Transcript China, The Indus Valley, and the Indo-Europeans

China, The Indus Valley,
and the Indo-Europeans
Chapter 2, 3, and 4
IV. China
A. Geography
1. Surrounded by mountains, deserts and
plateaus
2. Contains 2 major rivers
A. Yellow River
 Got its name from the yellow silt left on
the banks of the river after a flood
B. Yangtze River
 Found in central China
C. The best farmland lies between these two
rivers – land called the “Chinese Heart
Land”~
IV. China
D. Disadvantages
1. Flooding is unpredictable
2. Rivers change course
3. Natural boarders do not offer 100%
protection
4. Natural boundries make outside trade
difficult
E. Advantages
1. Great farmland
2. Ample natural resources
3. People could be self-sufficient and were
able to live in isolation~
IV. China
B.
Chinese Dynasties
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Civilization will rise later than in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and
the Indus Valley
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The earliest civilization will emerge about 2000 BC
1. Xia
a. First Chinese ruling family in a civilized China
b. Established about 2000 BC
c. Started by a man named Yu
1. Engineer and a mathematician
2. Gained power because he developed irrigation
systems and flood control measures
3. Farming settlements established because of his
improvements
4. His improvements led to food surpluses – population
growth~
IV. China
2. Shang 1532 to 1027 BC
 next dynasty
 first to leave written records
 built elaborate palaces and tombs
 Anyang
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Most important city also the capitol
Made almost completely of wood
Stood in a forest clearing
Higher classes lived in timber framed, brick houses
within city walls
Peasants lived in hovels outside the city~
IV. China
 Culture
 Social Classes
 Chinese sharply divided by class
 Classes
 Ruling / Nobel Class
 made up of warriors
 headed by the king
 NOBELS
Owned all land
Governed the villages and cities
Paid tribute (goods, crops, wealth) to king to
maintain power~
IV. China
 Artisans (developed during Zhou Dynasty)
 made up of skilled workers
 manufactured jewelry, weapons, religious
items, ect.
 worked for nobles
 not quite peasants
 had some wealth, but no power
 Peasants
 toiled the land
 owned nothing~
IV. China
 Family
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central to Chinese society
based on children respecting parents and elders
patriarchal based
Father controlled all decisions
Women
 At 13-16 would enter in to an arranged marriage
 Moved in with husband
 Had to obey fathers, husbands, and eventually
sons
 To solidify marriage had to bare children
 Person’s first priority to family, than to the king~
IV. China
 Religion
 closely linked to family
 spirits of ancestors brought good or bad fortune to
a family
 spirits not gods, only troublesome or helpful
entities
 families made sacrifices to ancestors to honor
them
 had gods (polytheistic)
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Shang Di supreme god
Priests talked to gods through oracle bones
Questions etched on turtle shells or animal bones
Priest would then crack the bone with a hot poker
To answer the question, the cracks were interpreted ~
IV. China
 Writing
 earliest evidence comes from oracle bones
 Chinese characters stand for ideas not sounds
 No link between spoken language and written language
 Chinese written language uniform all over China
 ADVANTAGE
 Provided unity
 Could speak one version of Chinese, but write in
common language
 DISADVANTAGE
 too many symbols to memorize
 Needed to know 1,000 characters to be literate
 Needed to know 10,000 characters to be a scholar~
IV. China
3. Zhou Dynasty 1027 – 256 BC
a. Overthrew the Shang by military force
b. Established power through the Mandate of
Heaven
i. They believed the Shang were corrupt
ii. The Shang fell out of favor with the gods
iii. The gods (or Heaven) allowed the Zhou to overthrow
the Shang
c. Adopted most of Shang Culture
d. Feudalism
a. Zhou will establish by putting government in control of
all land
b. The land was given to family members and close
friends (of the king) to manage~
IV. China
2. Economic Improvements
 roads, and canals build that helped trade
and stimulated the economy
 created a new class of civil servants to help
run the cities daily activities
 started using iron to make weapons and
tools
 Farming became easier and more
successful
 able to protect cities better~
IV. China
 Warring Era
 first 300 years of Zhou Dynasty very peaceful
 771 BC nomads from the north sacked Hao
(capitol city)
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king killed
some royals escaped
royal family lost all power
next 500 years pretended to rule
lords saw an opportunity to gain more power and wealth
