The Classical Period: Directions, Diversities, and Declines by 500 C.E.

1. 5 The Classical Period: Directions, Diversities, and Declines by 500 C.E.

2. The Classical Period: Directions, Diversities, and Declines • Expansion and Integration • Beyond the Classical Civilizations • Decline in China and India • Decline and Fall in Rome • The New Religious Map

3. Chronology

4. Beyond the Classical Civilizations Important Changes Elsewhere • Africa, Japan, northern Europe • Outside the dominant areas, but influential • Establishment of enduring contacts • Significant change occurred bearing some relationship to the classical world from outside the three great civilizations, specifically in northeastern Africa, Japan, and northern Europe. Elsewhere, most notably in the Americas, new cultures evolved in an entirely independent way. In all cases, changes during the classical period set the stage for more important links in world history later on.

5. Beyond the Classical Civilizations Developments in Africa’s Kush • Kush, from 1000 B.C.E. • Linked to Egypt, but autonomous The kingdom of Kush was flourishing along the upper Nile. It possessed writing, major cities, a divine king and iron working centers. • Conquered Egypt c. 750 B.C.E. • Axum :A state in the Ethiopian highlands; received influences from the Arabian peninsula and converted to Christianity. • Defeats Kush, c. 300 B.C.E.

6. Beyond the Classical Civilizations • Ethiopia • Conquered Axum • Contacts with Mediterranean The Axum and Ethiopia had active contact with the Eastern Mediterranean world until after Rome’s fall. During this time Jewish merchants introduced Judaism and Greek merchants introduced Christianity. A small Jewish sect still survives in Ethiopia as does an independent Christian church. Ethiopia itself grew to be the world’s oldest continuous monarchy until the 20th century

7. Trade Routes at the End ofthe Classical Era

8. Beyond the Classical Civilizations Sub-Saharan Africa • It is not clear how much influence, if any Egyptian and Kushite civilizations had on the later history of sub-Saharan African . • Knowledge of iron working spread, helping to expand agriculture, but Kushite writing did not, suggesting the impact of this first civilization below the Sahara was limited. Extension of agriculture was the major development up to 500 C.E. Towards the end of the classical era, west African kingdoms were formed. • Ghana ( first great sub-Saharan state) • Despite dense vegetation and the impact of African diseases on domesticated animals, agriculture spread slowly southward, preparing the way for a wave of African kingdoms, far to the west of the Nile. • New crops introduced through trade with southeast Asia about 100 C.E., helped African farmers push into new areas.

9. Beyond the Classical Civilizations Japan • Agriculture widespread by 200 C.E. Established extensive agriculture and iron working, and had developed a regional political organization based on tribal chiefs and a tribal god, thought of as an ancestor. • Migrations from Korea, done by 200 The population of the islands had been formed mainly by migrations from the peninsula of Korea, over a 200,000-year span. • Regional political based on tribal chiefs evolved ; each tribal group • Worship a common ancestor( each tribal group had its own god, thought of as an ancestor) • Regional states By 400 C.E., regional states emerged controlling larger territory and brought scribes from Korean introducing writing in the island.

10. Beyond the Classical Civilizations • Shintoism ( Japan religion) • Provided for the worship of political rulers and the spirits of nature, including the important god of rice. This religion became unified into a single national religion by 700 C.E. This was a simple religion not like the great world religions and philosophies developing in classical civilizations • Japan became increasingly more unified as a culture around 600 C.E., by this time they had contact with China- a process that would move Japan into the orbit of major civilizations.

11. Beyond the Classical Civilizations Northern Europe • Germanic, Celtic, Slavic and Scandinavian peoples • The people inhabiting in what today is Germany, England, Scandinavia, and much of eastern Europe, relied on hunting and primitive agriculture; however,Scandinavians developed skills as sailors emerging as seafarers • These people did not write, and lived in loosely organized regional kingdoms. Religion Gods associated with natural forces designed to placate the forces of nature. This would all change, under the influence of Christianity. However, these shifts still lay in the future, and even conversions to Christianity did not bring northern and eastern Europe into the orbit of a single civilization. Until about 1000 C.E., northern Europe remained one of the most backward areas in the world.

