Trade, States, Empires and Instability
Slideshow #5
Review Questions
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WHAT ARE the key elements found in civilizations that expanded
through colonization rather than through military conquest?
WHAT WERE the political and economic foundations of the
Assyrian Empire?
WHAT role did colonization and trade play in Greek and
Phoenician cultures?
WHY WAS the Phoenician alphabet significant in world history?
HOW DID the concept of the Mandate of Heaven relate to
governance in China?
HOW WAS civilization built anew in India and Sri Lanka?
Why did the development of civilization in the Americas and subSaharan Africa differ so dramatically from development in
Eurasia?
How did the peoples of Eurasia adapt to the changes
after the collapse of older civilizations at the end of
the second millennium B.C.E.?
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The peoples of Mesopotamia (Assyria, Babylon) built land-based empires.
 Environment: Tigris and Euphrates River valleys
 Relative ease of movement
 History of close connections between peoples of Mesopotamia
But not all peoples living in fertile river valleys develop empire (at least not
right away).
 Examine the Zhou dynasty in China:
 Mandate of heaven as a ruling ideology
 Reaction and warfare that prevents political unification until late third
century B.C.E.
 Another very different case is India:
 Examine religious beliefs connected with Brahman
 Consider how these beliefs might have caused civilization to develop
quite differently.
Chinese Cultural & Political Unity
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Political philosophy: Mandate of Heaven
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Cultural philsophy
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A question of balance: concept ot ying-yang
Importance of filial piety (respect for ancestors): xiào
Patterns of Chinese History
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t’ien ming
dynastic cycle
unity/disunity cycle
southern expansion
northern invasion
The Shang Dynasty (ca 1500 – ca 1050 BCE)
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a central power, allied with some local powers and at war with others.
Shang kingship based on military power and king’s priestly role
Shang kings mobilized large numbers of people for military campaigns
Writing
Chinese
writing system was perfected during this period; facilitated
development of bureaucratic state
Chinese script was logographic, restricting literacy to tiny elite
Many of China’s neighbors adopted the Chinese script.
Bronze
Ritual Objects, Weapons and Tools
During
the Shang period, bronze had an important place in ritual.; it’s meaning
still subject of argument
Bronze making spread beyond the territory controlled by the Shang kings.
The
Zhou Dynasty (ca 1050–256 BCE)
Zhou
originated the political concept of the Mandate of Heaven
Early Zhou rulers established decentralized system of government
Eventually,
China descended into Warring States Period 403-221 BCE
Subsequent rise of Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism philosophies
Shang Dynasty
Bronze food
vessels
India: Empire of the Spirit
Migration into Ganges region:
Combining beliefs of Aryan invaders, indigenous inhabitants
Vedic language evolves into Sanskrit
B. Central beliefs of Hinduism based upon Vedas:
Hymns (Rig Veda is oldest, 1400 BCE)
Brahmanas (commentaries) (1000 BCE)
Upanishads (mystical speculations) (500 BCE)
C. Concepts:
dharma: obeying religious and moral laws
moksha: spiritual release, liberation from samsara (reincarnation)
karma: actions/deeds create past, present and future experiences
maya: illusion of reality; duality of consciousness/material world
Brahman—unchanging, infinite, transcendent reality (transpersonal)
atman: one’s true self, the individual component of Brahman
life cycles of individuals: 4 stages of life from student to ascetic
Winged bull. “May the guardian bull, the guardian genius,who protects the strength of my throne, always
preserve my name in joy and honor until his feet move themselves from this place.” An inscription left by
King Esarhaddon, son of Sennacherib, explains the function of the winged bulls— usually carved with the
portrait heads of kings—that guarded Assyrian gates and throne rooms. Human-headed winged bull and
winged lion (lamassu). Alabaster (gypsum); Gateway support from the Palace of AshurnasirpalII (ruled
883–859 B.C.E.). Limestone. H: 10' 3/1/2". L: 9' 1". W: 2“ 1/2". The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of
John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 1932. (32.143.2) Photography (c) 1981 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
King Ashurbanipal II reclines to feast with his queen in the garden of his palace at Nineveh. Servants
whisk flies and bring refreshments. In parts of the relief not shown here, birds sing, harpists play, and the
head of the king of conquered Elam decorates a tree. The picnic is perhaps a victory celebration. Success in
war bought Assyria’s luxuries.
