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The Classical Period in World
History
Periodization: Classical
• The classical period runs from about 1000 or 800
BCE to 500 or 600 CE.
• Some of the key formative elements of major
civilization-what historians call the great
traditions-were forged in the classical period and
would be ingredients in world history from this
point onward.
• The classical civilizations were situated in areas
where river valley civilizations had flourished
earlier, although they usually relocated
somewhat and always expanded.
The Classical Age
• Areas:
China expanded from the north to the southern
portion of the Yellow River, forming the Middle
Kingdom.
Indian civilization spread through the whole
subcontinent, with its focus now in the Ganges
River basin rather than the northwest.
Classical Mediterranean civilization was located in
Greece and along the shoreline of the eastern
Mediterranean and ultimately spread westward,
both in North Africa and southern Europe.
The Classical Age
The classical civilization that stayed closest to
it river valley roots was Persia, which had its
center in the Tigris-Euphrates valley but also
spread more widely in the Middle East.
So the core areas of China, India, Persia and the
Mediterranean are the centers of the Classical
Age.
The Classical Age
• The period saw great activity and many changes.
These major civilizations included major
population centers.
• At its height, China included 54 million people;
Rome had 52 million.
• It must be noted that the features that came
from the classical civilizations did not define the
whole world—key parts of northern Europe,
many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, places in Asia
(such as Japan) and the Americas are left out.
The Classical Age
• Also of note: The Classical societies did build on the
river valley kingdom’s achievements, but classical
civilization differed in many ways:
– Classical civilizations are much larger.
– All of these civilizations had iron technologies. Iron had
been introduced around 1500 BCE. (Thus the Assyrian
Empire was one of the first to use Iron and building an
Empire in the Middle East.) **Metallurgy
– Leaders saw advantages in terms of population expansion
for economic and military reasons.
– Places were used to civilization.
• Classical civilizations did have numerous contacts.
*Trade-the Phoenicians
Basics of the Ancient Greece
•
•
•
Aegean, Minoan, Mycenaean Civilizations
– Trading Societies (enviornmental determinism)
– Conquest (Trojan war)
– Joined into single Culture called Hellenes or Greeks
– Archaic period
Greek City States: Polis
– Athens, Sparta (Thebes, Corenthia, Attica, others)
• Athens: educated, great thinkers
– metics
• Sparta: Warlike, Soldiers, Military Strength
– Helots
– xenophobic
Beginnings of Democracy
– Golden Age
– Began in Athens
– Pericles
– Not full enfranchisement
– Most representative Government in Ancient World
Basic of the Ancient Romans
• Archaic Period
– Etruscans, Sabines, Latium
– Rome built 753 BCE
• Roman Republic (509) last of Tarqiun kings
– Tensions between Plebeians (lower class) and Patrician (upper class)
called struggle of the orders
– Beginning of Roman expansion
– Punic Wars
• Three Campaigns against Carthage
• Rome was Victorious
– Began expanding to the East (Greece, Balkans)
• Collapse of Roman Republic
– Too Much expansion
– Caused Social Problems, Civil wars
– Solidification of Leadership under single hand
• Roman empire
– Julius Caesar, Octavian (Caesar Agustus)
Basics Han Dynasty
• Strongest and longest dynasty
• Expansionist Empire
– Postal system
– Roads
– Defensive fortifications
• Weak Leadership caused collapse
– Corruption and leadership issues
• Had to protect the expanding borders some that
encouraged trade along the silk road
• Silk road brought “bandits” that threatened the outer
borders of the Han dynasty
Basics of the Indian Empires
• Aryans
– Nomadic Group invaded India
– Earliest Europeans
– Conquered the Dravidians (Dark Skinned Indians)
– Established Warrior Aristocracy
– Established Sanskrit
– Vedic Era and Early Hindu faith
• Caste System
• Priests (Brahmins)
• Warriors and Political Rulers (Kshatruyas)
• Commoners
• Servants and Peasants
• The “Untouchables”
– Born into Caste; Cannot be changed
India Continued
• Mauryan empire
– Ashoka: famous Emperor
– Converted to Buddhism
– Collapsed from outside attacks
– Laws of Manu
• Guapta Empire
– Religious toleration
– Muslim invaders
General Comparisons: Overview
• China: From the fairly
decentralized, often
landlord-dominated
Zhou dynasty, China
made a move to
centralization under the
Qin dynasty and even
more centralized
political and ideological
operation under the
Han dynasty at the end
of the period.
