Ch. 4 outline and questions

Ch. 4  Eurasian Empires - Persia, Greece under Alexander the Great, Rome, China during the Qin and Han dynasties, India during the Mauryan and Gupta dynasties.

Intro

What exactly is an empire?

• At one level, empires are simply states, political systems that exercise coercive power; normally reserved for larger and more aggressive states, those that conquer, rule, and extract resources from other states and peoples; thus, encompass a variety of peoples and cultures within a single political system, and political and cultural oppressions.  

Empires and Civilizations in Collision:  The Persians and the Greeks

• Most empires did not encounter one another, allowing them to establish their owe political systems, cultural values, and ways of organizing society.  Only the Persians and the Greeks would clash over a few centuries.  

The Persian Empire

• Based out of the Iranian plateau, on the margins of Mesopotamia.  Influeced by previous imperial systems of of Babylon and Assyria.
• Persian conquests was lead under, Cyrus and Darius, ranged from Egypt to India, encompassed some 35 million people, containing dozens of people, states, languages, and cultural traditions.
• Centered on elaborate cult of kingship, ruling on the will of the great god Ahura Mazda, making the kings absolute monarchs.
• An effective administrative system placed Persian governors (satraps) in each of the 23 provinces, while lower-level officials were drawn from local authorities.  A systems of imperial spies also gave the empire a reach throughout the empire.  The final piece was a general policy of respect for the empires non-Persian cultural traditions.  
• The infrastructure of the empire included systems of standardized coinage, predictable taxes on the province, a dug canal between the Nile and the Red Sea, and a “royal road” of 1,700 miles, facilitating communication and commerce across this vast empire.  
• showed of their immense wealth and power at the Persepolis and Susa through palaces, audience halls, quarters for the harem, monuments, and carvings made these cities into powerful symbols of imperial authority.

The Greeks

• The political shape of the civilization was made up of hundreds of city-states or small settlements.  The city-states were fiercely independent and in frequent conflict with its neighbors, though they shared a same language, and the same gods.  They would suspend all rivalries every four years in order to participate in the Olympic Games.  Over time this would lead to a greater sense of Greek identity, but the major city-states continued to be rivalries - Athens, Sparta, Thebes, Corinth...
• Unlike the Persians, the Greeks expanded through the form of settlements moving to distant places rather then conquest and empire.  These Greeks do to a growing population that moved looking for more iron ore or new farmland, they spread throughout the Mediterranean basing and the rim of the Black Sea.  The settlers spread Greek culture, language, and building styles and would fight, trade, and inter-marry with the non-Greek peoples.  
• The biggest difference was the popular participation in political life that occurred within the city-states.  The idea of “citizenship” of free people running the affairs of state, of equality for all citizens before the law.  Compared to other places, this Athenian experiment was remarkable.
• Citizenship was limited to, at first, only the wealthy and well-born, who had the right to speak and vote in the assembly, holding public office, and fighting in the army.  These rights would spread to include middle- and lower-class mean, mostly small farmers.  This was in part do to the need for more military men to serve to protect the city-states.

• Popular participation was not perfect, many places had dictators known as tyrants that would arise with the support of the poorer classes to challenge the wealthy.  Sparta would vest most of its political authority in its Council of Elders.  
• Athens would become the shining star of popular participation, would be the orginators (in the west) of direct democracy for those considered citizens - slaves, women, and foreigners were not included in this rank and made up more then half of the population of Athens.  Voting would occur at The Assembly; public office was chosen by lot and was paid, so that even the poorest could participate.  

Collision:  The Greco-Persian Wars

• The wars were started do to the migrant population of Greeks that were being pressured by the Persians.  These Greek cities revolted and gained support from Athens.
• Greece defeated the Persians twice, even though the Persians had a larger force.  These losses were inconsequential to the Persian, but Athens saw this victory as a product of their freedom which had motivated men to perform with extraordinary courage.  
• Helped to radicalize Athenian democracy, most men now became citizens since they fought in the war.
• The Golden Age of Greek culture:  Parthenon, the temple to the Greek goddess Athena, was built; Greek theater was born; and Socrates begins his career.  Also inspired Athens to attempt to be an empire since it brought together the more then 30 Greek city-states, this would spark a civil war, the Peloponnesian War.  The exhausted Greek states would be conquered by the Macedonia’s.  
• Lead to the birth of the notion of East/ West divide; Persia represents Asia and despotism, while Greece signified Europe and freedom.   

