Part 1: Sub-Sahara Africa Part 2: Persia

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Part 1 Sub-Sahara AfricaPart 2 Persia

• Lsn 7

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ID SIG

• Bantu migrations, chiefdoms, gold trade, Great
  Zimbabwe, Islam in Africa, kin-based society,
  Kilwa, Kingdom of Kongo, Kingdom of Mali, Mansa
  Musa, Swahili Coast, Timbuktu, trans-Sahara trade
  route

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Bantu

• Among the most influential people of ancient
  Sub-Sahara Africa were those who spoke the Bantu
  languages
• Bantu people showed an early readiness to migrate
• Canoes enabled the Bantu to move easily
• Agricultural surpluses enabled the Bantu to
  increase their population more rapidly than the
  hunting, gathering, and fishing people

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Bantu

• After about 1000 B.C., Bantu began to produce
  iron tools which enabled them to clear land and
  expand their zone of agriculture
• Iron weapons allowed them to defeat competitors

Iron spearheads and hoes gave the Bantu an
advantage
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Political Organization

• By 1000 A.D, most of the migrations were complete
• Instead of continued migrations, Africans
  developed increasingly complex forms of
  government that enabled them to organize their
  existing societies more efficiently
• Initially the Bantu established stateless
  societies in which they governed themselves
  mostly through family and kinship groups

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Political Organization

• Stateless societies worked well in small-scale
  communities but as they grew into large
  populations, resources became strained and
  conflicts became more frequent
• Bantu communities began to organize themselves
  militarily and this development encouraged more
  formal structures of government
• Chiefdoms overrode kinship networks and imposed
  their own authority
• In general, between 1000 and 1500, clusters of
  smaller entities gradually formed into larger
  states

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Kingdom of the Kongo Toward Centralization

• One of the most active areas of political
  development was the basin of the Congo (or Zaire)
  River
• One of the most prosperous of the Congolese
  states was the Kingdom of the Kongo

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Kingdom of the Kongo Toward Centralization

• Perhaps the most tightly centralized of the early
  Bantu kingdoms
• King and his officials who oversaw military,
  judicial, and financial affairs
• Six provinces administered by governors
• Each province had several districts administered
  by subordinate officials
• Each district had villages ruled by chiefs

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African Empires Kingdoms Built on Trade
West Africa (Ghana, Mali, Songhay)
East Africa (Swahili Coast, Kilwa)
Southern Africa (Great Zimbabwe)
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Cities
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Cities Timbuktu

• Located on the southern edge of the Sahara
  served as an important post on the trans-Sahara
  caravan route
• Founded 1100 A.D. as a seasonal camp by nomads
• Incorporated within the Mali Empire by Mansa Musa
  who built the Great Mosque of Djingareyber and a
  royal residence, the Madugu

Djingareyber
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Cities Timbuktu

• Center for the expansion of Islam
• Intellectual and spiritual capital
• Home of Sankore, a Koranic university
• In the 14th century Timbuktu became an important
  focal point of the gold-salt trade
• With the influx of North African merchants came
  the settlement of Muslim scholars

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Cities Gao

• Mansa Musa expanded Malis influence into Gao
  which, like Timbuktu, was a terminus for
  trans-Saharan caravans
• As Mali declined, Gao reasserted itself and
  eventually became the Songhay Empire

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Cities Kilwa

• On the east coast (Swahili Coast), Kilwa was one
  of the busiest city-states
• Traded gold, slaves, and ivory obtained from the
  interior for cotton, silk, perfume and pearls
  from India and porcelain from China

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Cities Great Zimbabwe

• zimbabwe means dwelling of a chief
• About the early 13th Century, a huge stone
  complex known as Great Zimbabwe began to arise in
  what is now Tanzania
• Walls 32 feet high and 16 feet thick
• Stone towers, palaces, and public buildings
• At its height during the late 15th Century, up to
  18,000 people lived in the vicinity of Great
  Zimbabwe

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Cities Great Zimbabwe

• Kings residing at Great Zimbabwe controlled and
  taxed trade between the interior and coastal
  regions
• Organized flow of gold, ivory, slaves, and local
  products from sources of supply to the coast

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Social Hierarchy
Sunni Ali King of Songhay (1464-1493) Painting by
Leo Dillon
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Social Hierarchy

• Kingdoms, empires, city states
• Ruling elites
• Military nobles
• Administrative officials
• Religious authorities
• Wealthy merchants
• Artisans
• Business entrepreneurs
• Common people
• Peasants
• Slaves

