Transcript Cities and Civilizations

PERIOD 2
Classical Period
600 BCE
to 600 CE
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Punishments should know no degree or grade, but from
ministers of state and generals down to great officers
and ordinary folk, whoever does not obey the king’s
commands, violates the laws of the state, or rebels
against the statutes fixed by the ruler should be guilty
of death and should not be pardoned. Merit acquired in
the past should not cause a decrease in the punishment
for demerit later, nor should good behavior in the past
cause any ignoring of the law for wrong done later. If
loyal ministers and sons do wrong, they should be
judged according to the full measure of their guilt, and
if among the officials who have to maintain the law and
to uphold an office, there are those who do not carry
out the king’s law, they are guilty of death and should
not be pardoned, but their punishment should be
extended to their family for three
generations. Colleagues who, knowing their offense,
inform their superiors will themselves escape
punishment…. Therefore I say that if there are severe
penalties that extend to the whole family, people will
not dare to try [how far they can go], and as they dare
not try, no punishments will be necessary...
Shang Yang (390 BC – 338 BC)
Classical China
Qin [Ch’in] Dynasty
 Shi
Huangdi
 Legalist rule
Bureaucratic,
centralized
control
 Military expansion
 Book burnings -->
targeted Confucianists
 Buried protestors alive!
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(221-206 BCE)
Han Dynasty
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(202 BCE-220 CE)
Strong, centralized bureaucracy
Extended Great Wall
Roads (including Silk Road), canals
Emperor Wu Di (141-87 BCE)
 Public
schools
 Colonized
Manchuria,
Korea, &
Vietnam
 Civil service
system
Imperial
Seal
Han
Artifacts
Chang’an:
The Han
Capital
Classical India
Mauryan Empire (320 BCE-320 CE)
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Chandragupta
Unified northern India after
Alexander the Great withdrew
 Set up efficient bureaucracy
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Asoka (grandson)
Dedicated life to Buddha
 Continued bureaucracy
 Hospitals, roads
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Gupta Empire (320-647 CE)
Chandra Gupta I
Bureaucracy
Allowed local
government in south
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Patriarchal
Caste system
continued
Advances
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Medicine
Math (decimal, pi)
Classical Greece
Early History
(3000 BCE-750 BCE)
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Minoans
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Hellenes
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Crete
Seafaring merchants
Sophisticated civilization
Merged with native Greeks
Dark Age
Homer
Geographic
Influence
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Mountains
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Insufficient farmland
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Founded colonies on Mediterranean
coast
Location
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Independent city-states
Peninsula in Mediterranean
Exchange of culture/trade
Deep harbors
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Numerous good harbors on its
irregular coastline
City-States
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Athens
 Democratic,
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leading city-state
Sparta
 Aristocratic/military
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Corinth
 Trading
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city-state
center
United by language, culture and
fear of Persians
Alexander the Great
(336-323 BCE)
Taught by Aristotle
 Conquered Persian
Empire
 Created
Hellenistic
culture
 Died suddenly
at 33
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Athenian Contributions
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Theater, poetry and historical writing
Science and math
Architecture and sculpture
Philosophy
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Socrates
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Plato
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Individual
Group
Aristotle
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World
Classical Rome
Ancient Rome
(1500 BCE-500 BCE)
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1500BC-Latins
crossed Alps
 Founded
Rome
 Conquered by Etruscans
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New Romans
 Roads,
walls, & buildings
 Metal weapons
Republic
500-27 BCE
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Social aristocracy
 Patricians
 Plebeians
Senate
Conquered Mediterranean world
 Italian Peninsula and west
 Client states
Spread Greek culture
Began to end with assassination of
Julius Caesar in 44 BCE
Empire
27 BCE-476 CE
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Octavian (Augustus)
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Spread Greco-Roman civilization
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Law, language, historical writing
Trade, industry, science, architecture
Diocletian
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Began Pax Romana
Divided Empire
Constantine
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Reunited empire
Converted to Christianity
Germanic Invasion
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Germans allowed to settle
Huns pushed more Germans in
476 CE—last Roman emperor
Trade Routes
of the Classical World
Items Traded
spices
gold & ivory
Classical
Mesoamerica
Maya (1800 BCE-800 BCE)
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Led by ruler-priests
Only known fully developed written
language of time/area
Art, architecture
Writing, math, astronomy, calendar
Cultural diffusion across Mesoamerica
Why civilizations fall
 External
 War
 Natural
disaster
 Disease
 Internal
 Overpopulation
 Economic
problems
 Social
disruption
 Political
struggles
How do civilizations
collapse?
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Population size and density decrease
dramatically
Society tends to become less politically
centralized
Less investment is made in things such as
architecture, art, and literature
Trade and other economic activities are
greatly diminished
The flow of information among people
slows
The ruling elites may change, but usually
the working classes tend to remain and
provide continuity
Is it possible to prevent collapse?
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Every society must:
 answer basic biological needs of its members:
food, drink, shelter, and medical care.
 provide for production and distribution of goods
and services (perhaps through division of labor,
rules concerning property and trade, or ideas
about role of work).
 provide for reproduction of new members and
consider laws and issues related to reproduction
(regulation, marriageable age, number of
children, and so on).
 provide for training (education, apprenticeship,
passing on of values) of individuals so that they
can become functioning adults in society.
 provide for maintenance of internal and external
order (laws, courts, police, wars, diplomacy). Thuman
and Bennet
 provide meaning and motivation to its members.
PERIODS 1 & 2
Ancient and
Classical Periods
8000 BCE
to 600 CE