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Power concedes nothing without a demand.
Name:
Date:
Mr. Carey/Mr. Clarke
Consolidating Empires
Consolidating Empires: Macedonia, Rome, and China
I. Overview
In addition to the Persian Empire, various other empires arose during the
600BCE-600CE period. But creating empires was no easy task. As
conquering armies greatly expanded the territory of the societies to
which they belonged, their victories brought thousands upon thousands
of different peoples and cultures under the control of single states. These
states, as they created empires, suddenly became responsible for
managing huge amounts of land and people, and therefore had to
fashion systems that would allow for effective control.
Directions: Actively read and annotate the provided texts on the
development of the Macedonian, Roman, and Chinese empires. While
you read, focus on the question provided below. When you have finished
reading, respond to this question in the “Homework section of your AP
World History notebook.
1.
Explain how the Macedonians, Romans, and Chinese built and managed their empires during the classical era
(600BCE-600CE).
I. Alexander and the Hellenistic Era
After the Peloponnesian War, in which the many Greek city-states fought each other due to
Athens’ increasing attempts to dominate the region, the Greeks had exhausted themselves and
were open to conquest from the outside. The Macedonians, under the rule of Philip III of
Macedon, who reigned from 359 to 336 BCE, invaded Athens from the north and conquered the
entire region. Fortunately, Philip respected Greek culture, and rather than destroy it, encouraged
it to flourish (grow, spread). (1)
The Macedonians did not stop their conquests with Greece. Philip’s son, Alexander the Great,
who was taught by the famous Greek thinker Aristotle, widely expanded Macedonian
dominance. Under Alexander, the Macedonians conquered the mighty Persian Empire and
moved eastward to the shores of the Indus River in what today is India, eventually creating the
largest empire of the time. (2)
Along with its size, the Macedonian Empire is notable for the fact that it adopted Greek customs
and then spread them to much of the known world. Consequently, much of the world became
connected under a uniform law and common trade practices. Therefore, Hellenism—the
culture, ideals, and pattern of life of Classical Greece—did not disappear as a result of the
Macedonian conquest of Greece; instead, it came to be influential far beyond Greece’s original
borders. (3)
The major avenue for the spread of Greek culture lay in the many cities that Alexander and later
Hellenistic (of or related to Greek culture) rulers established throughout the empire. Complete
with Greek monuments, sculptures, theaters, markets, councils and assemblies, these cities
attracted many thousands of Greek settlers serving as state officials, soldirs, or traders.
Alexandria in Egypt—the largest of these cities, with 500,000 people—was an enormous center
where Egyptians, Greeks, Jews, Babylonians, Syrians Persians, and many others rubbed elbows. A
harbor with space for 1,200 ships facilitated long-distance commerce and trade. Greek learning
Power concedes nothing without a demand.
flourished thanks to a library of some 700,000 volumes and the Museum, which sponsored
scholars and writers of all kinds. (4)
The strain of Alexander the Great’s conquests, however, eventually took its tool, and he died at
the age of 33 in Babylon as he and his army were returning to Macedonia. Although he had been
successful in spreading Greek influence throughout much of the surrounding lands, Alexander’s
empire started to crumble before his corpse got cold. Because the Macedonians were focused
primarily on the East and on Egypt, the door was open in the Western Mediterranean for a new
power to rise on the world stage. That power was Rome. (5)
II. Rome: From City-State to Empire
Originally ruled by a king, Rome began as a small and impoverished city-state on the western
side of central Italy in the eighth century BCE. Around 509 BCE, Roman aristocrats (wealthy
upper class) overthrew the monarch and established a republic in which the men of the wealthy
class, known as patricians, dominated. Executive authority1 was in the hands of two consuls,
who were advised by a patrician assembly, the Senate. Deepening conflict with the poorer
classes, or plebeians, led to important changes in Roman political life. A written code of law
offered plebeians some protection from abuse; a system of public assemblies provided an
opportunity for lower classes to shape public policy; and a new office or tribune, who
represented plebeians, allowed them to block the passing of unfair laws. Romans took great
pride in their republic, beleiving that they enjoyed greater freedom than did many of their
neighbors. The values of their republic—rule of law, the rights of citizens, the absence of
cockiness, upright moral behavior, honesty—were later spoken of as the “way of the ancestors.”
(1)
With this political system and these values, the Romans launched their empire-building
campaign, a long process that took more than 500 years. Between 264 and 164 BCE, victory in the
Punic Wars with Carthage, a powerful empire with its capital in North Africa, extended Roman
control over the western Mediterranean, includign Spain, and made Rome a naval (sea) power.
