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