Download World History Website Notes Chapter 1: I. Opening Vignette A. The

World History Website Notes
Chapter 1:
I. Opening Vignette
A. The Hazda of Tanzania are one of the last gathering and hunting societies on earth.
1. likely to disappear soon
2. will mark the end of what was universal human existence until 10,000–12,000 years ago
B. For 95 percent of human history, the means of life was gathering and hunting.
1. food collection, not food production
2. has been labeled “Paleolithic” (old stone age) era
C. It’s wrong to ignore the first 200,000 years of human experience.
1. archaeology reveals a great deal about these peoples
2. they settled the planet
3. they created the earliest human societies
4. they were the first to reflect on issues of life and death
II. Out of Africa to the Ends of the Earth: First Migrations
A. Homo sapiens emerged in eastern and southern Africa 250,000 years ago.
1. stayed there exclusively for about 150,000 years
2. Africa was home to the “human revolution,” in which culture became more important than biology in shaping
human behavior
3. humans began to inhabit environments not touched by earlier hominids
4. technological innovation: use of stone and bone tools
5. hunting and fishing, not just scavenging
6. patterns of exchange
7. use of ornaments, perhaps planned burials
8. between 100,000–60,000 years ago: beginning of migrations out of Africa
a. adapted to nearly every environment on earth
b. much took place in the difficulties of the last Ice Age
B. Into Eurasia
1. humans started migrating into the Middle East around 51,000 years ago
2. the best evidence of early European settlement comes from southern France and northern Spain
a. settlers in northern Europe were pushed southward into warmer areas around 20,000 years ago
b. developed new hunting habits, new hunting technologies
3. the earliest Europeans left hundreds of cave paintings: depictions of animals and humans and abstract designs
(maybe early form of writing)
4. development of new technologies in Ukraine and Russia
a. needles, multilayered clothing, weaving, nets, baskets, pottery, etc.
b. partially underground dwellings made from mammoth remains
c. suggests semipermanent settlement
d. creation of female figurines (“Venus figurines”); earliest dated at least 35,000 years ago
C. Into Australia
1. humans reached Australia about 60,000 years ago from Indonesia
2. very sparse settlement; estimated 300,000 people in 1788
3. development of some 250 languages
4. still completely a gathering and hunting economy when Europeans arrived in 1788
5. complex worldview: the Dreamtime
a. stories, ceremonies, and art tell of ancestral beings
b. everything in the natural order is an echo of ancient happenings
c. current people are intimately related to places and events in past
World History Website Notes
6. major communication and exchange networks
a. included stones, pigments, wood, pituri (psychoactive drug)
b. also included songs, dances, stories, and rituals
D. Into the Americas
1. when settlement of the Americas began is still argued over (somewhere between 30,000 and 15,000 years ago)
a. mode of migration ( Bering Strait or by sea down west coast of North America) also still argued about
b. how many migrations and how long they took also argued over
c. evidence of humans in southern Chile by 12,500 years ago
2. Clovis: the first clearly defined and widespread culture of the Americas
a. name comes from the Clovis point, a kind of projectile point
b. flourished 12,000–11,000 years ago
c. hunted large mammals (mammoths, bison)
d. disappeared about 10,900 years ago, at the same time as the extinction of a number of large mammals
3. next stage: much greater cultural diversity, as people adapted to the end of the Ice Age in different ways
E. Into the Pacific
1. the last phase of the great human migration, started ca. 3,500 years ago
2. migration by water from the Bismarck and Solomon islands and the Philippines
3. very quick migration over very long distances
4. migrants spoke Austronesian languages (can be traced to southern China )
5. settled every habitable area of the Pacific basin within 2,500 years
a. also settled the island of Madagascar
b. made Austronesian the most widespread language family
c. completed initial human settlement of the world ca. 900 c.e. with occupation of Aotearoa ( New Zealand )
6. Pacific settlers
a. took agriculture with them, unlike other migrations
b. apparently followed a deliberate colonization plan
c. created highly stratified societies or chiefdoms (e.g., Hawaii)
d. massive environmental impact on previous uninhabited lands
III. The Ways We Were
A. The First Human Societies
1. societies were small, bands of 25–50 people
2. very low population density (because of available technology)
a. very slow population growth
b. perhaps 10,000 people in world 100,000 years ago
c. grew to 500,000 by 30,000 years ago
d. reached 6 million 10,000 years ago
3. Paleolithic bands were seasonally mobile or nomadic
a. moved in regular patterns to exploit wild plants and animals
b. since they moved around, they couldn’t accumulate goods
4. societies were highly egalitarian
a. perhaps the most free people in human existence
b. did not have specialists, so most people had the same skills
c. relationships between women and men were far more equal than in later societies
5. James Cook described the gathering and hunting peoples of Australia as tranquil and socially equal
6. Paleolithic societies had clearly defined rules
a. men hunted, women gathered
b. clear rules about distribution of meat from a kill
World History Website Notes
c. rules about incest and adultery
B. Economy and the Environment
1. gathering and hunting peoples used to be regarded as “primitive” and impoverished
a. modern studies point out that they worked fewer hours
b. wanted or needed little
c. but life expectancy was low (35 years on average)
2. alteration of natural environments
a. deliberately set fires to encourage growth of certain plants
b. extinction of many large animals shortly after humans arrived
c. gradual extinction of other hominids, like the Neanderthals (Europe) and Flores man ( Indonesia )
C. The Realm of the Spirit
1. it is difficult to decipher the spiritual world of Paleolithic peoples
a. lack of written sources
b. art is subject to interpretation
c. contemporary gathering and hunting peoples may not reflect ancient experience
2. Paleolithic peoples had a rich ceremonial life
a. led by part-time shamans (people especially skilled at dealing with the spirit world)
b. frequent use of psychoactive drugs to contact spirits
3. apparent variety of beliefs
a. some societies were seemingly monotheistic
b. others saw several levels of supernatural beings
c. still others believed in an impersonal force running throughout the natural order
d. Venus figurines make some scholars think that Paleolithic religion was strongly feminine, with a Great
Goddess
e. many peoples probably had a cyclical view of time
D. Settling Down: “The Great Transition”
1. gradual change as populations grew, climates changed, and peoples interacted
2. collection of wild grains started in northeastern Africa around 16,000 years ago
3. last Ice Age ended 16,000–10,000 years ago
a. followed by a “global warming” period
b. richer and more diverse environment for human societies
c. population rise
d. beginnings of settlement
4. settlement led to societal change
a. larger and more complex societies
b. storage and accumulation of goods led to inequality
5. settling-down process occurred in many areas 12,000–4,000 years ago
a. Jomon culture in Japan
b. Scandinavia, Southeast Asia, North America, Middle East
c. bows and arrows were invented independently in Europe, Africa, and Middle East
6. the process of settlement was a major turn in human history
IV. Comparing Paleolithic Societies
A. Both the San and the Chumash preserved their ancient way of life into modern times.
B. The San of Southern Africa
1. northern fringe of the Kalahari Desert (present-day Angola , Namibia , Botswana )
2. 50,000–80,000 San still live in the region
3. part of the Khoisan language family, inhabited southern Africa at least 5,000 years
World History Website Notes
a. gathering and hunting way of life, with stone tools
b. remarkable rock art, going back 26,000 years
c. most of the Khoisan peoples were absorbed or displaced by Bantu-speaking peoples
4. The San (Ju/’hoansi) still practiced their ancient life with few borrowings when anthropologists started studying
them in the 1950s and 1960s
a. use some twenty-eight tools, including digging stick, leather garment for carrying things, knife, spear,
bow and poisoned arrows, ropes, and nets
b. men hunt, women do most of gathering
c. adequate diet
d. short workweek, with even labor division between men and women
e. uncertain and anxious life, dependent on nature
5. San society characterized by mobility, sharing, and equality
a. basic unit is band of 10–30 people, connected to other bands
b. many people claimed membership in more than one band
c. frequent movement to new territory
d. no formal leaders, priests, or craft specialists
e. very complex social relations
f. high value given to modesty, cooperation, equality
g. complex system of unequal gift exchange
6. relative equality between the sexes
a. free sex play between teenagers
b. most marriages are monogamous
c. frequent divorce among young couples
7. frequent conflict over distribution of meat; rivalries over women
8. belief system:
a. Creator God, Gao Na, is capricious
b. lesser god Gauwa is destructive but sometimes assists humans
c. gauwasi (spirits of dead ancestors) are most serious threat to human welfare
d. evil influences can be counteracted with n/um, a spiritual potency that can be activated in “curing
dances”
e. state of warfare with the divine
C. The Chumash of Southern California
1. show a later Paleolithic stage than the San, with permanent villages
2. Chumash lived near present-day Santa Barbara, California
a. richer environment than the San
b. perhaps 20,000 when the Spaniards arrived in the sixteenth century
c. Chumash created new society after 1150 c.e. in response to violence and food shortages
3. central technological innovation: the planked canoe (tomol)
a. ability to make and own tomol led to social inequality
b. stimulated trade between the coast and islands
c. made deep-sea fishing possible
4. living conditions were more elaborate than the San
a. round, permanent, substantial houses (for up to 70 people)
b. a market economy, despite being gathering and hunting peoples
c. beginning of class distinctions (e.g., bearskin capes, burials)
