforms of Tiglathpileser

Solomon
builds
First Temple

668-627 B.C.E.
920 B.C.E.
Reign
Ashurbanipal

of
Division into two
kingdoms of Israel
and Judah

626-539 B.C.E.
Neo-Babylonian
kingdom

721 B.C.E.
Assyrian conquest
of
northern
kingdom

612 B.C.E.
Fall of Assyria
701 B.C.E.
Assyrian
humiliation of Tyre

600 B.C.E.
587 B.C.E.

550-300 B.C.E.

of

Neo-Babylonian
capture
of
Jerusalem

Rivalry
of
Carthaginians
and
Greeks in western
Mediterranean

515 B.C.E.
Deportees
from
Babylon return to
Jerusalem

450 B.C.E.
Completion of the
Hebrew
Bible;
Hanno
the
Phoenician
explores
West
Africa

THE COSMOPOLITAN MIDDLE EAST, 1700-1100 B.C.E.

Historians called the Late Bronze age a cosmopolitan era, meaning a time of widely shared cultures and
lifestyles.
Western Asia
Mesopotamia was divided into two zones: Babylonia and Assyria. There was also the Kassites that came
to power in Babylon. They defended their area and traded, but they did not pursue territorial conquest.
The Assyrians were more ambitious. This Old Assyrian kingdom and Middle Assyrian kingdom engaged
in campaigns of conquest and expansion of its economic interests. Other states like the Hittites became
the foremost power in Anatolia. They deployed the fearsome new technology of chariots.
New Kingdom Egypt

Egypt entered a period of political fragmentation and economic decline. Egypt came under foreign rule
under the Hyksos. They possess military technologies that gave them a big advantage over the Egyptians.
Even though they mixed with the Egyptians, they were still foreigners.
The New kingdom pushed the Hyksos out. One woman held the throne of New Kingdom Egypt
Hatshepsut who served as the regent for her young stepson. She often used the male pronoun for
herself and considered herself a man. After her death, there was some opposition her image was
defaced and her named was blotted out.
Amenhotep IV a.k.a. Akhenaten showed that he was close to Aten and not Amon. His reforms were
resented. After his death, the old ways returned. Ramesses II ruled for sixty-six years and dominated his
age. He fathered more than a hundred children.
Commerce and Communication
Ramesses II fought a major battle against the Hittites at Kadesh. Both sides claim they were victorious,
suggesting it was a draw.
Commerce in metals energized the long-distance trade of the time. New modes of transportation suited
the great distances and landscapes. Horses contributed to the creation of large states/empires.

THE AEGEAN WORLD, 2000-1100 B.C.E.

The influence of Mesopotamia and Egypt was felt as far away as the Aegean Sea. The Minoan
civilization of Crete and the Mycenaean of Greece created their own paths. Land is suitable for grains
and olive trees. Minoan and Mycenaean societies were closely tied to their commercial and political
relations with other peoples in the region.
Minoan Crete
The island of Crete housed the first European civilization to have complex political and social structures
and advanced technologies like those found in western Asia and Africa. The Minoan civilization had
centralized government, monumental building, etc. This was named after King Minos. Ethnicity and
writing has not been deciphered yet. Pottery shows trading connections.
There is the absence of fortifications at the palace sites and the presence of high-quality indoor plumbing.
There could be family goddesses. All the Cretan palaces except Cnossus were deliberately destroyed. It
was most likely the Mycenaean people who did this.
Mycenaean Greece
Most historians believe that speakers of an Indo-European language ancestral to Greek migrated into the
Greek peninsula around 2000 B.C.E. These newcomers created the first Greek culture. A German set out
to prove that the Iliad and the Odyssey were true. These epics attribute to the poet Homer, the king of

