Today’s LEQ: After the First
Wave Civilizations, what changed and what didn’t?

 Emerged from about c. 3500 B.C.E.
 Generated the most impressive and powerful human societies created thus far
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But, proved to be fragile and vulnerable as well
Even though “first wavers” broke down, there was no going back – Civilization , as a form of human community stuck around

 New or enlarged urban-centered, state-based societies emerged to replace first wavers – EMPIRES !!!
 i.e. Persia, Greece, Rome, Han-China, etc.
 Many eventually perished and were replaced by “third wavers”
 i.e. the collapse of Rome

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Same pattern of “rise, expand, collapse”
 Monarchs continued to rule
 Patriarchy persisted
 Sharp divide between elite and everyone else
 Practice of slavery stayed
 No major technological or economic breakthroughs leading to new kinds of human societies

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Population grew more rapidly than ever before
(rate of growth is quite slow compared to recent centuries)
Growing size of states & empires dwarfed first wave civilizations; brought together vast diversity of people under a single political system
Rise and fall of second wave empires had major consequences and changes for the people who experienced them; oftentimes results in bloodshed, destruction, and trauma
Modest innovations enhanced human potential for manipulating the environment
Far more elaborate, widespread, and dense networks of communication and trade

Distinctive “Wisdom Traditions”
Develop
 All have provided moral and spiritual framework within which most of the world’s peoples have sought to order their lives and define their relationship to the mysteries of life and death
 All are the product of second and third-wave civilizations
 The great philosophical/religious systems of Legalism,
Confucianism, and Daoism in China
 Hinduism and Buddhism in India
 Greek rationalism in the Mediterranean
 Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam in the
Middle East

 Current identities of entire countries, regions, and civilizations still linked to the achievements of the classical era