General Comparisons: Overview
• Mediterranean: This area
emphasized the Greek
tradition until the 4th century.
This was followed by the
period of Alexander the
Great’s conquests and the
Hellenistic period, in which
Greek cultural and political
influences interacted with the
traditions of Egypt and the
Middle East. In its final phase,
the civilization’s emphasis
shifted to Rome, the
republican period and
expression of the classical
Mediterranean.
Athens, Sparta, 1st & 2nd Persian Wars
Punic Wars, Roman Civil War Period
General Comparisons: Overview
• Persia: In the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, Persia
was more important than Greece and had
established a strong, effective government.
The Persian tradition would be partially
overshadowed, however, first by the
conquests of Alexander, then by the conquests
of Arab Islam.
General Comparisons: Overview
• India: Classical India involves the story of the
immigration of Arian or Indo-European peoples,
whose culture was gradually codified into major
works of literature and religious philosophy
(Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita) . Indian, in
this second civilization period, settled down into
more recognizably coherent development, with a
major empire in the 4th century BCE-the Mauryan
Empire-and, at the end of the classical period,
another major imperial statement-the Gupta
Empire.
Cultural comparisons (differences)
Belief systems:
• China: Confucianism and Daoism; on the whole China
was mostly secular
• India: the most spiritual generating Hinduism and
Buddhism.
Science:
• China: Emphasized empirical science because of its
utility to society and the economy.
• The Greco-Roman tradition was more theoretical
(Comedy’s Tragedy’s).
• India had a strong tradition emphasizing mathematics.
Cultural Comparisons (differences)
Political:
• China: Created a strong central government and a large
bureaucracy. Emphasis on key political concepts that
supported the central government, specific training
systems and even exams for government officials
(Confucianism).
• India: Stresses a smaller, decentralized states and placed
less emphasis on political ideology. (Theater State)
• Mediterranean: A strong political emphasis, although its
overall political tradition was more decentralized than
China. The Roman state was more interested in the
development of a legal system as a unifier, than massive
bureaucracies. (Republic versus Athenian Democracy)
Cultural Comparisons
(differences)
Social:
• India: The Caste System
• Med: Strong reliance on slavery; slavery did exist
in India and China but on a more limited scale
than in the Rome and Greece.
• China: Under Confucianism, developed a social
hierarchy based on the notion of rule by wise
people of an upper class, with the lower classes
offering deference in return. (3 submissions)
Cultural Comparisons (differences)
Economics
• China: Depended on trade, but Confucianism
prompted a cultural bias against merchants, who
were viewed with suspicion because of their
devotion to moneymaking and the possibility that
they would pull away from the central political
and social values of Chinese society.
• India: Merchants were encouraged to use the
Indian Ocean as an artery for foreign trade.
(Trade Winds, Merchants as cultural movers)
Cultural Comparisons (differences)
Technologies
• China: Would be the most important source of
technological innovation in the world. Most
technologies would go westward.
• India: Also success in stressing invention—
especially steelmaking.
• Med: Probably the least developed emphasis on
technology, possibly because it tended to expand
the slave system rather than increase production
through tech development.
Why the differences?
• China may have focused on political order
because of its geography. The possibility of
invasion from Central Asia may have
encouraged an emphasis on order to ward off
disruption.
Why the differences?
• India was also affected by invasions and
influences from the outside world that came
through the passes that lead through the
Himalayas and northwestern India. Indian’s
emphasis on artistic sensuality and religious
fervor could have stemmed from its climate.
•
(Caste system as a form of
•
social control)
social
How did these empires maintain?
• Economic integration: e.g. China created canals to
connect locations; Med leaders connected with
grain growing regions of Africa.
• Culture integration: In the 6th and 5th centuries
BCE all of these groups introduced belief systems.
E.g. China and Confucianism and Daoism;
Hinduism and Buddhism in India; Zoroastrianism
in Persia, philosophy and art in the Greco-Roman
world. Christianity in Rome as a unifying force for
the empire.
How did these empires maintain?
• Political integration: The
building of imperial
structures that would
foster and reinforce
economic and cultural
coherence.
The Fall
• External pressures
• Over expansion
• Corruption among leadership