1. THE CLASSICAL CIVILIZATIONS (1000 BCE - 600 CE)
During this era world history was shaped by the rise of several large civilizations that grew from areas where the earlier civilizations thrived.
1. They kept better and more recent records, so historical information about them is much more abundant.
2. The classical societies provide many direct links to today's world, so that we may refer to them as root civilizations, or ones that modern societies have grown from.
3. Classical civilizations were expansionist, deliberately conquering lands around them to create large empires.

5. COMMON FEATURES OF CLASSICAL CIVILIZATIONS
The three areas of classical civilizations developed their own beliefs, lifestyles, political institutions, and social structures. However, there were important similarities among them:
Patriarchal family structures - Like the river valley civilizations that preceded them, the classical civilization valued male authority within families, as well as in most other areas of life.
Agricultural-based economies - Despite more sophisticated and complex job specialization, the most common occupation in all areas was farming.
Complex governments - Because they were so large, these three civilizations had to invent new ways to keep their lands together politically. Their governments were large and complex, although they each had unique ways of governing
Expanding trade base - Their economic systems were complex. Although they generally operated independently, trade routes connected them by both land and sea.

6. Characteristics of Classical Empires
Powerful military
Effective government bureaucracy
Control large territory-multiethnic and multicultural
Uniform currency and weights and measures
Service of citizens
Military technology
Uniform legal codes
Public works
Lavish public monuments
Patronize the arts and scholarship

10. Empire: The term was first used in English in 1297 to indicate an extensive territory made up of formerly independent states. A further refinement might be to add that an empire is a politically unified state in which one people dominates its neighbors.
The Conrad Demarest Model of Empire: Basic Principles
I. Necessary preconditions for the rise of empires:
• state-level government
• high agricultural potential in the area
• an environmental mosaic
• several small states with no clearly dominant state (power vacuum)
• mutual antagonisms among those states
• adequate military resources
II. The primary reason a state succeeded in empire building was an ideology supporting personal identification with the state, empire, conquest, and militarism.
III. The major rewards of empire:
• economic rewards, reaped especially in the early years and redistributed to the elite and often to all levels of the citizenry
• population increase, often supported by the government and its ideology

11. Comparing Empires: Roman and Chinese
Had little direct contact but interesting similarities
Both flourished about 200 BCE – 200 CE
Were of similar size (about 1.5 million sq. miles)
Both had 50 to 60 million people
Between them, they controlled nearly half the world’s population
Interesting variations on imperial theme

12. CHINA: The Han Empire, 206 BCE-220 CE

13. ROMAN Empire

14. Rome: From City-State to Empire
Started as small, unimportant city-state in central Italy in 8th century BCE
Overthrew monarchy and established republic about 509 BCE but conflict with plebeians
Creation of empire began in 490s BCE with wars to control Italian peninsula, political crisis of first century BCE, establishment of Pax Romana

15. China: From Warring States to Empire
Creation of empire regarded as restoration of dynastic rule
Unification by ShiHuangdi, ruler of Qin (r BCE), creation of empire was brutal (military force, book burning, thousands of laborers building Great Wall)
Established standardized weights & measures, currency, written Chinese, axle lengths for carts
Han Dynasty established by 206 BCE keeping Qin centralization but less harsh

16. Han China and Imperial Rome

17. The Silk Road
China to India, across Central Asia to Antioch, Baghdad, Alexandria and Rome
Trade
East to West: silk and spices
West to East: manufactured goods (glassware, jewelry, perfumes) and commodities such as olive oil
Religious movements
Buddhism to Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China
Hinduism to Southeast Asia
Christianity to Persia, India and China
Epidemics
2nd and 3rd c. CE Han and Roman Empires suffered large-scale epidemics: small pox, measles, bubonic plague
Population decline lead to economic and social change

18. Comparison of Roman & Han Empires
Both had highly stratified societies
Patriarchal families—Confucianism vs. pater familias
Agricultural base—free peasants-small farms or tenant farmers vs. heavy dependency on slavery and latifundias
Highly centralized state—dynastic cycle and Mandate of Heaven vs. empires with appearance of limits through Senate
Both claimed supernatural sanctions: deceased Roman emperors as gods vs. Chinese emperor as Son of Heaven

19. Comparison of Roman & Han Empires
Both absorbed a foreign religious tradition – development of Christianity in Roman Empire vs. introduction of Buddhism into China by traders
Relationships with societies they governed differed -
Romans were always a minority in empire vs. ethnic Chinese had much larger cultural heartland
Gradual expansion of Roman citizenship vs. Chinese active assimilation of “barbarians”
Role of language differed in two empires – Latin (alphabetic) gave rise to other languages vs. Chinese characters (represented words or ideas) could not be transferred easily to other languages

20. Comparison of Roman & Han Empires
Roman Empire’s peoples maintained separate cultural identities far more than in China
Bureaucracy was much more elaborate in China than in Roman Empire
Chinese emperor Wudi established an academy to train officials on works of Confucius and developed into civil service system
Roman administration relied on civic responsibility developing a body of law applicable to all people of the realm and on regional elites and army

21. Comparisons China Rome
Well organized bureaucracy founded on Confucian ideals and education
Emphasis on family, ancestors: patriarchal
Reliance on landed gentry as support: good marriages afforded women more rights
Engineering: roads, canals, the Great Wall
Inventions: wheelbarrow, gunpowder, printing press, compass, paper, paper currency (all before 1000 ce)
Religion: Confucianism, Taoism, native gods, introduction of Buddhism
Rome
Well organized bureaucracy founded on Roman law and classical learning
Emphasis on family: pater familias
Reliance on patricians: women gained power and property rights within families
Engineering: roads, aqueducts, amphitheatres, domes, sewage systems, central heating
Inventions: concrete, the arch (probably Etruscan), insulae (apartment buildings)
Religion: Emperor as god, paganism, mystery religions, introduction of Christianity

22. Empires Fall IV. Empires fall because:
the ideology of expansion and conquest fueled attempts at conquest beyond practical limits
failure to continue conquest indefinitely and to continue to bring home its economic fruits eroded faith in the ideology that supported the empire
revolutions toppled the empire

23. From 600 B.C.E-600 C.E. both Maya and Greeks established city-states based on geographic conditions, both would engage in monumental building projects based on universalizing belief systems, however, the Greeks would make considerable contact through Mediterranean trade while the Maya’s were regional through the turquoise roads.
From 600 B.C.E-600 C.E both the Greek poleis and Mauryan and Gupta empires would rely heavily on revenue derived from their location along trade routes as well as the development of dynamic military prowess. The Greeks, however, were far more decentralized politically while the Mauryan were solidified under the edicts of Asoka
From 600 B.C.E-600 C.E the Persian and Roman Empires maintained the control over their Empire through an extensive bureaucracy and maintain a massive building of infrastructure of roads to connect their respective empires militarily and through trade, both would extend their territorial boundaries over a environmental mosaic, however the Persians would be far more religiously tolerant while the Romans would discriminate against Jews and Christians alike.
Comparing Classical Empires From 600 B.C.E-600 C.E. both the Roman Empire and Han Dynasty controlled large territorial boundaries maintaining most of the global population, both utilized extensive infrastructure projects, however, Rome would rely more heavily on imports whilst the Han would dominate a vast favorable balance of trade