d. emergence of a permanent, hereditary political elite
5. Chumash largely solved the problems of violence in the region
V. Reflections: The Uses of the Paleolithic
World History Website Notes
A. The study of history is about those who tell it today, not just about the past.
1. views of the past reflect our own smugness or disillusionment
2. Paleolithic era is sometimes regarded as a golden age
a. admired by feminists, environmentalists, antimaterialists
3. scholars have looked to the Paleolithic era in questioning explosive population and economic growth of recent
past
4. gathering and hunting peoples of today have looked to Paleolithic era in an effort to maintain or recover their
identities
B. A basic question: “What have we lost in the mad rush to modernity?”
C. Nobody can be completely detached when studying the past.
Chapter 2:
I. Opening Vignette
A. In the past two centuries, there has been a dramatic decline in the number of farmers worldwide.
1. the United States is an extreme case: only around 5 percent of Americans, many of them over 65 years old,
were still on farms in 2000
2. great increase in the productivity of modern agriculture
B. The modern retreat from the farm is a reversal of humanity’s first turn to agriculture.
II. The Agricultural Revolution in World History
A. Agriculture is the second great human process after settlement of the globe.
1. started about 12,000 years ago
2. often called the Neolithic (New Stone Age) or Agricultural Revolution
3. deliberate cultivation of plants and domestication of animals
4. transformed human life across the planet
B. Agriculture is the basis for almost all human developments since.
C. Agriculture brought about a new relationship between humans and other living things.
1. actively changing what they found in nature rather than just using it
2. shaping the landscape
3. selective breeding of animals
D. “Domestication” of nature created new mutual dependence.
1. many domesticated plants and animals came to rely on humans
2. humans lost gathering and hunting skills
E. “Intensification” of living: getting more food and resources from much less land.
1. more food led to more people
2. more people led to greater need for intensive exploitation
III. Comparing Agricultural Beginnings
A. The Agricultural Revolution happened independently in several world regions.
1. Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia
2. several areas in sub-Saharan Africa
3. China
4. New Guinea
5. Mesoamerica
6. the Andes
7. eastern North America
8. all happened at about the same time, 12,000–4000 years ago
9. scholars have struggled with the question of why agriculture developed so late in human history
B. Common Patterns
World History Website Notes
1. Agricultural Revolution coincided with the end of the last Ice Age
a. global warming cycle started around 16,000 years ago
b. Ice Age was over by about 11,000 years ago
c. end of Ice Age coincided with human migration across earth
d. extinction of some large mammals: climate change and hunting
e. warmer, wetter weather allowed more wild plants to flourish
2. gathering and hunting peoples had already learned some ways to manage the natural world
a. “broad spectrum diet”
b. development of sickles, baskets, and other tools to make use of wild grain in the Middle East
c. Amazon: peoples had learned to cut back some plants to encourage growth of the ones they wanted
d. Australians had elaborate eel traps
3. women were probably the agricultural innovators
4. gathering and hunting peoples started to establish more permanent villages
a. especially in resource-rich areas
b. population growth perhaps led to a “food crisis”
5. agriculture developed in a number of regions, but with variation
a. depended on the plants and animals that were available
b. only a few hundred plant species have been domesticated
c. only 14 large mammal species were domesticated
C. Variations
1. the Fertile Crescent was the first to have a full Agricultural Revolution
a. presence of large variety of plants and animals to be domesticated
b. transition to agriculture triggered by a cold and dry spell between 11,000 and 9500 B.C.E.
c. transition apparently only took about 500 years
d. much more societal sophistication (mud bricks, monuments and shrines, more elaborate burials, more
sophisticated tools)
2. at about the same time, domestication started in the eastern Sahara (present-day Sudan )
a. the region was much more hospitable 10,000–5,000 years ago
b. domestication of cattle there about 1,000 years before Middle East and India
c. in Africa, animals were domesticated first; elsewhere, plants were domesticated first
d. emergence of several widely scattered farming practices
e. African agriculture was less productive than agriculture in the Fertile Crescent
3. separate development of agriculture at several places in the Americas
a. absence of animals available for domestication
b. only cereal grain available was maize or corn
c. result: replacement of gathering and hunting with agriculture took 3,500 years in Mesoamerica
d. Americas are oriented north/south, so agricultural practices had to adapt to distinct climate zones to
spread
IV. The Globalization of Agriculture
A. Agriculture spread in two ways:
1. diffusion: gradual spread of techniques and perhaps plants and animals, but without much movement of human
population
2. colonization or migration of agricultural peoples
3. often both processes were involved
B. Triumph and Resistance
1. language and culture spread with agriculture
a. Indo-European languages probably started in Turkey, are spoken today from Europe to India
b. similar process with Chinese farming
World History Website Notes
c. spread of Bantu language in southern Africa
d. similar spread of Austronesian-speaking peoples to Philippines and Indonesian islands, then to Pacific
islands
2. the globalization of agriculture took about 10,000 years
a. did not spread beyond its core region in New Guinea
b. did not spread in a number of other regions
c. was resisted where the land was unsuitable for farming or where there was great natural abundance
3. by the beginning of the Common Era, gathering and hunting peoples were a small minority of humankind
C. The Culture of Agriculture
1. agriculture led to much greater populations
2. changes in world population
a. 10,000 years ago: around 6 million people
b. 5,000 years ago: around 50 million people
c. beginning of Common Era: around 250 million people
3. farming did not necessarily improve life for ordinary people
a. meant much more hard work
b. health deteriorated in early agricultural societies
c. new diseases from interaction with animals
d. the first epidemics, thanks to larger communities
e. new vulnerability to famine, because of dependence on a small number of plants or animals
4. new constraints on human communities
a. all agricultural people settled in permanent villages
b. the case of BanPo in China (settled ca. 7,000 years ago)
5. explosion of technological innovation
a. pots
b. textiles
c. metallurgy
6. “secondary products revolution” started ca. 4000 B.C.E.: a new set of technological changes
a. new uses for domesticated animals, including milking, riding, hitching them to plows and carts
b. only available in the Eastern Hemisphere
7. deliberate alteration of the natural ecosystem
a. removal of ground cover, irrigation, grazing
b. evidence of soil erosion and deforestation in the Middle East within 1,000 years after beginning of
agriculture
V. Social Variation in the Age of Agriculture
A. Pastoral Societies
1. some regions relied much more heavily on animals, because farming was difficult or impossible there
2. pastoral nomads emerged in central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Sahara desert, parts of eastern and
southern Africa
3. relied on different animals in different regions
a. horses were domesticated by 4000 B.C.E.; encouraged the spread of pastoral peoples on Central Asian
steppes
b. domesticated camels allowed human life in the inner Asian, Arabian, and Saharan deserts
4. no pastoral societies emerged in the Americas
B. Agricultural Village Societies
1. most characteristic form of early agricultural societies, like Banpo or Jericho
2. maintenance of equality and freedom (no kings, chiefs, bureaucrats, aristocrats)
3. the case of Çatalhüyük, in southern Turkey
World History Website Notes
a. population: several thousand
b. dead buried under their houses
c. no streets; people moved around on rooftops
d. many specialized crafts, but little sign of inherited social inequality
e. no indication of male or female dominance
4. village-based agricultural societies were usually organized by kinship, group, or lineage
a. performed the functions of government
b. the Tiv of central Nigeria organized nearly a million people this way in the late nineteenth century
5. sometimes modest social/economic inequality developed
a. elders could win privileges
b. control of female reproductive powers
C. Chiefdoms
1. chiefs, unlike kings, usually rely on generosity, ritual status, or charisma to govern, not force
2. chiefdoms emerged in Mesopotamia sometime after 6000 B.C.E.
3. anthropologists have studied recent chiefdoms in the Pacific islands
4. chiefdoms such as Cahokia emerged in North America
5. distinction between elite and commoner was first established
VI. Reflections: The Legacies of Agriculture
A. Agriculture is a recent development in world history.
1. was an adaptation to the unique conditions of the latest interglacial period
2. has radically transformed human life and life on the planet more generally
B. One species, Homo sapiens, was given growing power over other animals and plants.
C. Agriculture also gave some people the power to dominate others.
Chapter 3:
I. Opening Vignette
A. The contrast between “artificial” life as a “civilized” city dweller and the spacious freedom and imagined simplicity of
earlier times still resonates today.
B. “Civilizations” are a relatively recent phenomenon in human history made possible by the surpluses produced by the
Agricultural Revolution.
C. The distinctive features of civilizations are:
1. cities with monumental architecture and populations in the tens of thousands
2. powerful states that could compel obedience and wage large-scale warfare
3. much greater inequality in economic function, wealth, and social status
II. Something New: The Emergence of Civilizations
A. Civilization was a global phenomenon
1. six major civilizations and some smaller manifestations
2. scattered around world
3. developed after 3500 B.C.E.