Mycenae in southern Greece. Schliemann discovered shaft graves contained the bodies of men, women,
and children, etc. There is no archaeological evidence of Cretan political control of the Greek mainland.
The Mycenaeans borrowed the Minoan idea of the palace, centralized economy, and administrative
bureaucracy, as well as the Minoan writing system.
This civilization in Greece is Mycenaean largely because Mycenae was the first site excavated.
Additional information about Mycenaean life is provided written in Linear B. The Minoan script is called
Linear A. Linear B shows an early form of Greek. The tablets say nothing about individual people = not
even a single Mycenaean king.
Long distance contact and trade were made possible by the seafaring skill of Minoans and Mycenaeans.
The numerous Aegean pots found throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East must once have
contained such products as wine and olive oil.
Aegean lands needed metals, therefore they were only with the elite classes. In this era, trade and piracy
were closely linked.
The Fall of Late Bronze Age Civilizations
In this period, for reasons that historians do not completely understand, large numbers of peoples were on
the move. The end of Mycenaean civilization illustrates the consequences the palaces ended the
domination of the ruling class. Apparatus disappeared, and the technique of writing was forgotten. The
Greek languages persisted though.
Thus perished the cosmopolitan world of the Late Bronze Age in the Mediterranean and Middle East.
Societies that had long prospered through complex links of trade, diplomacy, and shared technologies
now collapsed in the face of external violence and internal weakness, and the peoples of the region
entered a centuries-long Dark Age.

THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE, 911-612 B.C.E.

The chief force in the Mediterranean was the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Peasants defended themselves,
becoming foot-soldiers. The Assyrians defeated all of the great kingdoms of the day Elam, Urartu,
Babylon, and Egypt. It was a large empire, large in extent than anything seen before and dedicated to the
enrichment of the imperial center at the expense of the subjugated periphery.
God and King
The king was the center of the Assyrian universe. Everyone was his servants. Assyrians believed that the
gods chose the king to rule as their earthly representative. He was the military leader.
He also supervised the state religion. All state actions were carried out in the name of Ashur. With tons
of campaigns and buildings, few visitors to the Assyrian court could fail to be awed, or intimidated.

Conquest and Control

The Assyrians unprecedented conquests were made possible by their superior military organization and
technology.
Iron weapons gave Assyrian soldiers an advantage over many opponents, and cavalry provided
unprecedented speed and mobility. They destroyed some of the best-fortified cities of the Middle East.
The Assyrians used terror tactics to discourage resistance and rebellion mass deportation, for example.
Surprising, the Assyrian Empire was not parasitic all the time. The cities and merchant classes thrived on
expanded long-distance commerce, and some subject populations were surprisingly loyal to their rulers.
Assyrian Society and Culture
A few things are known about the lives and activities of the millions of Assyrian subjects. There were
free, landowning citizens, farmers and artisans, or slaves (who had legal rights and could rise to positions
of influence).
Foreigners had the same rights as regular people. Silver was the basic medium of exchange, weighed out
before coins.
Assyrian scholars created and preserved lists of plan and animals. Some may also have had libraries. The
Library of Ashurbanipal contains these official documents as well as literary and scientific texts.

ISRAEL, 2000-500 B.C.E.

The western edge was people who were destined to play an important role in history. In addition, they
did. These nomadic peoples transformed into a complex political and social institution. They also
became integrated into the commercial and diplomatic networks of the Middle East. The land and the
people have gone by many names usually they are Israelites, the land they occupied in antiquity as
Israel.
Origins, Exodus, and Settlement
Information about ancient Israel usually came from the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament). Historians
disagree how accurately this document represents Israelite history. In the absence of other written
sources, however, it provides a foundation to be used critically and modified in light of other
archaeological discoveries.
The Hebrew language of the Bible reflects the speech of the Israelites until 500 B.C.E. It is a Semitic
language, mostly related to Phoenician and Aramaic.
The Hebrew Bible tells the story of Abraham. He arrived in the land of Israel what was promised to him
and his descendants as a covenant with Yahweh. These recollections compress the experiences of
generations of pastoralists who migrated from the grazing lands between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

