Th. eltu sicalLrainW"rld History

5OO B.C.E.-5OO C.E.

PART TWO

Contents

Chapter 4. Eurasian Empires, 5oo B.c.E.-5oo c'E.

Chapter 5. Eurasian Cultural Traditions, 5oo B.c.E.-soo c.E.

Chapter 6. Eurasian Socia[ Hierarchies, 5oo B.c.E.-5oo c.E.

Chapter 7. ClassicaI Era Variations: Africa and the Americas, 5oo B.c.E.-12oo c.E'

5r,ri."E*$ir=

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THE BIG PICTURE

fit., the firs t (iv;lizations:What (hu"g.d

"'''d What pidn'r*

Studying world history has much in common with using rhe zoom lens of a cam-era. Sometimes, we pull the lens back in order to get a picture of the broadest pos-sible panorama. At other rimes, we zoom in a bit for a middle-range shot, or evenfarther for a close-up of some particular feature of the historical landscape. Studentsof world history soon become comfortable with moving back and forth amongthese several perspectives.

As we bid farewell to the First civilizations, we will take the opportuniry to pullback the lens and look broadly, and briefly, at the entire age ofagricultural civiliza-tions, a period from about 3joo B.c.E., when the earliest of the First Civilizationsarose, to about r75o c.E., when the first Industrial Revolution launched a new anddistinctively modern phase of world history. During these more than 5,ooo years, themost prominent large-scale trend was the globalization of civilization as this newform of human comrnunity increasingly spread across the planet, encompassingmore people and larger territories.

The first wave of that process, addressed in chapter 3, was already gfobal in scope,with expresions in Asia,A-&ica, and the Americas.Those Fint Civilizations generatedthe most impressive and powerfirl human societies created thus far, but they provedfragile and vulnerable as well.The always-quarreling city-states of ancient Mesopotamiahad long ago been absorbed into the larger empires of Babylon andAssyria. During thefint millennium B.c.E., Egypt too fell victim to a series of foreign invaders, includingthe forces of Nubia,fusyria,Alexander the Great, and the Roman Empire.The Indusvalley civilization likewise declined sharply, as deforesadon, topsoil erosion, anddecreased minfall led to desertification and political collapse by r5oo s.c.E. Norte Chicocivilization seerrs to have faded away by r8oo s.c.r. The end of olmec civilizarionaround 4oo B.c.E. has long puzzled historians, for it seems that the Olmecs themselvesrazed and then abandoned their major ciries even as their civilizational style spread toneighboring peoples.About the same rime, china's uffied political s) tem fiagmentedinto a series of warring states.

Even if particular First civilizations broke down, there was no going back.Civilization as a form of human community proved durable and resilient as well asperiodically fragile. Thus, in the thousand years benveen joo B.c.E. and 5oo c.n.,new or enlarged urban-centered and state-based societies emerged to replace theFirst civilizations in the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East, India, china,Mesoamerica, and the Andes. Furthermore, smaller expressions of civilization began

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134 eART 2 / rxe cusstcAl ERA rN woRLD HtsroRY, 5oo B.c.E.-5oo c.E'

to take shape elsewhere-in Ethiopia andWest Africa, in Japan and Indonesia, in

Vietnam and Cambodia. In short, the development of civilization was becoming a

global process.

Many of these "second wave" civilizations likewise perished, as the collapses ofthe Roman Empire, Han dynasry China, and the Mayan cities remind us.They were

followed by yet a "third wave" of civilizations (roughly 5oo to I5oo (1.E.; see Part

Three). Some of them represented the persistence or renewal of older patterns, as

in the case of China, for example, while elsewhere-such as in'Western Europe,

Russia,Japan, and'West Africa-new civilizations emerged, all of which borrowed

heavily from their more-established neighbors.The largest of these, Islamic civilization,

incorporated a number of older centers of civilization, Egypt and Mesopotamia for

example, under the un.rbrella of a new religion. The globalization of civilization

continued apace.

The size and prominence of these civilizations sometimes lead historians and

history textbooks to ignore those cultures that did not embrace the ciry- and state-

centered characteristic of civilizations. World history, as a field of study, has often

been slanted in the direction of civilizations at the expense of other forms ofhuman communiry. To counteract that tendency, the following chapters will, on

occasion, point out the continuing historical development of gathering and hunt-

ing peoples, agricultural societies organized around kinship principles and village

life, emerging chiefcloms, and pastoral peoples.

Continuities in Civiliz ation

The renewal and expansion of civilization, however, remains the leading story.

