The European Imperialism was the first instance that outsiders gained control and began to establish and elite culture. The Nile cataracts and swampland blocked movement south. The Romans sent expeditions against pastoral peoples in the Libyan Sahara, but couldn’t incorporate them into the Roman world. IRAN The Parthians were established by a nomadic leader, and became a major force by 247 BCE. They helped foster the silk road by being located on the threshold of Central Asia.
The shankas were driven southwest along the Himalayas and were dominant from 50 BCE-50 CE Greek states were defended by armies of citizens (mainly famers instead of soldiers, which led to crisis. Macedonia was transformed by Philip II to have premier military power. Philip defeated a coalition of southern states and established the Confederacy of Corinth. The Han expanded bureaucracy. The Qin stressed central authority. Gaozu’s troops were trapped by Xiongnu from marching north, so he adopted a policy of pleasing the Xiongnu by buying them off with gifts of rice, silk, and wine.
INDIA- 170,180-4, 175-180 The Gupta Empire is an example of a theater-state where their state acquires prestige and power. During Ashoka’s conquest of Kalinga, hundreds of thousands of people were killed, wounded, or deported. The Mauryan Empire was India’s first centralized empire. The influence of Hindu-Buddhist culture imported from India led to the rise of larger political entities. Malay rulers used Sanskrit terms, like maharaja, to put Indian ideas of bureaucracy into place. Funan (the first major Southeast Asia center) was very prosperous with walled cities, palaces, systems of taxation, and more.
Economic The Bantu people engaged in fishing, using canoes, net lines, and hooks. They lived in permanent villages on the edge of the rain forest. They grew yams, grains, and made oil from pam nuts. Despite political fragmentation, there were many signs of economic, cultural, and intellectual vitality. The network of roads and towns fostered lively commerce. The practice of pig herding spread from SE Asia to Iran. They entered the Dark Age around 1150 CA, which was a time of poverty & depopulation. The Greeks used writing for economic purposes like keeping inventory of merchant’s wares.
Greek famers depended on rainfall to water their crops on the thin, arable, land. The Qin government of intense military &labor services and relocated people. The Han created the machinery and ideology of the imperial government. Wu did a lot to increase the power of the emperor by launching military operations, stopped pleasing the Xiongnu, and built up his military, The most significant barrier to political unity was in the caste system. The Mauryan and Gupta Empire rose in the Ganges Plain and fostered the formation of a common Indian civilization.
Small states divided India and created diversity among the people. Rose to prosperity because of its role in trade between Southern and Eastern Asia. A number of plant and animal species (rice, soybeans, yams, bananas, chickens) spread from southeast Asia to other regions. Commerce brought Indian Merchants and sailors into Southeast Asia’s ports. Religious Great traditions included religious and social beliefs over a large area. Small tradition beliefs were set locally and by a single society. Africa is known for it’s many social and belief systems each with distinctive rituals.
In eastern Iran, there is evidence of a religious taboo related to pork. The Iranians associate the boar with an important god. Small pig figurines were used as symbolic religious offerings. The ancestors of Greeks brought sky-gods with them when the entered the Greek peninsula. Greeks gave their gods gifts and sacrifices. The Homeric gods were perceived as anthropomorphic. They believed divinity resided within nature. They believed in ghosts and spirits. Buddhism began to spread through China in the fifth century BCE. The Vedas were religious texts preserved and communicated by religious priests.
Pilgrimage to famous shrines showed devotion. Puja, was worship service to the deity, which was in the form of bathing, clothing, or feeding the statue. The Southeast Asia kingdoms took what was useful and synthesized it with indigenous beliefs and, values, and institutions. Forms of oath and ancestor worship were used, as well as local concepts of chief ship. They trained their people so their bureaucracy contained both foreign imports and native disciples. Social The Bantu were known for speaking many languages. Societies and people had room to form and reform.
The groups very separated because their views varied very greatly. These people were called Iranians because they spoke related languages. Society was divided into three social classes: warriors, priests, and peasants. The priests supervised the proper performance of sacrifices. Slaves made up one-third of the population od Attica. The women of Athens were expected to cook, clean, and run the home with no political rights and little legal protection. The men of Sparta had absolute authority over the members of his household.
The eldest male headed families. Peasants, soldiers, administrators, and rulers all made contributions to society. Every person had responsibilities based on gender, age, and relationships to other relatives. Varna was a class of four groups: the Brahmin (priests), Kshatriya (warriors), Vaishya (merchants), Shudra (peasants). There was a decline in the status of women in the Gupta Period. Women in India lost the right to own or inherit property. The Malay people were the dominant population as a result of migration from southern China.
Some indigenous people merged with the Malay newcomers and others retreated to remote mountains and forests. Rising population and disputes between communities urged them to leave SE Asia mainlands and head to the islands. Intellectual/ Artistic They smelted iron while firing pots in a kiln. They made pottery and cloth. They possessed domesticated animals, such as goats, dogs, and others. They played many instruments, like the drums. Cloth making and dying, jewelry, perfume, glass, stone, and terracotta sculptures led to the development of urban centers.
The garb of a Persian noble was a torque. Persepolis was used for special occasions and it’s filled with sculpted images of members of the court. Ideas arrived from the east, like animal figures and painted pottery. Epic Greek poems, like lliad and the Odyssey, were memorized and retold. Early philosophers, like the Xenophanes rejected traditional religious concepts and composed rational explanations. The Han read and wrote poetry. The Xiongnu created belt buckles of twisted animal forms. The Chinese created a rubbing to demonstrate their procedure for mining salt.
During the Gupta Period, natural caves in Deccan were turned in to shrines and decorated with paintings. Hindu temples were created on sacred mountains or places that that specific god resided. Cave-temples were carved out of rock and richly adorned with frescoes. SE Asians had developed impressive navigational skills. They knew how to ride the monsoon winds. The people of SE Asia knew how to interpret patterns of swells, winds, clouds, and bird and sea life. Metal smiths knew the right temperature to produce and shape bronze.