Isaac and Jacob became the leaders of this wandering group. The squabbling sons of Jacob sold Joseph as
a slave to passing merchants for Egypt. The sophisticated Egyptians feared and looked down on these
herders and eventually made them slaves.
The Israelite migration to Egypt could have been connected to the Hyksos rise and fall. In addition,
although the Egyptian sources do not refer to Israelite slaves, they do complain about caravan drivers,
outcasts, etc.
Moses
The tribes shared access to a shrine in the hill country at Shiloh, which housed the Ark of the Covenant, a
sacred chest containing the tablets Yahweh gave Moses.
Rise of the Monarchy
A religious leader named Samuel recognized the need for a stronger central authority and anointed Saul as
the first king of Israel. When Saul perished in battle, David inherited the throne. He oversaw Israels
transition to a unified monarchy. Innovations enabled David to win a string of military victories and
expand Israels borders.
Davids son Solomon marked the high point. Such wealth supported a lavish court life, a sizeable
bureaucracy, and an intimidating chariot army. He built the First Temple in Jerusalem. They now had a
central shrine.
Israelites lived in extended families, several generations residing together under the authority of the eldest
male. Male heirs were of paramount importance. If a couple had no son, they could adopt one.
Women played a vital portion of the goods and services. Women were respected and enjoyed relative
equality with their husbands. However, they could not inherit property or initiate divorce. The status of
women declined though as Israelite society became more urbanized.
Fragmentation and Dispersal
After Solomons death, prerogatives split the monarchy into two kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah
around Jerusalem. This period saw the final formulation of monotheism.
The Neo-Assyrian Empire destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and deported much of its population
to the east. The Neo-Babylonian monarch captured Jerusalem and deported to Babylon. This was the
origin of the Diaspora, for dispersion or scattering. Some people did not even want to go back to
their homeland since the deportees prospered so well in their new home.
This loss sharpened Jewish identity.

PHONENICA AND THE MEDITERRANEAN, 1200-500 B.C,E.

Historians refer to a major element of the ancient population of Syria-Palestine as Phoenicians, although
they referred to themselves as Canaanites.
The Phoenician City-States
Many settlements were destroyed by the period of mass migrations. These new peoples revered
themselves to the red men, or the highly valued purple dye they extracted. The Phoenicians developed
earlier Canaanite models into an alphabetic system of writing.
Byblos was the most important Phoenician city-state. King Hiram was responsible for Tyres rise to
prominence later. Little is known about the internal affairs.
Expansion into the Mediterranean
The Phoenician trading network spanned the entire Mediterranean. A string of settlements formed the
Phoenician triangle. Sidon became the leading city in Phoenicia. The Phoenicians also controlled all of
Sicily by the mid-third century B.C.E.
Carthages Commercial Empire
Carthage was one of the largest cities in the world by 500 B.C.E. The population was diverse. Each year
two judges were elected from upper-class families to serve as heads of state and carry out
administrative and judicial functions. Senators were the real power.
Carthaginian foreign policy reflected its economic interests. Carthage claimed the waters of the western
Mediterranean their own. Carthaginian ships carried goods manufactured elsewhere and that products
brought to Carthage by foreign traders were reexported.
War and Religion
Carthage did not directly rule a large amount of territory. They ruled indirectly, and allowed others
around them to remain independent. Their focus on trade may explain the unusual fact that citizens were
not required serving in the army.
Carthaginian religion fascinated Greek and Roman writers.
common.

Child sacrifice seems to have become

FAILURE AND TRANSFORMATION, 750-550 B.C.E.

Two new political entities spearheaded resistance to Assyria. First, Babylonia (Chaldaean) had been
revived by the Neo Babylonian dynasty. The Medes, an Iranian people launched a series of attacks on the
Assyrian homeland.
The rapidity of the Assyrian fall is stunning. The Athenian chronicler had no inkling that their empire had
ever existed.

The Medes took over the Assyrian homeland and the northern steppe, but most of the territory of the old
empire fell to the Neo-Babylonian kingdom. Babylonia underwent a cultural renaissance.

Chapter 4: Greece and Iran, 1000-30 B.C.E.

ANCIENT IRAN, 1000-500 B.C.E.
Iran, the land of the Aryans, links western Asia and southern and Central Asia. Little written material
from within the Persian Empire has survived, so we are forced to view it through the Greeks
Geography and Resources
Iran never had a dense population. In the first millennium B.C.E., underground irrigation-enabled people
to move down from the mountain valleys and open to plains to agriculture. The connection between royal
authority and prosperity is evident of the first Persian Empire. Irans mineral resources, copper, tin, iron,
gold, and silver were exploited on a limited scale in antiquity. Objects of trade tended to be minerals
and constructed goods.
The Rise of the Persian Empire
The first to achieve a complex level of political organization was the Medes. They projected their power
through the Assyrian homeland and created their own territory. These Achaemenids traced their lineage
back to Achaemenes through marriage.
Cyrus united the tribes and started the rule.
The Iranians had a patriarchal family organization: the male head of the household had nearly absolute
authority over family members warriors, priests and peasants in that order. The king was the most
illustrious member of this group.
After Cyrus lost his life, his son Cambyses, than Darius I seized the throne. He did much to organize the
empire.
Imperial Organization and Ideology
Darius I created the largest empire the world had yet seen. He divided the empire into twenty provinces
each under supervision of a satrap. This system of admins brought significant numbers of Persians and
other peoples from the center of the empire to the provinces.
One of the satraps most important duties was to collect and send tribute to the king. The price of gold
and silver rose.
Well-maintained and patrolled royal roads connected the outlying provinces to the heart of the empire.
Not much is known about women. Greeks say that they were influential.