B. Introducing the First Civilizations
1. one of the earliest civilizations emerged in Sumer (in southern Mesopotamia) between 3500 and 3000 B.C.E.
a. first written language
b. appearance of Egyptian civilization in Nile River Valley (northeast Africa) and smaller Nubian civilization to its
south at about the same time
2. Norte Chico (central coastal Peru ), emerged between 3000 and 1800 B.C.E.
a. twenty-five urban centers
b. Norte Chico differed in several ways from Mesopotamia and Egypt
World History Website Notes
c. unusually self-contained; only import was maize, derived from Mesoamerica
3. Indus Valley civilization in Indus and Saraswati river valleys of present-day Pakistan arose between 3000 and
2000 B.C.E.
a. elaborately planned cities and standardized weights, measures, architectural styles, and brick sizes
b. written script that remains thus far undeciphered
c. unlike other civilizations, it generated no palaces, temples, elaborate graves, kings, or warrior classes
d. scholars remain uncertain as to how society was organized; theories include a series of small republics, rule
by priests, or an early form of the caste system
e. environmental degradation led to the collapse of this civilization by about 1700 B.C.E., but several aspects of
its culture shaped later Indian societies
4. around 2200 B.C.E., a First Civilization took shape in China
a. from the start, China was defined by the ideal of a centralized state
b. the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties enlarged the Chinese state
c. ruler was the “Son of Heaven,” an intermediary between heaven and earth
d. early written language with oracle bones as early documents
e. China has maintained impressive cultural continuity into modern times
5. the Olmec produced a First Civilization much later (around 1200 B.C.E.) on coast of Gulf of Mexico, near
present-day Veracruz
a. cities arose from competing chiefdoms and produced elaborate ceremonial centers
b. created the first written language in the Americas by about 900 B.C.E.
c. culture influenced later civilizations in Mesoamerica, including the Maya and Teotihuacán
6. other smaller civilizations also flourished
a. Nubian civilization south of Egypt was distinctive and independent
b. city of Sanxingdui in China arose separately from the more well-known Shang Dynasty
C. The Question of Origins
1. First Civilizations had their roots in the Agricultural Revolution
2. First Civilizations tended to develop from earlier, competing chiefdoms that already had some social rank and
economic specialization
3. process was gradual and evolutionary
4. why did some chiefdoms develop into civilizations and others did not?
a. one argument: the need to organize large-scale irrigation projects (archeologists have found that these
projects appeared long after civilizations began)
b. another argument: the needs of elite groups, warfare, and trade all played roles as well
c. Robert Carneiro’s argument: population density created competition, especially when agricultural land was
limited
5. the creation of the First Civilizations was quick by world history standards but was an unconscious undertaking
for those involved
6. all First Civilizations relied on highly productive agriculture
D. An Urban Revolution
1. cities were one of the most distinctive features of First Civilizations
2. the scale, layout, and specialized industries of cities would have impressed visitors from villages
3. cities lay at the heart of all First Civilizations because they were:
a. political/administrative capitals
b. centers of cultural production—art, architecture, literature, ritual, and ceremony
c. places of local and long-distance exchange
d. centers of manufacturing activity
4. cities produced new societies with greater specialization and inequality
III. The Erosion of Equality
A. Professional and craft specialization marked early urban life.
World History Website Notes
B. Hierarchies of Class
1. First Civilizations had vast inequalities in wealth, status, and power
2. civilizations multiplied and magnified inequalities that already existed in complex gathering and hunting societies
and agricultural chiefdoms
3. these new levels of inequality represent one of the major turning points in the social history of humankind
4. upper classes:
a. enjoyed great wealth
b. avoided physical labor
c. had the finest in everything
d. occupied the top positions in political, military, and religious life
e. and were frequently distinguished by their clothing, houses, manner of burial, and treatment under the law
5. free commoners formed the vast majority of the population and included artisans of all kinds, lower-level officials,
soldiers and police, servants, and farmers
a. their surplus production was appropriated to support the upper classes
b. some members of these classes recognized and resented their situation
6. slaves were at the bottom of social hierarchies everywhere
a. slavery and civilization seem to have emerged together
b. first-generation slaves were prisoners of war, criminals, and debtors
c. worked in fields, mines, homes, and shops
d. more rarely, they were sacrificed
e. slavery varied from place to place
f. most ancient slavery differed from the more recent American variety
C. Hierarchies of Gender
1. civilizations everywhere undermined the earlier and more equal relationships between men and women
2. women in horticultural societies remained relatively equal to men
3. but patriarchy gradually emerged in First Civilizations
a. more intensive agriculture with animal-drawn plows and large dairy herds favored male labor over female
b. patriarchy also developed in civilizations without plow agriculture, such as Mesoamerica and the Andes
c. David Christian: the declining position of women was a product of growing social complexity
d. the association of women with nature because of their role in reproduction may also have played a part
e. warfare may also have contributed to patriarchy
f. private property and commerce also may have played a role
D. Patriarchy in Practice
1. Gerda Lerner: emergence of patriarchy in Mesopotamia
a. written law codes codified patriarchal family life
b. regulation of female sexuality was central
c. women in Mesopotamia were sometimes divided into two sharply distinguished categories, depending on
protection of one man
d. powerful goddesses of Mesopotamia were gradually replaced by male deities
2. Egyptian patriarchy gave women greater opportunities than in most First Civilizations, including ability to:
a. own property and slaves
b. administer and sell land
c. make their own wills
d. sign their own marriage contracts
e. initiate divorce
3. royal women occasionally wielded political power as regents for their sons or, more rarely, as queens in their
own right
4. Egyptian statues and love poetry suggest affection between sexes
World History Website Notes
IV. The Rise of the State
A. States were central to the organization and stability of First Civilizations.
B. Coercion and Consent
1. the state fulfilled a variety of roles in coordinating and regulating the First Civilizations, including:
a. organizing irrigation systems
b. adjudicating conflicts
c. defense
2. the state served the needs of the upper classes by:
a. protecting the privileges of the elites
b. requiring farmers to give up a portion of their product to support city people
c. demanding labor on large public projects
3. the state frequently used force to secure its will
4. force was not always necessary because the state often claimed that its authority was normal, natural, and
ordained by the gods
a. rule by divine right
b. deference to religion restrained or even undermined the right to rule as in the rule of Chinese emperors by
the Mandate of Heaven
C. Writing and Accounting
1. writing provided support for the state and emerged in all of the First Civilizations except the Andes (though some
scholars now regard their knotted strings, or quipus, as a kind of writing)
2. writing sustained the First Civilizations by:
a. defining elite status and conveying prestige on those who wrote
b. allowing some commoners to join the elite through literacy
c. providing a means for propaganda
d. providing a means to keep accurate accounts and complex calendars
e. giving weight to regulations and laws
3. writing also served functions beyond the state
a. fostered literature, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, and history
b. sometimes threatened rulers
D. The Grandeur of Kings
1. source of state authority
2. monumental residences and temples
3. luxurious dress
4. elaborate burials
V. Comparing Mesopotamia and Egypt
A. Environment and Culture
1. both depended on rivers, but were very different
a. erratic and destructive flooding in Mesopotamia
b. Nile flooded more predictably and less destructively
2. Mesopotamia was less geographically isolated than Egypt
a. Mesopotamia was vulnerable to external attack
b. Egypt was usually protected from external attack
3. many scholars see a relationship between physical setting and culture
a. more negative Mesopotamian worldview seems to reflect its precarious and violent environment
b. Egyptian worldview reflected the more stable, predictable, and beneficent environment in which it took shape
4. Environmental impact of rising population
a. in southern Mesopotamia, deforestation, soil erosion, and salinization of the soil weakened Sumerian citystates, leading to foreign conquest and the northward shift of Mesopotamia’s cultural centers
World History Website Notes
b. Egypt built a more sustainable agricultural system that contributed to the remarkable continuity of its
civilization
B. Cities and States
1. the political systems of Mesopotamia and Egypt differed sharply
2. Mesopotamia for its first thousand years was organized into a dozen or more separate city-states
a. each city-state was ruled by a king
b. 80 percent of the population lived in city-states for protection
c. environmental devastation and endemic warfare ultimately led to conquest by outside forces after about 2350
B.C.E.
d. these outside powers built large territorial states or bureaucratic empires encompassing all or most of
Mesopotamia
3. Egypt
a. around 3100 B.C.E., several earlier states or chiefdoms merged into a unified territory that stretched some
1,000 miles along the Nile
b. for 3,000 years, Egypt maintained its unity and independence with few interruptions
c. most Egyptians lived in agricultural villages, perhaps because of greater security
d. the pharaoh, a god in human form, was the focus of the Egyptian state
e. pharaohs were discredited by Nile’s failure to flood around 2200 B.C.E.
f. from 2200 to 2000 B.C.E., anarchy; when state was restored, pharaohs never regained their old power
C. Interaction and Exchange
1. Egypt and Mesopotamia frequently interacted
2. Egypt ’s agriculture benefited from interaction
3. Mesopotamian models may have influenced Egypt ’s step pyramids and system of writing
4. Egypt ’s “divine kingship” seems to have been derived from central or eastern Sudan
5. both Mesopotamia and Egypt carried on extensive long-distance trade
a. Mesopotamian sea trade with the Indus Valley civilization as early as 2300 B.C.E.
b. Mesopotamian trade with Anatolia, Egypt , Iran , and Afghanistan
c. Egyptian trade in the Mediterranean and Middle East
d. Egyptian trade in Nubia and along the East African coast
6. Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultural influences moved along trade routes
a. Hebrews migrated from Mesopotamia to Palestine and Egypt early in their history
b. Phoenicians (in present-day Lebanon ) were commercially active in the Mediterranean basin
c. some Indo-European peoples settled in north-central Anatolia
d. sustained contact between Nubia and Egypt
e. Egyptian influence can be seen in Minoan art, while Greeks drew heavily upon both Egyptian and
Mesopotamian precedents in art, religion, philosophy, and language
7. Mesopotamia and Egypt were also influenced by their neighbors
a. Indo-Europeans brought horse-and-chariot-based armies to Mesopotamia; Indo-European Hittites conquered
the Babylonian empire in 1595 B.C.E.
b. the Hyksos invaded using chariot-based armies and ruled Egypt between 1650 and 1535 B.C.E.
c. Mesopotamians and Egyptians adopted chariot technology
d. arrival of the Hyksos spurred further innovations in Egypt : new armor and weaponry, new methods of
spinning/weaving
8. by 1500 B.C.E., Egypt had become an imperial state
a. rule over non-Egyptian peoples in both Africa and Asia
b. regular diplomatic correspondence with Middle Eastern empires
VI. Reflections: “Civilization”: What’s in a Word?
A. Some scholars have reservations about the use of the word “civilizations” to describe the cultures studied in this
chapter.
