Chapter 4 Summary

1.  What were the changes and continuities in Second Wave Civilizations?

Continuities:  The locations of some of the civilizations did not change, but some empires rose, expanded, and collapsed.  Monarchs ruled mass civilizations, there was a sharp divide from elites and everyone else, and slavery still took place.  There was no fundamental or revolutionary transformation socially or economically that took place.

Changes:  The empires grew, most first wave civilizations were conquered by a different race.  Population grew, states and empires grew, each empire brought together a single political system, diversity grew, religion changed, the Chinese invented the piston bellows, drew-looms, silk handling machinery, crossbows, iron bridges, and paper.  The Romans built roads, bridges, aqueducts, forts, and glass blowing.  They also refined communication, sugar and long distance trade routes.  They found ways to cure some diseases.

2.  What is an empire and what does it do?

Empires are simply states, political systems that exercise coercive power.  The term, however, is normally reserved for larger and more aggressive states, those that conquer, rule, and extract resources from other states and peoples.  Thus, empires have generally encompassed a considerate variety of peoples and cultures within a single political system, and they have often been associated with political and cultural oppression.  These imperial states governed by rulers culturally different from themselves, brought together people of quite different traditions and religions and so stimulated the exchange of ideas, cultures, and values.

3.  How did the Persian and Greek civilizations differ in their political organization and values?

Persians:  The Persians built an imperial political system that drew upon previous Mesopotamian policies, including the Babylonian and Assyrian empires.  The Persian Empire was larger than its predecessors, stretching from Egypt to India, and ruled over 35 million subjects.  The empire was centered on an elaborate cult of kingship in which the emperor was secluded in royal magnificence, and was approachable only through an elaborate ritual.  Emperors were considered absolute in their power and possessed divine right to rule by the will of the Persian god Ahura Mazda.  They had an effective administration system that placed Persian governors, called satraps, in each of 23 provinces, while low-level officials were drawn from local authorities.  Persia's rule of its many conquered peoples was strengthened by a policy of respect for the empire's non-Persian cultural traditions.

Greeks:  In contrast, the Greek political organization was based on hundreds of independent city-states or small settlements of between 500-5000 male citizens.  The Greeks didn't build an empire but did expand through the establishment of colonies around the Mediterranean and Black seas.  Participation in Greek political culture was based on the unique ideas of "citizenship" of free people running the affairs of state, and of equality for all citizens before the law.  Political participation in Greek city-states was much wider than in Persia, but it varied considerably between city-states and over time.  Early on, only the wealthy and wellborn had the rights of full citizenship, but middle and lower-class men gradually obtained these rights in some city-states.  Participation wasn't universal but was widest in Athens.  The reforming leader, Solon, took Athenian politics in a more democratic direction to break the hold of a small group of aristocratic families.  Public office was open to a wider group of men and even the poorest could serve.  Athenian democracy was direct rather than representative.  Nonetheless, women, slaves, and foreigners were excluded from the political process.

4.  How was Athenian democracy different from modern democracy?

It was a direct democracy, rather than representative, and it was distinctly limited.  Women, slaves, and foreigners, together far more than half the population, were totally excluded from any political participation.

5.  What had the Greek victory against the Persians do for Athenian democracy?

The Greeks' victory radicalized Athenian democracy, for it had been men of the poorer classes who had led their ships to victory, and now they were in a position to insist on full citizenship.

6.  After the Greco-Persian Wars, what were the causes and effects of the Peloponnesian War?

After the war, Athenian efforts to solidify its domain position among the allies (Sparta and other Greek city-states) led to intense resentment and finally to a bitter civil war with Sparta taking the lead in defending the traditional independence of Greek city-states.  In this bloody conflict, known as the Peloponnesian War, Athens was defeated, while the Greeks exhausted themselves and magnified their distrust of one another.  Thus, the way was open to their eventual take over by the growing forces of Macedonia.

7.  What changes did Alexander's conquests bring in their wake?

Alexander's conquests led to the widespread dissemination of Greek culture into Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and India.  The major avenue for this spread lies in the many cities established by the Greeks throughout.

8.  What happened to Alexander's empire when he died?

When Alexander died in 323 BCE, his empire was divided into three kingdoms that were ruled among his three leading Macedonian generals.

