1. Classical Civilizations and great empires
Early development (Archaic Period)
True Character of civilization
Imperial Era (Pax Era)
Han
Rome
(Greco – Roman)
Greek – Persian (Hellenistic)
Gupta

2. Empires (Land based – Sea based)
Demographic concerns
How can you feed your people
conflict between agricultural productivity and availability of luxuries
Have to placate the farmers and peasants; labor concerns
Period of productivity/ cultural advancement (Pax Romana, Pax Mongolica)
Less outside challenges, but lots of minor challenges =
Increase army: relying on those conquered
Technological advancements: maintain empire (aquaducts)
Centralization of power
Decline
Corruption; Morality concerns
Religious issues
Economic crisis
Succession and dynastic issues
Expansion is required but cannot hold onto borders
Outside invaders

3. Overview
About 1200 BCE collapse and instability of civilizations in Mesopotamia or Southwestern Asia, North Africa, Southern Europe
Hittites, Mycenaean, Egypt = outside invaders
Interrelated: probably influenced each other’s collapse
Recovery of similar centralized “empires”
creates the environment for great civilizations known as Classical Era
Set up by (Qin) Han, (Maurya/Ashoka) Gupta, (Greece) Rome
Strengths and weaknesses of each of the classical civilization
Empire
Political, Social, Economic, Education and Cultural aspects
Intellectual Ideas (Great philosophies and religions)
Technological Advancements
Geographic influences
How did each civilization influence the other?
Silk Road
Role of merchants in society

4. Ancient Greece Aegean, Minoan, Mycenaean Civilizations
Trading Societies (environmental determinism)
Conquest (Trojan war)
Joined into single Culture called Hellenes or Greeks
Archaic period
Greek City States: Polis
Athens, Sparta (Thebes, Corenthia, Attica, others)
Athens: educated, great thinkers
Sparta: Warlike Soldiers, Military Strength
Helots
Golden Age: (beginnings of Democracy): Athens
Most representative Government in Ancient World

5. Ancient Greece Peloponnesian War
Conflict Athens and Sparta = Greece Weak
Conquest from Persians and then Macedonian
Alexander the Great
Great Conqueror, took over Asia, Persian Empire, territory to borderlands of India
Spread Greek Culture throughout Eurasia
Hellenic Culture
Science was important, Geometry, physics, mathematics and astronomy
Poetry (Homer), Drama(Sophocles, Aeschyles, Euripedes) Philosophy, (Socrates, Plato)

6. Persian Achaemenid = Persian wars against Greek City States 499 BCE
Delian League
Seleucid and Sassanid
Buffer states for Rome and Kush
Incorporated into the Islamic Empires beginning in 651 CE
Foundations of Safavids

7. Forms of Government Oligarchy Monarchy Republic Democracy Theocracy
Rule by a group of elite families or rule by a few
Monarchy
Leadership by one person passed through family
constitutional Monarchy limits to power by constitution or parliament (Pharaoh)
Republic
Citizens all participate in government
is government that is voted upon (elected)
Democracy
All citizens play the same role in government
Theocracy
Rule by the church or priests (No separation of Church and State)
Tyrant
Totalitarian government where control is usurped

8. Ancient Rome Archaic – 753 BCE city of Rome is built
Roman Republic (509 BCE)
Tensions Plebeians (lower class) and Patrician (upper class)
Beginning of Roman expansion: Punic Wars
3 Campaigns against Carthage; Rome was Victorious
Began expanding to the East (Greece, Balkans)
Collapse of Roman Republic
Too much expansion; social problems, civil wars = solidification of leadership under single hand
Roman empire
Julius Caesar, Octavian (Caesar Augustus)
Imperial Era: Pax Romana (27 BCE – 180 CE)
Colluseum built, aquaducts, Virgils “Aenid”
Fall of Rome 476 CE
City of Rome sacked in 410 by Visogoth

9. Silk Road Connected east with west around the beginning of Pax Romana
Luxuries exchanged: gold, ivory, precious stones, and glass, furs, silk, ceramics, jade, bronze objects, iron, horses
Most significant exchange = Buddhism