World History Website Notes
B. Modern assessments of the First Civilizations reveal a profound ambiguity.
1. They gave us inspiring art, profound reflections on life, more productive technologies, increased control over
nature, and writing
2. but they also produced massive inequalities, state oppression, slavery, large-scale warfare, the subordination of
women, and epidemic disease
3. Some scholars prefer more neutral terms, such as complex societies, urban-based societies, or state-organized
societies.
C. Scholars object to the term “civilization,” because it implies more clear-cut boundaries from other societies than was
actually the case.
1. aside from elites, most of the people living in the First Civilizations probably defined themselves more by
occupation, clan, village, city, or region than as a member of some larger “civilization”
2. First Civilizations lacked clear borders
3. unclear line between civilizations and other kinds of societies
D. This book continues to use the term because:
1. it is so deeply embedded in our way of thinking about the world
2. no alternative concept has achieved widespread usage
3. we need to make distinctions among different kinds of human communities
E. But in using this term, we must remember:
1. historians use “civilization” as a purely descriptive term designating a particular type of human society—one with
cities and states—without implying any judgment or assessment, any sense of superiority or inferiority
2. the term is used to define broad cultural patterns in particular geographic regions while recognizing that many
people living in those regions may have been more aware of differences and conflicts than of those
commonalities
Chapter 4:
I. Opening Vignette
A. The 2007 book Are We Rome? asked if the United States has become the new Roman Empire.
1. collapse of the Soviet Union
2. overextension of the United States
3. sense of unique, global mission
4. commitment to military dominance
5. reminder of continuing relevance of a long-dead empire
B. Modern fascination with empires
1. earliest empires developed in era of First Civilizations
a. Akkadian Empire
b. Babylonian Empire
c. Assyrian Empire
2. empires have been central to world history for 4,000 years
C. What is an empire?
1. simple answer: empires are political systems with coercive power
2. more typical: larger, more aggressive states
a. conquer other states
b. use their resources
c. usually include multiple peoples and cultures under a single political system
3. no clear line between empires and small multiethnic states
D. Eurasian empires of the classical era include:
1. Persian Empire
2. Greek empire of Alexander the Great
3. Roman Empire
4. Chinese empire (Qin and Han dynasties)
World History Website Notes
5. India (Mauryan and Gupta empires)
E. Common problems of classical empires:
1. Would they try to impose their culture on varied subjects?
2. Would they rule conquered peoples directly or through local elites?
3. How should they extract wealth while maintaining order?
4. all eventually collapsed
F. Why have empires always been so fascinating?
1. size was imposing
2. blood and violence of conquest
3. satisfaction in witnessing the fall of the mighty when they collapse
4. contrast to nonimperial civilizations
5. empires were important
a. majority of humans before twentieth century lived in empires
b. stimulated exchange of ideas, cultures, and values
c. peace and security encouraged development, commerce, and cultural mixing
II. Empires and Civilizations in Collision: The Persians and the Greeks
A. The Eurasian classical era saw a flowering of second-wave civilizations.
1. civilizations did not usually encounter each other directly
2. Mediterranean world and Middle East were the important exceptions
a. Persians and Greeks were neighbors
b. very important cultural encounter
B. The Persian Empire
1. in 500 B.C.E., it was the largest and most impressive empire
a. Persians were Indo-Europeans, homeland on the Iranian plateau
b. imperial system drew on Mesopotamian prototypes
c. much larger and more splendid
d. Cyrus (r. 557–530 B.C.E.) and Darius (r. 522–486 B.C.E.) expanded empire from Egypt to India
e. diverse empire with population of around 35 million people
2. elaborate cult of kingship
a. rule by will of the god Ahura Mazda
b. absolute monarchy
3. holding the empire together
a. violent punishments by king
b. effective administrative system
c. respect for non-Persian cultural traditions
d. standardized coinage, predictable taxes
e. encouragement of communication and commerce
4. immense wealth and power
C. The Greeks
1. Indo-Europeans
2. classical Greece emerged ca. 750 B.C.E., flourished for about 400 years
3. distinctiveness of Hellenistic civilization
a. population of Greece and the Aegean basin was 2 million to 3 million people
b. geography of mountains, valleys encouraged development of hundreds of city-states and small settlements
c. shared common language and common gods
4. between 750 and 500 B.C.E., colonization around Mediterranean basin and Black Sea
5. most distinctive feature: popular participation in political life of city-states
World History Website Notes
a. equality of all citizens before the law
b. extent of citizenship varied depending on time and city
c. tyrants (dictators) emerged in many areas, supported by the poorer classes against the rich
d. Sparta gave most political authority to Council of Elders
e. Athens: most distinctive expression of political participation
f. differences between Athenian and modern democracy
D. Collision: The Greco-Persian Wars
1. point of collision was Ionia (Greek settlements on Anatolian seacoast)
a. in 499 B.C.E., some Ionian Greeks revolted against Persia
b. were supported by Athens
2. Persia responded with expeditions against Greeks in 490 and 480 B.C.E.
a. Greeks astonishingly defeated Persians on land and sea
b. Greeks believed they won Battle of Marathon (490 B.C.E.) because they were motivated by Greek freedoms
3. notion of East/West divide as dominant theme in European thought
a. Greece = Europe, freedom
b. Persia = Asia, despotism
4. victory radicalized Athenian democracy: poor rowers received full citizenship
a. fifty-year Golden Age of Greek culture after Persian Wars
b. beginnings of imperialism
c. Peloponnesian War (431–404 B.C.E.)
E. Collision: Alexander and the Hellenistic Era
1. Philip II of Macedon completed conquest of Greece by 338 B.C.E.
a. political unification of Greece by force
b. plan for great Greek expedition against Persia
2. Alexander’s expedition against Persia (333–323 B.C.E.)
a. created a massive Greek empire that reached from Egypt and Anatolia to Afghanistan and India
b. defeat of Persian Empire, destruction of Persepolis
c. Alexander anointed as pharaoh of Egypt, declared to be “son of the gods”
3. Alexander died in 323 B.C.E.; empire divided into three kingdoms, ruled by Macedonian generals
4. Alexander’s conquests were most important in terms of world history for creation of the Hellenistic era (323–30
B.C.E.)
a. dissemination of Greek culture through much of Asia and Egypt
b. role of Hellenistic cities in spread of Greek culture
c. Alexandria in Egypt had enormous harbor, library of 700,000 volumes, and the Museum
5. A simplified form of Greek was widely spoken from Mediterranean to India
a. Indian monarch Ashoka published some of his decrees in Greek
b. many Jews were attracted to Greek culture; Pharisees developed their own school system to counter the
influence
6. Hellenistic cities were much more culturally diverse than original Greek city-states
a. were not independent, but part of conquest states
b. Macedonians and Greeks formed the elite
c. cultural interaction and blending were still possible
7. Roman rule replaced that of Greeks in western part of Hellenistic world
III. Comparing Empires: Roman and Chinese
A. The Roman and Chinese empires had little direct contact but interesting similarities.
1. both flourished ca. 200 B.C.E.–200 C.E.
2. were of similar size (about 1.5 million square miles)
3. both had 50 million to 60 million people
World History Website Notes
4. between them, they controlled nearly half the world’s population
5. interesting variations on imperial theme
B. Rome: From City-State to Empire
1. started as small, unimportant city-state in central Italy in eighth century B.C.E.
2. overthrew monarchy and established a republic ca. 509 B.C.E.
3. conflict between patricians (wealthy class) and plebeians (poorer classes)
4. pride in republican values: rule of law, citizens’ rights, lack of pretension, morality—“the way of the ancestors”
5. creation of the empire
a. began in 490s B.C.E. with wars to control Italian peninsula
b. 264–146 B.C.E.: Punic Wars with Carthage
c. conquest of Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and present-day Spain, France, and Britain
d. reached greatest geographical extent in early second century C.E.
e. gradual, unplanned pursuit of opportunities
f. skill and brutality of Roman army
g. usually generous treatment of conquered peoples
6. political crisis of first century B.C.E.
a. rise of military leaders (Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Julius Caesar)
b. decline of republican values
c. Caesar Augustus (r. 27 B.C.E.–14 C.E.) was first emperor
7. establishment of pax Romana (Roman peace)
a. security
b. relative prosperity
C. China: From Warring States to Empire
1. creation of empire regarded as a restoration
a. Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties had created a Chinese state
b. system fell apart by 500 B.C.E.
c. age of warring states: seven competing kingdoms
d. multiple states were regarded as unnatural
2. unification by Shihuangdi, ruler of Qin (r. 221–210 B.C.E.)
a. adopted Legalism as political philosophy: clear rules and harsh punishments to enforce state authority
b. Shihuangdi means “first emperor”
3. expansion of empire into northern Vietnam and Korea and into steppes to northwest
4. creation of empire was brutal
a. military force
b. execution of scholars, book burning
c. hundreds of thousands of laborers built Great Wall
d. Shihuangdi’s monumental tomb, with about 7,500 life-size ceramic statues
e. standardized weights, measures, currency, written Chinese, and even axle lengths for carts
5. Qin dynasty collapsed in 206 B.C.E.; followed by Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.)
a. kept Qin centralization
b. less harsh
D. Consolidating the Roman and Chinese Empires
1. both empires defined themselves in universal terms
2. both invested heavily in public works
3. both claimed supernatural sanctions
a. deceased Roman emperors as gods
b. Chinese emperor as Son of Heaven
4. both absorbed a foreign religious tradition
World History Website Notes
a. development of Christianity in Roman Empire
b. introduction of Buddhism into China by traders
5. relationships with societies they governed
a. Romans were always a minority in empire
b. ethnic Chinese had much larger cultural heartland
6. role of language differed in the two empires
a. Latin (alphabetic language) gave rise to Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian
b. Chinese characters (which represented words or ideas) could not be transferred easily to other languages
7. Roman Empire’s peoples maintained separate cultural identities far more than in China
8. Bureaucracy was much more elaborate in China than in Roman Empire
a. Chinese emperor Wudi (r. 141–87 B.C.E.) established an academy to train officials based on works of
Confucius
b. Roman administration relied on regional elites and army
E. The Collapse of Empires
1. Why do they fall?
a. Han dynasty ended in 220 C.E.
b. traditional date for fall of western Roman Empire is 476 C.E.; eastern half survived as Byzantine Empire
2. common factors
a. excessive size, overextension, too expensive for available resources
b. no great technological breakthrough to enlarge resources
c. tax evasion by large landowning families
d. tax burden fell heavily onto the poor
e. rivalry between elite factions created instability
f. epidemic disease
threat from nomadic or semi-agricultural peoples on frontier: China dealt with Xiongnu; Roman Empire, with
g.
