India and China

1
India and China

• Mrs. Saunders

2
Asia

• Asia is the worlds largest continent, sharing
  the landmass of Eurasia with Europe. The Ural
  Mountains of Russia are considered the dividing
  line between Asia and Europe.
• Asia was the site of three of the worlds
  earliest civilizations, in Mesopotamia, India and
  China. Today Asia has three-fifths of the
  worlds population and the two most populous
  countries in the world, China and India. Because
  Asia is so huge, geographers have divided Asia
  into several regions. On the western side of
  Asia is the Middle East that includes Asia Minor
  (present day Turkey). Farther east is central
  Asia. To the south lies the Indian subcontinent(
  land mass that is below or part of another land
  mass). On the eastern side of Asia are East Asia
  (sometimes called the Far East) and Southeast
  Asia.

3
Indus River Valley

• After civilization first emerged in Mesopotamia
  and Egypt, it spread east to India. The earliest
  civilization in India grew along the Indus River
  valley of western India around 2500 BC.

The Indus River flows southwest to the Arabian
sea and floods yearly but not predictably.
4
India

• Most of the country of India is a
  triangular-shaped peninsula that juts into the
  Indian Ocean. Due to its central location on the
  Indian Ocean between China and the Middle East,
  India became the ancient worlds largest trading
  center. The natural boundaries for the valley are
  mountains in the north and north east, desert to
  the west and the Indian ocean to the south.

5
Mountains and Rivers

• The mountain to the north of the Indus River
  Valley are the Hindu Kush, Karakoran and
  Himalayans. Mount Everest, a mountain peak in the
  Himalayas of southern Asia, is considered the
  highest mountain in the world. The Indus Valley
  civilization covered what is today Pakistan,
  India and Bangladesh (PIB) and includes the Indus
  river in the west and the Ganges river in the
  east.

Sunil S. Kapadia/Dinodia Picture Agency
Keren Su/Tony Stone Images
6
Climate

• The Indus valley has both wet and dry seasons.
  Monsoons are winds that change direction with the
  change of seasons. The monsoon prevails mainly in
  the Indian Ocean. It blows from the southwest,
  generally from April to October, and from the
  opposite direction, the northeast, from October
  to April. The southwest, or summer, monsoon is
  usually accompanied by heavy rain in areas of
  India and the East Indies, constituting the
  dominant climate event of the area. The winter is
  dry cool air from the Northeast.

7
Indus Valley Civilization

• India gave the world important new ideas
  including the numbering system we use today. The
  Indus Valley Civilization had a written language
  and large cities. The early writing has not been
  translated and therefore we can not read it. The
  information we have comes mainly from
  archaeological digs. These were the first people
  to grow cotton. Their religion is related to the
  modern religion of Hinduism and was polytheistic.

8
Planned Cities

• Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were the two centers of
  the Indus Valley civilization about 2500-1500
  B.C. The cities were planned meaning the streets
  were on a grid pattern and had a fortified
  citadel. Planning is an indication of the
  existence of a strong central government.

This is a picture of the citadel at Mohenjo-Daro
9
Mohenjo-Daro

• The Indus Valley Civilization had a written
  language and large cities with sophisticated
  plumbing systems.

The brick sewer systems provided better
sanitation which lead to better health.
Above is a street with Limestone covered Drain
and to the right is a bath.
10

• The excavation of the Indus cites indicates a
  prosperous society. Since no weapons were found,
  it also indicates it was probably not a war-like
  society. Ships and overland trade caravans
  connected India to Mesopotamia and Egypt in an
  early international trading network. Below is a
  terra-cotta toy cow with a movable head, from
  Mohenjo-Daro. Other toys excavated here were
  small carts, whistles shaped like birds, and toy
  monkeys which could image down a string. The
  Indus Valley civilization included highly
  talented artisans and craftsmen who were skilled
  in pottery, weaving, and metallurgy.

Cultural Diffusion - Seals with a pictographic
script which has not as yet been deciphered were
also found at the Indus Valley sites similar
seals were found in Mesopotamia, indicating that
there were commercial relations between the two
countries.
11
Decline

• The Indus Valley Civilization lasted for about a
  thousand years and was replaced by a new culture
  ruled by nomadic raiders who moved in from
  central Asia. The decline of the civilization is
  a mystery. Possible causes could be that
• the river changed course and there was no more
  flooding,
• over farmed soil,
• natural disaster/flood, or
• warfare invasion.

12
Aryans Invade

• The chariot warriors from the north who took
  control of India are called Aryans. They are
  Indo-European people who migrated to the
  sub-continent through the Khyber Pass. Because
  Indias early cities collapsed, and the Aryan
  invaders were illiterate (could not read and
  write), civilization was lost in India for
  several centuries. Nonetheless, the
  light-skinned Aryans (pastoral cattle herders)
  from the north made themselves the ruling class
  in the caste system, a social system that still
  has influence today.