• Small states and kin-based societies
• Aristocratic or ruling elite
• Religious authorities
• Beyond that principal considerations were
  kinship, sex and gender expectations, and age
  groupings

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Social Hierarchy Kinship Groups

• Extended families and clans served as the main
  foundation of social and economic organization
• Villagers functioned in society first as members
  of a family or clan
• Notion of private property ownership did not
  exist in sub-Sahara Africa
• Communities claimed rights to land and used it in
  common
• Villages consisted of several extended family
  groups
• Male heads of families jointly governed the
  village

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Social Hierarchy Sex and Gender Relations

• Sex largely determined work roles
• Men usually did the heavy labor
• Both sexes participated in planting and
  harvesting
• Women tended to domestic chores and child rearing
• Men largely monopolized public authority but
  women in sub-Sahara Africa generally had more
  opportunities than their counterparts elsewhere
• Women enjoyed high honor as the sources of life
• Women acted as merchants
• Some women engaged in combat and formed
  all-female military units
• Even the arrival of Islam did not drastically
  curtail opportunities for women

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Social Hierarchy Age Grades

• Members of age grades performed tasks appropriate
  for their development and bonded with one another
  socially and politically
• Age grades offered some integration to a society
  otherwise organized based on family and kinship

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Social Hierarchy Slavery

• Most slaves were captives of war
• Others were debtors, suspected witches, and
  criminals
• Slaveholding allowed owners to advance their
  personal wealth in the absence of private land
  ownership
• After the 9th Century, expanded trade stimulated
  interest in slave traffic
• Slave raiding increased to meet the demand
• The Islamic slave trade between 750 and 1500
  created a foundation for the future Atlantic
  slave trade

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Part 1 PersiaTheme Centralization and
Localization

• Lesson 16

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ID SIG

• Darius, Persepolis, Royal Road, satrap, religious
  tolerance, legal tolerance, standardized taxes

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Achaemenid Empire (558-330 B.C.)

• Medes and Persians migrated from central Asia to
  Persia before 1000 B.C.
• The Medes and Persians were a considerable
  military power
• Cyrus the Achaemenid ruled from 558-530 B.C. and
  launched the Persians first imperial venture
• Darius reigned from 521 to 486 and expanded the
  empire both east and west

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(No Transcript)
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Darius

• Dariuss empire stretched some 1,865 miles from
  the Indus River in the east to the Aegean Sea in
  the west and 933 miles from Armenia in the north
  to the first cataract of the Nile in the south
• Population of some 35 million people encompassing
  over 70 distinct ethnic groups
• Description of the construction of the palace at
  Susa testifies to the diversity of the empire

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Palace at Susa

• the sun-dried brick was molded, the
  Babylonian people -- it did (these tasks). The
  cedar timber, this -- a mountain named Lebanon --
  from there was brought. The Assyrian people, it
  brought it to Babylon from Babylon the Carians
  and the Ionians brought it to Susa. The
  yakâ-timber was brought from Gandara and from
  Carmania. The gold was brought from Sardis and
  from Bactria, which here was wrought. The
  precious stone lapis lazuli and carnelian which
  was wrought here, this was brought from Sogdiana.
  The precious stone turquoise, this was brought
  from Chorasmia, which was wrought here. The
  silver and the ebony were brought from Egypt.

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Palace at Susa

• The ornamentation with which the wall was
  adorned, that from Ionia was brought. The ivory
  which was wrought here, was brought from Ethiopia
  and from Sind and from Arachosia. The stone
  columns which were here wrought, a village named
  Abiradu, in Elam -- from there were brought. The
  stone-cutters who wrought the stone, those were
  Ionians and Sardians. The goldsmiths who wrought
  the gold, those were Medes and Egyptians. The men
  who wrought the wood, those were Sardians and
  Egyptians. The men who wrought the baked brick,
  those were Babylonians. The men who adorned the
  wall, those were Medes and Egyptians.