Collusion:  Alexander and the Hellenistic Era

• The Macedonian conquest of Greece would lead to the political unification of Greece, at the cost of independence.  This would also lead to a second round of war between Greece and Persia, lead by Alexander the Great.  
• Alexander the Great would launch a ten year expedition that would stretch a Greek empire from Egypt and Anatolia to Afghanistan and India.  
• The main significance of Alexanders conquest would be the dissemination of Greek culture during the Hellenistic era.  The main avenue of the spread of this culture wold be the many cities, complete with monuments and sculptures, theaters and markets, councils and assemblies, these cities would attract Greek settlers serving as state officials, soldiers, or traders.  Alexandria would be the largest and most cosmopolitan.
• The empire was very different from the original Greek city-states: more cultural diversity, no independence; imperial states that preserved order, raised taxes, and maintained the authority of the monarch.  Like the previous city-states, there was a high amount of stratification, with Greeks holding the elite position and having separate laws that applied to them, while other laws applied to the locals.  
• There was some intermingling with the locals by the Greeks, from intermarriage to building of temples to local gods, and supporting their priests.  The Greeks would eventually expand access to citizenship through getting a Greek education, speaking the language, dressing appropriately, and assuming a Greek name.  
• This culture influence in the East would disappear over time; in the West Greek culture would be replaced by Rome and would be carried on by the Roman empire.

Comparing Empires:  Roman and Chinese

Rome: from City-State to Empire

• Rome began as an impoverished city-state, with a king.  The aristocrats would remove the monarchy and start a republic which was dominated by the wealthy, the patricians. The excutive authority was in two consuls, that were advised by the senate of patricians.  Conflict with the lower classes, plebeians, would lead to Rome to develop a code of law that was written and offered the plebeians some protection: abuse; a system of public assemblies that allowed the plebeians to shape public policy; create a new office of the tribune that represented the plebians.   
• The values of the republic - rule of law, the rights of citizens, the absence of pretension, upright moral behavior, keeping one’s word - later idealized as “the way of the ancestor.”

• Empire building for Rome took 500 years, there was no blueprint, and took the entire Mediterranean basin and beyond.  The process was piecemeal and was viewed as defensive by the Romans; each new piece of territory created new vulnerabilities, which could only be assuaged by taking more conquests.  The growth also represented opportunity - poor soldiers hoped for land, loot, or salaries that could lift their families out of poverty; for the well-connected or well-to-do the opportunities were great estates. earned promotion, public acclaim or high political office; the wealth of long-established societies, Greece and Egypt; and the resources and food supplies of less developed regions.  
• Rome was driven by a “well-trained. well-fed, and well-rewarded” army, that would be brutal to its enemies.  Once conquered, the Romans would be generous: sometime granting citizenship; treating others as allies and allowing self-rule.
• Rome would begin to face challenges to its Republic as it continued to expand.  Most of the wealth would become more and more concentrated, and the imperial wealth would empower a few military leaders, including Julius Caesar, to bring a civil war to Rome.  Once this civil war between a few general finished, Caesar Augustus would take the position of emperor.  As the first emperor, Caesar would be careful about wielding power and keep the senate, consuls, and public assemblies to appear to maintain a republic.  This would begin pax Romana, the Roman peace, an era of imperial Rome’s greatest extent and greatest authority.  

China: From Warring States to Empire

• For China, unlike Rome, Empire was a return to the old ways.  These old ways were lead by the dyanasties of Xia, Shang, and Zhou, this empire would eventually dissolve in to warring states of seven competing kingdoms.  
• Shihuangdi would bring the bring China back together as an empire, his state of Qin had developed an effective bureaucracy, subordinated its aristocracy, equipped its army with iron weapons, and had a risiing agricultural output and a growing population.  They had also implemented a political philosophy called Legalism - advocates clear rules and harsh punishments as a means of enforcing the authority of the state.  With these resources he would unite China in 10 years.  
• This empire would lay the foundation for a unified Chinese state through the present.
• Shihuangdi would use his military and brutal policies to build his empire, which would lead to a quick downfall.  The following dynasty, the Han, would bring China together with less force and brutality.  