12. Beyond the Classical Civilizations Central America • Olmec Civilization, from c. 1200 B.C.E. • Sophisticated art • Disappeared c. 400 B.C.E. • Followed by Teotihuacan • Maya, from 400 C.E. • Inca, later • These similar to other river valley civilizations

13. Civilizations of Central and South America

14. Beyond the Classical Civilizations Polynesia was another example of Isolated development featured the migration of agricultural peoples to new island territories in the Pacific. • Reached Fiji, Samoa by 1000 B.C.E. Polynesian peoples had reached islands such as Fiji and Samoa by 1000 B.C.E • To Hawaii by 400 C.E. Further explorations in giant outrigger canoes led to the first settlement of island complexes such as Hawaii by 400 C.E. Agriculture, in sum, expanded into new areas during the classical period; early civilizations, or early contacts, were also forming. These developments were not central to world history during the classical period itself, but they were part of the larger human experience

15. Beyond the Classical Civilizations • The herding peoples of central Asia also contributed to world history, particularly toward the end of the classical period. • Some nomadic groups gained new contacts with established civilizations, like China, which brought changes in political organization as well as some new goals for conquest. • Central Asian herders played a vital role in trade routes between east Asia and the Middle East, transporting goods like silk across long distances. Other herding groups produced important technological innovations, such as the stirrup, wick allowed riders to aim weapons better . The herding groups thus enjoyed and important history of their own, and they provided important contacts among the civilizations that they bordered. • Herding groups invaded the major civilizations helping to bring the classical period to the end.

16. Decline in China and India Collapse of Classical Civilizations • All or in part • All suffer from expansion in Central Asia Between 200 and 600 C.E., all three classical civilizations collapsed entirely or in part. Internal political weaknesses and the incursions of nomadic invasions contributed to their elimination .

17. Decline in China and India Han Collapse • Decline by 100 C.E. • Intellectual creativity slows • Local landlords gain in power: The bureaucracy became corrupt and the government control and supervision declined while local landlords became more powerful . • Rising social tensions :Local landlords increased the tax burden on the peasants and took many of their farms. • Yellow Turbans, 184 C.E. poor rulers and popular discontent fueled by landlord exploitation culminated in revolution. Daoist leaders, the Yellow Turbans, in 184 C.E. began an unstable period ending with the fall of the Han in 220.

18. Decline in China and India • Compounding this political weakness and peasant unrest was the effect of several devastating epidemics that wiped out nearly half the population. With all this internal turmoil, the weakened Han dynasty could not fend off the advance of the Hun invaders. 

19. Decline in China and India Invasions : The Huns nomadic tribes from central Asia, who invaded China. • Three centuries of disruption: No stable dynasty emerged for 350 years • Buddhism introduced : China cultural unity was threatened as the wave of Buddhism spread-one of the only cases in which China imported a major idea from outside its borders, until the 20th century. • Ended by Sui (sway)Dynasty : Political revival occurred at the end of the 6th century when the Sui dynasty reunited China. • Tang Dynasty succeeded the Sui in 618 C.E. Tang dynasty emerged as one of the most glorious in Chinese history.  They reinstated Confucian thought and revived and improved upon the Han style of bureaucracy.   During these troubled years, old values survived and China retained greater homogeneity than other civilizations. Many of the nomadic invaders, seeing that they had nothing better to offer by way of government or culture, simply tried to assimilate the Chinese traditions. China thus had to recover from a serious setback but did not have to reinvent its civilization

20. Decline in China and India • Recap: After the death of Ashoka, the Mauryan dynasty became financially weak and could not hold together the empire. They were finished off by an invasion by Bactria, the Greek speaking empire formed in the wake of Alexander the Great’s invasion.  Even though the northwest part of India became unstable, a new regional family rose to unite most of the subcontinent into another empire.  This family was the Guptas and formed the second half of India’s classical age. • The Gupta Empire was one of the most peaceful world regions but not as centralized as the Mauryans under Ashoka. They remained divided into regions where local politicians made most of the laws and decisions.  When the Huns attacked( 500 C.E), the empire easily fell apart along the fault lines of the local regions in 400C.E.

