WORLD HISTORY: HIST 2 (A)
First Semester 2009-2010
James D Clarkson
These notes are to help you prepare for the Mid-Term Exam. They go through the Middle
Ages, not yet including the Crusades. They should be used in conjunction with your text
and lecture notes.
1.
Introduction and Class Administration
Attendance
Introduction of Instructor; Name, Background, Biases, etc.
Introduction by Students; as above
Review Enderun attendance policy; Warning not to accumulate
Class room procedures; no laptops, no cellphones, no chatting. Try to be
on time
Discussion of plagiarism; relation to science and cumulation of knowledge
Comments on copying, cheating,etc.
SECTION 1
WHAT IS HISTORY?
Comments on abbreviations; B.C. And A.D. = BCE and CE; BP for
archeology/anthropology: ca.= circa, fl.= flourished
in America: “That's history”, meaning, past, over, done, to be ignored as we
move on
e.g. “She's history”, i.e. to be forgotten.
PRO: Not wedded to past, free to innovate in everything, politics,
economics, social order; extremely fluid and mobile society, geographically
and socially.
CON: Learn nothing from history or experience; short-term memory in
private and public affairs; often naively dangerous simplistic view of world;
new things prized over old
In most of the world: History is who we are, where we came from, what we
develop from and build on, what reaffirms our person and people.
PRO: Provides identity, continuity, solidity and richness of tradition, cf
France, China
CON: Continues old hatreds, grudges, revenge. Freezes society in past;
Bosnia, Ireland, China/Japan, India
With a small 'h' history is what happened in past time.
With a capital 'H' it is the written record of past; no writing, no capital H,
only h
SECTION TWO
The First Humans
Prehistory 3500 – 500 B.C.
'History'=written record; so what is 'Prehistory'?
Before writing; Hominid populations, eventually homo sapiens
Two periods, Paleolithic and Neolithic (“lithic” = stone; “paleo”= old, “neo”
= new)
Paleolithic ca. 60,000 BP to 10,000 BP
Hunters-gatherers, Fisherfolk
Undifferentiated society; little or no specialization or social hierarchy;
family/clan
Gathered what nature offered; precarious existence (droughts, floods, fires,
etc)
No surplus production; little food storage
Period of changing climate, sea levels, flora/fauna
Fire, tools, “religion”, jewelry, “language” (can't hunt large mammals w/o
communication),
Evidence; artifacts (man-made) and fossils (natural; wood, bone)
“Neolithic Revolution” break point between Paleolithic and Neolithic. Ca
10,000 BP
Development of agriculture
Manipulate crops and animals by selection (genetic modification)
Food surplus
Settled villages
Social and occupational stratification
Occurred in ?five? areas of world; Fertile Crescent, China, Africa, India,
Meso-America
All ?most? Eventual civilizations developed from neolithic villages
SECTION THREE
River Valley Civilizations; Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and
China
3000 B.C. – A.D. 500
Most of world's major early civilizations developed in river valleys; i.e.
Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India (Greece and Rome major exceptions, but
later)
Frequently initially sites of neolithic villages
Characteristics; water, transportation/trade, food, easily worked soils
(flooding, silt
deposit, renewed, etc)
Agricultural,developed water control (storage, irrigation)
Required engineering, social control, record keeping, taxes (+ corvee labor)
Hierarchical society, broad pyramid, slaves
Accomplishments; writing, architecture, religion, arts, social management,
astronomy, mathematics, medicine, urbanization, armies
Civilization: by definition has; writing, religion, cities, structured society;
usually also has, engineering (water control), army, schools
Comment on Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India; Similarities and
Differences
SECTION FOUR
ANCIENT GREECE
NOT river valley civilization, but sea provided same advantages; water,
transportation/trade, food
Classical Hellenic Civilization preceded by Minoan and Mycenaean
Hellenic ca 800 BC; Age of Homer, Trojan Wars, (Persia) Ulysses, Helen of
Troy, Achilles, the Marathon; time of myths and myth-making
Dark Ages to ca. 500 BC; Classical Greece; Golden Age
Democracy for all citizens, i.e.. free men, not women, not slaves
Philosophy, science, mathematics, arts, rhetoric, warfare
Persian Wars, Alliance Sparta and Athens
Peleponnesian Wars
Alexander's Invasion and Empire and Hellenistic Civilization
Hellenic and Hellenistic, cf real and realistic
Empire divided, Ptolemaic Egypt, Cleopatra (and Anthony)
SECTION FIVE
ROME, HEBREW TRIBES, AND CHRISTIANITY
Freed from Etruscan kingdoms; established Republic (i.e. rule by the
people)
First had patrician class and plebeian class, plus slaves and peasants
Plebeian power grew; constant tension. Roman rule expanded, generals
became powerful, eventually central authority weakened;
Powerful Caesar appeared, reconsolidated Rome, but now as Roman
Empire, Territorial expansion, social cohesions shrank, barbarians (border
people)admitted to army and citizenship, central control lost.