The kings royal entourage included the sons of Persian aristocrats, who were educated at court and also
served as hostages for their parents good behavior; many noblemen, the central administration, the royal
bodyguard, and slaves.
Surviving administrative records give us a glimpse of how the complex tasks were managed. The
Persepolis Treasury and Fortification Texts show this. Women received less than men of equivalent
status, but pregnant women received more. Persepolis was a great city holding the New Years Festival,
marriage, death, etc.
Zoroastrianism

CHRONOLOGY
Greece and the Hellenistic World

Persian Empire

1150-800 B.C.E.

Ca. 1000 B.C.E.

Greeces Dark Age

Persians settle in southwest Iran

1000 B.C.E.

800 B.C.E.
Ca.800 B.C.E.
Resumption of Greek contact with eastern
Mediterranean

800-480 B.C.E.
Greeces Archaic Period

Ca.750-550 B.C.E.
Era of colonization

Ca. 700 B.C.E.

Beginning of hoplite warfare

Ca. 650-500 B.C.E.

Era of tyrants

600 B.C.E.
594 B.C.E.

550 B.C.E.

Solon reforms laws at Athens

Cyrus overthrows Medes

546-510 B.C.E.

550-530 B.C.E.

Pisistratus and sons hold tyranny at Athens

Reign of Cyrus

546 B.C.E.
Cyrus conquers Lydia

539 B.C.E.
Cyrus takes control of Babylonia

530-522 B.C.E.
Reign of Cambyses; Conquest of Egypt

522-486 B.C.E.
Reign of Darius

500 B.C.E.
499-494 B.C.E.

480-479 B.C.E.

Ionian Greeks rebel against Persia

Xerxes invasion of Greece

490 B.C.E.
Athenians
check
Persian
expedition at Marathon

punitive

480-323 B.C.E.
Greeces classical period

477 B.C.E.
Athens becomes leader of Delian League

461-429 B.C.E.
Pericles dominant at Athens;
completes evolution to democracy

Athens

431-404 B.C.E.
Peloponnesian War

400 B.C.E.
399 B.C.E.

387 B.C.E.

Trial and execution of Socrates

Kings Peace makes Persia arbiter of

Greek affairs

359 B.C.E.
334-323 B.C.E.

Philip II becomes king of Macedonia

Alexander the Great defeats Persia and

creates huge empire

338 B.C.E.
323-30 B.C.E.
Phillip takes control of Greece
Hellenistic period

317 B.C.E.
End of democracy in Athens
300 B.C.E.
Ca. 300 B.C.E.
Foundation of the Museum in Alexandria

200 B.C.E.
First Roman intervention in the Hellenistic
East
100 B.C.E.
30 B.C.E.
Roman annexation of Egypt, the last
Hellenistic kingdom

THE RISE OF THE GREEKS, 1000-500 B.C.E.

Geography and Resources
Greek civilization arose in the lands bordering the Aegean Sea. The sea was always a connector, not a
barrier. Greek farmers depended entirely on rainfall. These Greek lands had few metal deposits and little
timber, although both building stone and clay were abundant. Sea transport was much cheaper and faster
than overland transport.
The Emergence of the Polis