 cities started waging war on each other
 traditional values fell into decline
 China in a state of chaos~
IV. China
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Qin Dynasty 256-202 BC
 Short lived dynasty, but very powerful
 Employed Legalist ideas to unify and control China
 In 221 BC leader took the name Shi Huangdi = “First
Emperor” started Chinese kings being known as
emperors
 Shi Huangdi
 Conquered a lot of territory and doubled the size
of China
 Solidified his power
 destroyed the power of the rival nobles
 required nobles to live in his capitol
 created 38 administrative districts – sent his
officials to administer
 took away the nobles land holdings~
IV. China
 murdered hundreds of Confucian scholars
 censored all printed materials
 created an autocracy – government where
one leader is all powerful and uses the power
in an arbitrary manor
 Centralized the Government
 built a network of highways over 4,000 miles
 forced peasant to labor for the government
 set standards for Chinese writing, law,
currency, weights and measures
 established irrigation projects to help water
crops~
IV. China
 The Great Wall
 started building small walls in mountains on
the northern boarder of China to protect
country from invading nomads from the
north
 forced peasants to build walls – did not pay
them
 major goal was to connect the walls, did not
happen till later on
IV. China
 Results
 trade boomed
 new social class emerged – Middle
Class
 farm production increased
 population increased
 Qin Dynasty hated, because the were
so controlling~
IV. China
 Fall of Qin
 Shi Huangdi’s son took control when his
father died
 also a cruel leader – equally hated by the
people
 the peasants rebelled
 a group called the Han provided leadership to
the rebellion
 in 202 the Qin Dynasty fall – Han Dynasty
took over
 Han Dynasty~
Table of Contents
22—Indus Valley Notes—12/4/13
Next--Get out a new sheet of notebook
paper. At the top write:
Indus Valley Notes, 12/4/13.
EQ: How did the geography of the Indus
Valley impact the growth of civilization?
III. The Indus Valley
A. Geography
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Surrounded by a wall of mountains -> the
Hindu Kush, Karakoram, and Himalaya
Mountains
Area (India) referred to as a subcontinent
Mountains protect a flat, fertile plain
Fertile plain formed by two rivers _. Indus
and Ganges
Plain stretches 1,500 miles
Have seasonal winds called monsoons
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October to May = winter monsoons, dry season
June to August = spring monsoons, wet season~
III. The Indus Valley
 DISADVANTAGES
 Flooding occurs, but unpredictable
 Monsoons can be devastating
 ADVANTAGES
 Mountains (highest in the world) provide
protection from invasion
 Indus river flows from Indian Ocean to Arabian
Sea and provides great trade routes~
III. The Indus Valley
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Emerging Civilizations
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Evidence dates earliest human movement to about
7000 BC
Around 3200 BC farming villages developed around
the Indus River
2500 BC first cities were emerging
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more than 100 settlements uncovered
largest cities include Kalibangan, Mohenjo-Daro and
Harappa
had sophisticated planning
cities laid out on precise grid system
each city had a citadel. Fortified area that contained major
buildings of the city
cities had separate residential, business, and
governmental areas
buildings well constructed and made of precise sun-dried
bricks
had sophisticated plumbing and sewage systems~
III. The Indus Valley
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Culture and Trade
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Very stable civilization
Class distinction not strong because of uniform housing
Prosperous culture because toys and non essential
found
Not a warlike society, because very few weapons found
RELIGION
 early links to modern Hinduism found
 representations of Shiva found
 not a dominate part of life
TRADE
 stamps and seals used to label goods
 seals found in other cultures, Egypt, Sumer, ect.
 trade very important part of life
Mohenjo Daro~
III. The Indus Valley
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Mysterious Ending
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Around 1750 BC quality of buildings declines and
cities fall into ruins
Scientists believe Indus River changed course
which led to over use of the land and lack of water
People wore the land out
Around 1500 BC a sudden catastrophic (natural or
human) took place
Completed the fall of the Indus cities success~
China
Indus Valley
Bookwork
Read chapter 2, section 3
(pages 44-49) and
complete questions 1, 3, 4,
and 5 (p. 49).
HOMEWORK IF NOT
DONE!