The Development of States and Empires 

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

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