The Classical Period:

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The Classical Period

• Directions, Diversities, and Declines by 500 C.E.

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Expansion and Integration

• As Classical Civilizations decline major world
  religions rise as a force to define the next
  period
• Each civilization had to deal with expansion and
  integration and how they dealt with these issues
  helped determine how they fell
• Integration
• Territorial
• Social

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Decline of China

• Internal Problems
• Decrease in Confucian intellectuals
• Increase in corrupt bureaucrats
• Increase in social unrest partly due to declining
  resources from environmental damage (such as
  deforestation, soil erosion, silted rivers)
• Increase in epidemics killing the population
• Threatened cultural unity with the introduction
  of Buddhism
• Sui and Tang revive the empire briefly
• NO PERMANENT DISRUPTION

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Indias Decline

• Indias decline was less dramatic
• Increase in invasions, led to an increase in
  regional princes. In turn, central power
  weakened. However, many invaders integrated and
  even adopted some of the religious views of the
  conquered people. 
• Hinduism cemented the culture and lessened the
  fall but Islam would soon threaten it.

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Fall of Rome

• There were symptoms of decay after 180 CE
• Internal problems
• Drastic decrease in population (1 million
  250,000) due to plague and disease
• Depressed society
• Elite become more pleasure-seeking and so no new
  culture is being created

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Fall of Rome (contd.)

• Diocletion tried to reverse the trend but
  couldnt
• Constantine thinks dividing the empire will help
  manage its problems but that doesnt work either
• This leads to a split in the unity Mediterranean
  culture
• Did not produce shared political culture or the
  bureaucratic institutions of China nor did is
  have the religion to hold it together as in India
  
•  
• Empire fell into 3 zones
• Eastern Empire- Byzantium
• N. Africa and Southern shores of Mediterranean
• Western part of the Empire (with no sophisticated
  culture)

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• All civilizations suffered from outside invasions
• Rome fell to Germanic invasions
• India fell to the White Huns and China to another
  similar Central Asian group called the Xiongnu

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Cases of Expanded Empires and their Influence

• Southeast Asia
• Gained access to civilization through contact
  with India
• Africa
• Independent kingdom of Kush along the upper Nile,
  which fell to Axum, which in turn fell to
  Ethiopia
• Axum and Ethiopia had contacts with the
  Mediterranean civ.

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Other Civilizations

• Africa
• Below the Sahara the major development was a
  further extension of agriculture and the
  development of regional Kingdoms (Ghana is first
  state)
• Asia (Japan)
• Japan, by 200 CE, had established extensive
  agriculture
• Shintoism provided for worship of political
  rulers and spirits of nature and by 700 CE was
  able to unify Japan

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Other Civilizations

• Asia (Polynesian)
• Reached Fiji and Somao by 1000 BCE (via special
  canoes)
• Central Asia
• Herding people played large role in trade,
  innovation and later invasion of the classical
  societies

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Other Civilizations

• Europe
• Europe is organized into loose kingdoms
• Central America
• Olmecs develop impressive agriculture but by 400
  BCE had disappeared without a trace
• Olmec successors- Maya and Inca both develop in
  relative isolation and therefore lacked some of
  the advantages of being able to copy other
  civilizations but they were sophisticated
  nonetheless

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• New Religious Map- the spread of major religions
  was a vital result of changes in the classical
  world