21. Decline in China and India Hun invasions reduced the decentralized empire’s cohesion. By 500, the controlled northwestern India. Gupta rule collapsed by 400 C.E. • Invaders integrated into warrior cast of Hinduism and ruled the regions locally. With the social structure of India intact, much of its culture survived. • Rajputs emerge from these groups. India divided into regional dynasties ruled by princes called Rajput • Small states, emphasis on military virtues • Hinduism gains ground from Buddhism :The ruling warriors, however, had no use for the peaceful and contemplative religion of Buddhism, and its influence declined during this time as a result. Hinduism gained ground that it had lost under Ashoka. • Islam introduced from 600’s :After the Guptas, Indian trade and prosperity hardly missed a beat until Muslim traders gained control of the Indian Ocean. However, Indian classical culture was preserved through Hinduism and the caste system.

22. Decline and Fall in Rome Prelude : The fall of the Roman Empire was very complex and is still debated among historians today. But things that are agreed upon are the following. Symptoms of Decline Decline of martial sprit : As the Roman Empire grew it required more soldiers to patrol its borders and frontiers and the empire had to rely on mercenaries( pay troops, formed mainly by Germanic soldiers) due to a decreased in Roman population. Population decline :cycles of plagues that could not be prevented. The population of Rome decreased from a million people to 250,000. • Brutal, arbitrary rulers: Problems of succession (the next emperor), empire became too large for the government, which became dominated by the rich and military elites. • Cities shrink • High tax burden on a population that was decreasing because of plague and poverty.

23. Decline and Fall in Rome • Decline in civic moral duty : Rome Emperors and the upper classes adopted increasingly luxurious and extravagant lifestyles at the expense of the tax paying citizens. This cause not only great resentment among the lower classes, but the upper classes became more self-centered and less concerned about social and political responsibilities • Creativity seems to weaken : New artistic and cultural styles were not being created.  People came to view life as futile and meaningless. • Probably an accumulation of factors :Weakened politically, economically, culturally, and psychologically, the Roman Empire no longer had the strength or the desire to fend off the Germanic invaders. • More disruptive than in China, India

24. Decline and Fall in Rome Effort at Revival: Division of the Empire ( East and West Split) Great estates emerge • Landlords gain power at the expense of government : As the empire started to weaken, farmers and laborers clustered around powerful regional landowners to whom they surrendered full allegiance in return for military protection.  Thus people looked to their local landlords rather than to the Empire for protection and stability.  As this decentralization took place, the vast Mediterranean trade routes fell out of Roman hands.  • Diocletian (284-305)  tried to stop this decentralization reforming the system of administration. The empire was divided into four separate administrations each with its own capital (Reorganizes bureaucracy, tax collection )and persecuted Christians whose allegiance to God he blamed for the weakening of Roman civil life.   • Constantine (312-337) converted the Christianity, used his religion to try to unify the Empire spiritually and establish a second capital in Constantinople. • Christianity serves as a unifier

25. Decline and Fall in Rome Division of the Empire Western Empire declines : Economic weakness :Attempts to regulate the economy curbed initiative and lowered production. Many overburdened peasants welcomed the changes brought by the Germanic invasions of the 5th century The last Roman Empire in the west was displaced by Germanic armies in 476.  Mediterranean culture, which had been put together by the Hellenism of Alexander and the Roman Empire itself, was fragmented.  Unlike the classical civilizations of India and China, this Mediterranean classical civilization suffered a complete death.  “For Greece and Rome had not put together the shared political culture and bureaucratic traditions of China that could allow revival after a period of chaos.  Nor had Mediterranean civilization . . . generated a common religion that appealed deeply enough, or satisfied enough needs, to maintain unity despite political fragmentation, as in India.” 