Germanic-speaking peoples
3. effects of imperial collapse
a. decline of urban life
b. population decline
c. reduction of international trade
d. vast insecurity
4. most important difference between collapse of Han and Roman empires: what happened next
a. China: about 350 years of disorder, then creation of a similar imperial state (Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties)
b. Europe: no large-scale imperial system has ever been successfully established in Western Europe since
Romans
c. Why was China more successful in restoration?
IV. Intermittent Empire: The Case of India
A. The idea of empire was much less prominent in India than in Persia, the Mediterranean, or China.
1. fall of Indus Valley civilization by 1500 B.C.E.
2. creation of new civilization along Ganges River
3. establishment in northern India of classic civilization of South Asia by 600 B.C.E.
a. enormous political, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity
b. Indian civilization as a whole shaped by political fragmentation and cultural diversity
c. identity provided by distinctive religious tradition (Hinduism) and social organization (caste system)
B. Mauryan Empire (326–184 B.C.E.)
1. stimulated by Persian and Greek penetration of northwest
2. ruled all but southern tip of India
3. population of around 50 million
World History Website Notes
4. large military and civilian bureaucracy
5. state-operated industries
6. Ashoka (r. 268–232 B.C.E.) is best-known emperor, thanks to edicts
7. Mauryan Empire broke apart after Ashoka’s death
C. Gupta Empire (320–550 C.E.) and other short-lived empires followed
D. Why couldn’t India maintain an empire?
1. states failed to command loyalty
2. great cultural diversity
3. frequent invasions from Central Asia
4. caste system encouraged local loyalties
E. Indian trade flourished despite the lack of unity.
1. merchants and artisans patronized public buildings and festivals
2. Hinduism and Buddhism spread through much of Asia
3. Indian mathematics and astronomy flourished
V. Reflections: Classical Empires and the Twentieth Century
A. Classical empires continue to be used as models and inspirations.
1. Mao Zedong compared himself to Shihuangdi
2. Modern Indians pride themselves on Ashoka’s nonviolence and tolerance
3. Great Britain celebrated its empire as a modern Roman Empire
4. Mussolini regarded Italian expansion as the creation of a new Roman Empire
5. recent question: are Americans the new Romans?
B. There is a danger of misusing historical analogies, but history is vital to understanding the complexities of
contemporary life.
Chapter 5:
I. Opening Vignette
A. In 2004, China celebrated the 2,555th birthday of Confucius, despite Communism.
1. Buddhism and Christianity also growing rapidly in China
2. part of enduring legacy of the classical world
B. In the period around 500 B.C.E., there was a great emergence of durable cultural traditions that have
shaped the world ever since.
1. China : Kong Fuzi (Confucius) and Laozi
2. India : Hinduism and Buddhism
3. Middle East: development of monotheism
a. Persia : Zoroastrianism (prophet Zarathustra)
b. Israel : Judaism (prophets such as Isaiah)
4. Greece : rational humanism (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, et al.)
5. all sought an alternative to polytheism, placating of gods through ritual and sacrifice
a. quest for source of order and meaning in the universe
b. guide humans to personal moral or spiritual transformation (especially development of
compassion)
c. the questions they pose still trouble and inspire humankind
d. they defined their distinctive cultures
C. Why did all these traditions emerge at about the same time?
1. some historians point to major social changes
a. iron-age technology led to higher productivity and deadlier war
b. growing cities, increasing commerce
World History Website Notes
c. emergence of new states and empires
d. new contacts between civilizations
2. it’s a mystery why particular societies developed particular answers
II. China and the Search for Order
A. China had a state-building tradition that went back to around 2000 B.C.E.
1. idea of Mandate of Heaven was established by 1122 B.C.E. (foundation of the Zhou dynasty)
2. breakdown into the chaos of the “age of warring states” (403–221 B.C.E.)
B. The Legalist Answer
1. Han Fei was a leading Legalist philosopher
2. principle: strict rules, clearly defined and strictly enforced, are the answer to disorder
3. pessimistic view of human nature; only the state can act in people’s long-term interest
4. promotion of farmers and soldiers, who performed the only essential functions in society
5. Legalism inspired the Qin dynasty reunification of China
C. The Confucian Answer
1. Confucius (551–479 B.C.E.) was an educated, ambitious aristocrat
a. spent much of life looking for a political position to put his ideas into practice
b. Confucius’s ideas had enormous impact on China and the rest of East Asia
c. his teachings were collected by students as the Analects
d. elaboration and commentary on his ideas by later scholars, creating Confucianism as a
body of thought
2. principle: the moral example of superiors is the answer to disorder
a. society consists of unequal relationships
b. duty of the superior member to be sincere and benevolent
c. will inspire deference and obedience from the inferior member
3. humans have capacity for improvement: education is the key
a. advocated a broad liberal arts education
b. application of liberal arts education to government problems
c. need for ritual and ceremonies
4. after Legalism was discredited, Confucianism became the official ideology of the Chinese state
5. the family as a model for political life, with focus on filial piety
a. defined role of women as being humble, serving husbands
b. woman writer Ban Zhao (45–116 C.E.): Lessons for Women
6. emphasized the great importance of history
a. ideal good society was a past golden age
b. “superior men” had outstanding moral character and intellect; not just aristocrats
c. created expectations for government: emperors to keep taxes low, give justice, and
provide for material needs
7. Confucianism was nonreligious in character
a. emphasis was practical, focused on this world
b. did not deny existence of gods and spirits, but the educated elite had little to do with them
D. The Daoist Answer
1. associated with the legendary Laozi (sixth century B.C.E.), author of the Daodejing (The Way
and Its Power)
2. Daoism was in many ways the opposite of Confucianism
a. education and striving for improvement was artificial and useless
b. urged withdrawal into the world of nature
World History Website Notes
3. central concept: dao: the way of nature, the underlying principle that governs all natural
phenomena
4. elite Chinese often regarded Daoism as a complement to Confucianism
5. Daoism entered popular religion
a. sought to tap the power of the dao for practical purposes (magic, the quest for
immortality)
b. provided the ideology for peasant rebellions (e.g., Yellow Turbans)
III. Cultural Traditions of Classical India
A. Indian cultural development was different
1. elite culture was enthusiastic about the divine and about spiritual matters
2. Hinduism (the Indian religious tradition) had no historical founder
a. developed along with Indian civilization
b. spread into Southeast Asia, but remained associated with India and the Indians above all
c. was never a single tradition; “Hinduism” is a term invented by outsiders
B. South Asian Religion: From Ritual Sacrifice to Philosophical Speculation
1. widely recognized sacred texts provided some common ground within the diversity of Indian
culture and religion
2. the Vedas (poems, hymns, prayers, rituals)
a. compiled by Brahmins (priests), transmitted orally
b. were not written down (in Sanskrit) until around 600 B.C.E.
c. provide a glimpse of Indian civilization in 1500–600 B.C.E.
d. role of Brahmins in practicing elaborate ritual sacrifices gave them power and wealth
3. the Upanishads (mystical, philosophical works) developed in response to dissatisfaction with
Brahmins
a. composed between 800 and 400 B.C.E.
b. probe inner meaning of Vedic sacrifices—introspection
c. central idea: Brahman (the World Soul) as ultimate reality
d. Brahmin priests and wandering ascetics spread Hindu teachings
C. The Buddhist Challenge
1. developed side by side with philosophical Hinduism
2. Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 566–ca. 486 B.C.E.)
a. spiritual journey led to “enlightenment” (insight) at age 35
b. his followers saw him as the Buddha, the Enlightened One
3. central Buddhist teaching: life is suffering
a. sorrow’s cause is craving for individual fulfillment, attachment to self
b. “cure” it with modest and moral life, meditation
c. goal is achievement of enlightenment or nirvana (extinguishing of individual identity)
4. large elements of Hinduism are present in Buddhist teaching
a. life as an illusion
b. karma and rebirth
c. overcoming demands of the ego
d. practice of meditation
e. hope for release from the cycle of rebirth
5. much of Buddhism challenged Hinduism
a. rejection of Brahmins’ religious authority
b. lack of interest in abstract speculation
World History Website Notes
c. need for individuals to take responsibility for their own spiritual development
d. strong influence of Indian patriarchy
6. appealed especially to lower castes and women in India
a. teaching was in local language, not classical Sanskrit
b. linked to local traditions with establishment of monasteries and stupas (shrines with relics
of the Buddha)
c. state support from Ashoka (268–232 B.C.E.)