As this account of the human journey moves into the second and third waves ofcivilization, the question arises as to how they differed from the first ones. From a

panoramic perspective, the answer is "not much." States and empires rose, expanded,

and collapsed with a tiresome regulariry requiring history students to remember who

was up and who was down at various times. It is arguable, however, that little fun-

damental change occurred amid these constant fluctuations. Monarchs continued

to rule most of the new civilizations; men continued to dominate women;a sharp

divide berween the elite and everyone else persisted almost everywhere, as did the

practice ofslaverY.'Furthermore, no technological or economic breakthrough occurred to create

new kinds of human societies as the Agricultural Revolution had done earlier or as

the Industrial Revolution would do in later centuries. Landowning elites had little

incentive to innovate, for they benefrted enormously from simply expropriating the

surplus that peasant farmers produced. Nor would peasants have any reason to

invest much effort in creating new forms of production when they knew full well

that any gains they might generate would be seized by their social superiors.

Merchants, who often were risk takers, might have spawned innovations, but they

usually were dominated by powerful states and were viewed with suspicion and

condescension by more prestigious social groups.

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THE BIG PICTURE: AFTER THE FIRST cIvILIZATIoIIS: WHAT cHAilGED ATID WHAT DIDI{'T?

Many fluctuations, repetitive cycles, and minor changes characterize this longera of agricultural civilization, but no fundamental or revolutionary transformationof social or economic life took place. The major turning points in human historyhad occurred earlier with the emergence of agricuhure and the birth of the FirstCivilizations and would occur later with the breakthroueh of industrialization.

Changes in CfuilizationWhile this panoramic perspective allows us to see the broadest outlines of the humanjourney, it also obscures much of great importance that took place during the secondand third waves of the age of agrarian civilization. If we zoom in a bit more closely,significant changes emerge, even if they did not result in a thorough transformationof human life. Population, for example, grew more rapidly than ever before duringthis period, as the Snapshot illustrates. Even though the overall rrend was up, impor-tant flucruations interrupted the pattern, especially during the first millennium c.e .,when no overall growth took place. Moreover, the rate of growth, though rapid incomparison with Paleolithic times, was quite slow if we measure it against the explo-sive expansion of recent centuries, when human numbers quadrupled in the twenti-eth century alone.This modest and interrupted pattern of population growth duringthe age of agrarian civilization reflected the absence of any fundamental economicbreakthrough, which could have supported much larger numbers.

135

$"rpthot wodd Foplation dudngthe Age of Agdollurial Gyilization,

500

= 4oo

{ roo

p 2009l

xg 100

01500 B.c.E. 1000 B.c.E. 500 B.c.E.

Date

3000 B.c.E. 2500 B.c.E. 2000 B.c.E. I c.E. 500 c.E. 1000 c.E. 1500 c.E.

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86 PART 2 / THE CLASSTCAL ERA lN WORLD HISTORY, 5OO B.C.E.-5OO C,E,

Another change lies in the growing size of the states or empires that structured

civilizations. The Roman, Persian, Indian, and Chinese empires of second-wave

civilizations, as well as the Arab, Mongol, and Inca empires of the third wave, all

dwarfed the city-states of Mesopotamia and the Egypt of the pharaohs. Each ofthese empires brought together in a single political system a vast diversiry of peoples.

Even so,just to keep things in perspective, as late as the seventeenth century C.E.,

only one-third of the world's landmass was under the control of any state-based

system, although these societies now encompassed a considerable majoriry of the

world's people.

The rise and fall of these empires likewise rePresented very consequential

changes ro the people who experienced them. In the course of its growth, the

Roman Empire utterly destroyed the ciry of Carthage in North Africa, with the

conquerors allegedly sowing the ground with salt so that nothing would ever grow

there again. Similar bloodshed and destruction accompanied the creation of other

much-celebrated states. Their collapse also had a dramatic impact on the lives oftheir people. Scholars have estimated that the large population of Mayan civiliza-

tion shrank by some 85 percent in less than a century as that sociery dissolved

around 84o c.n. It is difEcult to imagine the sense of trauma and bewilderment

associated with a collapse of this magnitude.

I E*entof Roman Empirc in l17 c.L

- MaiorRomanrcads

GERMANIA

,f*-rt*

o\.-g

rfts

Black Sea

' g" cn*7Mediterrqnean Sea

ARAB IA

SAHARA

The Roman Empite (p. 156)

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THE BIG PICTURE: AFTER THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS: WHAT CHANGED AND WHAT DIDN'T?

