Period 2 Notes
Judaism
 1200BC-600 BC Jews developed an civilization
 Tribes unite under Saul-first Jewish king
 David follows Saul
o Built the city of Jerusalem
 David’s son Solomon follows
o Make alliances with regional kingdoms
o Traded with others
o Builds a temple
 Temple of Solomon
 After Solomon
o The Kingdom splits into two parts
o Israel-North
o Judah-south
 Assaults on Israel
o Assyrians assault and conquered Israel (north)
o Babylonian took Judah –sent Jews to Babylon (587BC) as slave
o Persian freed them and allowed them to return home (538BC)
o 63BC Israel becomes part of the roman empire
 Jews rebelled repeatedly
 To punish them the roman destroyed Jerusalem
 Scattered the Jews all over the world
 Holy Book and beliefs
o Torah –holy book
 Keep the Jew united during separations
o Belief that god had made a covenant with them and he will watch them as long as they follow him
 Diaspora
o Period when the Babylonians exiled the Jews from Israel
o Scattering /migration of people
Christianity
 Jews feared the influence of other culture would destroy the purity of their faith
 Life of Jesus
o Not much is known about his early life
o Around the age of 30 begins preaching
o Preached to the weak and poor
 Teachings of Jesus
o Preached that god loves everyone
 Love one other
 Love themselves
o Follow his teachings and you would enter the kingdom of heaven
o New testament- life and teachings of Jesus
o Chose 12 men to travel with him and help him teach
 The apostles
o Teaching not too different from Jewish laws.
o Jewish elders felt he was a danger to Judaism
o Claimed he was the messiah- denied trying to regain control of Israel from Rome
o Arrested for treason against Rome
o Crucified
 Death and re4surrection
o Few days after Jesus died the apostles claimed that they has seen him and talked to him
Buddhism
 Grows out of Hinduism and the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama
o Indian Prince
o Grow up in luxury
o Saw suffering one day and wants to know why there was suffering in the world
o Years of wondering and meditating
o Becomes the “ Buddha” (the enlighten one)
o Believes in reincarnation until you reach enlighten (nirvana)
o Anyone can reach enlighten and be free from suffering
o Eight fold path
 Right View (Knowledge of Truth)
 Right Intentions (intentions to resist evil)
 Right Speech ( Say nothing to hurt others )
 Right Action (respect for life, morality and property)
 Right livelihood( holding a job that does not injure others)
 Right Effort ( working to frees one’s mind of evil)
 Right Mindfulness (controlling one’s feelings and thoughts)
 Right Concentration (practicing proper forms of concentration (meditation))
o By following the eightfold path a person would avoid rebirth and enter Nirvana
Daoism (Taoism)
 Answers the question of how people should live
o Philosophy arose from the teaching of Lao-tzu
o Follow the Tao (the way). People could then reach inner peace
o following the tao by living simple and in harmony w/nature
 Difference between Confucianism and Daoism
o Confucius believes that government was important
o Lao Tzu- people are better off with as little government as possible
Confucianism
 Based on the teachings of Long Fuzi (Confucius)
o Did not promote the worship of gods and life after death
o Educated as a civil servant but worked as a teacher
 His students kept a record of his teachings. Gathered in a book called the Analects
o Achieve the ideal way of life through self control and proper conduct
o Children show respect for:
 Parents
 Ancestors
Shinto
 “way of the gods”
 Shinto honors the sprite through to inhabit such natural features as rocks and mountains
Classical China
 First great Classical civilization
 Characteristic of classical chain
1. Politic centralized
2. 3 dynastic cycles happen during classical China
A. Zhou Dynasty
 Government
o Regional princes and nobles families maintain order for the Zhou Dynasty
o Feudal period
 Vulnerable to disloyalty
 Vassals took control of land and ignored the central government
 Contributions/Characteristics
o Extended territory
o Trouble w/ communicating
o Mandate of Heaven
o Justification of imperial rule
o Provide cultural unity
o Discouraged older practice
o Promote language unity
o Mandarin Chinese
o Used educated officials
o As the zhou dynasty declined scholars used philosophical ideas to lessen the impact
o Confucius
B. Warring States
 Regional princes and nobles fight one another for control
C. Qin (Chin)
 Shi Huangdu- first emperor (35yrs)
o Brutal ruler but effective
 Nobles ordered to live at the court
 Assumed control of their estates
o Organized into provinces
 Bureaucratic appointed by him
o Powerful armies
 Expanded territory
 Builds great wall
o Innovations
 National census
 Standardized coins weight and measures
 Uniform writing irrigation projects
 Promotes manufacturing of silk
 Uniform tax system
 Single law code
o Unpopular
 High taxes
 Attack on intelligence
o Died-massive revolt
o Peasant leader established the Hand dynasty
D. Han Dynasty
 Lasts for 400 yrs
o Kept centralized administration
o Less brutal
o Expanded territory
o Connections w/India
 Wutio Brought peace
o Improved the Bureaucracy
o Confucianism philosophy
o Civil service exam
o Central control weakened by invasions of the Huns
*** Qin stress central authority while the han expanded the powers of the Bureaucracy
Elements –strong local units ancestor worship
Legalism
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Favored an authoritarian state that ruled by force human nature is evil and required restraint and
discipline
Classical India
A. Side notes
 Influenced through trade by the middle east
 Monsoons- torrential rain-essential for farming
 Caste system regulates social order
B. Early years
 4th century India is divided into powerful regional states
 Magadha –considerable empire
 Alexander the great invades and establish the state of Bactria