7. the split within Buddhism
a. early Buddhism (Theravada, or Teaching of the Elders)
b. by early in the Common Era, development of Mahayana (Great Vehicle)
D. Hinduism as a Religion of Duty and Devotion
1. Buddhism was gradually reincorporated into Hinduism in India
2. Mahayana Buddhism in particular spread elsewhere in Asia
3. first millennium C.E.: development of a more popular Hinduism
a. expressed in epic poems, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana
b. action in the world and performance of caste duties provide a path to liberation
c. bhakti (worship) movement began in south India
IV. Moving toward Monotheism: The Search for God in the Middle East
A. The radical notion of a single supreme deity developed in Zoroastrianism and Judaism and became the
basis for both Christianity and Islam.
B. Zoroastrianism
1. Persian prophet Zarathustra traditionally dated to sixth or seventh century B.C.E.
2. some state support during Achaemenid dynasty (558–330 B.C.E.)
3. single god Ahura Mazda is source of truth, light, goodness
a. cosmic struggle with Angra Mainyu (force of evil)
b. Ahura Mazda will eventually win, aided by a final savior
c. judgment day: restoration of world to purity and peace
d. need for the individual to choose good or evil
4. Zoroastrianism did not spread widely beyond Persia
a. Alexander and the Seleucid dynasty were disastrous for it
b. flourished in Parthian (247 B.C.E.–224 C.E.) and Sassanid (224–651 C.E.) empires
c. final decline caused by arrival of Islam; some Zoroastrians fled to India , became known as
Parsis (“Persians”)
5. Jews in the Persian Empire were influenced by Zoroastrian ideas
a. idea of God vs. Satan
b. idea of a last judgment and bodily resurrection
c. belief in the final defeat of evil, with help of a savior (Messiah)
d. remaking of the world at the end of time
C. Judaism
1. developed among the Hebrews, recorded in the Old Testament
a. early tradition of migration to Palestine, led by Abraham
b. early tradition of enslavement in Egypt and escape
c. establishment of state of Israel ca. 1000 B.C.E.
2. Judean exiles in Babylon retained their cultural identity, returned to homeland
3. distinctive conception of God
a. Yahweh demanded exclusive loyalty
World History Website Notes
b. relationship with Yahweh as a covenant (contract)
c. lofty, transcendent deity—but communication was possible
4. foundation for both Christianity and Islam
V. The Cultural Tradition of Classical Greece : The Search for a Rational Order
A. Classical Greece did not create an enduring religious tradition.
1. system of polytheism, fertility cults, etc., remained
2. Greek intellectuals abandoned mythological framework
a. world is a physical reality governed by natural laws
b. humans can understand those laws
c. human reason can work out a system for ethical life
3. perhaps was caused by diversity and incoherence of mythology
a. intellectual stimulation of great civilizations
b. possible influence of growing role of law in Athenian political life
B. The Greek Way of Knowing
1. flourished 600–300 B.C.E. (same time as city-states flourished)
2. key element: the way questions were asked (argument, logic, questioning of received wisdom)
3. best example: Socrates (469–399 B.C.E.) of Athens
a. constant questioning of assumptions
b. conflict with city authorities over Athenian democracy
c. accused of corrupting the youth, executed
4. earliest classical Greek thinkers
a. applied rational questioning to nature
b. application to medicine
5. application of Greek rationalism to understand human behavior
a. Herodotus: why did Greeks and Persians fight each other?
b. Plato (429–348 B.C.E.) outlined design for a good soC.E.y (Republic) led by a “philosopherking”
c. Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.) emphasized empirical observation
C. The Greek Legacy
1. many people continued traditional religious beliefs and practices
2. Greek rationalism spread widely
a. helped by Roman Empire
b. Christian theology was expressed in Greek philosophical terms
c. classical Greek texts preserved in Byzantine Empire
d. Western Europe: neglect of classical scholarship after fall of Roman Empire
e. part of Islamic culture
VI. Comparing Jesus and the Buddha
A. The Lives of the Founders
1. Gautama was royal; Jesus was from a lower-class family
2. both became spiritual seekers
a. both were mystics: claimed personal experience of another level of reality
b. based life’s work on their religious experience
3. both were “wisdom teaC.E.s”
a. challenged conventional values
World History Website Notes
b. urged renunciation of wealth
c. stressed love or compassion as the basis of morality
d. called for personal transformation of their followers
4. important differences
a. Jesus had Jewish tradition of single personal deity
b. Jesus’ teaching was more social and political than Gautama’s
c. Jesus was active for about three years; Gautama for over forty
d. Jesus was executed as a criminal; Gautama died of old age
B. Establishing New Religions
1. probably neither intended to C.E.te a new religion, but both did
2. followers transformed both into gods
3. how Christianity became a world religion
a. process began with Paul (10–65 C.E.)
b. women had more opportunities (but early Christianity still reflected patriarchy of time)
c. early converts were typically urban lower class and women
d. attraction of miracle stories
e. attraction of Christian care for each other
4. Roman persecution of Christians as “atheists” for their antagonism to all divine powers except
their one god
a. ended with conversion of Emperor Constantine in early fourth century C.E.
b. later Roman emperors tried to use Christianity as social glue
c. Theodosius ordered closure of all polytheistic temples
d. spread of Christianity throughout Europe, parts of Africa, Middle East, Asia
5. Buddhism: Ashoka’s support helped, but Buddhism was never promoted as India ’s sole religion
C. Creating Institutions
1. Christianity developed a male hierarchical organization to replace early “house churches”
a. women were excluded from priesthood
b. concern for uniform doctrine and practice
c. emergence of bishop of Rome (pope) as dominant leader in Western Europe contributed to
Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox split
d. doctrinal controversies
2. Buddhism clashed over interpretation of the Buddha’s teachings
a. series of councils did not prevent divisions
b. less sense of “right” and “wrong” than with Christian conflicts
3. Buddhism did not develop an overall church hierarchy
VII. Reflections: Religion and Historians
A. Religion is a sensitive subject for historians, too.
B. There are important points of tension between believers and historians.
1. change: religions present themselves as timeless, but historians see development over time, as
a human phenomenon
2. experience of a divine reality: historians have trouble dealing with believers’ experiential claims
3. which group within a religion is “authentic”: historians usually refuse to take sides
C. It can be difficult to reconcile personal religious belief with historical scholarship.
D. Classical religious traditions are enormously important in world history.
Chapter 6:
World History Website Notes
I. Opening Vignette
A. Caste continues to be central to present-day India .
B. The period 1750–present has challenged many social structures once thought to be immutable.
1. series of revolutions destroyed monarchies and class hierarchies
2. abolition of slavery
3. women’s movement
4. Gandhi’s effort to raise status of “untouchables”
C. Patterns of inequality generated social tensions during the “second-wave” civilizations, too.
D. Classical civilizations were hierarchical and patriarchal, but they varied in how they organized their
societies.
II. Society and the State in Classical China
A. Chinese society was shaped more by state actions than were other societies.
1. immense social prestige and political power of state officials
2. officials as cultural and social elite
B. An Elite of Officials
1. world’s first professional civil service
2. 124 B.C.E.: Wudi established an imperial academy for officials
a. around 30,000 students by end of Han dynasty
b. written examinations used to select officials
c. system lasted until early twentieth century
3. favored the wealthy, who could educate sons
a. closeness to the capital, family connections important
b. it was possible for commoners to rise via education
4. system developed further in later dynasties
5. bureaucrats had great prestige and privileges
C. The Landlord Class
1. by first century B.C.E., small-scale peasant farmers had been displaced by large landowners and
tenant farmers
2. state opposed creation of large estates throughout Chinese history, without much success
a. large landowners could often evade taxes
b. large landowners sometimes kept independent military forces that could challenge imperial
authority
c. land reforms by usurper Wang Mang (r. 8–23 C.E.) impossible to enforce
3. landowners benefited both from wealth and from prestige of membership in the bureaucracy
(“scholar-gentry”)
D. Peasants
1. in Chinese history, most of population have been peasants
a. some relatively prosperous, some barely surviving
b. tenant farmers in Han dynasty owed as much as two-thirds of crop to landowners
2. periodic peasant rebellions
a. Yellow Turban Rebellion in 184 C.E. provoked by flooding and epidemics
b. peasant revolts devastated the economy and contributed to overthrow of Han dynasty
c. Chinese peasant movements were often expressed in religious terms
E. Merchants
1. Chinese cultural elite disliked merchants
a. stereotyped as greedy and profiting from work of others
World History Website Notes
b. seen as a social threat that impoverished others
2. periodic efforts to control merchants
a. sumptuary laws
b. forbidden to hold public office
c. state monopolies on important industries (salt, iron, alcohol)
d. forced to make loans to the state
3. merchants often prospered anyway
a. won their way to respectability by purchasing estates or educating their sons
b. many officials and landlords were willing to work with them
III. Class and Caste in India
A. Caste as Varna
1. the word “caste” comes from Portuguese word casta meaning “race” or “purity of blood”
2. caste may have evolved from encounter between Aryans (light-skinned) and natives (dark-skinned)
a. certainly grew from interaction of culturally diverse peoples
b. development of economic and social differences between them
c. economic specialization and culture apparently more important than notions of race
3. ca. 500 B.C.E., there was clear belief that society was divided into four great classes ( varna), with
position determined by birth
a. three classes of pure Aryans (the “twice-born”): Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas
b. far below them were the Sudras, native peoples in very subordinate positions
4. varna theory: the four groups were formed from the body of the god Purusha; immutable
a. reality: considerable social change in ancient India
b. frequent conflict between Brahmin and Kshatriya groups
c. absorption of “tribal peoples” within Aryan groups
d. Vaisya varna evolved into business class
e. Sudra varna became peasant farmers
f. emergence of untouchables below Sudras
B. Caste as Jati
1. social distinctions based on specific occupations, organized as guilds (jatis)
a. blended with varna system to create full caste system
b. thousands of jatis as primary cell of social life
c. each of four great classes divided into many jatis (sub-castes)
2. clearly defined social position
a. marriage and eating together only permitted within individual’s jati
b. each jati has particular duties, rules, obligations
3. ideas of ritual purity and pollution applied to caste groups
4. inherent inequality supported by idea of karma, dharma, and rebirth
a. birth into a caste determined by good or bad deeds (karma) of a previous life
b. rebirth in a higher caste is determined by performance of present caste duties (dharma)
5. threat of social ostracism for violating rules of the jati
6. individuals couldn’t raise social status, but whole jatis could improve social standing
C. The Functions of Caste
1. caste was very local, so it focused loyalties on a restricted territory
a. made empire building very difficult
b. caste as a substitute for the state
World History Website Notes
2. caste provided some social security and support (care for widows, orphans, the destitute)
3. caste was a means to accommodate migrants and invaders
4. made it easier for the wealthy and powerful to exploit the poor
IV. Slavery in the Classical Era: The Case of the Roman Empire
A. Why did slavery emerge in the First Civilizations? There are various theories:
1. domestication of animals provided a model for human slavery
2. war, patriarchy, and private property ideas encouraged slavery
3. women captured in war were probably the first slaves
4. patriarchal “ownership” of women may have encouraged slavery
B. Slavery and Civilization
1. slavery as “social death”: lack of rights or independent personal identity
2. slavery was long-established tradition by the time of Hammurabi (around 1750 B.C.E.)
