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The Classical Empires
AP World History
Be able to compare political structures,
religion, gender relations, trade relations,
and the collapse between the classical
empires
Population Growth
Urbanization
Afro-Eurasia in 500 BCE
Afro-Eurasia in 350 BCE
Afro-Eurasia in 200 BCE
Afro-Eurasia in 100 CE
Persian Empire
Persian Empire (558-332 BCE)
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Founded by Cyrus the
Great
Darius I (521-486 BCE)
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Balanced central
administration & local
governors
Divided government into
3 districts ran by satraps
Built the Royal Road
Fought Persian Wars with
Greece (500-479 BCE)

Led to the decline of the
Persian Empire
Persian Empire

Persian Society
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Persian Economy
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Women worked in textile
manufacturing
Government used slaves to
complete public works projects
Government coined money,
single currency
Facilitated trade from Greece to
India – the Great Royal Road
Persian Religion

Zoroastrianism – worship of one
god called Ahura Mazda.
Monotheistic religion.
World in 350 BCE
Classical China

Zhou Dynasty (1029-258)
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Decline of Zhou Dynasty
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Mandate of Heaven
Feudalism
Confucianism
Daoism
Legalism
Warring States Period

Kingdom of Qin began
expanding during the 3rd
century BCE
Qin Dynasty (221-202 BCE)
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
Used Legalism to
restore order
Land reforms
weakened aristocracy

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Peasants were given
land rights to farm
remote territories
Centralized
bureaucracy
Unified China

Standardized script,
laws, and weights &
measures
Qin Shi Huangdi


Proclaimed himself
“First Emperor” of
China
Centralized Power

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Disarmed local militaries
Built roads & defensive
walls
Demanded burning of
books
Used forced labor to
complete public works
projects
Terra Cotta Army
Terra Cotta Army
Early Han Dynasty (202 BCE-9 CE)

Founded by Liu Bang


Conquered northern
Vietnam, Korea, and
Central Asia


Longest dynasty in
Chinese History
Tribute System
Monopolized iron, salt,
and liquor
Han Wudi (Wu Ti)

Ruled from 141-87 BCE
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Two Goals

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Supported Legalism
Centralize government
Expand the empire
Reforms
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Expanded bureaucracy
Started an imperial university
Confucian examination system
Expanded the Silk Roads
Mauryan Dynasty

Founded by
Chandragupta Maurya

Arthashastra
Ashoka (268-232 BCE)

Conquered most of India

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
Reforms

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Used elephants in warfare
Battle of Kalinga
Pillars of Ashoka
Centralized bureaucracy
Expanded agriculture
Built roads to promote trade
Promoted the spread of
Buddhism
Empire declined after
Ashoka’s death
Gupta Dynasty (320-565 CE)

Founded by Chandra
Gupta


Gupta Government
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
Used alliances, tribute
& conquest
Coalition of regional
kingdoms
Policy & administration
left to local rulers
Eventually destroyed
by the White Huns
Ancient Greece

Geography prevented
political unification


City-States
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Cities offered safety and
wealth
Different political systems
Unified when threatened

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Culturally unified
Persian Wars
Wars weaken city-states

Peloponnesian War (431404 BCE) between Athens
and Sparta.
Ancient Greece.
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Sparta was a rigid slave holding dictatorship.
Athens became a culturally and politically
advanced city that gained wealth through trade
and power due to naval strength.
Majority of Greek city-states were oligarchies –
rich powerful families ruled.
Greek women were treated as social and political
inferiors.
Athens created a democracy, rule from the
people. Reached its peak under the statesmen
Pericles.
Athens had the most representative government
in the ancient world.
Greek Colonization
Alexander the Great (332-323 BCE)


Father, Philip II, conquered most
of Greece
Built a massive empire

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
Conquered Persia & Egypt
Threatened India
Empire divided into 3 parts after
his death

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•
•
Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt
Seleucid Empire in Persia
Preserved Greek culture and
spread throughout a vast portion
of Eurasia and Northern Africa.
Alexandria in Egypt became one
of the Mediterranean’s world’s
great centers of trade, learning,
and culture.
Hellenistic Empire
Indus
People to Know
Alexander the Great
 Pericles
 Aristotle
 Socrates
 Plato
 Homer