9.  How did Rome grow from a single city to the center of a huge empire?

• The values of the Roman republic, including rule of law, the rights of citizenship, absence of pretension, upright moral behavior, and keeping one's world along with a political system that offered some protection to the lower classes- provided a basis for rome's empire-building undertaking
• Victory in the Punic Wars with Carthage (264-146 BCE) extended Roman control over the western Mediterranean and made Rome a naval power
• As the empire grew, each addition of territory created new vulnerabilities that drove further conquests
• Poor soldiers hoped for land, loot, or salaries
• The aristocracy or well-connected gained great estates, earned promotion, and sometimes achieved public acclaim and high political office by participating in empire building.
• Roman conquests were spurred by wealth, resources, and food supplies along the eastern and western Mediterranean
• Rome's central location in the Mediterranean basin made empire building easier
• Rome's army was the key to its success.  It was well trained, well fed, and well rewarded.
• Rome's continued expansion had political support for the growing empire.  This ensured that the necessary manpower and resources were committed to empire building.

10.  How and why did the making of the Chinese Empire differ from that of the Roman Empire?

Unlike the Roman Empire (which was new), the Chinese Empire represented an effort to revive an imperial tradition that already existed under the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties.  Because of the preexisting imperial tradition in China, the process of creating the empire was quicker, though it was no less reliant on military forces and no less brutal than the centuries-long roman effort.  Unlike Rome's transition from republic to empire, the creation of the Chinese empire had only brief and superficial repercussions.

11.  Compare the Roman and Chinese Empires.

Chinese Empire:

• The Chinese developed a more elaborate bureaucracy to hold the empire together than did the Romans.
• Chinese characters, which represented words or idea more than sounds, were not easily transferable to either languages, but written Chinese could be understood by all literate people, no matter which spoken dialect of the language they used, thus Chinese, more than Latin, served as an instrument of elite assimilation.
• Buddhism came from India and was introduced to China by Central Asia, traders and received little support from Han dynasty rulers
• Under the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wendi reunified China and Buddhism again gained state support.  After the collapse of the Han dynasty, Buddhism appealed to people who felt bewildered by the loss of a predictable and stable society.  Buddhism eventually became one of several religious strands in a complex Chinese map.
• The Chinese empire grew out of a much larger cultural heartland, already ethnically Chinese.  As the Chinese state expanded, especially to the south, it actively assimilated the non-Chinese or "barbarian" peoples.

Similarities:

• Both defined themselves in universal terms
• Both invested heavily in public works- roads, bridges, aqueducts, canals, protective walls- to indicate their respective domains militarily and commercially
• Both invoked supernatural sanction to support their rule
• Both absorbed a foreign religious tradition- Christianity in the Roman Empire and Buddhism in the Chinese Empire.
• Politically, both empires established effective centralized control over vast regions and huge populations

Roman Empire:

• Politically, the Roman administration was a somewhat ramshackle affair, relying more on regional elites and the army to provide cohesion.
• Latin, an alphabetic language, depicting sounds, gave rise to various languages- Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian- whereas Chinese did not.
• Unlike the Chinese, the Romans developed an elaborate body of law, applicable equally to all people of the realm, dealing with matters of justice, property, commerce, and family life.
• Christianity was born in a small section of a small province in a remote corner of the empire.  From there, it spread slowly for several centuries, mostly among the poor and lower classes; this process was considerably aided by the Pax Romans.  After suffering intermittent persecution, it obtained state support from emperors.  The help brought up a weakening empire with a common religion.
• Rome's beginnings as a small city-state meant that Romans, and even Italians, were always a distinct minority within the empire
• Gradually, and somewhat reluctantly, the Roman Empire granted Roman citizenship to various individuals, families, or whole communities for their service to the empire.

12.  How was the collapse of the Roman Empire different from the Han Empire in China?

Roman Empire:

The Roman Empire ended in 476 CE after a long decline; only the western half collapsed; the Eastern Roman Empire became the Byzantine Empire and maintained a tradition of Imperial Rome for another 1000 years.  Unlike the nomadic groups in China, who largely assimilated Chinese culture, Germanic kingdoms in Europe developed their own ethnic identity- Visigoths, Franks, Anglo-Saxons, and others- even as they followed Roman laws and adopted Roman Christianity.  The population decline by 25% over two centuries meant diminished production, less revenue for the state, and fewer men available for the defense of the empire's long frontiers.  In the western part of the Roman Empire, no large-scale, centralized, imperial authority, encompassing all of Western Europe, has ever been successfully reestablished for any length of time.