 322BC young soiled called Chandragupta Maurya seized power over the Ganges river
o Unites India
o Creates a small bureaucracy
o Autocratic
o Relied on military and personal power
 Ashoka
o Expanded the empire
o Converts to Buddhism
 After he dies the empire begins to fall
 Kushans invade –convert to Buddhism
o Collapsed by 220CE
 Gupta established an Empire
o 100yrs after the Kushans
o Negotiated w/local princes and intermarry w/ their families
C. Political institutions
 No major political structure
 Gupta Empire spread uniform law code
 Religion does not stress importance on politics
 Caste system, interpreted by priest regulated many relationships and work roles
D. Religion and Culture
 Hinduism –develops gradually
 Origins in the Vedic and Epic ages
E. Long-distance trade
 Begins w/Cyrus
 Built a road btw the two
 Traded cotton, aromatics, black pepper, pearls, spices and gems
Classical Greeks
A. Early Days
 Indo Europeans took over the peninsula by 1700 BC
B. Influences
 Early Greeks were influenced by crete a civilization that developed around 1400BC around the city of
Mycenae
 Falls to invaders who destroyed the city
C. Rise of Greek City states
 Rise of Greek civilization around 800-600BC
 City states
 Traded between cities states, used phoneanean alphabet
D. Polis
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E. Wars
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Each developed differently
Connect by common culture and language
Athens-diverse commerce state (trading) artistractic and intellectual leadership
i. Pericles (Athens political figure)
ii. Ruled through influences and negation in the democrat government instead of an overhead
figure
Sparta –strong military aristocracy and large slave population
Persian War- Athens and Sparta work together to defeat the Persian army
Peloponnesian War- Athens and Sparta fight for control and influence of the Greek city states
o Disagreement over money
F. Macedonia
 King Phillip the II of Macedon conquered Greek cities up north
 Alexander (his son ) the great would conquer all of Greece and have an empire spreading from the
middle east to Egypt to India
 Empire characterized by the Hellenistic culture
i. An era when Greek cultural traditions expand their influence beyond Greece
G. Greece Colonized
 Establishes colonies around the Mediterranean basin
 Trade throughout the basin to relieve population pressures Greeks established colonies
 Spread Greek culture and language
 Trade olive oil and wine for grains
H. Society
 Patriarchal society
i. Most polies women could not own poverty
Classical Rome
A. Beginnings
a. Romulus and remus
b. Early settlers
i. Latins and the Greeks (colonies on the Italian pennusula)
c. Fist was a small kingdom ruled by local monarchy
d. Articrates secceeded the monarchy around 509BC by establishing a more elaborate political institution
B. Patricians and Plebeians
a. Two groups struggles for power
b. Patricians-aristocratic landowners who held most of the power
i. Feel that their ancestry gave them authority to rule
c. Plebeians-common farmers, artisans and merchants made up most of the population
d. Plebians forced the creation of a written law code
e. Laws carved on twelve tables and hung in the roman forum
f. Established the idea that all free citizens had the right to the protection of law
C. Roman Republic
a. Bragged it balanced the following ideas
i. Monarchy
ii. Aristocracy (oligarchy)
iii. Democracy
b. Instead of king they had Consuls
i. Commanded the army and directed the governemt
ii. Had limited power-one year terms
iii. Two
c. Senate
i. Membership for life
ii. Made up of the patricians
d. Assembly
i. Democratic side of government
ii. All citizens
iii. Appointed councils
iv. Less power than the senate
e. Dictator
i. Only in Times of need
f. Citizenship
i. All citizens who owned land
D. Punic Wars
a. Made up of 3 wars
b. Against carthage on the northern coast of Africa
c. Over trade influences
d. Went up against the carthage general Hannibal
e. After destroying carthage roman seize control of the entire mediterrean sea
E. Politics in the Roman Republic
a. Grew unstable with the new expansions
b. Lead to civil war , Julius Caesar came on top (end the roman republic )
c. Julius Caesar grandnephew followed him and became know as Augustus Ceaser
i. establishes the basic structure of the roman empire
ii. maintains peace and prosperity to the Mediterranean world (pox Roma)
d. expand during the next 200 yrs move up through France to Britain and north Africa
e. Fall takes around 250 yrs with the empire become too large and finally fall with invasions from
the north around 476BC
f. Diocletian and Constantine try to reverse the fall
g. Constantine adopts Christianity in an attempt to unite the empire
h. Government and military are no longer see as being able to protect the empire. Military
depends on non-roman recruits Can no longer defend itself
Non Core states
Africa
• Kush ( located underneath Egypt on the Nile
• Masters the use of iron
• Established a strong monarchy
• Strong ties with Egypt
Axum
• Conquer the Kush
• Traded with the Mediterranean world
Ethiopia
• Had contact with Judaism and eventually adopted Judaism
• Lather converted to Christianly through merchant contact
• South Africa
• Olmac
• Disappeared without clear trace around 400BCS
• Formed around 800 to 400 bc
• Lacked writing but created large pyramids
• Agriculture based around corn and in the ands potato
• Domesticated animals were pigs, turkey , dogs and guinea pigs
• Used jade in artistic expressions
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Teotihuacan
• Center for worship and trade
• Develop hioglypic writing
Maya civilization
Trade Roads
 Trade expands during the classical period because of two elements
o Emperors build road to allow swifter military movement
o Empires boarder each other.
 Side affect
 Trade becomes easier and cheaper