Robert W. Strayer
Ways of the World: A Brief Global
History with Sources
Second Edition
Chapter 3
State and Empire in Eurasia/North Africa
(500 B.C.E.–500 C.E.)
Copyright © 2013 by Bedford/St. Martin’s
I. Empires and Civilizations in Collision:
The Persians and the Greeks
A. The Persian Empire
1. King of Kings:
Cyrus 557-530 BCE
Darius 522-486BCE
2. Multiculturalism
3. Infrastructure
Darius I (522-486) empire \Iraq to Egypt to India – 35-50
million people
Governors or Satraps, Spies
Adopting the culture of those conquered
Allowing conquered people to keep their religions
Standardized coins, Taxes
Canal built linking Red Sea and Nile River
Built roads)
I. Empires and Civilizations in Collision:
The Persians and the Greeks
B. The Greeks
Emerged around 750 BCE
Called themselves Hellenes
1. Hellenes
2. City-states
Largest cities Athens and Sparta
3. Expansion by migration
4. Citizens and hoplites
City States Divided by mountains
Smelted Iron, bronze, silver and lead
City-state independence often leads to conflict
Common language and religion / Olympics games
Culture spreads – 750-500 BCE Greeks established
settlements around Mediterranean and Black Seas
Trojan Wars
Iliad and the Odyssey - Homer
Greek Political LifeEarly Greeks aristocracy could vote
later
Monarchies, Oligarchy, Democracy
Sparta – Large military – boys sent to military training at age 7
Council of elders – wealth who served for life – Would consult
the oracle
Athens
Class conflict lead to civil war
Leader Solon 594BCE – broke the aristocracy – Debt
slavery abolished – all citizens could vote
Pericles and Cleisthenes – offices in government were
paid and even the poor could serve
Direct democracy – not representative democracy –
slaves, women and outsiders could not vote
I. Empires and Civilizations in Collision:
The Persians and the Greeks
C. Collision: The Greco-Persian Wars
1. Ionia
2. Athens: Victorious, democratic
3. The Peloponnesian War, 431–404 B.C.E.
Greco- Persian Wars
Between the world’s largest empire and Greeks
small independent city states
Greek settlements in Anatolian, Greeks called Ionia
came under Persian control
499 BCE – some settlements revolted and were
supported by Athens.
Persians upset attacked the Greeks twice in ten years
490 and 480.
490 – Battle of Marathon / Darius I
480 – Battle of Thermopolis / Xerxes (300 Spartans
and Battle of Salamis)
Strengthened Athenian democracy
50 years later Greece enters its Golden Age
Peloponnesian war
Conflict between Athens and Sparta and their
allies.
Ended the Golden Age 431-404
Athens was defeated and the Greeks
exhausted would be taken over by the
Macedonians
I. Empires and Civilizations in Collision:
The Persians and the Greeks
D. Collision: Alexander and the Hellenistic Era
1. Philip II and Alexander
2. Spread of Greek culture
3. Alexandria and Bactria
Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age
Phillip II of Macedonia took over the Greeks and
unified them
Phillip died and Alexander took over
10 year expedition / Greek empire from Egypt to
Anatolia to Afghanistan to
Alexander died 323 BCE – empire divided into 3
Greatest importance was the spread of Greek culture
– Called the Hellenistic Age
Building styles, clothes, medicines, art science
Greek Empires after Alexander –
Ptolemaic – Egypt
Seleucid – Persia
India – Greeks assimilated into caste system as
Kshatriya (warrior class)
II. Comparing Empires:
Roman and Chinese
A. Rome: From City-State to Empire
1.
2.
3.
4.
