Early Civilizations: A review

1. Early Civilizations: A review Circa 5000 BCE – 200 BCE • Ancient River Valley Civilizations • Mesopotamia • Egypt • Indus • China Circa 1200 BCE – 1500 CE • Ancient/early Civs of the Americas • Olmec • Maya • Aztec • Nazca • Moche • Inca

2. A comparison: Early Civs of Asia and North Africa vs the Americas Ancient/early Civs of the Americas Ancient River Valley Civilizations • Variety of physical geographies: mountains (Inca) to valley (Aztec, Olmec, Maya) to seashore (Nazca) to desert (Pueblo peoples, Anasazi, Zuni) to woodland plains (Cherokee, Oneida, Iroquois) to jungle (Amazon rainforest tribes) • Pantheistic polytheism and theocracies • Human sacrifice • Pyramid builders and city planners • Astronomers • Farmers and artisans • Mayan written language • All cultures destroyed, oppressed, changed dramatically by arrival of and conquest by Europeans in 1500s-1800s • Bronze and Copper Age tools, weapons, and art • Advanced farming technology • Religion Polytheistic • Gov Theocracy, warlords, dictators • Writing: Egyptian hieroglyphics, Mesopotamia cuneiform, Chinese characters, Indus system not yet decoded • Trade, job specialization, social hierarchies • Egyptian Empire, Empires of Mesopotamia, and Indus Valley all eventually taken over by other cultures and Empires BUT parts of their legacies live on in modern times • Chinese civilization elements carried through China’s cultural history to today (Longest lived contiguous culture in the world?) Circa 1200 BCE – 1500 CE Circa 5000 BCE – 200 BCE

3. What’s the rest of the story? • Africa—did anybody live there? Were there any empires or kingdoms? • What was going on in Europe? When did the age of knights, castles, and dragons begin? • How did the spread of Christianity and Islam affect cultures and government power? • What happened to China after the territories united under 1 leader in 3rd century BCE? • In what ways did earliest cultures change over time? In what ways did they remain the same? • What new cultures emerged?

4. Africa: Separating the myths from the facts • MYTH… • Africa is a country • Africa is a single culture • Africans are all “black” • Africa is all jungle • Africans are all poor • All Africans live in hunter-gatherer tribes in villages • Africa is a backwards, primitive place without electricity or modern things • Africa had no advanced ancient civilizations other than Egypt

5. Africa IS…

6. Africa IS ALSO…

7. Fact 1: There are 53 independent African countries

8. Fact 2: Africa is made up of 1000s of culturally distinct ethnic groups (AKA tribes) who speak between 1500 and 2000 languages • Some tribes: • Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert • Zulu • Maasai • Pygmies of the forest • Mandinka • Nubians • Hutus • Tutsis • Dinka

9. Fact 3: There are variations in skin color (from dark to fair) as you travel around the continent

10. Fact 4: Africa has 8 different climate and vegetation zones including desert, mountain, plains, and tropical

11. Fact 5: Though African nations are less developed or developing economically, not all Africans are poorFact 6: The continent of Africa has many modern cities in which 38% of Africa’s 1 billion people live Fact 7: In Africa, you can find almost all of the same modern technologies, lifestyles, and jobs as you can anywhere else in the world; there are just less of them

12. African history can be simplified by looking at it in the following periods: • Prehistory • Ancient civilizations • Kingdoms and hunter-gatherer tribalism • Islam’s arrival • Imperialism and Christianity arrive • Post-colonial nationalism • Culturally, Africa can be broken into 2 main regions: • North Africa (north of the Sahara Desert on coast of Mediterranean Sea) • Sub-Sahara (land south of the Sahara Desert including savana grasslands, tropical rainforest, coastal areas, and Kalahari Desert)

13. Prehistory: 200,000 years ago – circa 3,500 BCE • Circa 200,000 years ago: Origin of human species in Central Eastern Africa? • Migration across Africa of nomadic hunter gatherers • Some human migration out of Africa circa 120,000 years ago link • Circa 3,500 first African civilization develops in northern Africa on shores of the Nile River

14. Period 2: Emergence of early civilizations in North Africa 3,500 BCE – 700 BCE Egypt (circa 3500 BCE- 900 BCE): • Originally 2 kingdoms, united as 1 under rule of Pharaohs • Lasted approx 2,500 years until taken over by neighboring civilizations (Lybians, Nubians) Nubian kingdom of Kush (south of Egypt) 2000 BCE- 1000 BCE • Trade and cultural partner of Egypt • Kush king Piankhi takes over rule of Egypt in 751 BCE • Nubian culture highly influenced by Egypt • Archaeological evidence of separate writing system

