Unit 2 Outline: 600 BCE to 600 CE
 Weeks One and Two:
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Belief Systems and Earliest Empires (Rome, Han, Gupta,
Ghana)
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Timed Writing: Comparative essay on Rome, Han, Gupta
(2010 Exam)
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Timed Writing: CCOT essay on Rome, Han, Gupta (2006
Exam)
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Timed Writing: DBQ on Buddhism in China (2004 Exam)
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Week Three:
Trade in Afroeurasia (CCOT essay on trade – 2012)
Map Quiz
Unit Test (50 Multiple-Choice Questions)
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1. Draw the Eastern Hemisphere (AfroEurasia)
from memory.
2. Draw the major trade routes of the 1st
century C.E.
3. Use arrows and labels to indicate the
global processes that promoted trade (spread
of religions) or restricted trade (spread of
disease).
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CED, pp. 31-33 and Practice Exam, p. 13
Cohen pkt, p. 30 notes on belief systems
Vocab quiz, p. 38
What is this? Why was it built?
The Great Wall of
China
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Big
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• total length is 6,700 km (3,948
miles)
 Chinese
were civilized
agricultural peoples and
their neighbors were
barbaric pastoral nomads

The earliest evidence of earthen walls is from
the Shang dynasty (1766-1050 BCE) who
wanted to dominate the neighboring states.
Oracle
inscription
carved on
turtle shell
Shang
Dynasty
Border
=
purple;
Modern
border
= red
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The Qin emperor coerced labor from Chinese
peasants to build walls as part of his
conquest of the border areas.
He wanted to control the flow of people and
tax goods from Central Asia.
The so-called “walls” were actually forts
hosting large garrisons of soldiers.
Qin
Dynasty
Border =
green;
Modern
border =
red
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The Great Wall we see today was built during
the 15th century of the Ming dynasty.
The Ming rulers wanted a solid barrier against
the Mongols, the rulers of the previous
dynasty of China.
Ming Empire
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The Ming wall stretched some 4,500 miles
from the Korean border at Dandong to the
city of Jayuguan in the western desert
Watch towers and cannons were placed along
the wall
 Chinese
imperialism
prompted military
responses by pastoral
nomads against an
aggressive Chinese state
intent on expansion.
Does
this explanation
of the history of the
Great Wall affect your
view of Chinese
history?
Assessment:
Work in a group of 5 to create a sculpture or
“scene” that illustrates at least one key
concept from periods 1 and 2, using Playdoh.

Curriculum module, pp. 43 – 45
◦ Read pages to
 Identify trade and exchange items and
roles of pastoral and agricultural peoples
 Map
 Identify types of evidence
 Discuss Christian’s argument via jigsaw
interpretations chart on pp. 70-77.
1. Draw the Eastern Hemisphere
(AfroEurasia).
2. Draw the major trade routes of the 1st
century C.E.
3. Use arrows and labels to indicate the
global processes that promoted trade
(spread of religions) or restricted trade
(spread of disease).
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Entrepot groups make table tent sign.
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Entrepot groups make trade plans
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Who will travel and who will stay?
What will you plan to sell in each round?
What will you plan to buy in each round?
How will you keep track of your trade activities?
Process simulation.
Directions: In pairs, decide if the Roman and Han empires prove or disprove the ConradDemarest Model for rise of empires.
I. Necessary preconditions for the rise of empires:
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state-level government
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Rome: republic
Han: kept most of Qin centralized government in place
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Rome: wheat, grapes, cattle
Han: wheat, millet, pigs
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Rome: Alps, Mediterranean Sea, forests, Tiber and other rivers, hills
Han: Tianshan mountains, Yellow and Yangtze river, loess soil, Pacific Ocean
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Rome and other city-states on Italian peninsula; surrounding states in Mediterranean (Greek states, Egypt, Judea,
Syria, Cyprus, Gaul, Romania, Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, Carthage, etc.
Han: Qin empire broken into smaller states
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Rome: rivalry between pastoralists in hills and agriculturalists in plains
Han: Warring States period before Qin unification
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Rome: soldiers first recruited only from peasant class on Italian peninsula; population inexhaustible
Han: soldiers recruited from peasant class within the entire empire; population inexhaustible
high agricultural potential in the area
an environmental mosaic
several small states with no clearly dominant state (power vacuum)
mutual antagonisms among those states
adequate military resources
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II. The primary reason a state succeeded in
empire building was
◦
an ideology supporting personal identification with
the state, empire, conquest, and militarism.
 Rome: "republic" based on citizenship of free
men;citizenship ensured loyalty to state and brought taxes
into the state treasury; emperor-dictators had to support the
idea of the republic and pretend to follow what the Senate,
council of elder wealthy men, decreed. Development of
bureaucracy helped run empire.
 Han: militaristic Legalism developed by Qin continued, then
softened by Confucian system of government based on
ethics, meritocracy, and concept of the Mandate of
Heaven. Development of bureaucracy helped run
empire. Tribute system for foreign relations.
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Directions: Does the Gupta Empire prove or disprove
the C-D model?
economic rewards, reaped especially in the early years
and redistributed to the elite and often to all levels of
the citizenry
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luxury goods and profits from trade redistributed to
subordinate rulers in regional administrative centers;
marriage alliances between the Gupta royal family and
subordinate rulers
coined money; expanding trade with Southeast Asia
scientists and mathematicians received royal support - invention of the concept of zero and “Indian”
numbers
support for religious institutions
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classic form of Hindu temple patterned after mandalas
(cosmic diagrams) and filled with lavish sculptures of Hindu
deities
Buddhist monasteries still expanding
population increase, often supported by the
government and its ideology
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marriage ages for girls fell to six or seven years old
urban centers grew along with the new temples who
served the increase in pilgrims traveling to sacred sites
◦ the ideology of expansion and conquest fueled
attempts at conquest beyond practical limits
 White Huns, nomadic peoples from central Asia who
occupied Bactria, provoked border wars in the first half
of the 5th century.
◦ failure to continue conquest indefinitely and to
continue to bring home its economic fruits eroded
faith in the ideology that supported the empire
 Defending the northern border cost more than the
Gupta treasury could afford
◦ revolutions toppled the empire
 rebellions by vassal states and challenges from states
to the south of the Gupta empire
Hittites,
Chariots, and
Iron Weapons
Romans,
Chariots,
and Iron
Typical Lesson for Teaching Comparison:
“Objective: Students compare state building in
Rome, Han, Persia, and Gupta.
Students gather evidence about two of these
empires’ techniques of imperial administration to
identify the similarities and differences in how
the rulers of two classical empires used legal
systems and bureaucracies to run their
government.”
CONSTANTINE SEEING VISION OF THE CROSS

Spread of Buddhism to Central Asia
Students compare the development of state
building in the period of the classical empires
of Rome, Han, Persia, and Gupta, by
gathering evidence of how the rulers of two
classical empires used legal systems and
bureaucracies to run their government.
 MCQ and quiz correction idea, p. 29
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Cohen pkt, p. 31
Arthur Demarest