Byblos—King Zeker Baal’s city—on the shore of Lebanon. Baal, the god for whom the king was named,
supposedly lived far away on the crest of the forested mountains. Byblos’ ability to deliver timber to
traders on the coast therefore demonstrated a divine relationship. Zeker Baal boasted that he could
induce Baal to ‘fling trees down on the shore.’
Babylon. No king of Babylon built more grandly than Nebuchadnezzar II (r. 604–562 B.C.E.) who gave the
city center a gate, shown here in reconstruction, dedicated to the goddess Ishtar. Precious lapis lazuli
colored the tiles that smother the gate. Guardian bulls and dragons adorn it.
What was so different about the
environment of the Mediterranean
world?
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Relative ease of travel from coastal areas
Climate
Olive harvest. The export of olive oil was vital to Greece’s recovery from the so-called “dark ages” that
followed the fall of Mycenaean cities. Greece’s poor soils and hot climate could not produce much else that
was salable abroad. Solon, the legendary law-giver, supposedly compelled the Athenians to grow olives.
Scenes of laborious techniques to harvest olives from their trees decorate this vase by the most prolific
Athenian artist of the late sixth century B.C.E., known as the Antimenes Painter.
Paestum. Around 600 B.C.E., Greek colonists founded the city now called Paestum in southern Italy. This
view of the ruins of the Temple of Hera, queen of the gods, shows how faithfully the builders reproduced the
style and feel of home. An upper gallery is visible on the left. No more perfect example of Greek architecture
of the early sixth century survives in Greece itself.
Greek women. Women collecting water from a fountain was a common subject for Greek painters of water
pots. This example from the Greek colony of Vulci in Italy, where the native population esteemed women
more highly than the Greeks did, follows a standard Greek pattern. It shows the women in profile, forming a
line at a fountain with a lion’s-head spout under a roof supported by slender columns.
Trade and Population Pressure Speed
Colonization by the Greeks and Phoenicians
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Poverty and social disorder at home
 Hesiod’s complaint
 Assyria
Colonies mimic religious and social institutions of the homeland
Connected systems of trade and exchange
Interrelationships with neighboring peoples
 Thracians
 Etruscans
 Spain
Thracian Horseback Hero. Pre-Christian fragments of Thracian art sometimes survive because Christians
recycled them as building material for churches. This heroic figure on a horse was a favorite subject for
Thracian artists. Goldsmiths had depicted a similar figure, known to historians as “The Master of the
Animals.” for centuries.
Why did Eurasian civilizations develop so differently
compared with Africa and the Americas?
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Relative ease of exchange across east-west access
 Mediterranean World
 Greeks and Phoenicians
 South Asia
 Monsoonal winds
 India and Arabian Peninsula
 Trade with East Asia
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Differences in the development of agriculture
 Begins earlier in Eurasia
 Mesopotamia
 China
 Later development in Africa and Americas
What are the ramifications of these developments?
 Jared Diamond’s thesis (Guns, Germs, and Steel)
 Earlier development of agriculture gives Eurasia a
head start on technological developments
 Domestication of animals brings diseases to
Eurasia that will later devastate Americas
Poverty Point in Louisiana is the oldest and one of the most impressive of the mound-builders’ sites of the
lower Mississippi valley. The plaza shown in this drawing was in place by about 1000 B.C.E. The mound on
the edge of the concentric ridges is 70 feet high. Drawing by John L. Gibson
Relative ease of communication across Eurasia
promotes an exchange of ideas that furthers
technological developments. Opposite situation
exists in the Americas and Africa.
Discussion Question
Do global connections make avoiding (or recovering
from) environmental catastrophe easier or harder?
Consider
 Trade contacts and sharing of ideas and resources assisted the
recovery of some peoples such as the Greeks or Phoenicians.
 Others benefited from isolation by moving their centers of
culture and exploiting new environments.
 Today, the whole world shares information, resources, and a
single global environment.
 Are our options greater or more restricted than those facing
ancient societies recovering from disaster?