Roman Republic (509-44 BCE)

Political System

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Military expansion


Consuls
Senate (patricians)
Tribunes (plebeians)
Assimilated conquered
peoples
Twelve Tables


Created a standardized
system of laws
Established rights for
defendants
Rome

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
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
Plebeians were the lower classes. Patricians were
the upper class
Slavery widely practiced. Slaves used as
gladiators.
Social and economic functions depended heavily
on slave labor.
Roman society was strictly patriarchal at the
beginning of the Republican Period.
Women later gained more freedom to divorce,
more economic rights, and greater influence over
family financial affairs.
Expansion of Roman Republic
End of Republic


Growing tensions
between rich & poor
Latifundias

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Large plantations in
conquered lands controlled
by aristocrats
Julius Caesar


Dictator for life in 44 BCE
Reforms


Sought to relieve tension
between the classes
Executed by aristocratic
conspirators
Roman Empire (31 BCE-476 CE)

Established by Augustus

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NOT a dynasty

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Continued military expansion
Pax Romana
Succession often depended
upon military strength
Tolerated local customs &
religions
Laws & patriotism held
empire together
Similarities of the Classical Rome
and Han China and Gupta India
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agricultural-based economies
patriarchal family structures
complex governments – because they were so
large, had to invent new ways to keep their lands
together politically; each was still unique
Central government relied on local officials to
regulate society
trade important – connected by land and sea
Social hierarchy
Income gap
Land distribution issues
Capital cities are the center of artistic and scientific
innovation; easier during a time of peace/Pax
Similarities between Rome and Han
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Expanded into terr. that brought a variety of char.
but they also brought cultural unity to those
territories
Educated bureaucracy
Built infrastructure (roads or canals) to promote
commerce, help military move, etc.
Built walls/forts to protect against invaders which
led to economic problems keeping up with the
costs
Government lost loyalty of the people as they
were asked for more money to pay for the military
Differences of the 3 Classical
Empires (Rome, Han, Gupta)
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Groups at the top reflected different values systems
 priests in India
 scholar-gentry/bureaucrats in China
 aristocrats in Greece and Rome
Status of merchants varied
 Low status in China
 High status in Rome and Gupta
Opportunities for mobility varied
 India’s caste system had the most limitations –
created at birth
 China’s – opportunities through education
 Rome - wealth
Differences of the 3 Classical
Empires (Rome, Han, Gupta)
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Religion
 No Roman equivalent to Confucianism—no ideology of political
organization and social conduct that could survive the ending
of the Roman state
Society
 Chinese believed the individual was deeply embedded in the
larger social group, respect for authority remained important
(family served as the model for the organization of society and
the state);
 Romans were more aware of the right of individuals, so
citizens were more willing to want and ask for more from the
government
Who rules
 Chinese believed their emperor was divine and mandated by
heaven, so there was a basis to revive the position of emperor
in their society
 Roman emperors were chosen by the Senate during the
Republic period; from the military during the Empire period
Women were considerably freer and less oppressed than Chinese
or Gupta women
Decline and Fall of
Empires
 Nine
major factors led to the decline of
the classical empires
 Dynastic
Succession
 Bureaucratic Corruption
 Inequitable Economic Burdens
 Regional, Racial, or Ethnic Tension
 Decline of Martial Sprit
 Moral Decline
 Escapist or Otherworldly Religions
 Costly Technology
 External Enemies
Dynastic Succession
 Rome
did not have a clear line of
succession
 Murders
and disputes over succession
undermined the credibility of the empire
 From 235-284 CE twenty-six emperors claimed
the imperial throne

