Chapter 6
The Classical Period: Directions,
Diversities, and Declines by 500
CE
Themes - 200-500 CE
Cultural Exchanges
 China
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India
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Rome
Main African – Eurasian Trade Routes in the Classical Age
Beyond the Classical Civilizations
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Although China, India, and the
Mediterranean are the focuses of
Classical development, significant
changes were occurring in the rest of the
world.
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Africa
Japan
Northern Europe
The Americas
Sub-Saharan Africa
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Egyptians
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Kush (Sudan)
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3500-1500 BCE
Nile River delta
Conquered Egypt (circa 750 BCE)
Farming and trade
Urban centered
Axum (Ethopia)
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Multicultural – African, Jew, Greek, later Arab
Prosperous port
King Ezana – conquered Kush, 300 BCE – one of oldest
continual monarchies in history (abolished 20th century)
Christianity flourished in isolation
Kush Pyramids at Meroe
One of Ezana’s Obelisks (Stele)
African Agriculture
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Spread southward
Sahara – less arid
Slow to spread
because of disease,
dense vegetation,
and few animals to
domesticate
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Ghana
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First great trading state in West Africa
Kingdom structure
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Villages with local rulers
Kings ruled without law
Economy and Trade
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Wealthy traders
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Agriculture
Iron
Gold
Salt
Developing Japan
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200 CE
Tribal groups/chiefs
Agriculture,fishing, ironworking
400 CE – writing (Korean scribes)
Emergence of regional states
Shintoism (700 CE)
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Worship political rulers – Emperor as God
Nature gods (rice)
Influenced by China
Northern Europe
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Significantly behind until 1000 CE
Teutons
Celts
Loose kingdoms initially conquered by Rome
No written vernacular languages
Primitive agriculture
Many individual pagan theologies
Central America
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Olmec – 800-400 BCE
No writing
 Monumental construction
 Cultivation of corn
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Teotihuacán - 400 BCE
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Replaces Olmec, builders unknown
Maya - 400 CE
Olmecs and Mayas in Central America
Teotihuacán
Inca and Polynesians
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Inca
Peru, Bolivia
 Potato agriculture (terraces)
 Developed in total isolation
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Polynesians
Giant ocean going canoes
 Fiji, Samoa – 1000 BCE
 Hawai’i – 400 CE
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The Contributions of the Nomads
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Herder societies that
pioneered overland
trade routes
 Traders along the
silk roads – moved
ideas, foods, and
disease
 Technology –
stirrup,weaponry
 Invaders – bring the
classical period to an
Decline in China

Han Dynasty, 100 CE - Internal corruption
and collapse, decline in influence of
Confucianism
 Social Unrest
 Threat from Asian nomads
 Revolt of the Yellow Turbans
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Daoist leaders
Power shift from centralization to local rulers
 Introduction of Buddhism
Dynastic Revival
6th Century CE – Sui
 Tang – 618 CE
 Golden Age
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Restore faith in
bureaucracy
Revived
Confucianism
Unlike Rome,
recovered from
collapse
Decline in India
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Indo-European Hun invasion overthrew
Guptas

Displaced by Roman expansion
Less drastic than Han
 Central power of Guptas reverting back
to provincial princes – the Rajput
 Invading Huns integrated into warrior
class
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Decline in India (con’t)
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Culture continues to
evolve
Hinduism
strengthens
600 CE – arrival of
Islam
Decline of Sanskrit,
rise of vernacular
written language
Tamil traders lose
importance to Arabs
The Decline of Rome

Internal Instability, 235-284 CE
 Civil Wars, Military Take Over, Assassinations
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Borders Threatened
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Germanic tribes North
Persians to the East
Inflation
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22 emperors
Scarcity of goods, value of money down
Plague
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Labor shortage
Reasons for the Fall
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Christianity
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Size/Diversity
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Too much territory, too many difference types of
groups
Lagging technology
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Weakened militaristic values
Brought down power of the patrician class
Slavery – no need to develop technology
Political instability
The Late Empire
New Government Structure
 Rigid Economic and Social reforms
 State religion – Christianity
 Diocletian

Divides empire in four manageable parts
 Increases military strength and spending
 Set prices and wages
 Created serfdom
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The Late Empire (con’t)
State religion – Christianity
 Constantine

Moved Roman
capital to Byzantium
d
 Renamed it Constantinople
 Forced tolerance of Christianity
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Barbarian Invasions: “Lots and lots of arrows wandering over the map”
Dr. James Burns
The Fall
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Roman empire splits in East and West
 Attacks on the Frontiers
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Rome sacked
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Germanic tribes
Huns
Persians
410 CE, Visigoths
455 CE, Vandals
Emperors in power until 476.
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Romulus Augustulus deposed
The Roman Empire Splits c. 500 CE
Byzantium
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Byzantium emerges from the old Eastern
Empire
 Stronger of two Empires
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older traditions of civilization.
less pressure from barbarian invasions.
more wealth
more active trade – Constantinople, end of the silk
road.
Justinian
 Remained powerful until Ottoman takeover
The Rise of Christianity
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Began as a movement within Judaism
Jesus of Nazareth
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Ritual was insignificant to inner transformation
Behave morally and ethically.
Viewed as revolutionary
Crucified by Romans (circa. 30 CE)
Apostles and the Early Church
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Leaders of the movement
Jesus was sent to earth to save humans from sin –
transformation of Jesus from teacher to messiah
People who accepted this would have salvation
Oral tradition; then written between 40 -100 CE (The Gospels)
First churches established by 100 CE
Roman Development
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When Christians refused to worship state
gods, it was declared illegal.
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Growing rapidly
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Persecuted and executed through 2nd century CE;
crucifixion, Coliseum, exiled.
Gave meaning to life
Similar to older religions
Formed communities
Attractive to all classes
Edict of Milan – 313 CE
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Constantine orders acceptance of Christianity
Early Roman Catholicism
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Hierarchy in the Church
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Pope
Evangelicalism
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Conversion
Intolerance of competing faiths