Han Empire:

The Han Dynasty ended in 220 CE after a long period of corruption, peasant unrest, and a major peasant revolt in 184 CE.  Internal problems were combined with external problems, as was the Roman Empire.  There was an added growing threat from nomadic or semi-agricultural peoples occupying the frontier regions of both empires.  The Chinese had built the Great Wall to keep out the Xiongnu and other nomadic tribes in the north.  Various ways of dealing with these people were developed between the collapse of the Roman and Chinese empires was what happened in China after the Han Dynasty.  After 350 years of disunion, disorder, frequent warfare, and political chaos, a Chinese imperial state, similar to the Han dynasty, was reassembled under the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties.  Once again a single emperor ruled, a bureaucracy selected by examinations governed, and the ideas of Confucius reformed the political system.

13.  What eventually happened to Western Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire?

Most of Western Europe dissolved into a highly decentralized political system involving kings with little authority, nobles, knights, and vassals, various city-states in Italy, and small territories ruled by princes, bishops, or the pope.  From this point on, Europe would be a civilization without a surrounding imperial state.

14.  Why were Europeans unable to reconstruct something of the unity of their classical empire while China did?

The greater cultural homogeneity of Chinese civilization made the task easier than it was amid the vast ethnic and linguistic diversity of Europe.  The absence in the Roman legacy of a strong bureaucratic tradition contributed to European difficulties, whereas in China the bureaucracy provided stability even as dynasties came and went.  The authorities and its "other-worldliness" did little to support the creation of large empires.  European agriculture was not as productive as the Chinese agriculture, and didn't have as many resources available to them.

15.  Why were centralized empires so much less prominent in India than in China?

Politically, the civilization emerged as a fragmented collection of towns and cities.  Indian empires failed to command the kind of loyalty or exercise the degree of influence that Chinese empires did.  An astonishing range of ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity characterized this civilization as an endless variety of peoples across the mountain passes in the northwest.  In contrast in China, India's social structure, embodied in the caste system linked to occupational groups, made for intensely local loyalties at the expense of wider identities that might have fostered empires.

16.  Give examples of Ashoka's reign over the Mauryan Empire.

Initially a ruthless leader (268-232 BCE) in expanding the empire, Ashoka converted to Buddhism after a particularly bloody battle and turned his attention to more peaceful ways of governing his huge empire.  His decrees outlined a philosophy of nonviolence and of toleration for the many sections of the extremely varied religious culture of India.  Ashoka abandoned his royal hunts and ended animal sacrifices in the capital, eliminated most meat from the royal menu, and generously supported Buddhist monasteries and stupas.  He ordered the digging of wells, the planting of shade trees, and the building of rest stops along the empire's major highways- all of which served to integrate the kingdom's economy.  He retained the power to punish wrong-doing, and the death penalty remained in the Ashoka's policies were good politics as well as good morality.  They were an effort to develop an inclusive and integrative moral code for an extremely diverse realm.

Explain the significance of each of the following:

Helots- conquered people in Sparta who lived in slave-like conditions

Solon- a reforming leader in 596 BCE who emerged to push Athenian politics in a more democratic direction.  He abolished debt slavery, access to public office was opened to a wider group of men, and all citizens were allowed to take part in the Assembly.

Hellenistic Era- the period from 323-30 BCE in which Greek culture spread widely in Eurasia in the kingdoms ruled by Alexander's political successors

Punic Wars- three major wars between Rome and Carthage in North Africa, fought between 264 and 144 BCE, that culminated in Roman victory and control of the western Mediterranean

Patricians- wealthy, privileged Romans who dominated early Roman society

Plebians- poorer, less-privileged Romans who gradually won a role in Roman politics

Caesar Augustus- the great-nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar who emerged as sole ruler of the Roman state at the end of an extended period of civil war

Pax Romana- the "Roman Peace," a term typically used to denote the stability and prosperity of the early Roman Empire, especially in the first and second centuries

Wendi- Sui dynasty emperor (ruled 581-604 CE) who reunified China after 350 years of turmoil from the collapse of the Han Dynasty

Wudi- Han emperor (ruled 141-86 BCE) who began the Chinese civil service system establishing an academy to train imperial bureaucrats

Yellow Turban Rebellion- a major peasant revolt in China in 184 CE that helped to lead to the fall of the Han Dynasty

Eunuchs- in China, castrated court officials loyal to the emperor

Xiongnu- nomadic peoples to the north of the Great Wall of China who were a frequent threat to the stability of the Chinese state

Aryans- Indo-European pastoralists who moved into India about the time of the collapse of the Indus River Valley civilization; their rule in causing this collapse is still debated by historians