Transcript Unit 1 and 2

UNIT 1 & 2
Foundations: 8000 B.C.E.- 600 C.E.
UNIT 1:– Agricultural Revolution & Urbanization (Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, India)
UNIT 2: Rise and Fall of Empires (Assyrian, Phoenicia, Greece, Rome, Persia, Han, Africa)
Why and where do civilizations arise?
Why and how do they endure and flourish?
Why do they fall?
Role of Climate and Geography
in Early Societies
Nomadic people moved from Africa to other areas:
plentiful food sources, livable climate, water source,
tools – created small kinship
Ice Age – ice allowed people
To move to new land areas
Rivers – Early societies lived near rivers
If rivers were difficult, IRRIGATION
Birth of New Technologies
Fire
Bronze
Iron
Societies with access to iron
could rule with compound
bows and weapons
Population and DEMOGRAPHY
What factors influence population growth and
decline?
Rise of Agriculture
Spontaneous separate development – why,
where and when?
New Civilizations = Mesopotamia, Egypt,
China, India (river valley systems)
Diffusion of specific plants and techniques
New Civilizations = irrigation, grains
(wheat, barley, rice) or yams
What is a Civilization?
Standard criteria:
- Cities as centers of administration
- Political system based on territory
- Specialization of labor (including advances in arts & sciences)
- Division of classes in society (wealth/elites)
- Monument building and urban planning
- Record keeping (used to be writing)
- Long distance trade
Use of term? Skill: Analysis/historical argumentation
Fertile Crescent: Mesopotamia
Mesopotomia:
Tigres & Euphrates River (unpredictable)
Few natural resources, open to invasion
– SO…wars, trade, mobilized resources
Warriors became leaders – lugal
Technology – arithmetic, geometry, ramps,
cuneiform, ziggurats, columns, arches
Gave way to BABYLONIAN Empire --Peak is Hammurabi & Hammurabi’s Code
Egypt
Egypt
Geography: desert is a natural barrier, isolated
SO…less emphasis on war, trade, aggression
Upper & Lower Nile
Government: Pharoahs (Gods on earth) =
theocracy
rule after death, polytheistic
Technology: Hieroglyphics and papyrus
Gave way to: NUBIAN KINGDOM
(govt. based on religion),
Compare & Contrast
Egypt & Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
__________ flooding
secular ruler from army
__________writing
Settled cities/vulnerable to
invasion bc. of open space
Women held few rights
Egypt
Predictable Flooding
________– Gods on earth
hieroglyphics
More rural – focus on trade
not territory/protected
Women had _____ rights:
hold, inherit, will property
No laws – Pharoah is law
Set of laws - ___________
. SIMILARITIES:
Monumental architecture (ziggurauts, pyramids), class system
(3 diff. classes), slaves, irrigation, polytheistic
China
SHANG – Many wars, writing, walled cities,
used oracle bones
-
ZHOU
Mandate of Heaven (justified rule of Emperor)
roads, canals, irrigation
Confucianism vs. Legalism
3-generational family, Dynastic Cycle
SIMILARITIES of Earliest States:
Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, India, Mesoamerica
Skill: compare/contrast
Settled population
Bronze metallurgy
Irrigation and near rivers
Dominated by a leader
Polytheism (except China)
Patriarchal society
Labor specialization
Unique characteristics
CHINA: Empire did not fall – continued through Dynastic Cycle
Mandate of Heaven – to some extent, people gave ruler power
Very independent – did not need to trade
Philosophy, but not a religion
MESOAMERICA: isolated and not influenced by other empires
Few technologies (no levers and pulleys, little metallurgy)
llamas (for transportation), corn, beans, squash, yams
INDIA: Writing system, but undecipherable
Mohenjo-daro & Harrappa – central authority (standardization)
Empire Building (from State to Empire – Unit 2)
How does an empire rise?
What does an empire require to exist?
city center for trade, religion & political administration
Social hierarchies
What do its subjects expect?
Symbols of legitimacy
Why do empires fall? (Conrad-Demerest Model)
Achievements in Classical Age of Empires
Persian, Phoenician, Roman, Greek, Qin, Han, Mauryan and Gupta
Greek science and philosophy- Plato, Aristotle
Roman law and architecture
Political organization in Han China
Spiritual, artistic developments in Gupta India
Skill: continuities and change
-
Continuities of (early) civilizations to empires:
Patriarchy
Slavery
Hierarchical/caste system
Changes in (early) civilizations to empires:
Development of Empires with city centers
Government systems with legal codes
Technology and ideas
Belief systems (Axial Age)
More Interactions (networks of trade)
MONUMENTAL ARCHECTURE
Symbols of Legitimacy in States/Empires
Interregional Networks of People
by 600 C.E.
Silk Roads
Mediterranean trade
Indian Ocean trade
Meso and Andean American trading
Axial Age Thinkers
Origins of World Belief Systems
Polytheism
Origins of World Belief Systems
Hinduism
Origins of World Belief Systems
Judaism
Origins of World Belief Systems
Confucianism
Origins of World Belief Systems
Daoism
Origins of World Belief Systems
Buddhism
Origins of World Belief Systems
Christianity
Origins of World Belief Systems
Islam
Diffusion of Belief Systems