In the pre-classical age (8000 B.C.E. to 600 B.C.E.) the first states developed in core civilizations. Then, powerful cities imposed their rule on surrounding areas through conquest and the first empires were born. In the classical age (600 B.C.E. to 600 C.E.) empires grew on a massive scale through territorial conquest with large armies. The growing scale of these empires, along with their increased ethnic and cultural diversity, required more sophisticated methods of governance. As empires acquired massive wealth, the unequal distribution of this wealth across social classes placed enormous pressure on the political and social order. Eventually, all of the classical civilizations could not deal with the problems created by their own internal or external crises. In most cases, the belief systems spawn in these empires left their enduring cultural footprints even as their political systems disintegrated.
I. The number and size of key states and empires grew dramatically by imposing political unity on areas where previously there had been competing states.
You must know the location of all the following key states and empires for this time period.
Persian Empire
Qin and Han Empire
Mauryan and Gupta Empires
Mediterranean region (Phoenicia, Greek city-states, Hellenistic and Roman Empires)
There The division of the Roman Empire after Diocletianis more complexity in these empires than the above maps show. The Roman Empire, under Diocletian, was divided into several administrative zones, which led to the establishment of a western Latin empire and an eastern Greek portion (see map on the right). The later would continue as the Byzantine Empire for another thousand years after the western side fell in 476 C.E..
The The Augustus of Prima Porta, Roman propagandaPersian Empire is even more complex as it went through several permutations. The first Persian Empire was the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE) which reached its height under Cyrus the Great. At its peak it encompassed present day Iraq and Iran, Syria, Israel, Anatolia, parts of Egypt, the Arabian peninsula, much of Central Asia, and Macedonia to the north of classical Greece. The antagonism between the Persians and Greek civilization would provoke the wrath of Alexander the Great, whose conquest of Persia ended the Achaemenid Empire.
Much smaller than its predecessor was the Parthian Empire (247 BCE–224 CE). The Partians were the arch rivals of the Roman Empire and defeated them in Rome's early attempts at eastward expansion. This conflict evoked the most famous political propaganda in Roman history, the Augustus of Prima Porta (on the left). Brazened on the breastplate of Augustus is the Parthian general returning the battle standards lost to the Romans in earlier defeats, a great diplomatic triumph for Caesar Augustus.
The last of the Persian Empires was the Sassanid Empire, or Neo-Persian Empire (224–651 CE). The collapse of the Sassanid Empire in 651 C.E. was one of the primary factors in the rapid spread of Islam in the next unit of study. One result of these Persian Empires was the diffusion of religious ideas associated with Zoarastrianism.
II. Empires and states developed new techniques of imperial administration based, in part, on the success of earlier political fomrs.
A. Empires are large and diverse. As they expanded duing the classical age, ruling over them became more difficult. Governments had to implement methods to project power over large areas, something that presented a challenge in the age before modern transportation and communication. Drawing from the successes of earlier civilizations, empires in the classical age were able to centralize their power and rule vast domains.
A centralized government is one in which most decisions for the entire state are made by one executive power. This usually involves one leader, or a small group of individuals, having authority over all regions of a state from a single location, such as a capital city. Although all states are necessarily centralized to some degree, some governments can lean more toward decentralization. A decentralized government allows more control and decision making to be make at the local level. An illustration would be a school in which the administration allows teachers to create many of the rules and procedures for their own classrooms, as opposed to a more centralized system in which an administration or principal micromanages every aspect of classroom activities and rules from their administrative offices. Examples of centralized states in the classical age are Han China, Mauryan India, and the Byzantine Empire. More decentralized states were Gupta India and the Zhou Dynasty of China.
Each of these models of government has its own pattern of strengths and weaknesses. Although decentralized governments put people more in touch with the powers that govern them, they often find it difficult to unite for the common good in times of crises. Centralized states can be efficient, but require some apparatus to project power and hold distance provinces together. They can also can be the target of blame when people become discontented.
Centralized Governments: Case Studies
East Asia
After the fall of the Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC–256 BC) China fell into a period of chaos known as the Period of the Warring States. Although a time of conflict and strife, this period was one of the most fruitful in terms of intellectual output. In the quest to understand how China could have fallen into a period of instability, great thinkers pondered questions such as "What is the best form of governance?", and, related to that question, "What is the nature of man?" The differing answers to these questions formed the basis of Confucianism, Legalism, and Daoism. See more about these Chinese Belief Systems from Key Concept 2.1.
The Period of Warring States ended when the Qin dynasty centralized power and destroyed regional opposition. Although it lasted only 14 years, the Qin dynasty set in place many important aspects of Chinese civilization.
The Qin Dynasty and its administrative regions. Each region
One of the most important things the Qin did was create a bureaucracy. Bureaucrats are employees of the state whose position in society, unlike nobles or aristocrats, does not rest on an independent source of wealth or ownership of land. Members of the bureaucracy only had positions and power as granted by the emperor. Land owning aristocrats have large estates and person fortunes at stake, so they have a vested interest in influencing the government in their personal favor. By creating a bureaucracy, the Qin bypassed the aristocrats and governed through those whose position depended on loyal obedience to the state.
In order to bring unity to China, the Qin also built roads and bridges, constructed defensive walls, standardized units of weight and measurement, created a standard currency, and made one common form of Chinese writing. The harsh Legalism of the Qin allowed it to do much during it short reign of 14 years, but this same strict political philosophy also generated much resentment among the common people. As soon as the emperor died, the people revolted and slaughtered many of the remaining Qin officials.