The isolation of Greece ended around 800 B.C.E. when Phoenician ships began to visit the Aegean sea.
The Phoenicians gave Greek civilization a push called the Archaic period of Greek history.
There was the influx of new ideas from the east. The most auspicious was the writing system. After
adding vowel sounds, this was the first alphabet.
For many centuries, Greece remained an oral culture. There was a dramatic population increase during
the eighth centuries. This led villages to merge and become urban centers.
The Greek polis (city-state?) consisted an urban center and the rural territory that it controlled. An
acropolis offered a place of refuge in an emergency. An agora was also important.
Each polis was jealous of its independence and suspicious of its neighbors, so this led to conflict. A new
kind of warfare, waged by hoplites, was waged. The key to victory was maintaining the cohesion of ones
own formation while breaking open the enemys line.
The expanding population soon surpassed the capacity of the small plains. There was colonization, which
spread Greek culture far beyond the land of its origins. Interaction with new peoples and exposure to
their different practices made the Greeks aware of the factors that bound them together: language,
religion, and lifestyle.
Another development was the invention of coins in Lydia. Coinage allowed for more rapid exchanges of
goods as well as more efficient recordkeeping and storage of wealth.
By reducing surplus population, colonization helped relieve pressures within the Archaic Greek world.
Nevertheless, this was an era of instability.
A tyrant came out. They were unwitting catalysts in an evolving political process. Democracy, THE
EXERCISE OF POLITICAL POWER BY ALL FREE ADULT MALES, was the new rule.
Greek religion Sacrifice, gods, fortunetelling
New Intellectual Currents
There was a growth emphasis on the individual. These new patterns led toward the concept of humanism.
There were also challenges to the traditional religion from thinkers no known as pre-Socratic
philosophers. They were primarily concerned with learning how the word was created. One advanced
the theory that the world is composed of atoms that move through the void of space. People wrote prose
and historia. Herodotus published his Histories. He is known as the father of history.
Athens and Sparta

The two preeminent Greek city-states of the late Archaic and Classical periods were Athens and Sparta.
Fear of a helot uprising led to the evolution of the unique Spartan way of life. The Spartan state became a
military camp in a permanent state of preparedness.
The Spartan soldier was the best in Greece, and the Spartans was superior to all others.
Athens followed a different path. It possessed an unusually large and populous territory: the whole region
of Attica. Things had reached a critical point. Solon was appointed lawgiver to avert a civil war. But
turmoil continued until 546 B.C.E. Pisistratus took power than Pericles to make reforms. Decisions were
openly made, and any citizen could speak to the issues of the day.

THE STRUGGLE OF PERSIA AND GREECE, 546-323 B.C.E.

Persia was the great enemy of Greeks and the wars with Persia were the decisive historical event.
Early Encounters
Cyruss conquest of Lydia led to the subjugation of the Greek cities on the Anatolian seacoast. Soon, a
failed revolt led to the Persian Wars. Both Darius and Xerxes failed to take over the Greeks. This also
showed in the Battle of Thermopylae, were three hundred Spartans an d their king gave their lives for
people to escape.
The collapse of the threat to the Greek mainland did not mean an end to war. They drove the Persians
away while the Persians lost many numbers. The Delian league was formed, led by the Athenian
generals.
The Height of Athenian Power
The Classical period of Greek history begins with the successful defense of the Greek homeland against
the forces of the Persian Empire. The Athenians exploited these events to become an imperial power.
Athenss mastery of naval technology transformed Greek warfare and politics and brought power and
wealth to Athens itself. The trireme, a sleek, fast vessel had become the premier warship. The emergence
at Athens of a democratic system in which each male citizen had, at least in principle, an equal voice is
connected to the new primacy of the fleet.
Possession of a navy allowed Athens to project its power farther than it could have done with a citizen
militia. Athens was able to continually dominate and exploit others in an unprecedented way. Athens did
not hesitate to use military and political power to promote its commercial interests.
Athenss cultural achievements were dependent on the profits of empire. Money is a prerequisite for
support of the arts and sciences, and the brightest and most creative artists and thinkers in the Greek
world were drawn to Athens. Traveling teachers called Sophists provided instruction in logic and public
speaking to pupils who could afford their fees.

These new intellectual currents came together when Socrates was brought to trial. His disciple Plato may
represent the first generation to be truly literate. The third of the great classical philosopher was Aristotle.
Inequality in Classical Greece
Athenian democracy, the inspiration for the concept of democracy was a democracy only for the relatively
small percentage of the inhabitants of Attica who were truly citizens. The position of women varied
across Greek communities. The women of Sparta were encouraged to exercise. The exploitation of
women in Athens, as of slaves, is linked to the high degree of freedom enjoyed by Athenian men in the
democratic state.
Athenian marriages were unequal affairs. The primary function of marriage was to produce children,
preferably male. Husbands and wives had limited daily contact. The closest relationship in the family
was likely to be between the wife and her slave attendant. Without any documents written by women in
this period, we cannot tell the extent of which Athenian women resented their situation.
Failure of the City-State and Triumph of the Macedonians
The emergence of Athens as an imperial power in the half-century after the Persian invasion aroused the
suspicions of other Greek states and. The Peloponnesian War broke out. It was a war unlike any other
previous Greek war because the Athenians used their naval power to insulate themselves. The Spartans
took over Athenss overseas empire.
Philip of Macedonia tried to reconstruct Persia. His son Alexander the Great, maintained the framework
of Persian administration in the lands he conquered.

