Download Chapter 7: India and China Establish Empires

Chapter 7: India and
China Establish Empires
Essential Questions:
1.
How did the Mauryan Empire, the Golden
Age, and Asoka affect the development
of India?
2.
How did the development of Hinduism
and Buddhism affect India?
3.
How did the Han dynasty affect China?
I. Chandragupta Maurya Builds an Empire
A. Chandragupta Unifies North India
 Chandragupta Maurya
defeated Seleucus, Alexander
the Great’s general
 321 BC- Chandragupta wins,
claiming land in Indus River
valley= Mauryan Empire
 Empire stretched 2,000+ miles
uniting North India under one
ruler- Chandragupta
B. Running the Empire
 divided empire into 4 provinces, each
headed by a royal prince
 Each province divided into local
districts, officials imposed taxes,
enforced laws
C. Life in the Mauryan Empire
 Not much known b/c of a lack of
records
 capital city very beautiful
 large army assembled
 farmers exempt from military service
 heavy taxes to pay for army and
building projects
II. Asoka Runs the Empire
 Asoka, Chandragupta’s grandson,
took control of Mauryan Empire
 At first ruled much like his
grandfather, waging bloody wars to
expand his empire
 After a bloody war killing 100,000
soldiers he changed his mind
 Began to study Buddhism, which
taught nonviolence
He put up pillars with edicts or
policies of equality, nonviolence,
& religious toleration written on
them, throughout the empire
He also had roads built that
connected the 4 corners of India
After Asoka’s death a power
struggle began
For the next 500 years Greeks,
Persians, and Asians invaded
northern India
III. The Gupta Empire
 After the 500 years of turmoil, another
strong leader arose to form India’s
2nd great empire, the Gupta Empire
 Founded by Chandra Gupta (no
relation)
A. Chandra Gupta Builds an Empire
 Chandra Gupta came to power by
marrying into an influential royal family
 Took the title “Great King of Kings” in
320 AD
 Included the city of Magadha and the
area north of it, central region of the
Ganges River being the power basin.
 335 AD Gupta’s son took over- a lover
of poetry and music, but had a warlike
side too
B. Daily Life in India
 Gupta Empire is 1st period from which
historians have information on daily life
 Lived in small villages
 Merchants, crafts ppl clustered in
districts, shops street level, homes in
rooms above
 Families were patriarchal- house hold
run by the eldest male
 Whole family worked in raising crops
 Drought common, had to irrigate crops
Section Two: Religions In India
I. A More Popular Form of Buddhism
– By 250 BC Buddhism and Hinduism were
India’s two main faiths
– Buddha stressed that each person could
reach a state of peace called nirvana.
– Two types of Buddhists
 Mahayana-Offered salvation to all and
allowed popular worship
 Theravada- Emphasized individual
discipline
A. Hindu Rebirth
– Hinduism began to change, during this
time most practices could only be
performed by the priest.
– Three most important gods
 Brahma- creator of the world
 Vishnu- preserver of the world
 Shiva- destroyer of the world
– People began to devote
themselves to Vishnu or Shiva
II. Flowering of Indian Culture
A. Literature and Performing Arts
– Kalidasa- great Indian poet, wrote
Shakuntala
–
–
In Southern India they began to hold
writing academies, more than 2,000
poems still exist
acting groups began to travel through
Southern India, women and men
participated in these shows
B. Astronomy, Mathematics, and Medicine
– Indians began to use a calendar based
on sun rather than on cycles of the moon
– 7 day week- broke each day into hours
– Discovered earth was round, based on
shadow on the moon from a lunar eclipse
– zero, decimal system invented in India
– had medical guides that classified 1,000
diseases and 500 medicinal plants
– Knew how to perform surgery-even
performed plastic surgery
III. The Spread of Indian Trade
A. Overland Trade, East and West
– Silk roads- caravan routes that were
used by Asian traders
– Indians learned of these routes and
became middlemen- made huge
profits
– Rome, Africa, and China were all big
traders with India
Silk Road- Trade Routes
p. 196
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P. 196- Map Skills- answer the questions
in your Journal
Section Three: China’s Dynasties
CC- Silk Road
I. The Founding of the Han Dynasty
– Gov’t fell apart under Qin(chin) Dynasty
led to a Civil War
– During civil war 2 powerful leaders
emerged - Xiang Yu and Liu Bang
– two fought for control of China
– Bang was victorious, declared himself
emperor of the Han Dynasty, which ruled
China for 400 years
– Established a centralized gov’t- adopted
Confucian philosophy
– Lowered taxes and softened harsh
punishments
A. The Empress Lu
– Bang died in 195 BC
– His son became emperor in name onlyreal ruler was Bang’s wife, Empress Lu
– After her death, loyalist to Liu Bang
executed Lu’s existing family
II. A Highly Structured Government
A. Structures of Han Gov’t
– Relied on a complex bureaucracy
– 18 different civil service jobs
– It was expensive to run an empirebesides high taxes, peasants owed a
month’s worth of labor or military service
– This required labor would build roads,
canals, and irrigation ditches
III. Han Technology, Commerce, and Culture
A. Technology Revolutionized Chinese Life
– Invented paper= helped spread edu b/c
paper cheaper than silk
– Collar harness made it possible for horse
to pull heavier loads
– Wheel barrel and windmills
B. Agriculture Versus Commerce
– b/c of huge population- farming viewed
as most honored occupation
– Commerce not seen as important (even
thought it really was very important)
– gov’t had a monopoly (complete
control) on mining of salt, forging of iron,
minting of coins, and brewing of alcohol
– Gov’t also had a large part of the silk
industry
Chinese Dynasty Song
To the tune of Frere Jacques:
2x- Shang (shaang), Zhou(joe), Qin(chin), Han
2x- Sui(sway), Tang(tong), Song
2x- Yuan, Ming, Qing(ching), The Republic
1x- Mao Zedong
1x- Deng (Dung) Xiaoping (Shaouping)
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p. 208
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Complete the Main Ideas questions in your
journals. Write the questions.