Chapter 7: Organization and Reorganization of Human Societies, c. 600 B.C.E. to c. 600 C.E.

Classical Civilizations
1. India and China
  1. Mauryan Empire (321 - 180 B.C.E.)
    1. founded by Chandragupta Maurya, who unified the smaller Aryan kingdoms into a civilization
    2. Ashoka Maurya, his grandson, took empire to greatest heights, converted to Buddhism
      1. Rock and PIllar Edict, reminded Mauryans to live generous and righteous lives
  2. Gupta Dynasty (320 - 550 C.E.)
    1. revival under Chandra Gupta II, known as Chandra Gupta the Great
    2. often referred to as a golden age because it enjoyed relative peace and saw advances int he arts and sciences
      1. Arabic numerals
        decimal system that used the numerals 1 through 9
    3. restored Hinduism
  3. Qin Dynasty (221 - 209 B.C.E.)
    1. connected separate fortification walls that eventually became the Great Wall of China
    2. Qin Shi Huang
      1. recentralized various feudal kingdoms
      2. standardized units and currency
      3. refused to tolerate any dissent
  4. Han Dynasty (200 B.CE. - 460s C.E.)
    1. invaded by the Xiongnu
    2. Wu Ti
      1. enlarged the Han Empire
    3. civil service exam
2. Mediterranean
  1. Persian Empire
    1. Satrapies and satraps
    2. Lydians
      1. came up with the concept of using coined money to conduct trade rather than using the barter system
    3. Phoenicians
      1. established powerful naval city-states all along the Mediterranean, developed a simple alphabet that only used 22 letters
    4. Hebrews
      1. religious belief in Judaism
  2. Greece (800 - 500 B.C.E.)
    1. collection of city-states
      1. Athens
        political, commercial, and cultural center of Greek civilization
      2. Sparta
        agricultural and highly militaristic region
      3. Citizens - composed of adult males
      4. Free people - no political rights
      5. Non-citizens - no rights
    2. Persian Wars (449-449 B.C.E.)
      1. led to Golden Age of Pericles (480-404 B.C.E.)
        Pericles established Delian League
        an alliance against aggression from its common enemies
        Greek philosophy
        rational thinking
        Socrates
        Plato
        Aristotle
        Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.E.)
        Athens lost, Sparta did not destroy Athens out of respect
        Macedonians led by Philip III of Macedon (359-336 B.C.E.) took advantage of weakness
        Alexander the Great expanded Macedonian dominance
        conquered the Persian Empire and moved eastward to the shores of the Indus River
  3. Rome (509 B.C.E. - 476 C.E.)
    1. plebeians
      1. all other free men
    2. patricians
      1. landowning noblemen
    3. Government
      1. Senate
      2. Assembly
      3. Twelve Tables of Rome
        "innocent until proven guilty"
    4. Punic Wars
      1. First Punic War (264-241 B.C.E.)
        fought to gain control of Sicily
        Rome won
      2. Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.E.)
        Hannibal led an attack on Rome, but the Romans attacked Carthage, forcing him to retreat
      3. Third Punic War (149-146 B.C.E.)
        Rome invaded Carthage and burned it to the ground
      4. Rome vs Carthage
      5. First Triumvirate
        Pompey
        Crassus
        Julius Caesar
        became emperor for life, assassinated in 44 B.C.E.
        Second Triumvirate
        Octavius
        assumed name of Augustus Caesar, and became emperor
        Rome was now an empire led by a single emperor
        Pax Romana for 200 years
        new religions introduced: Christianity and Judaism
        persecuted until Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 313 C.E.
        Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 391 C.E.
        Marc Antony
        Lepidus
3. Mesoamerica
  1. Mayan Civilization (300 B.C.E. - 800 C.E.)
    1. built enormous cities
    2. similar to the Egyptians
Collapse of the Empires
1. Maya
  1. not exactly sure
    1. likely expanding population exhausted the Mayan environment
  2. began to desert their cities in the 9th century C.E.
2. Han China
  1. interrupted by Wang Mang (9-23 C.E.), established Xin Dynasty
    1. used Mandate of Heaven
      1. persistent famines, devastating floods, and increasing commodity prices fueled peasant uprisings
        Xin Dynasty came to end in 23 C.E.
3. Gupta Empire
  1. invaded by the White Huns
    1. able to hold off the Huns for the first half of the 5th century
      1. Hun kingdoms established in western and northern India
4. Western Portion of the Roman Empire
  1. internal decay
  2. external pressure
    1. Attila's Huns
  3. sheer size of the empire
  4. weak/bad leaders
  5. epidemics
  6. Diocletian became emperor in 284 C.E.
    1. divided empire into two regions
      1. Constantine defeated rivals and assumed sole control over the empire in 322 C.E.
        ordered the building of Constantinople at the site of the Greek city of Byzantium
        became capital of a united empire in 340 C.E.
        constantly attacked
        Sassanid Persian Empire, took over in Iran in 224 C.E.
        Zoroastrianism
        powerful military
        Germanic tribes
        Attila's Huns
    2. brought armies under imperial control
    3. strengthening the imperial currency
    4. forcing a budget on the government
    5. capping prices to deal with inflation
    6. civil war erupted in 305 C.E. upon his retirement
5. Compare and Contrast
  1. Western Rome
    1. Tax revolts by upper class and church exempt from taxes
    2. decrease in trade upon which economy depended
    3. 25 of 26 emperors died violently in one 50-year span
    4. division of empire weakened the western half
    5. unable to defend against migratory invasions of Goths and Huns
  2. Gupta
    1. not enough taxes for military defense
    2. land divisions increased power of provincial officials
    3. unable to defend against invasions by the White Huns
  3. Han China
    1. officials exempt from taxes; difficult to collect from peasant population
    2. population increases lead to less land per family
    3. corruption of court officials
    4. unable to control large estate owners
    5. constant conflict with the nomadic Xiongnu who invaded after collapse
CCOT in Women
1. Rome/Greece
  1. strict and patriarchal social divisions
  2. little land ownership
  3. literacy among upper class
  4. Spartan women given citizenship
  5. women (especially widows) could own businesses
  6. women could be priestesses, or later, nuns
2. India
  1. strict patriarchal caste system
  2. women not allowed to inherit property
  3. forbidden to read sacred texts
  4. no citizenship for women
  5. women needed large dowry; no remarriage for widows
  6. women could not achieve moksha
3. China
  1. strict Confucian social order and guidelines for virtuous behavior
  2. only sons inherit property
  3. upper classes educated in arts and literature, and all educated in virtues
  4. no citizenship for women
  5. arranged marriages, though widows were permitted to remarry
  6. Buddhist convents; Daoism promoted male and female equality

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Chapter 7: Organization and Reorganization of Human Societies, c. 600 B.C.E. to c. 600 C.E.

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