Transcript 12 - Cross Cultural Exchanges on the Silk Road

Long-Distance Travel in the
Ancient World
• Lack of police enforcement outside of
established settlements
• Changed in classical period
– Improvement of infrastructure
– Development of empires
Trade Networks Develop
• Dramatic increase in trade due to Greek
colonization (Hellenism)
• Maintenance of roads, bridges
• Discovery of Monsoon wind patterns
(Ptolemaic Egypt)
• Increased tariff revenues used to maintain
open routes
Trade in the Hellenistic World
• Bactria/India
– Spices, pepper, cosmetics, gems, pearls
• Persia, Egypt
– Grain
• Mediterranean
– Wine, oil, jewelry, art
• Development of professional merchant
class
The Silk Roads
• Named for principal commodity from China
• Dependent on imperial stability
• Overland trade routes from China to
Roman Empire
• Sea Lanes and Maritime trade as well
The Silk Roads 200 BCE – 30 CE
Organization of Long-Distance
Trade
• Divided into small segments
• Tariffs and tolls finance local supervision
• Tax income incentives to maintain safety,
maintenance of passage
Cultural Trade: Buddhism and
Hinduism
• Merchants carry religious ideas along silk
routes
• India through central Asia to east Asia
• Cosmopolitan centers promote
development of monasteries to shelter
traveling merchants
• Buddhism becomes dominant faith of silk
roads, 200 BCE-700 CE
The spread of Buddhism, Hinduism, and
Christianity, 200 BCE – 400 CE
Buddhism in China
• Originally, Buddhism restricted to foreign
merchant populations
• Gradual spread to larger population
beginning 5th c. CE
Buddhism and Hinduism
in SE Asia
• Sea lanes in Indian Ocean
• 1st c. CE clear Indian influence in SE Asia
– Rulers called “rajas”
– Sanskrit used for written communication
– Buddhism, Hinduism increasingly popular
faiths
Christianity in Mediterranean
Basin
• Gregory the
Wonderworker, central
Anatolia 3rd c. CE (St.
Gregory)
• Christianity spreads
through Middle East,
North Africa, Europe
• Sizeable communities as
far east as India
• Judaism, Zoroastrianism
also practiced
Saint Gregory of
Neocaesarea
Christianity in SW Asia
• Influence of ascetic practices from India
• Desert-dwelling hermits, monastic
societies
• After 5th c. CE, followed Nestorius, a
Greek theologian
– Emphasized human nature of Jesus
– Nestorian Schism
Spread of Manichaeism
• Mani, a devout Zoroastrian (216-272 CE)
• Viewed himself a prophet for all humanity
• Influenced by Christianity and Buddhism,
was a Gnostic faith
• Dualist
– good vs. evil
– light vs. dark
– spirit vs. matter
Manichaean Society
• Devout: “the Elect”
– Ascetic lifestyle
– Celibacy, vegetarianism
– Life of prayer and fasting
• Laity: “the Hearers”
– Material supporters of “the Elect”
– More conventional lives, but followed strict
moral code and provided food and gifts to
support the “Elect”
Decline of Manichaeism
• Spread through silk routes to major cities
in Roman Empire
• Zoroastrian opposition provokes Sassanid
persecution
– Mani arrested, dies in captivity
• Romans, fearing Persian influence, also
persecute
The Spread of Epidemic
Disease
• Role of trade routes in spread of
pathogens
• Limited data, but trends in demographics
reasonably clear
• Smallpox, measles, bubonic plague
• Effect: Economic slowdown, move to
regional self-sufficiency
Epidemics in the Han and Roman
Empires
Chinese Population, 0600 CE
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
c. 0 c. c. c.
CE 200 400 600
CE CE CE
Millions
Roman Population, 0400 CE
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
c. 0 CE c. 200 c. 400
CE
Millions
Internal Decay of the Han State
• Formation of factions
– Reduced effectiveness of central government
• Problem of land distribution
– Large landholders develop private armies
• Epidemics
• Peasant rebellions
– 184 CE Yellow Turban Rebellion
Collapse of the Han Dynasty
China after the Han
Dynasty, 220 CE
• Generals assume
authority, reduce Emperor
to puppet figure
• Alliance with landowners
• 200 CE Han Dynasty
abolished, replaced by 3
kingdoms
• Immigration of northern
nomads increases
Sinicization of Nomadic Peoples
• Social and cultural changes to a Chinese
way of life
• Adapted to the Chinese environment
– Agriculture
• Adoption of Chinese names, dress,
intermarriage
Popularity of Buddhism and
Daoism
• Disintegration of political order casts doubt
on Confucian doctrines
• Buddhism, Daoism gain popularity
• Religions of salvation
Fall of the Roman Empire:
Internal Factors
• The Barracks Emperors
– Between 235-284, 26 claimants to the throne,
all but one killed in power struggles
• Epidemics
• Disintegration of imperial economy in favor
of local and regional self-sufficient
economies
Diocletian (r. 284-305 CE)
• Divided empire into two administrative
districts
• Co-Emperors, dual Lieutenants
– “Tetrarchs”
• Currency, budget reform
• Relative stability disappears after
Diocletian's death, civil war follows
• Constantine emerges victorious
Military issue coin of
Diocletian
Diocletian's Palace at
Salona (Split, Croatia)
Modern view of Diocletian's
Palace near Salona (in
Split, Croatia)
Fall of the Roman Empire:
External Factors
• Visigoths, influenced by Roman law,
Christianity
– Formerly buffer states for Roman Empire
• Attacked by Huns under Attila in 5th c. CE
• Massive migration of Germanic peoples
into Roman Empire
• The Visigoth Alaric sacked Rome in 410
CE, established Germanic emperor
Odovacer in 476 CE
Romulus Augustus, the last of the Western Roman
Emperors.
The German army commander Odovacer
dethrones Romulus Augustus in 476, wood
engraving, c. 1880.
Germanic invasions and the fall of the
western Roman Empire, 450-476 CE
Cultural Change in the Roman
Empire
• Growth of Christianity
– Constantine’s Vision, 312 CE
– Promulgates Edict of Milan, allows Christian
practice
– Converts to Christianity
• 380 CE Emperor Theodosius proclaims
Christianity official religion of Roman Empire
– In 391, the "Theodosian decrees" declared
that Pagan religions that had not yet been
rendered Christian ones, were banned.
St. Augustine (354-430 CE)
• Hippo, North Africa
• Experimented with
Greek thought,
Manichaeism
• 387 converts to
Christianity
• Made Christianity
intellectually
respectable
• Major theologian
– City of God
Augustine as depicted by
Sandro Botticelli (c. 1480)
The Institutional Church
• Conflicts over doctrine and practice in
early Church
– Divinity of Jesus
– Role of women
• Church hierarchy established
– Patriarchs, Bishops, Bishop of Rome
recognized as Pope (the first recognized as
St. Peter)