THE HELLENISTIC SYNTHESIS, 323-30 B.C.E.

After Alexanders death, there was no succession. Historians called the epoch ushered in by the
conquests of Alexander the Hellenistic Age. The Antigonids ruled the Macedonian homeland, the
Ptolemies ruled Egypt, and the Seleucids inherited the majority of Alexanders conquests.
Athens and Sparta stood out from these confederations. The greatest of all was Alexandria with a
population of nearly half a million. Some of the greatest achievements were in mathematics and
astronomy. In general, Greece and Persia had more in common than many thought.

Chapter 5: An Age of Empires: Rome and Han China, 753 B.C.E.- 600
Thousands of miles separated Rome and Han China; neither influenced the other.

ROMES MEDITERRANEAN EMPIRE, 753 B.C.E. - 600

Romes central location contributed to its success in unifying Italy and then all the lands ringing in the
Mediterranean sea. Even though 75 percent of the total area of the Italian peninsula is hilly, there is still
ample arable land in the coastal plains and river valleys.

CHRONOLOGY (OLD)
Rome

China

1000 B.C.E.
1000 B.C.E.
First settlement on site of Rome

507 B.C.E.
Establishment of the Republic

500 B.C.E.
480-221 B.C.E.
Warring States Period

300 B.C.E.
290 B.C.E.

221 B.C.E.

Defeat of tribes of Samnium gives Romans

control of Italy

Qin emperor unites eastern China

206 B.C.E.
264-202 B.C.E.
Han dynasty succeeds Qin
Wars against Carthage guarantee Roman
control of western Mediterranean

200 B.C.E.
200-146 B.C.E.

140-87 B.C.E.

Wars against Hellenistic kingdoms lead to

control of eastern Mediterranean

Emperor Wu expands the Han Empire

88-31 B.C.E.

23 Han capital transferred from Changan to Luoyang

100 B.C.E.

Civil wars and failure of the Republic

31 B.C.E. -14 C.E.

Augustus establishes the Principate

45-58 C.E.
Paul spread Christianity in the eastern
Mediterranean

100 C.E.

200 C.E.
235-284

220 C.E.

Third-century crisis

Fall of Han Empire

300 C.E.
324 C.E.
Constantine
Constantinople

moves

capital

to

476
Deposing of the last Roman emperor in the
West

500 C.E.
527-565
Justinian and Theodora rule Byzantine
Empire; imperial edicts collected in single
law code

A Republic of Farmers, 753-31 B.C.E.

Romulus was nursed by a she-wolf. This founded the city of Rome. Agriculture was the essential
economic activity in the early Roman state, and land was the basis of wealth. Social status, political
privilege, and fundamental values were related to landownership.
There were seven kings of Rome. After the seventh one, Brutus instituted a republic. The Roman
Republic, was not a democracy. Sovereign power resided in several assemblies, and while all male
citizens were eligible to attend, the votes of the wealthy class (patricians) counted for more than the
poorer (plebeians) known as the Conflict of the Orders.
The real center of power was the Roman Senate. This body brought together the states wealth, influence,
and political military experience.
The basic unit of society was the family. The oldest living male, the paterfamilias, exercised absolute
authority over other family members.
Patron/client relationships bind together individuals and families.
Nearly information about Roman women pertains to the upper classes. She always had to depend on a
male guardian to advocate her interests. But they seem to have been les constrained than their
counterparts in the Greek world. Romans believed in invisible shapeless forces known as numina. They
equated their major deities with gods from the Greek pantheon.
Expansion in Italy and the Mediterranean
The expansion of the Roman Republic began slowly and reached a peak. All male citizens who owned a
specified amount of land were subject to military service. Rome rose to a position of leadership within a
league of central Italian cities organized for defense against the hill tribes. Romans granted the political,
legal, and economic privileges of Roman citizenship to conquered populations. In a number of crucial
wars, Rome was able to endure higher casualties than the enemy and to prevail by sheer numbers.
The Roman state emerged as the unchallenged master of the western Mediterranean and acquired its first
overseas provinces. At first, the Romans resisted extending their system of governance and citizenship
rights to the distant provinces.
Over time, the system of provincial administration proved inadequate. Therefore, this led to
The Failure of the Republic
Between 88 and 31 B.C.E., a series of ambitious individuals commanded armies that were more loyal to
them than to the state. These commanders executed political opponents and exercised dictatorial control
of the state. They were Sulla, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Octavian.
The Roman Principate, 31 B.C.E. 330