Consolidating the Roman and Chinese Empires

• Similarties
• Both empires referred to themselves in universal terms: Rome “almost the entire world under the control of Rome;”  China was said to encompass “all under heaven.”
• Both invested in public works - roads, bridges, aqueducts, canals, protective walls - designed to integrate their military and commercial domains.  
• Both established cults around their emperors: Rome’s was based on deceased emperors; China had a more elaborate cult that saw the emperor as the Mandate of Heaven as long as he ruled morally and with benevolence.  Peasant rebellions, “barbarian” invasions, or disastrous floods were seen as signs that the emperor had lost the Mandate of Heaven.  
• Both absorbed foreign religious tradition - Christianity in Rome and Buddhism in China.  Christianity slowly spread through Rome, and eventually became a state Religion, and thus dominant in Europe.  In China, Buddhism spread slowly, becoming a state religion for a short period then becoming a part of the mix of religions found in China.  
• Differences
• The Romans were always a distinct minority within their own empire, and had competing traditions from the Egyptians, to Greeks, to Christianity; while the Chinese empires grew out of a much larger cultural heartland that shared a similar cultural foundation and was older then surrounding cultures.  
• Chinese were better at assimilation of non-Chinese people through marriage, culture and linguistics.  The Romans took longer to spread their citizenship, which only conveyed legal status not cultural assimilation.
• Language was another problem:  Latin, an alphabetic language used letters to depict sounds and would give rise to many languages; Chinese use characters which represent words and was not easily transferred to other languages. Thus those that were literate in Chinese could understand written symbols and speak a different dialect.  
• The similar writing amongst the Chinese helped to establish its bureaucracy, which was based on Confuscius and involved schooling, examinations, and selection by merit.  Roman administration was based on a written law system that was applicable equally to all people of the realm, dealing with matters of justice, property, commerce, and family life.
• What makes for good government?  Rome - it was good laws; China - good men.

The Collapse of Empires

• Rome would split in half before the collapse, with only the Western half collapsing while the Eastern half would continue on from Constantinople and become the Byzantine Empire for another 1000 years.  
• Another similarity in collapse
• became too big, too overextended, and too expensive to be sustained by there resources, and no technological advances to enlarge these resources.
• large landowning families were able to avoid taxes, and turned free peasants into impoverished tenant farmers, diminishing the control of the central government. In China this lead to a major peasant revolt, Yellow Turban Rebellion.
• Conflicts among the elite factions created instabilities
• epidemic disease ravaged both societies
• an outside threat was forming from nomadic or semi-agricultural peoples occupying the frontier of both empires.  The empires would handle this differently:
• China would slowly acculturate these outsiders through intermarriage, adopting of Chinese dress, and setting up their courts in Chinese fashion
• The Roman invaders refused to integrate, and were being pressured by the Huns to move in to Roman territory.  This lead to more of a blending of cultures, then an integration.  

• the end of the empires meant a decline in urban life, contracting population, less area under cultivation, diminishing international trade, and vast insecurity for ordinary people.  

• The main difference is that China would return to an empire, while Western Europe would never return to a unified empire, dissolving into a highly decentralized political system involving kings with little authority, nobles, knights, and vassals, city-states, small territories ruled by princes, bishops, and the pope.  
• Why Europe never united?  vast linguistic and ethnic diversity, while China had a vast cultural homogeneity in its land; no bureaucratic tradition in Rome, in China this provided stability even as dynasties came and went; Catholic church was at odds with states, and its focus on “otherworldliness” did not support the creation of a large empire; Europe was not as productive in agriculture as China.  

Intermittent Empire:  The Case of India

• India has a history of intricately planned cities that have little evidence of any central political authority.
• Classic Indian civilization was a fragmented collection of towns and cities, some small republics governed by public assemblies, and a number of regional states ruled by kings; a vast array of ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity as groups from Central Asia would migrate into India.
• The distinctive religious tradition, Hinduism, and a unique social organization, the caste system, are key pieces of identify the Indian civilization.
• Mauryan Empire was Indian’s first and largest experiment with large scale political systems, equivalent with the Persian, Chinese, and Roman empires.  A population of 50 million, and a large military force.  They also had a civilian bureaucracy, spies, and the state operated many industries.  This was financed by taxes on trade, on herds of animals, and especially on land.  
• Best known for Ashoka, an emperor, who would eventually become a buddhist and practice non-violence to the best of his abilities as an emperor.  He would carve edicts that outlined his philosophy of non-violence and tolerance, and place them throughout India.  He would develop policies that were inclusive and integrative moral code for an extremely diverse realm.  These policies would be quickly smashed when he passed and so did the empire.
• what stopped empires from growing in India?  India’s cultural diversity; the frequent invasions from central Asia, that would smash rising states; and India’s social structure, embodied in a caste system linked to occupational groups, made intense local loyalties at the expense of a wider identity.  
• India did foster a vibrant economy, a cotton textile industry that supplied Afro-Eurasian world; Great creativity in religious matters generating two world religions, hinduism and buddhism; and developing an impressive math and science system.  

Questions:

What qualities did Indian civilization display that kept empires from taking root?  Please include some discussion of Europe and why an empire was never able to arise to power again.  

Why was Rome considered a new empire?  China had numerous advantages in the development of it's

China and Rome shared certain features in their collapse, please explain a couple.  What were some of the differences in the collapse?

China had a continuous string of emperors up to the twentieth century, what factors played a role in this?