An upstart republic
An expansionist warrior society
Changing gender norms
Civil war and the death of the republic
Rome - around 8th century BCE
Originally by a king 509 BCE
- Aristocrats established a republic –patricians
Executive / two consuls / advised by patricians / (senate)
Plebeians –resented this rule
Written law– Rule of law
Tribune
Empire building took 500 years
Punic Wars – 3 wars with Carthage
1Rome wins gaining Sicily, Sardinia, and
Corsica
2 – Hannibal takes elephants over Alps into Italy
war last 15 years
3 – Rome wins and kills or destroys Carthage
Eventually / Roman Empire stretches from North
Africa – England and from Spain –Caspian Sea
Rome allowed conquered people to become citizens
– left local rulers in charge if they paid tribute
Patriarchal – family dominated by males
Riches empowered military leaders who filled their
legions from the poor – paved the way to civil wars
Julius Caesar / conquered the Roman province of
Gaul (France) marched into Rome and declared
himself Dictator – later killed by senate
Mark Antony and Cleopatra fought against Octavian –
Octavian became Augustus (first citizen) Emperor –
ending 500 years of the republic
Pax Romana or Roman peace lasted 200 years
II. Comparing Empires:
Roman and Chinese
B. China: From Warring States to Empire
1. Qin Shihuangdi’s brutal quest for order
2. The moralistic and moderate Han
Qin Shihuangdi (chihn shee Huang dee) Qin unified China in
10 years
Legalism – adopted by Qin – clear rules and harsh punishment
Empire stretched from northern Vietnam to northeast Korea
People who opposed Shihuangd were killed
Great Wall / standardized weights and measures – currency –
written language
Empire did not last long and was overthrown by the Han
206BCE
Han Dynasty 206BCE-220CE
adopted Confucianism in place of legalism
II. Comparing Empires:
Roman and Chinese
C. Consolidating the Roman and Chinese Empires
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Supernatural sanctions
Absorbing foreign religion
Paths to assimilation
The use of language
Bureaucracy versus aristocracy
Looking at both Rome and China
Both empires had common features
Rome writer “almost the entire world”, China “all under
heaven”
Both invested heavily in building road, bridges,
aqueducts, canals, protective walls
Both had supernatural sanctions to support their rule
– Romans began viewing their dead emperors as gods
Christians were persecuted
Chinese believed heaven was a force that regulated
the universe
-Emperor was called the Son of Heaven
- governed by the Mandate of Heaven
– as long as the ruler ruled morally and was good
-Rebellion, floods or invasions were signs that that
the emperor had lost the mandate of heaven
Both
absorbed a new religion spread mainly through the poorer
classes
Rome – Christianity – started in a small part of the empire –
gained support in 4th century to maintain power – became
the dominate religion
China – Buddhism- came from India – grew modestly –
became one of many different cultural traditions
In contrast
Rome population would become a minority as
the empire grew
China grew but the people would mostly already be
Chinese
Roman Empire assimilation allowed free people
within the empire citizenship
Rome kept its culture and it mixed with the Greeks –
Greco-Roman culture spread throughout the empire
China kept its own culture /others should conform to it
Language
Roman Empire / Latin an alphabetic language would later give
rise to Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian –
Chinese characters represented ideas - Chinese was
used mostly by the elite (rich and powerful) and help areas keep
their own traditions
II. Comparing Empires:
Roman and Chinese
D. The Collapse of Empires
1.
2.
3.
4.
Over-extension
Rivalries amongst elites
Pressures from nomadic people
Revival?
Collapse
Han Dynasty came to an end 220 CE / Rome 476 CE (western
half) Decline had been going on for years
Both
Too big to control
Resources became too expensive – no new technological
advances to improve this
Rich developed large estates and avoided paying taxes. The poor
became the tenant farmers In China this would lead to peasant
revolts
Disease and epidemics in both – Roman population declined 25%
Both were faced with invasions from nomadic people
Han were invaded /set up states in northern China.
Rome / Germanic people, Huns invaded
Germanic tribes eventually conquered Rome.
(Established their new identities (Visigoths, Franks,
Anglo-Saxons)
The fall of the Roman Empire produced a new culture.
Christianity would spread- Feudalism - Nobles, knights,
vassals, kings and peasants
China would again unite under Confucianism
Harappan Society and Its
Neighbors,
ca. 2000 B.C.E.
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•
Foundations of Harappan
The Indus River
Society
– Silt-enriched water from mountain ranges
•
Major society built by Dravidian peoples, 3000-2500 B.C.E.
– Cultivation of cotton before 5000 B.C.E., early
cultivation of poultry
– Decline after 1900 B.C.E.