Finally stabilized by Diocletian and Constantine
 Dynastic
empires experienced a decline in
quality of rulers as time went on
 Decline
of the quality of rulers led to uprisings,
usurpations, and civil wars
 Factions emerged amongst elites in Han China
Regional, Racial, or Ethnic
Tensions
 Alexander
the Great was unable to unify
Greek, Egyptians, Persians, and others
 India reverted back to regional states
based on language and ethnicity after fall
of Mauryan Empire
 Diocletian divides Roman empire into four
separate administrations each with its own
capital
Map of Empire after
Diocletian
Costly Technology
 Cost
of maintaining
engineering
wonders put a
strain on already
impoverished
economies
 Roman
aqueducts,
roads, arenas, etc.
Escapist or Otherworldly
Religions
 Christianity
stressed heavenly rather than
earthly rewards
 Religious
Rome
 Many
strife also contributed to chaos in
Chinese began to follow Buddhism
or escapists Taoists (Daoism)
 Ashoka’s emphasis on pacifist Buddhism
alienated many Hindus
Moral Decline
 Roman
emperors
became
increasingly selfindulgent and
hedonistic
 Nero,
Caligula, et al.
 Hedonism
and
extravagance of
the upper class
blamed for the
decline of the Han
dynasty
External Enemies
 Han
dynasty
experienced repeated
invasions by the
Xiongnu (Huns)
 Germanic tribes lived
on northern plains of
Europe for centuries
 Visigoths
settled,
developed agriculture,
and served in the Roman
military
External Invasions
 In
the 4th century, Huns migrated from
their homelands in central Asia
 Led
by Attila the Hun, the Huns attacked the
Romans and the Germanic homelands
 Germans
empire
sought refuge in the Roman
 Established
permanent settlements in Roman
territories
 Visigoths sack rome in 410 CE
 Overthrow last Roman emperor in 476 CE
Germanic Invasions
Effects of Collapse
 Han
dynasty divided into three rival
kingdoms in 220 CE
 Three
kingdoms would fight for control of China
for centuries
 Christianity
was most prominent survivor
of Roman collapse
 Rise
 Most
of the church as an institution
Roman institutions disappeared as
Germans were unwilling or incapable of
continuing them
Similarities of the falls


Attacks by nomadic groups
 attacks from the Huns – nomadic people of Asia that began
to migrate south and west during this time period (probably
caused by drought and lack of pasture and the invention and
use of the stirrup facilitating their attacks on all three
established civilizations
 Romans attacked by Germanic tribes
 both Roman and Han capitals overrun
deterioration of political institutions - all three empires were
riddled by political corruption during their latter days, and all
three suffered under weak-willed rulers; moral decay also
characterized the years prior to their respective falls; nepotism
 Rome
 The barracks emperors: series of generals seizing throne
(235-284 C.E.)
 The emperor Diocletian (284-305 C.E.) - Divided the
empire into two administrative districts; A co-emperor
ruled each district to try to solve problems
 The emperor Constantine and new capital Constantinople
– political, econ. and rel. center
Similarities of the falls
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
protection/maintenance of borders – all empires found
that their borders had grown so large that their
military had trouble guarding them (Great Wall did
not keep out the Huns—they went around it)
tax issues
 Roman – tax revolts by upper class and church
exempt
 Han – officials exempt; difficult to collect from
peasants
 Gupta – not enough taxes to pay for military
defense
Political fragmentation
 Gupta - regional princes took local power
 Han - military generals took charge of the
 Western Roman empire totally gone
Differences between the falls
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Cultural continuity
 western Roman Empire totally collapsed
 China’s system took some time to recover - Common culture
(Chinese script, Confucianism, assimilation) prevented as drastic a
collapse as in Rome
 India’s system was not based on political unity (Hinduism
remained)
Economic
 The Chinese economy was based more completely on crop
agriculture; cities and commerce played a lesser role in China than
in the West
 much more commerce in Roman Empire
 proportion of slaves in Roman Empire hurt the economy; less
productive but more people to feed
Demography
 whereas, major migrations primarily of Germanic tribes changed
the demographic make-up of the Roman empire, China assimilated
nomadic invaders
 Roman landowners bought up more and more land and staffed it
with slaves; small farmers were pushed out and had no land to
Maya (300–900 CE)
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
Heirs to Olmec traditions
Culturally unified citystates


Built elaborate religious
and commercial centers

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Never form a unified
political system
Tikal & Chichen-Itza
Traded luxury products
Advanced math &
science

Zero, solar year, etc.
El Castillo at Chichen-Itza
Mayan Architecture
Mayan Oberservatory
Mayan Decline
Maya city-states were abandoned or
destroyed between 800-900 CE
 Causes for decline include:
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The disruption of trade after the decline of
Teotihuacan in Central Mexico
Environmental degradation caused by
overpopulation
Epidemic disease