Second- and third-wave civilizations also generated important innovations inmany spheres.Those in the cultural realm have been perhaps the most widespreadand enduring. Distinctive "wisdom traditions"-the great philosophical,/religioussystems of Confucianism and Daoism in China; Hinduism and Buddhism in India;Greek rationalism in the Mediterranean; andJudaism, Zoroastrianism, christianiryand Islam in the Middle East-have provided the moral and spiritual frameworkwithin which most of the world's peoples have sought to order their lives and definetheir relationship to the mysteries of life and death.All of these philosophical andreligious systems are the product of second- and third-wave civilizations.

Although no technological breakthrough equivalenr to the Agricultural orIndustrial Revolution took place during the second and third waves of agrariancivilizations, more modest innovations considerably enhanced human potenrial formanipulating the environment. China was a primary source of such technologicalchange, though by no means the only one. "chinese invenrions and discoveries,"wrote one prominent historian, "passed in a continuous flood from East to West forrwenty centuries before the scientific revolution."3 They included piston bellows,the draw-loom, silk-handling machinery, the wheelbarrow a better harness for draftanimals, the crossbow, iron casting, the iron-chain suspension bridge, gunpowder,firearms, the magnetic compass, paper, printing, and porcelain. India pioneered thecrystallization of sugar and techniques for the nranufacture of cotton textiles.Roman technological achievements were particularly apparent in construction andcivil engineering-the building of roads, bridges, aqueducrs, and fortifications-and in the art of glassblowing.

A further process of change following the end of the First Civilizations lay inthe emergence of far more elaborate, widespread, and dense nerworks of commu-nication and exchange that connected many of the world's peoples to one another.Many of the technologies mentioned here diffused widely across large areas. Sugarproduction provides a telling example. The syrup fronr sugarcane, which was ini-tially domesticated in New Guinea early in the age of agriculture, was firstprocessed into crystallized sugar in India by 5oo c.E. During the early centuries ofthe Islamic era,Arab traders brought this technology from India to the Middle Eastand the Mediterranean, where Europeans learned about it during the crusades.Europeans then transferred the practice of making sugar ro theAtlantic islands andfinally to the Americas, where it played a major role in stimulating a plantationeconomy and the Atlantic slave trade.a

Long-distance trade routes represented another form of transregional interac-tion. Caravan trade across northern Eurasia, seaborne commerce within the Indianocean basin, the exchange of goods across the Sahara, river-based commerce in theeastern woodlands of North America, various trading networks radiating fronrMesoamerica-all of these carried goods, and so'retimes culture as well.Buddhisrn, Flinduisnr, christianiry and especially Islar.n spread widely beyond rheirplaces of origin, often carried on the camels and ships of merchants, creating ties ofculture and religion among distant peoples within the Afro-Eurasian zone. Disease

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88 ?hlf 2 / rxe cussrcAl ERA m woRLD rtsroiv, 5oo B.c.E.-5oo c.E.

also increasingly linked distant human cornmunities. According to the famous

Greek historian Thucydides, a mysterious plague "from parts of Ethiopia above

Egypt" descended on Athens in 43o u.c.r. and decimated the ciry"inflicting a blow

on Athenian sociery frorn which it never entirely recovered."s

Thus the second and third waves of civilization gave rise to much larger

er.npires, new and distinctive cultural/religious traditions, any number of techno-

logical innovations, and novel patterns of interaction among far-flung societies. In

these ways, the world became quite different from what it had been in the age ofthe First Civilizations, even rhough fundamental economic and social patterns had

not substantially changed.

Classbal CirtlizationsAt this point, and in the four chapters that follow, our historical lens zooms in to a

r-niddle-range focus on the major second-wave civilizations during the thousand years

befween joo B.C.E. and 5oo C.E. Historians frequently refer to this period of time as

the "classical era" of world history, a term that higtrlights enduring traditions that have

lasted into modern tintes and persist still in the rwentY-first century. Confucianism,

Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaisnr, and Christianity all took shape during this era ofsecond-wave civilizations, and all of them remain very much alive at the dawn of the

third nrillennium c.e. Despite the many and profound transformations of moderniry

billions of people in the contenrporary world still guide their lives, or at least claim

to, according to teachings that first appeared 2,ooo or more years ago.

Beyond the practices of individuals, the current identities of entire countries,

regions, and civilizations are still linked to the achievements of the classical era. In

t97r, ^

largely Muslim lran nrounted a lavish and much-criticized celebration ofthe z,5ooth anniversary of the ancient Persian Empire. ln zoo4, a still communist

China permitted public celebrations to mark the z,555th birthday of its ancient sage

Confucius. Students in'Western schools and universities continue to read the works

of Plato and Aristotle, produce the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles, and admire

the accomplishments of Athens. Many Indians still embrace the ancient religious

texts called theVedas and the Upanishads and continue to deal rvith the realities ofcaste. These are the continuities and enduring legacies that are reflected in the

notion of "classical civilizations."