Octavian refashioned the Roman system of government. He altered the realities of power. This period
following the Roman Republic is the Roman Principate. After Augustus died, no one could remember the
Republic. So popular was Augustus when he died that four members of his family succeeded to the
position of emperor despite their serious personal and political shortcomings.
The Law of the Twelve Tables was an international code that Rome applied to its conquered territories.
The emperor became a major source of new laws.
An Urban Empire
The Roman Empire was an urban empire. The concentration of ownership of the land in ever fewer
hands was temporarily reversed during the civil wars that brought an end to the Roman Republic, but it
resumed in the era of the emperors. Over time, farmers were replaced by tenant farmers who were
allowed to live on and cultivate plots of land in return. Some urban dwellers got rich from manufacture
and trade. Commerce was greatly enhanced by the pax romana.
Romanization was one of the most enduring consequences of empire. The gradual extension of
citizenship mirrored the empires transformation from an Italian dominion over Mediterranean lands into
a commonwealth of peoples.
The Rise of Christianity
Jesus
Paul converted to Christianity anointed one. Roman officials who regarded their refusal to worship the
emperor as a sign of disloyalty persecuted early Christians. It soon became the official religion of Rome
soon.
Technology and Transformation
Aqueducts, engineering, bridges, weapons, concrete, defense, walls
Historians use the expression third century crisis to refer to the period when political, military, and
economic problems nearly destroyed the Empire. One man pushed the empire back. Diocletian.
Constantine ended the persecution of Christianity. He moved the capital from Rome to Byzantium and
called it Constantinople.
Byzantines and Germans
The word pagan was used as a negative label for polytheists. In 392, Theodosius banned all pagan
ceremonies. Rome soon fell to Germanic peoples. Eastern Rome would continue for another thousand
years.

THE ORIGINS OF IMPERIAL CHINA, 221 B.C.E. - 220

The Qin state created Chinas first empire. The Qin Empire barely survived the death of its founder, Shi
Huangdi, first emperor. Power soon moved on to the Han. This began the long history of imperial China
a tradition of political and cultural unity and continuity that lasted into the early twentieth century.
Resources and Population
Agriculture produced the wealth and taxes that supported the institutions of imperial China. The
demographic center had begun to shift to the Yangzi River Valley.
Every able-bodied many donated one month for services and labor. The Han Chinese persistently
expanded at the expense of other ethnic groups.
Hierarchy, Obedience, and Belief
The basic unit of Chinese society was the family. Hierarchy was based on gender, age, and relationship to
other members. They venerated ancestors so it provided an immortality to the deceased. Confucianism
was influential in this period. Women in ancient Chinese society is hard to describe because sources tell
little. But they were still subordinate to men.
The Chinese believed that divinity resided within nature rather than outside and above it.
The First Chinese Empire, 221-207 B.C.E.
Shi Huangdi and Li Si created a totalitarian structure that subordinated the individual to the needs of the
state. They cracked down on Confucianism. Its first target was the landowning aristocracy and
eliminated primogeniture laws.
The Qin government helped create a unified Chinese civilization in usual ways of other empires.
The Han administration maintained much of the Qins structure and Legalist ideology. It had much
military expansion (Emperor Wu). Its capital, Changan, was surrounded by a wall of pounded earth and
brick.
As in the Zhou monarchy, the emperor went with the Mandate of Heaven principle. The central
government was run by a prime minister, then a civil service director, and ministers. The Qin and Han
emperors allied themselves with the gentry. These people made the government more efficient and
responsive than before. Daoism took deeper root also.
Technology and Trade
Bronze tools and steel and iron tools and weapons were stronger.
The crossbow, cavalry, the watermill, and horse collar, paper, roads, and silk were important technologies.
Population growth and increasing trade gave rise to local market centers.