Later expansion in the eastern Mediterranean brough the ancient civilizations of Greece, Egypt,
and Mesopotamia under Roman domination. Rome also expanded into territories in Southern
and Western Europe, including present-day France and Britain. By early in the second century
CE, the Roman Empire had reached its maximum extent. (2)
What the Romans created was something new—an empire that consisted of the entire
Mediterranean region and beyond. It was a piecemeal (step-by-step) process, motivated by some
Romans’ desire to defend the territory they had conquered, other Romans’ desire to achieve
personal power/glory, and still other Romans’ desire to obtain resources and wealth from other
areas. (3)
Although Rome’s central location in the Mediterranean basin provided a convenient launching
pad for empire, it was the army, “well-trained, well-fed, and well-rewarded,” that built the
empire and held it in check. Drawing on the growing population of Italy, that army was often
brutal in war. Carthage, for example, was burnt to the ground. Nonetheless, Roman authorities
could be generous to former enemies. Some were granted Roman citizenship, while others were
treated as allies and allowed to maintain their local rulers and their local cultures/religions—the
only condition was that these defeated peoples pledged loyalty to Rome. (4)
The warrior culture that drove Roman expansion created expectations around masculinity, in
which males were expected to be soldiers and property owners. Within the home, this translated
into the role of Roman man as pater familias, or head of household. As the pater familias, the
man had absolute control over wife, chuldren, and slaves, including the right to kill them
without interference from the state. As the Rome developed, upper-class women did achieve
some rights, such as the abilty to hold property, but lower-class women still remained oppressed
and dominated by men. (5)
1
Within a
government,
“executive authority”
refers to the power to
make big decisions,
like whether or not to
go to war.
Power concedes nothing without a demand.
As certain military leaders like Julius Caesar became rich from conquest and thereforce
increasingly powerful, competition amongst these leaders plunged Rome into bloody civil wars.
When the dust settled from these civil wars, a man by the name of Octavian, who was later
granted the title of Augustus, had seized control of Rome and become Rome’s first emperor. The
Roman republic was no more; Rome had become a true empire ruled by an emperor. (6)
During the first two centuries CE, the empire and its imperial government kept order by
providing security, wealth, and prosperity for the Mediterranean world and its peoples. This was
the pax Romana, the Roman peace, the era of imperial Rome’s greatest extent and greatest
authority. (7)
III. China: From Warring States to Empire
As one of the First Civilizations, a Chinese state had emerged as early as 2200 BCE, and under the
Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, this state had grown progressively larger. By 500 BCE, however,
the Chinese state was in complete chaos, struggling through an “era of warring states,” in which
endless rivalries between seven competing kingdoms sparked constant wars. (1)
To many Chinese, this was unacceptable, and rulers in various states tried to reunify China. One
of them, known to history as Qin Shihuangdi, succeeded brilliantly. The kindgom from which
Qin came already had already developed an effective bureaucracy (government with many levels
and offices), equipped its army with iron weapons, and enjoyed rapidly rising agricultural
production and a growing population. It also had adopted a political philosophy known as
Legalism, which called for clear rules and harsh punishments as a means of enforcing the power
of the government. With these resources, Qin launched a military campaign that reunified China
and soundly defeated the other warring states in just 10 years. Believing that he had created the
first empire in the history of the world, Qin renamed himself Shiguangdi, which means “first
emperor.” Although the boundaries of the Chinese empire have changed over time, Qin’s
conquests laid the foundation for a unified Chinese state which has pretty much lasted until the
present day. (2)
To organize his empire more effectively, Qin and his strong central government created a
uniform system of weights, measure, and currency and standardizes the length of axles for carts,
as well as the written form for the Chinese language. Qin additionally commissioned hundreds of
thousands of laborers to construct the Great Wall of China in order to strengthen China against
outside invaders. At the same time, however, Qin applied a forceful form of Legalism to ensure
absolute control—scholars who opposed him were executed and their books burned, while
aristocrats who opposed his government policies were simply moved away. (3)
Although Qin believed that his dynasty/ruling line would last forever, his dynasty collapsed
merely one year after his death in 206 BCE, due to the fact that the Chinese people resented
(felt negatively about) his rule. Shortly thereafter, the Han Dynasty emerged to take Qin’s place.
Lasting nearly 400 years, the Han retained (kept up, maintained) the centralized and
bureaucratic government of the Qin dynasty to maintain order, but lessened the harshness of
Qin’s Legalism policies while installing with a meritocracy (system based upon achievement or
skill) based on the ideals of Confucianism, which eventually became the sole state philosophy.
(4)
As the Chinese empire expanded under the Han, it actively assimilated (absorbed) the nonChinese or “barbarian” people. These groups became Chinese culturally, linguistically, and
through physical appearance as well (due to intermarriage). Later in the Han dynasty, Chinese
citizens would move into areas that had been newly conquered to try to forcibly assimilate the
“barbarians.” Even the nomadic groups who eventually conquered the Han Dynasty wore
Chinese dress and set up their courts in Chinese fashion. (5)
Power concedes nothing without a demand.