Designating the millenniut-u between 5oo B.C.E. and 5oo C.E. as a "classical era"

in world history is derived largely from the experience of Eurasian peoples, for itwas on the outer rim of that huge continent that the largest and most influential

civilizations took shape-in China, India, Persia, and the Mediterranean basin.

Furthermore, that continent housed the vast majoriry of the world's people, some

lJo percent or nto.e.nThus the first three chapters of PartTwo focus exclusively on

these Eurasian civilizations. Chapter 4 introduces them by examining and compar-

ingl their political franreworks and especially the empires (great or terrible' depend-

ing on your point of view) in which most of them were expressed. Chapter 5 looks

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THE BlG PICTURE: AFTER THE FIR,ST CIVITIZATIOTIS: WHAT CHAI{GED AND WHAT DIDN'T?

at the cultural or religious traditions that each of them generated, while Chapter 6probes their social organization-class, caste, slavery and gender. chapter 7 turnsthe spotlight on Africa and the Americas, asking whether their histories during theclassical era paralleled Eurasian patterns or explored alternative possibfities.

In recalling the classical era, we will have occasion to compare the e4periencesof its various peoples, to note their remarkable achievements, to lament thetragedies that befell them and the suffering to which they gave rise, and to pondertheir continuing power to fascinate us strll.

t39

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140 eART 2 / rre clnssrcAL ERA rN woRLD HrsroRy,5oo B.c.E.-5oo c.E.

Landmarks of the Classical Era, 5oo B.c.E.-soo c.E.

China I5;l-47 9 a.c.e. Confuci us

Izzr-zo6 s.c.e.

Qin dynasty

-

6th centurya.c.r.(?) Laozi 5OO-221 B.C.E.

Potitical fragmentation (age of "warring states")zo6 r.c.s. -zeo c.r. Han dynasty

5. Asia/lndia{ by75or.c.r.

Urban centers inGanges valley -

563-483 e.c.e.

Life ofthe Buddha

8oo-4oo a.c.r. Compilation of Upanishads

32t48j a.c.t. Mauryan dynasty

l3z7 e.c.z.Invasionof India by Alexander

Iz6hz3z r.c.e. Reign of Ashoka

Middte East/PersiaI 539 e.c.r.Cyrus allows Jews toreturn from exile

553-330 a.c.t. Achaemenid dynasty

-

lh-6th century a.c.r. (?) Life of Zarathustra

1383-323 B.c.E.

Seleucid dynasty (Greek)

I 334 r.c.r. Invasion ofAlexander the Great

247 B.c.E.-224 c.r. Parthian dynasty

Meditenanean Basin a 33Gt4 e.c.r. Reign of Alexander the Great

8oe336 g.c.r. Era of Greek city-states

- 5'oe.47g g.c.s. Greco-Persian Wars

I 5o9 a.c.r. Founding of Roman Republic

4 B.c.E.-EARIY3os c.E. ILife ofJesus

47e.t22 B.c.E. Socates, Plato, Aristotle

20(, B.c.E.-2('(' c.E.

High point of Roman EmPire

8oo-5oo g.c.r. Hebrew ProPhets

Africa{76or.c.r.

Kush conquestof Egypt

3oo B.c.E.-roo c.e. Nubian kingdom of Mero€

The Americas

{ gth century B.c.E.

Chavln religious cultin Andes

l4oo a.c.r.Decline of 0lmeccivilization

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THE BIG PICTURE: AFTER THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONST WHAT CHANGED AND WHAT DIDN'T? t47

-

3rd centuryc.E. Spreadof Buddhism begins

I589-618 c.r.Sui dynastyreunites China

I r84 c.e.

Yellow Turban Rebellion

32o-55o c.E. Gupta dynasty

22445l c.r. Sassanid dynasty

I 38o c.r.Christianity asofficial statereligion of theRoman Empire

| 476 c.e.,

Cotlapse ofwestern RomanEmpire

II 1oo c.E.

Rise ofAxum3rd5th centuries c.e. Early cities/states in West Africa I by 5oo c.e. Arrival of banana in Africa

I 3oo c.e. Beginning of trans-Saharan trade

century c.E. lntroduction of Christianity in Axum

3oo-Zoo c.E. Moche civilization (peru)

3odoo c.E. Mayan civilization

4oo-5oo c.E. High point ofTeotihuac6n

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