3. almost all civilizations had some form of slavery
a. varied considerably over place and time
b. classical Greece and Rome: slave emancipation was common
c. Aztec Empire: children of slaves were considered to be free
d. labor of slaves varied widely
4. minor in China (maybe 1 percent of population)
a. convicts and their families were earliest slaves
b. poor peasants sometimes sold their children into slavery
5. India : criminals, debtors, war captives were slaves
a. largely domestic
b. religion and law gave some protections
c. society wasn’t economically dependent on slavery
C. The Making of a Slave Society: The Case of Rome
1. Mediterranean/Western civilization: slavery played immense role
a. Greco-Roman world was a slave society
b. one-third of population of classical Athens was enslaved
c. Aristotle: some people are “slaves by nature”
2. at beginning of Common Era, Italy ’s population was 33 to 40 percent slaves
a. wealthy Romans owned hundreds or thousands of slaves
b. people of modest means often owned two or three slaves
3. how people became slaves:
a. massive enslavement of war prisoners
b. piracy
c. long-distance trade for Black Sea, East African, and northwest European slaves
d. natural reproduction
e. abandoned/exposed children
4. not associated with a particular ethnic group
5. little serious social critique of slavery, even within Christianity
6. slavery was deeply entrenched in Roman society
a. slaves did all sorts of work except military service
b. both highly prestigious and degraded tasks
7. slaves had no legal rights
a. could not marry legally
World History Website Notes
b. if a slave murdered his master, all of the victim’s slaves were killed
c. manumission was common; Roman freedmen became citizens
D. Resistance and Rebellion
1. cases of mass suicide of war prisoners to avoid slavery
2. “weapons of the weak”: theft, sabotage, poor work, curses
3. flight
4. occasional murder of owners
5. rebellion
a. most famous was led by Spartacus in 73 B.C.E.
b. nothing on similar scale occurred in the West until Haiti in the 1790s
c. Roman slave rebellions did not attempt to end slavery; participants just wanted freedom for
themselves
V. Comparing Patriarchies of the Classical Era
A. Every human community has created a gender system.
1. at least since the First Civilizations, the result has been patriarchy
2. men regarded as superior to women
3. men had greater legal and property rights
4. public life as male domain
5. polygamy was common, with sexual control of females of family
6. notion that women need male protection and control
7. patriarchy varied in different civilizations
8. interaction of patriarchy and class: greatest restrictions on upper-class women
B. A Changing Patriarchy: The Case of China
1. in the Han dynasty, elite ideas became more patriarchal and linked to Confucianism
a.
thinking in terms of pairs of opposites described in gendered and unequal
terms: yung (masculine, superior) vs. yin(feminine, inferior)
b. men’s sphere is public; women’s sphere is domestic
c. “three obediences”: woman is subordinated to father, then husband, then son
2. woman writer Ban Zhao (45–116 C.E.): female inferiority reinforced by birth rituals
3. subordination wasn’t the whole story
a. a few women had considerable political authority
b. some writers praised virtuous women as wise counselors
c. honor given to the mothers of sons
d. dowry was regarded as woman’s own property
e. value of women as textile producers
f. a wife had much higher status than a concubine
4. changes following the collapse of the Han dynasty
a. cultural influence of nomadic peoples/less restriction
b. by Tang dynasty (618–907), elite women regarded as capable of handling legal and business
affairs, even of riding horses
c. major sign of weakening patriarchy: reign of Empress Wu (r. 690–705 C.E.)
d. growing popularity of Daoism provided new women’s roles
C. Contrasting Patriarchies in Athens and Sparta
1. Athens and Sparta
were substantially different in views about women
2. Athens: increasing limitations on women 700–400 B.C.E.
a. completely excluded from public life
World History Website Notes
b. represented by a guardian in law; not even named in court proceedings
c. Aristotle: position justified in terms of women’s natural “inadequacy” compared to males
d. restricted to the home
e. married in mid-teens to men 10–15 years older
f. role in life: domestic management and bearing sons
g. land normally passed through male heirs
h. women could only negotiate small contracts
i. most notable exception: Aspasia (ca. 470–400 B.C.E.)
3. Sparta: militaristic regime very different from Athens
a. need to counter permanent threat of helot rebellion
b. Spartan male as warrior above all
c. situation gave women greater freedom
d. women encouraged to strengthen their bodies for important task of childbearing
e. men were often preparing for or waging war, so women had larger role in household
4. Sparta, unlike Athens, discouraged homosexuality
a. other Greek states approved homoerotic relationships
b. Greek attitude toward sexual choice was quite casual
VI. Reflections: Arguing with Solomon and the Buddha
A. What is more impressive about classical Eurasian civilizations: change or enduring patterns?
1. Ecclesiastes—basic changelessness and futility of human life
2. Buddhism—basic impermanence of human life
B. Clearly, some things changed.
1. Greek conquest of the Persian Empire
2. unification of the Mediterranean world by the Roman Empire
3. emergence of Buddhism and Christianity as universal religions
4. collapse of dynasties, empires, and civilizations
C. But the creations of the classical era have been highly durable.
1. China ’s scholar-gentry class
2. India ’s caste system
3. slavery largely unquestioned until nineteenth century
4. patriarchy has been most fundamental, durable, and taken-for-granted feature of all civilizations
a. not effectively challenged until twentieth century
b. still shapes lives and thinking of vast majority of people
5. religious and cultural traditions started in the classical age still practiced or honored by hundreds of
millions of people
Chapter 7:
I. Opening Vignette
A. Maya language and folkways still survive among about 6 million people.
B. Classical-era civilizations aren’t just Eurasian.
1. the Americas : Maya and Moche
2. Africa: Meroë, Axum , Niger River valley
C. There are basic similarities in the development of human cultures everywhere.
1. part of great process of human migration
2. Agricultural Revolutions took place independently in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas
World History Website Notes
3. resultant development of civilizations
D. The world’s population at the beginning of the Common Era was about 250 million people.
E. There were important differences between civilizations in different regions.
1. the Americas lacked nearly all animals suitable for domestication
2. Africa imported previously domesticated sheep, goats, chickens, horses, camels
3. metallurgy was less developed in the Americas
4. writing
a. limited in the Americas to Mesoamerica ; most highly developed among the Maya
b. in Africa , was confined to north and northeast
5. fewer and smaller classical civilizations in the Americas and Africa
II. The African Northeast
A. Africa had no common cultural identity in the classical era.
1. great environmental variation within the continent
2. enormous size of the continent
3. most distinctive: Africa is the most tropical of world’s supercontinents
a. climate means poorer soils and less productive agriculture
b. more disease-carrying insects and parasites
4. Africa also shaped by interaction with nearby Eurasia and Arabia
a. North Africa as part of the Roman Empire
b. Arabia as source of the domesticated camel
B. Meroë: Continuing a Nile Valley Civilization
1. Nubian civilization was almost as old as Egyptian civilization
a. constant interaction
b. remained a distinct civilization
2. with decline of Egypt , Nubian civilization came to focus on Meroë
3. ruled by an all-powerful sacred monarch (usually female)
4. city of Meroë had craft specialization, with ironworking particularly prominent
5. rural areas had combination of herding and farming
a. paid tribute to the ruler
b. farming was based on rainfall, not irrigation
c. so population was less concentrated on the Nile , less directly controlled by the capital
6. major long-distance trade was the source of much of wealth and military power
a. had contact with the Mediterranean
b. also traded to east and west by means of camel caravans
c. less Egyptian influence than earlier times
7. decline of Meroë after 100 C.E.