Thousands years earlier Hebrew tribes began to worship one god, prior to
this all peoples polytheistic, Hebrews first monotheistic tribe;
Wondering tribes, enslaved, fled Egyptian slavery, Moses, Ten
Commandants, Hebrew kingdoms
Roman control, Jesus rebels against Jewish leaders (not properly
observing Jewish beliefs), crucified,
Apostles, Christianity spread in Mediterranean basin, sometimes tolerated,
sometimes persecuted; didn't recognize Roman Emperor as a deity,
refused to worship or sacrifice
Roman Empire under constant attack from surrounding tribes, Rome itself
sacked, Constantine converts, (cf China, India)
Constantinople established, now two centers of Christianity and Roman
rule. Gradually grew apart; Roman Catholic Church (Western) and Eastern,
or Greek, Orthodox Church (Eastern).
End of Roman Empire after sack of Rome by Vandals; now only center of
Christianity in Constantinople (eventually became Byzantium and the
Byzantine Empire and lasted another thousand years)
Rome (and virtually all known people in world) =polytheistic;
Hebrews=monotheistic; Jews=monotheistic, thus Jesus and Christianity
monotheistic (and eventually Islam).
So three great monotheistic religions from same origin; Middle East and
Hebrew Tribes; Judaism, Christianity, Islam
Old Testament; First 5 books; Torah; Ten Commandments
SECTION SIX
The World of Islam
Arabian desert oasis origin, Mohamed vision, quarrel with tribal
elders,shifts from Mecca to Medina (the Hegira; Muslim calendar begins)
Similar to Christianity, (once it was established as dominant), as an
expansive, a conquering religion expanding by sword and fire, conversion
and proselytizing.
Rapid conquest and expansion; Arabia, Egypt, North Africa, Middle East,
including the 'Holy Land', Persia, Iberian peninsula, southern
Mediterranean, NW India, SE Asia, Central Asia
Between ninth and thirteenth century was probably the most advanced
civilization seen since classical Greece (and given, the time and scope
difference, was much more advanced); science, arts, literature, medicine,
warfare, architecture. Western civilization still crawling out of swamps of
early Middle Ages.
Who to succeed Mohamed? 7th century quarrel; direct descent or choice of
elders?; became Sunni vs Shi'ite split,Still major schism within Islam; each
considered other apostates, can be killed.
Conquest, expansion, conversion; Islamic world. Arabic common bond; all
liturgy must be in Arabic language, Koran cannot be translated for use. But
not all Muslims now or then were Arabs. (Today largest Islamic nation is
Indonesia, second ?India?, third ?Pakistan?; none of them Arab)
SECTION SEVEN
The Asian World
Two major civilizations; China and India. River valley civilizations; From
China evolved Japan and Korea; from India whole of South Asian subcontinent (now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka (?)
SECTION EIGHT
Europe, the Crusades, and the Byzantine Empire
Fall of Rome; center of Christianity now in east, Constantinople. Western
empire invaded by barbarian tribes, particularly Germanic from north.
Beginning of “Middle Ages” so-called by later scholars because were in the
middle between Classical Greece and Rome and the Renaissance, ca. Mid
14th century."
Sometimes still referred to as “Dark Ages” as thought was little intellectual
or social advancement, only retreat. Cities disappeared, state structure, law
and order, learning, literature, the arts, science; all lost until “High Middle
Ages”, ca. 12th-14th centuries.
But in east, Constantinople, new empire rising, the Byzantine Empire.
Continuation Western Christianity but with Eastern tinge (Greek heritage).
Eventually evolved into different pattern; Church/State distinction lessened
Patriarch vs Pope difference; Head of state = head of church (i.e. Russia);
Eastern, or Greek, Orthodox; strong tradition and heritage, all Christian
Eastern Europe except Poland, Eastern Orthodox, i.e. Slavic World