Early Civilizations: A review

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Early Civilizations A review
Circa 5000 BCE 200 BCE

• Ancient River Valley Civilizations
• Mesopotamia
• Egypt
• Indus
• China

Circa 1200 BCE 1500 CE

• Ancient/early Civs of the Americas
• Olmec
• Maya
• Aztec
• Nazca
• Moche
• Inca

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A comparison Early Civs of Asia and North Africa
vs the Americas
Ancient/early Civs of the Americas
Ancient River Valley Civilizations

• Bronze and Copper Age tools, weapons, and art
• Advanced farming technology
• Religion Polytheistic
• Gov Theocracy, warlords, dictators
• Writing Egyptian hieroglyphics, Mesopotamia
  cuneiform, Chinese characters, Indus system not
  yet decoded
• Trade, job specialization, social hierarchies
• Egyptian Empire, Empires of Mesopotamia, and
  Indus Valley all eventually taken over by other
  cultures and Empires BUT parts of their legacies
  live on in modern times
• Chinese civilization elements carried through
  Chinas cultural history to today (Longest lived
  contiguous culture in the world?)

• Variety of physical geographies mountains (Inca)
  to valley (Aztec, Olmec, Maya) to seashore
  (Nazca) to desert (Pueblo peoples, Anasazi, Zuni)
  to woodland plains (Cherokee, Oneida, Iroquois)
  to jungle (Amazon rainforest tribes)
• Pantheistic polytheism and theocracies
• Human sacrifice
• Pyramid builders and city planners
• Astronomers
• Farmers and artisans
• Mayan written language
• All cultures destroyed, oppressed, changed
  dramatically by arrival of and conquest by
  Europeans in 1500s-1800s

Circa 1200 BCE 1500 CE
Circa 5000 BCE 200 BCE
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Whats the rest of the story?

• Africadid anybody live there? Were there any
  empires or kingdoms?
• What was going on in Europe? When did the age of
  knights, castles, and dragons begin?
• How did the spread of Christianity and Islam
  affect cultures and government power?
• What happened to China after the territories
  united under 1 leader in 3rd century BCE?
• In what ways did earliest cultures change over
  time? In what ways did they remain the same?
• What new cultures emerged?

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Africa Separating the myths from the facts

• MYTH
• Africa is a country
• Africa is a single culture
• Africans are all black
• Africa is all jungle
• Africans are all poor
• All Africans live in hunter-gatherer tribes in
  villages
• Africa is a backwards, primitive place without
  electricity or modern things
• Africa had no advanced ancient civilizations
  other than Egypt

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Africa IS
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Africa IS ALSO
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Fact 1 There are 53 independent African
countries
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Fact 2 Africa is made up of 1000s of culturally
distinct ethnic groups (AKA tribes) who speak
between 1500 and 2000 languages

• Some tribes
• Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert
• Zulu
• Maasai
• Pygmies of the forest
• Mandinka
• Nubians
• Hutus
• Tutsis
• Dinka

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Fact 3 There are variations in skin color (from
dark to fair) as you travel around the continent
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Fact 4 Africa has 8 different climate and
vegetation zones including desert, mountain,
plains, and tropical
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Fact 5 Though African nations are less developed
or developing economically, not all Africans are
poorFact 6 The continent of Africa has many
modern cities in which 38 of Africas 1 billion
people live
Fact 7 In Africa, you can find almost all of the
same modern technologies, lifestyles, and jobs as
you can anywhere else in the world there are
just less of them
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African history can be simplified by looking at
it in the following periods

• Prehistory
• Ancient civilizations
• Kingdoms and hunter-gatherer tribalism
• Islams arrival
• Imperialism and Christianity arrive
• Post-colonial nationalism

• Culturally, Africa can be broken into 2 main
  regions
• North Africa (north of the Sahara Desert on coast
  of Mediterranean Sea)
• Sub-Sahara (land south of the Sahara Desert
  including savana grasslands, tropical rainforest,
  coastal areas, and Kalahari Desert)

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Prehistory 200,000 years ago circa 3,500 BCE

• Circa 200,000 years ago Origin of human species
  in Central Eastern Africa?
• Migration across Africa of nomadic hunter
  gatherers
• Some human migration out of Africa circa 120,000
  years ago link
• Circa 3,500 first African civilization develops
  in northern Africa on shores of the Nile River

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Period 2 Emergence of early civilizations in
North Africa 3,500 BCE 700 BCE

• Egypt (circa 3500 BCE- 900 BCE)
• Originally 2 kingdoms, united as 1 under rule of
  Pharaohs
• Lasted approx 2,500 years until taken over by
  neighboring civilizations (Lybians, Nubians)
• Nubian kingdom of Kush (south of Egypt) 2000 BCE-
  1000 BCE
• Trade and cultural partner of Egypt
• Kush king Piankhi takes over rule of Egypt in 751
  BCE
• Nubian culture highly influenced by Egypt
• Archaeological evidence of separate writing
  system