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Darius

• Governing such a far-flung empire would be a more
  difficult challenge than conquering it
• Darius was an excellent administrator
• He arrived at a finely tuned balance between
  central initiative and local administration
• Centralization
• Authority
• Persepolis
• Royal Road
• Standardized taxes
• Localization
• Satraps
• Tolerance

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Authority Centralization

• Achaemenid rulers held the official title of The
  Great King, King of Kings, King of Persia, King
  of Countries
• Darius ruled by the grace of Ahura Mazda, the
  Zoroastrian god of light
• A great god is Ahura Mazda, who created the
  earth, who created the sky, who created man, who
  created happiness for man, who made Darius king.
• Zoroastrianism was a Persian religion which
  emphasized the duality of good and evil and the
  role of individuals in determining their own fate
  

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Authority Centralization

• Kings decision on all matters of policy was
  final
• King was commander-in-chief of the army and
  ceremoniously took his position in the center of
  the formation
• There he was protected by an elite royal bodyguard

The Greeks called the bodyguard the Ten Thousand
Immortals
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Persepolis Centralization

• Soon after Darius came to power he began
  centralizing his administration
• About 520 he began building a new capital in
  Persepolis
• Would become the nerve center of the Persian
  empire

Palace of Darius
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Persepolis Centralization

• Persepolis had vast reception halls, lavish royal
  residences, and a well-protected treasury
• It was designed to be not just an administrative
  center but also a monument to the Achaemenid
  dynasty

Gate of All Nations at entrance to city
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Persepolis Centralization

• Persepolis was full of advisors, ministers,
  diplomats, scribes, accountants, translators, and
  other bureaucratic officials
• Governors served as agents of the central
  administration to oversee affairs in the various
  regions

Persepolis is near modern day Shiraz in Iran
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Satraps Localization

• Darius divided the kingdom into 23 satrapies
• Administrative and taxation districts governed by
  satraps
• Satraps were royal appointees, often members of
  the royal dynasty by birth or marriage
• Satrapies tended to become virtually hereditary
  domains

Satrap receiving a visitor
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Satraps Localization

• Principal duty of the satrap was to collect taxes
  and deliver them to the central treasury
• Before Darius, Cyrus had accepted irregular,
  periodic gifts as tribute from subject lands
  and cities
• Though often lavish, these gifts did not provide
  a consistent and reliable source of income
• Darius changed all that

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Standardized Taxes Centralization

• Darius replaced the irregular payments with
  formal tax levies
• Each satrapy was required to pay a set quantity
  of silver and in some cases a levy of horses and
  slaves also to the imperial court
• In order to expedite payments, he issued standard
  coins

Gold coin issued by Darius, known after him as a
daric
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Localization Legal Tolerance

• Darius did not abolish the existing laws of
  individual lands and peoples
• He had no uniform law code for the entire empire
• He did direct legal experts to codify the laws of
  the subject people and modify them as necessary
  to harmonize them with the legal principles
  observed by the empire as a whole

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Localization Religious Tolerance

• Now then, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates,
  and Shethar-Bozenai and you, their fellow
  officials of that province, stay away from there.
  Do not interfere with the work on this temple of
  God. Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish
  elders rebuild this house of God on its site.
• Ezra 6 6-7
• Darius also funded the project and provided harsh
  penalties for anyone who interfered

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Royal Road Centralization

• The Royal Road stretched 1,600 miles from the
  Aegean port of Ephesus to Sardis in Anatolia,
  through Mesopotamia along the Tigris River, to
  Susa in Iran, with an extension to Pasargadae and
  Persepolis
• Caravans took 90 days to travel the route
• Inns along the way provided lodging
• The road was well policed for safety

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Royal Road Centralization

• Darius established 111 postal stations at 25 to
  30 mile intervals along the route
• Each station kept a fresh supply of horses so
  couriers could travel the entire route in one
  week
• Like the Pony Express
• Herodotus praised the couriers saying, Neither
  snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays
  these couriers from the swift completion of their
  appointed rounds.
• Motto of the US Postal Service

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Checks and Balances

• Since the satraps were often far away from
  Persepolis, there was always the possibility they
  might ally with local groups and become
  independent of the central authority
• To prevent this Darius
• Placed a contingent of military officers and tax
  collectors in each satrapy to serve as a check on
  the satraps power and influence
• Appointed agents to serve as the eyes and ears
  of the king by traveling throughout the empire
  conducting surprise audits and gathering
  intelligence

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Alexander the Great

• Ultimately the Persian Empire is going to fall to
  Alexander the Great in 330 B.C.
• Well talk about the military conquests of
  Alexander in Lesson 20
• Alexander is going to have an even larger empire
  and he will rely largely on established Persian
  institutions such as the satrapies to govern it

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How were populations controlled by the Persians?
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How were populations controlled by the Persians?

• Combination of centralization and localization
• Centralization
• Authority
• Persepolis
• Royal Road
• Standardized taxes
• Localization
• Satraps
• Tolerance

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Next Lesson

• Greece and Medieval Europe