Transcript Political Aspects in the Foundations Period

Political Aspects in the
Foundations Period
Giselle, Alexandre, Mishu, and
Margaret
Comparison Thesis
Questions
Margaret
Compare two of the following civilizations in the
areas of ruling systems and social class
organization:
Gupta Empire
Han Empire
Roman Empire
The Han and the Roman Empires differed because of their
ways of social organization, in that the Han Empire’s social
classes were much more structured than the Roman Empire’s
were. Truly though, the Roman and the Han Empires were
more similar than different, because of their ways of
government. The Han and the Roman Empires had
emperors that controlled the nation as a “whole.” Both had
also, many city-states or regions led by smaller leaders who
took commands from this emperor.
Compare the defeat of Egypt by the Nubians to
the defeat of the Shang by the Zhou.
• The Nubian defeat of Egypt was similar to the Shang defeat of the
Zhou because they were both uprisings, in that both were an
unforeseen force that defeated an empire and took complete control.
They were more different than similar in their background and their
after effects, though, because Nubia had always been near Egypt and
had Egypt controlling it from early on. The Shang was a family
getting other people to uprise with them inside the Zhou Empire. Also,
the Shang Empire almost completely replaced government ways after
taking over, while the Nubians let things be in Egypt and putting a few
traditions forward for others to copy, which was the opposite of the
Shang.
Continuities
Mishu
City-States & Provincial Governors
• Most of the empires in history have been divided
into provinces (also known as city-states) which
are self-governing urban centers and the
agricultural territories they control. The provincial
leaders (or governors) had a way of ruling that
was similar but slightly different from the central
government, or at the heart/capital. Positions often
became hereditary due to leaders giving them to
their sons. Also, rulers often gave land (feudalism)
in exchange for loyalty.
• Mesopotamia - first to have city states; Sargon united
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many cities under one king and capital; he installed
governors.
Egyptians/ Nubia - Began at village level, progressed to
districts, and finally became a central government in the
capital city.
Shang/Zhou - (Shang) King often traveled to other courts
to reinforce loyalty. (Zhou) King Wu distributed territories
to relatives and allies which they were allowed to
administer and profit from so long as they stayed loyal.
Eastern Zhou period was persistent in warfare. Smaller
number of larger and more powerful kingdoms.
Olmec/ Chavín - Both local chiefs and a more powerful
chief or king dominated politics.
Assyrians - Normally, king selected one of sons to succeed
him.
• Phoenicians - City-states of Byblos, Berytus,
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Sidon, and Tyre. Especially Carthage.
Persians - Cyrus divided empire into 20 provinces;
each w/ satrap or governor. Satrap’s most
important duty was to collect and send tributes to
king. Satrap positions became hereditary. Farther
province = more autonomous.
Greek - hundreds of “polis”
Rome - controlled the Mediterranean; oversea
provinces; several wars, military
Han - Warring States period, frequent conflicts
among a group of small states w/ somewhat
different languages and cultures
Gupta- often had hereditary governors; villages
had headman/ council of elders.
Religion & Power
Religion was closely tied with or had some kind of
influence on the governments of civilizations and
empires throughout history.
Zhou - Mandate of Heaven made ruler be chosen by
chief deity, aligned w/ god. Duke of Zhou:
Confucianism ruled politics and Chinese society.
Olmec/ Chavín - Rise of urban centers coincided w/
appearance of a form of kingship that combined
religious and secular roles. Had dazzling ritual
displays that reinforced authoritative power. (head
statues)
• Egyptians - (old) King was associated w/ return of dead to
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life and life-giving and self-renewing sun-god. (new)
Akhenaten, a pharaoh, made the god Aten (or Amon), a
supreme deity.
Assyrians - King literally and symbolically center of
Assyrian universe, believed god chose king as earthly
representative. He supervised state religion.
Persians - Darius I joined moral theology of
Zoroastrianism to political ideology; claimed that mission
of empire is to bring scattered people back together under
justice and restore perfection.
Greek - Worship of the gods at state-sponsored festivals.
Han - Qin Dynasty & Legalism (strict standardizations,
eventually led to downfall)
Mauryan - Ashoka spread Buddhism after seeing the
bloody aftermath of conquest. He inscribed sayings on
stones.
