Transcript 8000 BCE – 600 CE BROAD TRENDS

8000 BCE – 600 CE
BROAD TRENDS
GLOBAL POWER AND
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
• Early on, the most advanced civilizations
were to be found in the Middle East
(especially the river valleys of Egypt and
Mesopotamia) and China.
• As time passed, other developed societies
emerged. Especially powerful and
sophisticated was the Mediterranean world
(particularly Greece and Rome).
• Cultures in North and South America were
physically and culturally isolated from the
rest of the continents.
• The cultures of Europe, North Africa, the
Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia were
all linked, directly or indirectly, by war,
conquest, trade, travel, religious interaction,
and cultural exchange.
• By 600 c.e., several
civilizations could
claim to be among the
world’s most powerful
and advanced,
especially China,
Persia, and
Byzantium. Europe
was slowly recovering
from the collapse of
Rome in the late 400s.
POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
• With the development of agriculture during
the Neolithic revolution, advanced forms of
political organization began to appear.
• Most governments were monarchies (rule by
a single leader) or oligarchies (rule by a
small elite). More representative forms of
government, such as republics and
democracies, were very rare.
• In some cases, decentralized civilizations
were governed by confederations of
independent city-states (such as Greece) or
feudal systems (such as Europe after the fall
of Rome).
• Many civilizations, by means of military
conquest, built empires. Among the largest
and longest lasting were Assyria’s, Persia’s,
Rome’s, and China’s.
ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL
DEVELOPMENTS
• Until the development of agriculture during
the Neolithic revolution, systems of
economic exchange remained quite
primitive. Most prehistoric cultures, mainly
hunting and gathering societies, lived at
subsistence and possessed few goods. There
was very little specialization of labor. Any
trade tended to be limited, and based on
simple barter.
• The development of agriculture allowed the
accumulation of food surpluses, which
enabled some members of society to make a
living by means other than growing food.
The result was specialization of labor.
• • Specialization of labor led to social
stratification and the emergence of
socioeconomic classes (ex. upper-class
aristocracies, middle-class merchants and
artisans, lower-class urban dwellers and
peasants).
• The switch from
nomadic life to
sedentary, or settled,
life led people to
develop the concept of
private property.
• Resource
consumption and
extraction increased,
causing human
societies to have a
greater (and often
negative) impact on
the environment.
• As settled civilizations encountered each
other, they traded with each other. Trade
became one of the most important forms
of interaction between civilizations. Trade
networks tended to follow waterways, for
ease of transport.
• Systems of currency (particularly coinage)
were devised.
CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS
• Even during the Stone
Age, human beings
expressed themselves
artistically, by means of
painting and music.
• Prehistoric societies buried
their dead, worshipped
gods, and practiced
religious rituals.
• Systematic scientific
observation,
experimentation, and
thought emerged,
especially in China,
the Middle East, and
the Mediterranean
world.
• The world’s major
religions were born
(except for Islam).
GENDER ISSUES
• The ability of humans
to mate when and with
whom they chose gave
rise to family units
during the prehistoric
era.
• Basic physical differences between the
sexes led to a gender division of labor in
most Stone Age societies.
• The emergence of agriculture deepened the
gender division of labor. In most agricultural
and settled societies, gender division gave
rise to gender inequality.
• Organized religions often reinforced this
sense of inequality.
• In most societies up to 600 C.E., women
were relegated to a secondary, subservient
role. The degree of subservience depended
on the society. In some cultures, women had
at least some rights (divorce, inheritance,
and ownership of property, for example).
• In other cultures, women had almost no
rights or influence. Whatever the case, in
almost no society were women granted a
status equal to that of men.
QUESTIONS AND
COMPARISONS TO CONSIDER
• How do human societies develop into societies?
What does it mean to be “civilized”?
• How do agricultural and urban societies compare
with pastoral and nomadic ones?
• What is the importance of cultural interaction and
diffusion versus that of independent innovation in
changing societies technologically, scientifically, or
culturally?
• Examine and compare various forms of social
inequality (slavery, caste systems, patriarchy,
gender inequality) in different cultures.
• How have different societies organized themselves
economically? What role did trade play? Be able
to describe the features of at least one
interregional trading system (for example, the
overland route linking the Mediterranean and
Middle East with East Asia).
• How and why do empires and major
civilizations decline or collapse? Good
comparisons might include Egypt versus
Mesopotamia or the Roman Empire versus
Han China. More generally, why did
imperial collapse prove more devastating in
western Europe than it did farther to the
east?