10. East Asia Political centralization under Qin and Han dynasties.
Contributions of Confucius and his disciples
Other philosophies (Daoism, Legalism)
Institutionalism of Confucius in the examination system
Rise/triumph of the scholar gentry
Destruction of regional states and the feudal aristocracy
Creation of a unified political infrastructure.
Social organization China under Zhou vs. Han dynasties.
Zhou China = regional aristocracy governed as feudal vassals
Aristocracy members of the royal family
Closely controlled by the dynasty than under earlier Shang
Beneath warriors = peasantry/artisans
Han China ruled by imperial family and scholar-gentry
Peasantry divided = with land vs. without; artisans growing
Merchants becoming wealthy but kept low status.
Difference between Zhou and Han = replacement of feudal aristocracy by scholar-gentry and growing importance of artisans/merchants.

11. Han Dynasty
Early feudalism: decentralized under the Shang, centralized under the Zhou
Han Strongest and longest dynasty
Expansionist Empire
Postal system, Roads, Defensive fortifications
Weak Leadership caused collapse
Corruption and leadership issues
Had to protect the expanding borders
Encouraged trade along the silk road, but…
Silk road = “bandits” threaten borders

12. India Aryans Nomads invaded India = Earliest Europeans
Conquered the Dravidians (Dark Skinned Indians)
Established Warrior Aristocracy; Sanskrit
Vedic Era and Early Hindu faith
Caste System
Priests (Brahmins)
Warriors and Political Rulers (Kshatruyas)
Commoners
Servants and Peasants
The “Untouchables”
Born into Caste; Cannot be changed

13. India Continued Mauryan empire Gupta Empire Ashoka: famous Emperor
Converted to Buddhism
Collapsed from outside attacks
Gupta Empire
Religious toleration
Muslim invaders

14. Social system
Importance of the brahmans and the caste system to Indian development.
In India, division into many petty states governed by Aryan warrior elite.
Duration of empires (Mauryan/Gupta) was relatively brief.
Conversely, social orgz was constant throughout classical period.
Brahmans = social dominance and religious authority; monopolists of the rituals associated with the Vedas.
Governments accepted brahmans’ position and patronized their religious authority (except Ashoka).

15. Cultural Development
India = open to contact (ripe for invasion); absorbed other cultures
Less internally coherent than Far East (explains differences in openness to influence/political stability)
China remains ethnically homogeneous =
Ethnocentrism; Xenophobia later

16. Role of Women Han and Gupta
Extensive inequality and patriarchalism, but differences in tone of patriarchal culture:
India = more emphasis on beauty, sexuality China = stereotypical focus on female deference.

17. Societal comparison
China = less rigid social structure, slightly more opportunity for mobility
India little mobility within castes
Different regard for merchants and specific contrasts in definition and function
India = Dharma encouraged merchants in Gupta
China = merchants = outside cultures = not accepted

18. Comparison’s of Classical Civilizations
Greek/Roman political structures
Similarities: aristocratic principles w/democratic elements = localism/city-state units.
Differences: Rome more emphasis on unifying laws; more success in institutions
Roman and Han
Similarities: timeframe/chronologies;
geographical extent, need to integrate large territories, use of some central bureaucracy, and the army.
Differences helping to explain Rome's earlier demise
no equivalent to Confucianism;
more tolerance of local rule;
more dependence on expansion for labor supply, etc.
Rome suffered invasions
Greek, Roman, and Confucian ideals:
All share same political emphasis: importance of loyalty, service, and hierarchy.
Greek and Roman ideals were more aristocratic; Confucian ideals stressed training and responsibility; focused on political order and imperial hierarchy.
Greece and Rome similar, but Rome emphasized law = tension = local vs imperial

19. Decline of Classical Empires
Han and Rome = different political centralization, bureaucratization and cultural integration.
Rome = more invasions (but did maintain success of "eastern Rome“ = Byzantine).
External factors
invasions
disease
Internal problems of
morale
political structure
economics