Unit 2 Early Global History Exam

First Empires

• Empires replaced, rather than descended from, territorial states.

• Warfare spurred by military innovation

• Radical climate change

• Imperial ideologies and religious beliefs

• Increased agricultural yields and population growth

Empire development shaped by:

Climate change, migrations, new technologies, and administrative innovations.

1200 BCE Climate Change

• Around 1200 BCE, another warming phase brought about social upheaval and human migration in Afro-Eurasia.

• Population growth and soil exhaustion in other regions forced many people to leave their homes and look for food and fertile land.

• Drought swept away most of the dominant states.

• Environmental crisis in Southwest Asia and Greece

What did migrations lead to

Incursions into urban societies.

Pack Camel

Used for transportation

• Two types: Saharan dromedary (one hump) and Bactrian (two humps)

• Helped open new overland trade routes

• Could cross deserts and long distances

What was bronze supplanted by

Iron, led to shifts in agrarian techniques, Forged-iron-edged plows

Neo-Assyrians

Relied on military: constant harsh warfare and brutal exploitation of subjects

• Military state

• Reliance on terror

• Expansion into an empire

  • Ninth century BCE: dominated lands all the way to Mediterranean

  • Relied on advanced military techniques

  • Concentration of power by Tiglath Pileser III Incorporation of conquered peoples into military Relied on deportation to create large labor force

Four defining features of Neo-Assyrian Empire

• Unique imperial structure

• Deportation and forced labor

• Belief that empires worked

• Rigid social hierarchy

Two parts of Neo-Assyrian Empire

• The core: Land of Ashur

  • Between Zagros Mountains and Euphrates River

  • King’s appointees governed lands

  • Responsible for supplying food to temple of national god, Ashur, manpower for god’s residence, and officials to carry out state business

• Land under the Yoke of Ashur

  • Outside of Assyria proper and residents not considered Assyrians

  • Had to supply tribute in form of gold and silver

  • Wealth went to king for his own court and military costs

What supported and justified the system of expansion, exploration, and inequality?

Propaganda, Art showed a strong sense of divinely determined destiny, driving westward expansion.

What Persians and Neo-Assyrians both engaged in?

Both engaged in warfare to establish trading networks

Neo-Assyrian Hierarchical Structure

King, military elites, peasants, enslaved people

Instability of Neo-Assyria

• Unstable because it required occupying armies over vast territories and a relentless propaganda machine

• Nobles became discontented, leading to civil war.

• In 612 BCE, the Neo-Assyrian Empire collapsed with the conquest of Nineveh.

Persian Empire

560-331

• Imperial rule based on persuasion and mutual benefit vs. raw power

• Persians part of nomadic group 

  • Indo-European language

  • Arrived on Iranian plateau at the end of the second millennium BCE

  • Expert horsemen

  • Cyrus the Great (r. 559–529 BCE) united Persian tribes and defeated the Lydians in southwestern Anatolia, then the Greek city-states on Aegean coast

  • No urban tradition; borrowed ideology and institutions

  • Cyrus founded the Persian Empire.

    • Presented image of a benevolent king who liberated his subjects from oppression 

    • Victory in Babylon “sign that the city’s gods had turned against its king”

  • Darius I succeeded Cyrus and put the empire on solid footing.

    • Suppressed revolts; Behistun inscription

    • Conquered territories held by dozens of different ethnic groups

    • Introduced dynamic administrative systems

    • Made effective use of local tradition, economy, and rule rather than forcing Persian customs

    • Persians believed all in the empire were equal.

      • Had to be loyal to king and pay tribute

    • Used local languages

    • Established a system of provinces or satrapies, each ruled by a satrap (governor)

      • Governors were closely monitored.

    • Fixed taxation and formal tribute allocations

    • Promoted trade throughout the empire

Zoroastrianism

• Persian religious ideas came from pastoral and tribal roots.

• Zoroaster (a.k.a. Zarathustra) crystallized the region’s traditional beliefs into a formal religious system.

• Zoroastrianism became the religion of the Persian Empire.

  • Ahura Mazda, the supreme god, created the world and all that was good.

  • His adversary, Ahriman, was deceitful and wicked.

  • Both gods were in a cosmic struggle for the universe.

  • Zoroastrianism was not fatalistic; rather, it treated humans as independent actors capable of choosing between good and evil.

  • Human choices had consequences—rewards or punishments in the afterlife.

