Chapter 5 The Classical Period: Directions, Diversities, and Decline by 500 C'E'

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Chapter 5 The Classical Period Directions,
Diversities, and Decline by 500 C.E.

• Basic themes throughout expansion and
  integration
• Expansion philosophers commented on policy
  Confucius, Buddha and Socrates.
• Integration involved two basic issues how to
  govern new territories how to create social
  cohesion
• Chinese and India more successful than
  Mediterraneans

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Shintoism Japanese religion that provided for
worship of political rulers and spirits of
nature. This was the basis for the worship of the
Japanese emperor as a religious figure. Rice god
major diety.
Tori Gate entrance to a Shinto Shrine
By 600 C.E. Japan was ready for elaborate contact
with China Animism a belief in the existence of
many spirits and demons which are found in the
natural world.
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Olmec Central Americans first civilization
800-400 BCE. Developed agriculture, accurate
calendars. Powerfully influence on later
civilizations in the Americas.
Teotihuacan Followed the Olmec. Built the first
great ciyt in the Americas and developed the
first alphabet -400 BCE -400 CE
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• Beyond the Classical Civilizations
• Axum and Ethiopia Axum defeated Kush around 300
  BCE. Ethiopia in turn defeated Axum. Both these
  African kingdoms had active contacts with the
  eastern Mediterranean world until after Rome
  fell.
• The activities of Jewish merchants brought some
  conversions to Judaism in Ethiopians
• Christianity was to Ethiopia from Greek-speaking
  merchants
• Sahara Vast desert region of north Africa
  extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Nile river

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Maya 300 900 CE Classic culture emerging in
southern Mexico and Central America contemporary
with Teotihuacan extended over broad region
featured monumental architecture, written
language, calendrical and mathematical systems,
and highly developed religion.
Mayan Pyramid
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Inca American culture centered in the Andes
mountains. Domesticated the Llama
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• The Polynesians reached Fiji and Samoa by 1000
  BCE, they spread their civilization to Hawaii 400
  CE, by traveling in large outrigger canoes.
• Highly stratified caste system under powerful
  local kings

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Decline in China and India
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Yellow Turbans During the decline of classical
China, the Yellow Turbans were a Daoist group
that promised a golden age that was to be brought
abut by divine magic Sui and Tang Chinese
dynasties that followed that fall of the Han.
Under Tang leadership especially, China enjoyed
one of the most glorious eras in its history.
Confucianism and the bureaucracy were revived.
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Decline and Fall of Rome

• Population declined
• Leadership faltered
• Economy flagged, tax collection became more
  difficult
• Despondency pervaded much of citizenry
• The fall of Rome shattered unities and reduced
  the level of civilization itself
• Emperors Diocletian and Constantine slowed the
  spiral of decay
• Germanic tribes invaded in the 400s, little power
  or will to resist.
• Empire survived in the east as the Byzantine
  Empire

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Syncretism The blending of cultures. Syncretism
connects most strongly with religions for
example, Christianitys adaptation of some of the
features of the Roman religion.
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The New Religious Map

• Classical civilizations declined worlds major
  religions Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam
  flourished
• People sought solace in the spiritual world as
  their temporal world collapsing.
• Christianity became widespread in the west
• Buddhism grew in China and the East
• Islam surfaced and became a dynamic force in the
  areas in between.
• With Hinduism, Islam shared some commonalities
  intense devotion, piety, and hope for a better
  life after this one.
• Each responded to political instability and to
  poverty. Each often took on features of local
  cultures, in a process called syncretism

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• Christianity and Islam
• Missionary activity even more than Buddhism
• Jesus preached compassion with great conviction
  and charisma, but had few followers in his
  lifetime
• Spiritual equality and afterlife replaced
  unsatisfying traditional polytheistic religion of
  the Romans
• Appealed to women, who were offered leadership
  opportunities in convents and who were
  encouraged to worship together with men, which
  was unlike the practices in many faiths of the
  time.

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• Jesus of Nazareth - Jewish teacher who preached
  reforms in Judaism. His followers believed him to
  be the Messiah, the savior sent by God to redeem
  humanity.
• Paul Early Christian leader who saw the faith
  in a different light. Instead of a reform of
  Judaism, Paul helped turn the faith into a new
  religion that welcomed non-Jews.
• Pope Meaning papa or father bishop of Rome and
  head of Roman Catholic church.
• Benedict Founder of monasticism in what had been
  the western half of the Roman Empire, established
  Benedictine Rule in the 6th century paralleled
  development of Basils rules in Byzantine Empire.
• Augustine One of the greatest Christian
  theolgians. Bisho of Alexandria, Egypt.
• Coptic Christianity Largest branch of African
  Christianity, centered in Egypt.

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Islam Monotheistic religion in which the supreme
being is Allah and the chief prophet and founder
I Mohammad developed in the Arabian peninsula in
the 7th century C.E.
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• The World Around 500 CE
• The major themes in world history
• 1. Responses to the collapse of the classical
  empires
• 2. Reaction to new religions that developed
• 3. Increased skill in agriculture the
  development of early civilizations prepared parts
  of Europe, Africa, and Asia and the Americas for
  future changes.

• Global Connections
• Each of classical civilization radiated trade
• Decline of classical authority meant overland
  routes became more precarious this sea lanes
  were used especially in Indian Ocean
• Missionaries and nomadic raiders took advantage
  of more porous borders

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