Gupta - “theater state” dramatic ceremonies (kind of
political propaganda)
Changes
Giselle
Overtime, education became more
emphasized in political leadership.
In earlier civilizations, most
leadership systems were hereditary and
many leaders were believed to have
religious significance. Later on, more
empires focus on sides of politics that
require education.
Reason
• Empires began to realize that the better educated
they were, the more responsive and efficient they
could become.
• Leaders in some earlier empires that chief deities
granted leadership (Mandate of Heaven in Zhou)
This is not related to education.
• Later on, it becomes more present. For example,
the Han Dynasty had a gentry class of scholars
that the state supported.
• Higher education also lead to new technologies
like Roman aqueducts.
Overtime, political systems began to be able
to handle more land. (They were able to
expand more.)
In earlier civilizations, government was not
very organized and the empires were much
smaller (Mesopotamia.) Later on, they
began to create more complex political
structures, allowing empires of more vast
land to flourish.
Reason
• More regional leaders were being sent out to
control peoples of distance to the central
government, which allowed more land to be able
to stay under control.
• For example, the early Zhou civilization had a
feudal system in which all people had to be
connected to him.
• Later, more empires had more formal provincial or
regional leaders, like the Roman empire that gave
members of Senate the jobs of being governors of
provinces.
Alexandre Fall
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One of the many examples in which governments used
religion to accomplish what they wanted. The Zhou
used the Mandate of Heaven which said that the
Heavens chose them to be rulers, to ensure their power,
Ashoka which was against violence, used Buddhism so
that there would never again be violence on his empires
part and Chavin used religion to control their
populations.
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In ever big empire, there was some form
kinship in the political structure, either for
every official government spot or just for the
overall ruler. Even the Greeks, who had a
“democracy” in some city states had their
rulers chosen by a kinship system. The kinship
system did have some downsides, like how the
son of a great ruler would sometimes be weak,
which led to the fall of some great empires
such as the Qin empire.
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Although trade may be in a completely
different category, trade was the basis of
economy, and a strong economy usually meant
a strong political structure. Trade also led to
expansion, which sometimes helped the
political structure if the rulers could control all
the land the right way or it would make things
worse because armies would be stretched
across large amounts of land and the ruler
would have more people to rule and try to
please.
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Social classification is important because social
classes are what put the certain people who
had power into power. It also gave these
certain people better education which some
times led to taking power like in Han China.
Usually social classes were made based on the
topic of the last slide. The merchants who did
the best in trade usually were the one who
either got to vote or had the most influence on
the rulers.
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Military was almost always the reason an
empire was strong. When an empire didn’t had
a strong military, they had a strong economy
which they used to get protection from rival
militaristic states. Militaries also helped keep
the peace and in some states, like the Romans,
people with military power used this power to
take control of the state.
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One of the many times that a ruler tried
shoving it’s people how great they were
because they would force people to work on
temples for themselves that were huge, owing
that they could force anyone o do things for
their rulers and because of the size, it make you
see when you see it “Wow that’s big, that must
have been a very powerful ruler.”
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Expansion was what political leaders were
always trying to find ways to accomplish of
stop. Most empires, the rulers were trying to
expand there power over more people. But for
some empires, like the Han and the Gupta,
their rulers tried to find ways to stop strong
military alliances or powers from taking them
over, which usually led to
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Carthage is one of the many cities or areas of
land in which big empires based all their big
political actions around, such as the cities of
Rome, Constantinople and Athens. This
sometime led to problems because when these
cities few to attacks, the empires lost political
stability, which usually led to the fall of the rest
of the empire.
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Most big empires need many province and
leaders for those provinces so that those big
empires could maintain political order. These
techniques worked for the Han, Romans,
Persians and many other empires. Big empires,
who didn’t have provinces, usually had
different city-state, which were almost to same
thing except city-state were not controlled by a
central political power.
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One of the many historians who gave us our
views on politics of the time. These people are
the people who led us to saying what we said
in this presentation. Also, people like
Herodotus showed us what people of the time
thought of their rulers.
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