Decline of the Han Empire

Continuous military vigilance along the frontier burdened Han finances and worsened the economic
troubles of later Han times. Several factors contributed to the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 C.E.:
factional intrigues within the ruling clan, official corruption and inefficiency, uprisings of desperate and
hungry peasants, the spread of banditry, attacks by nomadic groups on the northwest frontier, and the
ambitions of rural warlords. China entered political fragmentation until the Sui and Song/Tang dynasties.

IMPERIAL PARALLELS

Chapter 6: India and Southeast Asia, 1500 B.C.E.-600 C.E.

FOUNDATIONS OF INDIAN CIVILIZATION, 1500 B.C.E. - 300
India is called a subcontinent.
The Indian Subcontinent
The most dramatic source of moisture is the monsoon (seasonal wind).
The Vedic Age
Historians call this period the Vedic Age after the Vedas, religious texts that are our main source of
information about the period. The foundations of Indian civilization were laid in the Vedic Age. Indians
had such a diverse area and were split into many divisions.
Stories written down much later tell of rivalry and warfare between the Aryass and the Dasas. Over time
there evolved a system of internal divisions, Varna and caste. They were the Brahmins, Kshatriya,
Vaishya, and Shudra, or untouchables.
Atman, karma
The dominant deities were associated with the heavens. Sacrifice was the essential ritual to invigorate the
gods, sustain their creative powers, and promote the world.
Brahmin priests controlled the technology of sacrifice. The Rig Veda and the Brahmanas were collections
of the priestly lore.
Krishna and Arjuna appears in the Mahabharata.
Challenges to the Old Order: Jainism and Buddhism
Many people retreated to the forest as they hated the caste system. Some thought by distancing oneself
from desire, they would achieve moksha, liberation (yoga).

The most serious threats to Vedic religion was Jainism (nonviolence, purity, nudity) and Buddhism
(Enlightenment).
Four Noble Truths/Eightfold Path/Nirvana
Mahayana Buddhism embraced new features like Zen, while Theravada followed the original teachings of
the founder.
The Rise of Hinduism
Vedic religion made important adjustments, evolving into Hinduism. Two deities were changed. Every
god was an incarnation of Vishnu.
The ideal life cycle passes through four stages: the young man becomes a student and studies the sacred
texts; he then becomes a householder, marries, has children, and acquires material wealth; when his
grandchildren are born, he gives up home and family and becomes a forest dweller, meditation on the
nature and meaning of existence; he abandons his personal identity altogether and becomes a wandering
ascetic awaiting death. By the end, he is so disconnected from the world that he can achieve moksha.

IMPERIAL EXPANSIONS AND COLLAPSE, 324 B.C.E. 650

Political unity in India has not lasted long. But it has happened.
The Mauryan Empire, 324-184 B.C.E.
Chandragupta Maurya gained control of the kingdom of Magadha and expanded it into the Mauryan
Empire.
A tax equivalent to one-fourth the value of the harvest supported the Mauryan kings and government.
Standard coinage fostered support for the government and military and promoted trade.
The Mauryan capital was Pataliputra.
Ashoka is an outstanding figure in early Indian history. He preached nonviolence, morality, moderation,
and religious tolerance in both government and private life.
Commerce and Culture in an Era of Political Fragmentation
The Mauryan Empire was weakened by dynastic disputes and collapsed. Despite the political
fragmentation of India in the five centuries, there were many signs of economic, cultural, and intellectual
development.
During the last centuries, the two greatest Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata achieved their
final form.

The Bhagavad-Gita is an episode set in the midst of those events. This era also saw significant advances
in science and technology. Indian doctors had a wide knowledge of herbal remedies and were in demand
in the courts of western and southern Asia.
This period of political fragmentation in the north also saw the rise of important states in central India,
particularly the Andhra dynasty in the Deccan Plateau and the Three Tamil kingdoms of Cholas, Pandyas,
and Cheras in southern India.
The Gupta Empire, 320-550
The Gupta Empire grew out of the kingdom of Magadha on the Ganges Plain and had its capital at
Pataliputra.