The Classical Period in World History

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The Classical Period in World History
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Periodization Classical

• The classical period runs from about 1000 or 800
  BCE to 500 or 600 CE.
• Some of the key formative elements of major
  civilization-what historians call the great
  traditions-were forged in the classical period
  and would be ingredients in world history from
  this point onward.
• The classical civilizations were situated in
  areas where river valley civilizations had
  flourished earlier, although they usually
  relocated somewhat and always expanded.

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The Classical Age

• Areas
• China expanded from the north to the southern
  portion of the Yellow River, forming the Middle
  Kingdom.
• Indian civilization spread through the whole
  subcontinent, with its focus now in the Ganges
  River basin rather than the northwest.
• Classical Mediterranean civilization was located
  in Greece and along the shoreline of the eastern
  Mediterranean and ultimately spread westward,
  both in North Africa and southern Europe.

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The Classical Age

• The classical civilization that stayed closest
  to it river valley roots was Persia, which had
  its center in the Tigris-Euphrates valley but
  also spread more widely in the Middle East.
• So the core areas of China, India, Persia and the
  Mediterranean are the centers of the Classical
  Age.

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The Classical Age

• The period saw great activity and many changes.
  These major civilizations included major
  population centers.
• At its height, China included 54 million people
  Rome had 52 million.
• It must be noted that the features that came from
  the classical civilizations did not define the
  whole worldkey parts of northern Europe, many
  parts of sub-Saharan Africa, places in Asia (such
  as Japan) and the Americas are left out. (We will
  examine the Americas a bit, despite this)

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The Classical Age

• Also of note The Classical societies did build
  on the river valley kingdoms achievements, but
  classical civilization differed in many ways
• Classical civilizations are much larger.
• All of these civilizations had iron technologies.
  Iron had been introduced around 1500 BCE. (Thus
  the Assyrian Empire was one of the first to use
  Iron and building an Empire in the Middle East.)
  Metallurgy
• Leaders saw advantages in terms of population
  expansion for economic and military reasons.
• Classical civilizations did have numerous
  contacts. Trade-the Phoenicians

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General Comparisons Overview

• China From the fairly decentralized, often
  landlord-dominated Zhou dynasty, China made a
  move to centralization under the Qin dynasty and
  even more centralized political and ideological
  operation under the Han dynasty at the end of the
  period.

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General Comparisons Overview

• Mediterranean This area emphasized the Greek
  tradition until the 4th century. This was
  followed by the period of Alexander the Greats
  conquests and the Hellenistic period, in which
  Greek cultural and political influences
  interacted with the traditions of Egypt and the
  Middle East. In its final phase, the
  civilizations emphasis shifted to Rome, the
  republican period and expression of the classical
  Mediterranean.

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General Comparisons Overview

• Persia In the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, Persia
  was more important than Greece and had
  established a strong, effective government. The
  Persian tradition would be partially
  overshadowed, however, first by the conquests of
  Alexander, then by the conquests of Arab Islam.

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General Comparisons Overview

• India Classical India involves the story of the
  in-migration of Aryan or Indo-European peoples,
  whose culture was gradually codified into major
  works of literature and religious philosophy.
  Indian, in this second civilization period,
  settled down into more recognizably coherent
  development, with a major empire in the 4th
  century BCE-the Mauryan Empire-and, at the end of
  the classical period, another major imperial
  statement-the Gupta Empire.

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Cultural comparisons (differences)

• Belief systems
• China Confucianism and Daoism on the whole
  China was mostly secular
• India the most spiritual generating Hinduism and
  Buddhism.
• Science
• China Emphasized empirical science because of
  its utility to society and the economy.
• The Greco-Roman tradition was more theoretical.
• India had a strong tradition emphasizing
  mathematics.

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Cultural Comparisons (differences)

• Political
• China Created a strong central government and a
  large bureaucracy. Emphasis on key political
  concepts that supported the central government,
  specific training systems and even exams for
  government officials.
• India Stresses a smaller, decentralized states
  and placed less emphasis on political ideology.
• Mediterranean A strong political emphasis,
  although its overall political tradition was more
  decentralized than China. The Roman state was
  more interested in the development of a legal
  system as a unifier, than massive bureaucracies.

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Cultural Comparisons (differences)

• Social
• India The Caste System
• Med Strong reliance on slavery slavery did
  exist in India and China
• China Under Confucianism, developed a social
  hierarchy based on the notion of rule by wise
  people of an upper class, with the lower classes
  offering deference in return.

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Cultural Comparisons (differences)

• Economics
• China Depended on trade, but Confucianism
  prompted a cultural bias against merchants, who
  were viewed with suspicion because of their
  devotion to moneymaking and the possibility that
  they would pull away from the central political
  and social values of Chinese society.
• India Merchants were encouraged to use the
  Indian Ocean as an artery for foreign trade.

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Cultural Comparisons (differences)

• Technologies
• China Would be the most important source of
  technological innovation in the world. Most
  technologies would go westward.
• India Also success in stressing
  inventionespecially steelmaking.
• Med Probably the least developed emphasis on
  technology, possibly because it tended to expand
  the slave system rather than increase production
  through tech development.

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Why the differences?

• China may have focused on political order because
  of its geography. The possibility of invasion
  from Central Asia may have encouraged an emphasis
  on order to ward off disruption, but the threat
  was not so great that establishing political
  order became impossible.

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Why the differences?

• India was also affected by invasions and
  influences from the outside world that came
  through the passes that lead through the
  Himalayas and northwestern India. Indians
  emphasis on artistic sensuality and religious
  fervor could have stemmed from its climate.

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How did these empires maintain?

• Economic integration e.g. China created canals
  to connect locations Med leaders connected with
  grain growing regions of Africa.
• Culture integration In the 6th and 5th centuries
  BCE all of these groups introduced belief
  systems. E.g. China and Confucianism and Daoism
  Hinduism and Buddhism in India Zoroastrianism in
  Persia, philosophy and art in the Greco-Roman
  world.

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How did these empires maintain?

• Political integration The building of imperial
  structures that would foster and reinforce
  economic and cultural coherence.