A number of key states and empires brought political, economic, and social unity to many territories

-Many of these became classical civilization

- Overreach: states and empires overextended themselves, leading to decline and downfall

• Key States

  • The Persian Empires (Southwest Asia)

    • The Persians of present-day Iran came to dominate the Middle East

    • Lydians invented metal coinage

    • Darius The Great made the biggest state in that time

      • Persia’s empire extended from North Africa to India

      • Created two capitals, Susa for administration, and Persepolis

      • Ruled with an advanced postal system, roads, a single currency, and a provincial administration

        • provincial administration: divided the empire into 20 or so regions and delegated legal authority over them to officials called satraps

      • Patriarchal society

      • Caste system

      • Embraced Zoroastrianism but was tolerant towards other faiths

      • Fell to the conqueror, Alexander The Great in 331 B.C.E

      • The Parthians liberated Persia around 247 B.C.E-224 B.C.E

        • Smallpox arose

        • Grew wealthy from the trade along the Silk Road and commerce generated by Arab traders

        • Swept away in the 600 B.C.E by the military expansion of Islam

  • The Qin and Han Empires (East Asia)

    • Qin dynasty: founder Shi Huangdi

      • Favored the ideology of Legalism: advocated for harsh laws as a way to keep wicked people in order

      • Ruled with a large and effective bureaucracy

      • Built the Great Wall Of China

    • Han dynasty: built on the Han dynasty

      • Created a centralized, efficient empire

      • Ruled most of China, parts of Vietnam, Korea, Manchuria, and Mongolia

      • Established a tributary system: extracting payment from neighboring states

      • Military advantages: crossbow, cavalry warfare. Used to repel steppe nomads

      • Revived the Mandate of Heaven

      • Turned to Confucianism

      • Strong economy, improved agricultural techniques, and increased silk production

      • Horse Collar: allowed heavier loads to be pulled

      • Smallpox epidemic in the late 100 C.E’s

  • The Mauryan. and Gupta Empires (South Asia)

    • The Mauryan Empire was founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 324- 184 B.C.E

    • Ruled from the capital Patilputra

    • Established a central bureaucracy that collected a 25% tax on all agricultural production and enforced strict obedience

    • Key exports: salt, iron, and cotton cloth

    • Ashoka: best known of the Mauryan emperors

      • Converted to Buddhism and advocated peace and tolerance

      • Pillars Of Ashoka: raised stone columns carved with Buddhist teachings

      • Gupta scholars originated the decimal system, “Arabic numerals and the concepts of 0 and ∏

      • Strengthened the caste system and sati ritual

  • Phoenicia, Greece, Alexander the Great, and Rome (The Mediterranean)

    • Phoenicians: originators of the alphabet and great seafaring traders

    • Established city-states

      • Most important: North African port of Carthage

        • High degree of social mobility

        • Oligarchic government: rich, powerful families ruled

        • Sparta and Athens: Greek city-states and colonies

          • Sparta: Produced the Greek world’s finest and most feared army

          • Athens focused on cultural and political advancement

          • Slavery was common in all Greek city-states

          • Formed a democracy run by people, excluding women and slaves

        • Hellenic culture: gave rise to philosophy, scientific thinking, Greek dramas, and fine architecture and sculpture

        • Alexander the Great: launched one of the most successful military campaigns of all time

          • Promoted Greek culture and fusing it with other traditions to create Hellenistic (Greek-life) culture

          • Alexandria: Alexander’s grand capital located in Egypt

          • Great Library: world’s greatest centers of trade, learning, and culture

        • Roman Republic: a state without a monarch and one in which all or most citizens play some role

          • tensions between plebeian (lower) and patrician class (upper)

          • Collapse of the Roman Republic: small farmers went bankrupt, poverty worsened and people joined violent mobs

        • Roman Empire: founded by Caesar’s adopted son, revived Rome’s strength and wealth, and created the position of emperor

          • Experienced “pax Romana”: a period of peak power and prosperity

          • Administered a huge bureaucracy: divided the empire into provinces governed by proconsuls

            • proconsuls: regional officials

          • Built roads, sea lanes, aqueducts, and fortifications

            • aqueducts: to carry water over long distances

          • Distribution of grain was a state priority

          • smallpox epidemic, measles and bubonic plague: severely depleted the empire’s population and economic production

          • Byzantine Empire: the eastern half of the Empire after it split from the western half, headquartered in Constantinople

          • Paterfamilias: male family head, strictly patriarchal system

          • Greco-Roman classicism: Roman and Greek culture absorbing together

            • Improved on architects, engineers, aqueducts, cities and fortifications

            • Roman law

              • Twelve Tables

              • Justinian law code

            • Latin

            • Legalized Christianity, and made it their official faith

  • Teotihuacan, the Maya, and the Moche

    • Societies emerged from the religious and cultural teachings left from the Olmecs

    • Allowed women to rule

    • Practiced human sacrifice

    • Built pyramids that symbolized sacred mountains with roots in the underworld, but also reaching heaven

    • Teotihuacan Society

      • Near present day Mexico City

      • Governed by means of oligarchy rather than monarchy

      • Practiced human sacrifice

      • Built pyramid temples to represent the sun and moon

      • Engaged in intensive farming

    • Maya

      • Near present day Guatemala

      • Built pyramids and practiced human sacrifice

      • Slavery

      • Hieroglyphic script: the most advance system of writing in pre-Columbian Americas

      • Understood the concept of 0

      • Invented an intricate and accurate calendar

  • Methods of Rule

    • Administration and State Institutions

    • Centralized government

    • Law codes and courts enforced rules

    • Bureaucracies

      • tax collection

      • law enforcement

      • mobilization of food and resources

      • military defense

      • regulation of trade

      • creation of currencies

      • maintenance of infrastructure

      • regional and local levels of government

      • religious justification

      • claiming the legacy

      • official religions

      • religious toleration

    • Projection of Power

      • Often led to war

      • military force

      • land armies

      • naval warfare

      • Siegecraft: art of capturing cities

    • Diplomacy: states sought allies, negotiated treaties to end or avoid wars

      • Divide and conquer

      • Tributary states: extorting money or dictating policy without conquering states

    • Armies and navies had to be fed and kept well to ensure efficiency

      • Supply lines

      • Sea lanes

      • Road building

      • Fortifications in the form of city walls

  • Social Structures

    • Cities

    • Hierarchies

    • Elite classes

    • Aristocracies: noble families who shared inn running the government

    • Caste systems

    • Slavery and serfdom

    • Patriarchal

  • Imperial and Political Overreach

    • States and empires collapsed

    • Collapse can be due to internal or external factors

    • Overreach: the state assumed too many responsibilities, spent too much money, or conquered too many territories