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Period 2 (continued) Emergence of early
civilizations in North Africa 3,500 BCE 700 BCE

• Rest of Africa?
• Probably tribal nomadic hunter-gatherers or
  tribal farming villages (lack of ruins and
  archaeological evidence to indicate more
  sophisticated societies)
• Monotheistic animist pagan religions
• Animism worship of nature spirits

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Period 3 circa 500 BCE 1600 CE Post-Ancient
and medieval Kingdoms, cities, and
hunter-gatherer tribalism

• Iron Age
• City of Djenne-Djeno (Ancient Mali) Niger River
  in western Africa (circa 250 BCE 1200 CE)trade
  center
• 
  13th c Mosque
• Kingdoms of Ghana and Mali (circa 750 CE -1056
  CE1200 CE- 1400s CE )
• wealthy through export of gold, ivory, salt
• Taken over by Kingdom of Mali
• Trans-Sahara trade route caravans of camels
• No written language
• Pagan but influenced by Muslims

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Period 3 circa 500 BCE 1600 CE (continued)
post-Ancient and Medieval Kingdoms, cities, and
hunter-gatherer tribalism

•     Kingdom of Aksum (modern day Ethiopia) circa
  1 CE- 600s CE
• High mountainous plateau, Red Sea port, Nile
  River to west
• Ruler of Aksum called negusa nagast (king of
  kings)
• Ruins indicate no fortification
• Trade center connecting Egypt and Roman Empire
  and Persian Empire
• Gold, ivory, turtle shells, rhion horns, spices,
  monkeys, slaves
• One of few ancient states to make own currency
• Stone engravers stela statues
• Monotheistic and animistic 1 supreme creator
  Mahrem but also worship nature spirits and dead
  ancestors
• In mid-4th century, king of Aksum converts to
  Christianity
• Written language Geez brought in by Arabs?
• Terrace farming
• Muslim conquest changes Ethiopia

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Period 3 circa 500 BCE 1600 CE (continued)
post-Ancient and Medieval Kingdoms, cities, and
hunter-gatherer tribalism

• Great Zimbabwe Kingdom of southern Africa
• Island of Kilwa trading empire in middle Ages
• Songhai Empire (later empire in region of Mali
  and Ghana Kingdoms)

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Period 4 Arrival of Islam (circa 650 CE) A
little background knowledge

• Muhammad dies 632 CE series of successors
  (caliphs) take over head of Islamic faith
• Each caliph tries to expand Islam through
  jihadstruggle against non-believers
• Why conquest? Control of Mediterranean and Silk
  Road trade routes true devotees of Muhammad want
  to spread faith power struggle between Shia and
  Sunni (2 sects within the Muslim faith) caliphs

Stages of Muslim conquests       RED Expansion
under Mohammad, 622-632       PEACH Expansion
during the Patriarchal Caliphate, 632-661
     YELLOW  Expansion during the Umayyad
Caliphate, 661-750
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Period 4 Arrival and spread of Islam (circa 650
CE- present)
Islam influences government/law, language
(Arabic is official language of the religion),
customs, practice of other religions
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Imperialism and Colonialism

• Imperialism the policy or act of one country
  trying to gain control over other countries in
  order to change the government type or control
  economics

Colonialism the act of taking over other
countries in order to use the cheap labor and get
the resources
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Africa Age of European Imperialism and
Colonialism
WHY? Control of resources, labor, build empires
wealth White mans burden to civilize the
primitive
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History of Imperialism/colonialism

• British empire covered 25 of all earths
  inhabited territory Brits needed resources!

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Spain Colonized parts of the world, too
Converting people to Catholic church and taking
resources at gunpoint
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After WWII (1945) this is how the world was
carved up
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Watch the colonization of the world over time

• http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/89/Colo
  nisation2.gif

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How do countries become independent?

• Violent Revolution (American Revolution)

• Movement/protest for independence (Ghandi in
  India)

Eventually independence is given by mother
country
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What are the benefits of imperialism/colonialism?

• Mother country gets cheap resources and labor

Mother country creates a country that is
dependent upon it for trade
Strategic value Mother country gets security
outposts for navy, army bases and controls
valuable trade ports and routes
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What are the legacies of colonialism once mother
country is no longer ruling?

• Racism small European class remains in power and
  wealth positions

Power Vacuum leads to dictators, power
struggles, and government corruption
Ethnic groups fight over artificially imposed
borders and resource claims
Nationalism People want to run their own
countries
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What are the legacies of colonialism once mother
country is no longer ruling?

• Native population often left uneducated and low
  skills

Hunger, poor sanitation, not enough money to deal
with social needs
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Effects of Nationalism

• Nationalism can be good--think patriotism, love
  of country and culture

often, nationalism leads to blindly following a
leader at expense of other peoples and countries
BUT
Nationalism can lead to civil wars and genocides
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Of course we cant leave out the slave trade