•
Major cities: Harappa (Punjab region) and Mohenjo-daro (mouth of Indus
River)
– 70 smaller sites excavated (total 1500)
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Mohenjo-Daro Ruins
•
•
Population about 40,000
Regional center
– Layout, architecture suggests public
purpose
– Broad streets, citadel, pool, sewage
•
•
•
Standardized weights evident throughout region
Specialized labor
Trade
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Harappan Society and Culture
•
Evidence of social stratification
– Dwelling size, decoration
•
•
•
Harappan civilization: influence on later Indian culture
Statues, figurines, and illustrations reflect a tradition of art and
metallurgy
Venerated goddesses of fertility
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Mysterious End of Harappan
Civilization
•
Reasons for disappearance unclear
– Excessive deforestation, loss of topsoil
– Earthquakes?
– Flooding?
• Evidence of unburied dead
•
•
Disappearance by 1500 B.C.E.
Harappan traditions survived – agricultural practices, religious beliefs,
and urban traditions
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The Early Aryans
•
Pastoral economy: sheep, goats, horses, cattle
– Cattle not sacred until many centuries later
•
Religious and literary works: the Vedas
– Sanskrit: sacred tongue
– Prakrit: everyday language, evolved into
Hindi, Urdu, Bengali
– Four Vedas (wisdom), most important Rig
Veda
• 1028 hymns to Aryan gods
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The Vedic Age
• Conflicts between Aryans and indigenous dasas
(“enemies,” “subjects”)
– Aryans fighting Dravidians
– Also Aryans fighting each other
• Chiefdoms: rajas
• Early concentration in Punjab, migrations further
south
– Development of iron metallurgy
– Increasing reliance on agriculture
• Tribal connections evolve into political structures
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Varna: The Caste System
•
Origins in Aryan domination of Dravidians
– Brahmin, priest
– Kshatriya, warrior
– Vaishya, merchant
– Shudra, serf
– “Untouchables”
•
Jati system of subcastes
– Related to urbanization, increasing social
and economic complexity
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Patriarchy in Ancient Indian
Society
•
•
•
“Rule of the father”
A social order that stood alongside the caste system, and varna
hierarchy
Enforced in the Lawbook of Manu
– Women to be subject to fathers, husbands,
sons
– Women’s most important duties to bear
children and maintain wholesome homes
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Aryan Religion
•
•
Major deity of Rig Veda: Indra, war god
Elaborate ritual sacrifices to gods
– Role of brahmins important
•
Ca. 800 B.C.E. some movement away from sacrificial cults
– Mystical thought, influenced by Dravidians
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Teachings of the Upanishads
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Texts that represent blending of Aryan and Dravidian traditions
Composed 800-400 B.C.E., some later collections until thirteenth
century C.E.
Brahman: the universal soul
Samsara: reincarnation
Karma: accounting for incarnations
Moksha: mystical ecstasy
Relationship to system of Varna
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III. Intermittent Empire:
The Case of India
A. The Aryan Controversy
B. Political fragmentation and cultural diversity, but a
distinctive religious tradition
C. Mauryan Empire (326-184 B.C.E.)
D. Ashoka (r. 268-232 B.C.E.)
E. Gupta Empire (320-550 C.E.)
F. Great civilizational achievements without a central state
India
Indus River valley flourished – Harappa – collapse
by 1500BCE would lead to a new civilization
1,000 years in the making a father east along the
Ganges River
Aryans or Indo European people – 600 BCE a new
civilization
Mauryan Empire 326-184 BCE – controlled most of India
Population 50 million
Large military 600,000 soldiers, 30,000 cavalry, 8,000
chariots, and 9,000 elephants
Civilian bureaucracy, ministers and spies
Controlled many industry (spinning, weaving, mining, ship
building and armaments
All financed by taxes
Most known emperor was Ashoka 268-232BCE
Record of left on rocks and pillars
Converted to Buddhism – considered an enlightened
ruler who ruled in accord with religious values and
moral teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism
Empire broke apart after his death and 600 years later
Gupta Empire 320-550 CE
Age of prosperity and peace/ Free hospitals flourishing of arts
Later established a Caste system
IV. Reflections: Enduring Legacies of
Second-Wave Empires
A.
B.
Mao Zedong and Qin Shihuangdi
Ashoka in modern India
Years later / Mao Zedong compared himself to Shihuangdi
Modern India / people link themselves to Ashoka