15. Period 2 (continued): Emergence of early civilizations in North Africa 3,500 BCE – 700 BCE • Rest of Africa? • Probably tribal nomadic hunter-gatherers or tribal farming villages (lack of ruins and archaeological evidence to indicate more sophisticated societies) • Monotheistic animist “pagan” religions • Animism: worship of nature spirits

16. Period 3 circa 500 BCE – 1600 CE: Post-Ancient and medieval Kingdoms, cities, and hunter-gatherer tribalism • Iron Age • City of Djenne-Djeno (Ancient Mali) Niger River in western Africa (circa 250 BCE – 1200 CE)—trade center 13th c Mosque • Kingdoms of Ghana and Mali (circa 750 CE -1056 CE;1200 CE- 1400s CE ) • wealthy through export of gold, ivory, salt • Taken over by Kingdom of Mali • Trans-Sahara trade route caravans of camels • No written language • Pagan but influenced by Muslims

17. Period 3 circa 500 BCE – 1600 CE (continued): post-Ancient and Medieval Kingdoms, cities, and hunter-gatherer tribalism •     Kingdom of Aksum (modern day Ethiopia) circa 1 CE- 600s CE • High mountainous plateau, Red Sea port, Nile River to west • Ruler of Aksum called negusa nagast (king of kings) • Ruins indicate no fortification • Trade center connecting Egypt and Roman Empire and Persian Empire • Gold, ivory, turtle shells, rhion horns, spices, monkeys, slaves… • One of few ancient “states” to make own currency • Stone engravers “stela” statues • Monotheistic and animistic: 1 supreme creator Mahrem but also worship nature spirits and dead ancestors • In mid-4th century, king of Aksum converts to Christianity • Written language “Geez” brought in by Arabs? • Terrace farming • Muslim conquest changes Ethiopia

18. Period 3 circa 500 BCE – 1600 CE (continued): post-Ancient and Medieval Kingdoms, cities, and hunter-gatherer tribalism • Great Zimbabwe Kingdom of southern Africa • Island of Kilwa – trading empire in middle Ages • Songhai Empire (later empire in region of Mali and Ghana Kingdoms)

19. Period 4: Arrival of Islam (circa 650 CE) A little background knowledge… • Muhammad dies 632 CE; series of successors (caliphs) take over head of Islamic faith • Each caliph tries to expand Islam through “jihad”—struggle against non-believers • Why conquest? Control of Mediterranean and Silk Road trade routes; true devotees of Muhammad want to spread faith; power struggle between Shia and Sunni (2 sects within the Muslim faith) caliphs Stages of Muslim conquests       REDExpansion under Mohammad, 622-632       PEACH Expansion during the Patriarchal Caliphate, 632-661      YELLOW  Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661-750

20. Period 4: Arrival and spread of Islam (circa 650 CE- present) Islam influences: government/law, language (Arabic is official language of the religion), customs, practice of other religions…

21. Imperialism and Colonialism Colonialism: the act of taking over other countries in order to use the cheap labor and get the resources • Imperialism: the policy or act of one country trying to gain control over other countries in order to change the government type or control economics

22. Africa: Age of European Imperialism and Colonialism WHY? Control of resources, labor, build empire’s wealth “White man’s burden” to civilize the primitive

23. History of Imperialism/colonialism • British empire covered 25% of all earth’s inhabited territory: Brit’s needed resources!

24. Spain Colonized parts of the world, too… Converting people to Catholic church and taking resources at gunpoint

25. After WWII (1945) this is how the world was carved up…

26. Watch the colonization of the world over time… • http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/89/Colonisation2.gif

27. How do countries become independent? • Movement/protest for independence (Ghandi in India) Eventually independence is given by “mother” country • Violent Revolution (American Revolution)

28. What are the benefits of imperialism/colonialism? Mother country creates a country that is dependent upon it for trade Strategic value: Mother country gets security outposts for navy, army bases and controls valuable trade ports and routes • Mother country gets cheap resources and labor

29. What are the legacies of colonialism once mother country is no longer ruling? Power Vacuum leads to dictators, power struggles, and government corruption • Racism: small European class remains in power and wealth positions Ethnic groups fight over artificially imposed borders and resource claims Nationalism: People want to run their own countries

30. What are the legacies of colonialism once mother country is no longer ruling? Hunger, poor sanitation, not enough money to deal with social needs • Native population often left uneducated and low skills

31. Effects of Nationalism often, nationalism leads to blindly following a leader at expense of other peoples and countries BUT • Nationalism can be good--think patriotism, love of country and culture Nationalism can lead to civil wars and genocides

32. Of course we can’t leave out the slave trade…