a. deforestation (too much wood used in iron industry)
b. conquest in 340s C.E. by Axum
c. penetration of Coptic Christianity; Christian dominance for 1,000 years
d. penetration of Islam after about 1300
C. Axum: The Making of a Christian Kingdom
1. Axum was located in present-day Eritrea and northern Ethiopia
2. kingdom’s economic foundation was highly productive agriculture
a. plow-based farming (not reliant on hoe or digging stick like most of Africa )
b. high production of wheat, barley, millet, teff
World History Website Notes
3. substantial state emerged by about 50 C.E.
a. stimulated by Red Sea and Indian Ocean trade ( port of Adulis )
b. commerce taxes were major source of state revenue
4. capital city Axum (in the interior) was center of monumental building
a. huge stone obelisks (probably mark royal graves)
b. town language was Geez, written in South Arabian–derived script
c. most of rural populace spoke Agaw
d. capital exerted loose control, mostly collection of tribute
5. Christianity arrived in fourth century C.E.
a. King Ezana adopted Christianity about the time of Constantine
b. Coptic Christianity is still the religion of half the region
6. fourth to sixth centuries C.E.: imperial expansion into Meroë and Yemen
a. reached gates of Mecca by 571
b. decline followed
c. revival of state several centuries later, but further south
7. both Meroë and Axum paralleled Eurasian developments and had direct contact with
Mediterranean civilizations
III. Along the Niger River : Cities without States
A. There was major urbanization along the middle stretches of the Niger River between 300 B.C.E. and
900 C.E.
1. migration of peoples from the southern Sahara during long dry period
2. but no evidence of a state structure, either imperial or city-state
3. archeologists have not found evidence of despotic power, widespread war, or deep social
inequality (like Indus Valley civilization)
B. Cities like Jenne-jeno were clusters of economically specialized settlements.
1. iron smithing was earliest and most prestigious occupation
2. villages of cotton weavers, potters, praise-singers (griots) grew up around central towns
a. artisan communities became occupational castes
b. rural populace also specialized (fishing, rice cultivation, etc.)
C. The middle Niger cities were stimulated by a network of West African commerce.
D. Large-scale states emerged in West Africa in the second millennium C.E.
IV. South of the Equator: The World of Bantu Africa
A. Movement of Bantu-speaking peoples into Africa south of equator
1. over time, 400 distinct Bantu languages developed
2. by the first century C.E., Bantu agriculturalists occupied forest regions of equatorial Africa ; some
had probably reached East African coast
3. spread to most of eastern and southern Africa
4. the movement wasn’t a conquest or self-conscious migration
B. Cultural Encounters
1. Bantu-speaking peoples interacted with established societies
2. most significant interaction: agricultural Bantu and gathering and hunting peoples
3. Bantu advantages
a. numbers: agriculture supports more people
b. disease: Bantu brought new diseases to people with little immunity
c. iron
World History Website Notes
d. gathering and hunting peoples were largely displaced, absorbed, eliminated
4. survival of a few gathering and hunting peoples like the San to modern times
a. Bantu peoples have preserved some of language and ways of people they displaced
b. the Batwa (Pygmy) people became “forest specialists” and interacted with the Bantu
5. Bantu culture changed because of encounter with different peoples
6. Bantu peoples spread their skills and culture through eastern and southern Africa
C. Society and Religion
1. creation of many distinct societies and cultures in 500–1500 C.E.
a. Kenya : decision making by kinship and age structures
b. Zimbabwe and Lake Victoria region: larger kingdoms
c. East African coast after 1000 C.E.: rival city-states
d. development depended on large number of factors
2. religion placed less emphasis on a remote High God and more on ancestral or nature spirits
a. sacrifices (especially cattle) to access power of dead ancestors
b. power of charms was activated by proper rituals
c. widespread belief in witches
d. diviners could access world of the supernatural
e. based on the notion of “continuous revelation”: new messages still come from the world
beyond
f. no missionary impulse
V. Civilizations of Mesoamerica
A. There was a lack of interaction with other major cultures, including with other cultures in the Americas
.
1. development without large domesticated animals or ironworking
2. important civilizations developed in Mesoamerica and the Andes long before Aztec and Inca
empires
3. extraordinary diversity of Mesoamerican civilizations
a. shared an intensive agricultural technology
b. shared economies based on market exchange
c. similar religions
d. frequent interaction
B. The Maya: Writing and Warfare
1. Maya ceremonial centers developed as early as 2000 B.C.E. in present-day Guatemala and
Yucatan
2. classical phase of Maya civilization: 250–900 C.E.
a. development of advanced mathematical system
b. elaborate calendars
c. creation of most elaborate writing system in the Americas
d. large amount of monumental architecture (temples, pyramids, palaces, public plazas)
3. Maya economy
a. agriculture had large-scale human engineering (swamp drainage, terracing, water
management system)
b. supported a substantial elite and artisan class
4. political system of city-states and regional kingdoms was highly fragmented
a. frequent warfare; capture and sacrifice of prisoners
b. densely populated urban and ceremonial centers
World History Website Notes
c. no city-state ever succeeded in creating a unified empire
5. rapid collapse in the century after a long-term drought began in 840
a. population dropped by at least 85 percent
b. elements of Maya culture survived, but not the great cities
c. recent scholarship suggests ecological and political factors contributed to collapse
C. Teotihuacán: America ’s Greatest City
1. city was begun ca. 150 B.C.E.
2. by 550 C.E., population was 100,000–200,000
3. much about Teotihuacán is unknown
4. city was centrally planned on a gridlike pattern
5. specialized artisans
6. little evidence of rulers or of tradition of public inscriptions
7. deep influence on Mesoamerica , especially in 300–600 C.E.
a. directly administered perhaps 10,000 square miles
b. influence of Teotihuacán armies spread further
c. apparently also had diplomatic connections with other areas
d. trade
e. copying of Teotihuacán art and architecture
8. mysterious collapse ca. 650 C.E.
9. Aztecs named the place Teotihuacán: “city of the gods”
VI. Civilizations of the Andes
A. The rich marine environment possessed an endless supply of seabirds and fish.
1. most well-known civilization of the region was the Incas
2. central Peruvian coast was home to one of the First Civilizations: Norte Chico
3. classical era of Andean civilization is 1000 B.C.E.–1000 C.E.
B. Chavín: A Pan-Andean Religious Movement
1. numerous ceremonial centers uncovered, dating to 2000–1000 B.C.E.
2. ca. 900 B.C.E., Chavín de Huántar became focus of a religious movement
a. Chavín de Huántar was in good location along trade routes
b. elaborate temple complex
c. beliefs apparently drew on both desert region and rain forests
d. probably used hallucinogenic San Pedro cactus
3. widespread imitation across Peru and beyond
4. did not become an empire
5. faded by 200 B.C.E.
C. Moche: A Regional Andean Civilization
1. flourished between about 100 and 800 C.E. along 250 miles of Peru ’s north coast
2. agriculture based on complex irrigation system
3. ruled by warrior-priests
a. some lived on top of huge pyramids
b. rituals mediated between humans and gods
c. use of hallucinogenic drugs
d. human sacrifice
e. rulers had elaborate burials
4. superb craftsmanship of elite objects
World History Website Notes
5. ecological disruption in sixth century C.E. undermined the civilization
6. many other civilizations grew up in the Andes (Nazca, Huari, Chimu)
VII. North America in the Classical Era: From Chaco to Cahokia
A. “Semi-sedentary” peoples were established in the eastern woodlands of North America, Central
America, the Caribbean islands, and the Amazon basin.
B. Pit Houses and Great Houses: The Ancestral Pueblo
1. southwestern North America began maize cultivation in second millennium B.C.E.
a. only became the basis of settled agriculture ca. 600–800 C.E.
b. gradual adaptation of maize to desert environment
2. establishment of permanent villages
a. pit houses in small settlements
b. by 900 C.E., many villages also had larger ceremonial structures (kivas)
3. local trading networks, some long-distance exchange
4. development of larger settlements (pueblos)
a. most spectacular was in Chaco canyon
b. largest “great house” or town (Pueblo Bonito) was five stories high with over 600 rooms
c. hundreds of roads radiated out from Chaco (maybe were a sacred landscape)
5. Chaco was a center for turquoise production
6. warfare increased with extended drought after 1130
7. great houses abandoned by 1200
C. The Mound Builders of the Eastern Woodlands
1. Mississippi River valley: Agricultural Revolution by 2000 B.C.E.
2. creation of societies marked by large earthen mounds
a. earliest built ca. 2000 B.C.E.
b. most elaborate of mound-building cultures ( Hopewell culture) was established between 200
B.C.E. and 400 C.E.
3. Hopewell : large burial mounds and geometric earthworks
a. many artifacts found in them—evidence of extensive trade
b. careful astronomical orientation
4. Cahokia (near present-day St. Louis , Missouri ) flourished between 900 and 1250 C.E.
a. introduction of maize agriculture allowed larger population
b. central mound was four-level terraced pyramid, 1,000 feet long and 700 feet wide
c. community of about 10,000 people
d. widespread trade network
e. apparently had stratified class system
5. sixteenth-century Europeans encountered a similar chiefdom among the Natchez in southwestern
Mississippi
a. paramount chiefs (“Great Suns”) lived in luxury
b. clear social elite
c. but upper-class people were required to marry commoners
d. significant military capacity
VIII. Reflections: Deciding What’s Important: Balance in World History
A. Teachers and writers of world history have to decide what to include.
B. Several possible standards can be used in decision making:
1. durability (which would make the Paleolithic section enormous)
World History Website Notes
2. change
3. population ( Eurasia , with 80 percent of population, gets more space)
4. influence (impact of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam)
5. the historian’s location and audience
C. Historians do not agree on the “proper” balance when teaching world civ.