26. Decline and Fall in Rome • Rome’s collapse ended Mediterranean unity. Three zones( Northeastern , north Africa and along the Mediterranean’s southeastern shores and Modern Europe) emerged, each later producing distinct civilizations. The northeastern part of the empire continued as the vibrant, artistically creative, and commercially active Byzantine Empire, which incorporated Hellenistic and Roman patterns and served as a military buffer between the states of Europe and the threat of invasion from Asia. * • One unique thing about the fall of Rome, however, was that the eastern portion, called the Byzantine Empire, did not really fall.  But this Empire did not gain the entire inheritance of Mediterranean classical civilization. It more accurately mirrored the political system of late imperial Rome.  Thus the fall of the Empire was more devastating in the west, while in the east a unique culture—not completely of Mediterranean origin—thrived.  

27. Germanic Kingdoms after the Invasions

28. Decline and Fall in Rome • The Early Byzantine Empire mirrored the political system of late imperial Rome.   • Autocratic emperors • Greek language • Justinian • Attempt to reconquer Western Empire • Influential codification of Roman laws was his lasting contribution. *compilation of Roman Law in the Justinian Code. • The Byzantine Empire never controlled all of the Middle East.

29. Decline and Fall in Rome The Middle East In the north, the Parthian Empire emerged in late Hellenistic period until 227C.E. • Parthian rule • As far as India In 227 C.E. Sassanid Persians reasserted Persian authority over the Empire, revitalizing Zoroastrianism, Persian art, and manufacturing. Sassanid Empire • Persian uprising replaces Parthians • Revival of Persian traditions, including Zoroastrianism • Both empires connect east and west Both the Parthian and the Sassanid empires served as bridges between the Greek-speaking world and India and China. • Fall of Rome has little impact on this region • *The Sassanids were overthrown by the surge of Arab conquest that followed the rise of Islam, in the 7th century C.E.; neither Christianity nor Persian culture were destroyed.

30. Decline and Fall in Rome North Africa • Regional Kingdoms • Spread of Christianity, but uneven: it fractured into different sects. The famous theologian Augustine was a bishop in North Africa. • Coptic church in Egypt still survives as a small minority. • North Africa eventually fell to Islam

31. Decline and Fall in Rome Western Europe • Greatest disruption • Civilization itself crushed • Cities shrink • Christianity provides structure • Yet, “fall” of Rome not noted at the time • the level of civilization declined: cities were decimated, trade almost disappeared. Regional Germanic kingdoms appeared. The only vital force was Christianity, but it was not able to sustain civilization. In the mire of Rome’s collapse, this part of the world forgot for several centuries what it had previously known.

32. The Mediterranean, Middle East, Europe, and North Africa, c. 500 C.E.

33. The New Religious Map Rise of World Religions • Disease creates demand for new answers • Buddhism spreads into Asia • Rise of Christianity, Islam • Civilization declines and redirected • Syncretism with earlier beliefs

34. The New Religious Map Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism • Buddhism altered as it spreads • Doctrine of bodhisattvas develops • Shift from focus on ethics to focus on salvation • Fall of Han opens China to Buddhism • Mahayana Buddhism – Buddha as a savior • Transformed, especially in women’s role • Buddhism opposed by many • Daoism • Becomes more popular among peasants

35. The New Religious Map Christianity • Moves westward • Structured • Exclusive – idea of one truth • Jesus of Nazareth • Message of salvation • Disciples spread message

36. The New Religious Map Early Christianity • One supreme god who loved humankind • The best life included worship, fellowship • Poverty might be the best path • Eagerly accepted • Paul moves Christianity away from Judaism • Persecuted for centuries • Strong organization, following by 400

37. The New Religious Map Christian Culture • Following among all social classes • Synthesis with classical culture • Borrowing in government, architecture, art • Latin language and literature

38. The New Religious Map