Persian Social Structure

• Persian kings enjoyed absolute authority.

  • Kings were expected to follow moral and political guidelines of Zoroastrian notions.

  • Kings had to display physical superiority: horsemanship and weapons handling.

• Persian social order divided into four large, diverse groups with well-defined roles:

  • Ruling class of priests, nobles, and warriors

  • Administrative and commercial class of scribes/bureaucrats and merchants

  • Artisans

  • Peasants

• Nobility and merchants supported the king.

• Building projects helped unify the empire and consolidate imperial identity.

• Royal Road

  • Followed age-old trade routes

  • Traders, army, and royal couriers used road

  • Subjects took tribute to king

  • Persians rule for 200+ years until falling to Alexander the Great in 331 BCE.

The Greeks

• The Greeks rose on the fringe of the Persian kingdom.

  • Variety of political systems

  • Loose common culture

  • In 499 BCE, Greek city-states joined with other Mediterranean peoples to revolt against the Persians.

    • In 490 BCE, Persians invade mainland Greece but are defeated.

    • Marathon

  • Athens became a major sea power.

  • Persia continued to lose ground to the Greeks for the next 150 years.

The Phonecians

• Chanani (Canaanites) were known by the Greeks as Phoenicians.

  • Phoenicians (“Purple People”) traded purple dye.

  • Focused on opening new markets and ports

  • Traveled to southern Spain and the Atlantic coasts of Africa

  • Maintained autonomy from Neo-Assyrian kings by supplying exotic luxuries

  • Cedar trees: boats and export

  • Innovations in shipbuilding and seafaring allowed them to establish trading colonies on the southern and western rims of the Mediterranean.

  • Phoenicians developed the alphabet, and writing revolutionized communication

Israelites

• Extended to borderlands of Egypt

  • Israelites’ stories emphasized origins in Mesopotamia and connections with Egypt

  • Local culture emerged in a kingdom centered at Jerusalem under King David (r. c. 1000–960 BCE).

  • Solomon (r. c. 960–930 BCE)

Vedics

The originally nomadic Vedic peoples integrated into territory in South Asia through shared culture instead of a political system and military conquests.

Built a flourishing culture 

• Vedic culture settles down in northern South Asia

  • Vedics were pastoral people with no experience in settled urban life.

  • Brought elaborate rituals

  • Encountered indigenous peoples

  • Early trade centered on horses.

  • Vedic peoples eventually settled and cultivated the land.

• Vedic culture, transmitted by Brahmans through oral traditions, united people

  • Common language (Sanskrit)

  • Belief in Agni, Indra, and other gods

  • Shared cultural symbols

  • Collective Vedic identity

• Ritual practices and support for hereditary leaders

  • Brahmans memorized the Vedic works.

  • Main Vedic literature comprised four Vedas

Vedic Social Distinictions

• Chieftainships merged into kingdoms, tied to kin and clan structures

  • Two main lineages: lunar lineage and solar lineage

  • Varna: four inherited social groups

    • Brahmans, priestly caste, ranked highest

    • Kshatriyas were warriors and controlled land

    • Vaishyas worked land and tended livestock

    • Shudras, of non-Vedic lineages, were laborers or enslaved people working in the fields

Upanishads

• Evolving ideas led to a new collection called the Upanishads, or the supreme knowledge.

  • Dialogues between disciples and a sage

  • Concept of atman, an eternal being that never perishes but is reborn (reincarnation)

Zhou

Defeated Shang in 1045 BCE.

• Innovations in politics, agriculture, and social structures helped integrate the Zhou Empire.

Copied Shang’s state structure

Zhou innovations contributed to cultural and political development.

The Zhou rewarded allegiance to the state with lands that could be inherited

Expanded into and integrated parts of China through dynastic institutions as well as agricultural advances

• Military caste

• Occupational groups and family structures

Mandate of Heaven

• Justified Zhou rule, moral superiority over Shang

• Mandate of heaven initially presented as religious compact

• Royal calendar seen as legitimizing power

• Bronze ritual vessels another legitimizing aspect

Limits & Decline of Power of Zhou

The Zhou relied on culture and statecraft to maintain leadership.

• Not highly centralized

• Power, protection, and intermarriage with neighbors and allies

• Used military campaigns and persuasion to keep subordinates loyal

• To control regional lords, ritual reforms introduced in eighth century BCE

• Invaders from north forced Zhou to flee capital in 771 BCE

• Zhou model of government became the standard for later generations