13
The Khyber Pass is a 30-mile gap in the Hindu
Kush mountains which links northwestern Pakistan
with Afghanistan and is important strategically.
A plaque at the entrance of the pass rightfully
states, "The North-west Frontier of Pakistan has
seen, perhaps, more invasions in the course of
history than any other country in Asia and,
indeed in the world."
14
The Caste System

• The Vedas was a collection of prayer, spells and
  instructions of rituals for Hinduism. It was an
  oral tradition and not written down. Under
  Indias Varnas or caste system, people were born
  into permanent classes for life, and they could
  marry only within their own caste. Aryans used
  this system to control society.

• There are four main castes with complicated rules
  of behavior
• the priests (called Brahmins - had to Aryans),
• Warriors,
• Peasants and traders and
• Sudras Non-Aryan laborers
• Pariahs the Untouchables.

Members of the merchant class
15
The Caste System

• Most people of ancient India were in the commoner
  class, which had limited rights. A fifth group,
  the Untouchables, was outside the caste system.
  Considered not human, Untouchables performed the
  worst jobs such as cleaning toilets and burying
  the dead. While the caste system may seem unfair
  to us today, it provided a means for different
  kinds of people to live together peacefully, and
  it avoided the widespread slavery present in many
  ancient cultures.

16
CHINA
17
Mountains and Desert

• The worlds highest mountain range, the
  Himalayas, separated China from India. The
  Pacific Ocean protected China from the East, the
  Gobi Desert from the east, Himalayas to the
  Southeast and deserts and Plateau of Tibet to the
  Southwest.

18
China

• The worlds fourth great civilization also got
  its start along a river valley, the Huang He
  (Yellow) river of northeastern China where
  farmers grew millet and wheat. The yellow river
  is also known as Chinas sorrow because of the
  very destructive flooding. Loess is the name of
  the wind blown soil deposited in the fertile
  region. Farming later moved south to the Yangtze
  (YONG-zuh) river, where rice production led to an
  increase in Chinas population.

19
Social Classes

• The center of early Chinese society was the
  family.
• Upper warriors and Kings
• Middle Traders
• Lower Farmers (only used wood and stone tools)
• Women were low in the social order and marriages
  were pre-arranged.

20
Religion

• The Chinese religion was based on the worship of
  ancestors (veneration), in which you paid respect
  to the dead members of your family, and is
  considered polytheistic. You could talk to the
  Gods or see into the future using Oracle bones,
  shells or bones on which questions were written.
  The oracle bones would be heated and the cracks
  that formed could be read by priests.

21
Writing

• Chinese writing used pictographs which
  represented ideas. The advantage was China had a
  standard written language but the disadvantage
  was is consisted of thousands of symbols.

22
Culture

• Chinese artisans made weapons, jewelry, and
  religions items from the finest bronze ever made.
  These items were symbols of royal power. Silk
  (thread from worms) was also woven into cloth.
  This was a highly guarded secret of the Chinese
  civilization of many years.

23
Dynasties

• The land between the rivers became the center of
  Chinese civilization, the so-called Middle
  Kingdom. Early Chinese culture grew in relative
  isolation due to physical barriers and long
  distances that separated it from other major
  civilizations of Eurasia. Over many centuries,
  Chinas history experienced a recurring pattern.
  A ruling dynasty would start out strong and
  gradually weaken over time until it was replaced
  by a new dynasty. Then the pattern would repeat.

24
Dynasties

• The first Dynasty, Xia Dynasty, is legendary. It
  stems from a story of mythology (tales and
  legends of a civilization usually centered on
  nature and creation) about Yu the Great who
  controlled the flooding and irrigation of Huang
  He river.
• The first Dynasty from written records in the
  Shang Dynasty. The Shang built palaces and
  temples. The buildings of the early cites were
  constructed of wood with clay and straw. The
  cities were protected by raised earthen works.
  The warriors were the nobility and they used
  chariots.

25
Dynasties

• The Zhou (JOH) dynasty took control of China from
  the Shang and adopted their culture in 1122 BC
  and ruled for nearly 900 years. To give their
  government legitimacy, Zhou and later Chinese
  rulers claimed to rule with approval from the
  gods, a mandate from heaven.

Zhou Wen Wang, the father of Wu Wang, first
sovereign of the Zhou dynasty.
26
Mandate from Heaven

• Although this claim was meant to enhance the
  emperors authority, it also established the
  right to overthrow an ineffective emperor. The
  emperor was expected to protect his people by
  ruling in a way that pleased the gods. If
  trouble developed in the empire droughts,
  famine, riots or military defeats, for example --
  people might say the emperor had lost his mandate
  from heaven, and the emperor could be overthrown.
  

27
Dynasties

• The Zhou rulers controlled their kingdom through
  a feudal system, meaning they divided the land
  into smaller territories and appointed officials
  to govern them. When the Zhou dynasty eventually
  weakened, some of these territories developed
  into strong states that opposed the emperor and
  began fighting among themselves. These bloody
  conflicts lasted for over two centuries, a time
  called the Warring States period.