Zoroastrianism: ethical code, good v. evil, supreme deity
The Greek Dark Age (1200-800 BCE)
Greece: resource ________
surpluses and colonization ----
Greek farmers grew: barley, _____ trees and _____ _____
craft skills
Greek Dark Age ended with renewed contacts with _______ _______
___________ alphabet adapted to Greek writing system
Greek polis/city-state - “The Greek city-states, unencumbered by the gross bureaucracies of the Mesopotamian, Assyrian and Persian empires, were able to show a greater dynamism and to command the active allegiance of a much greater proportion of their populations when it came to war.”
tyranny
oligarchy
Greek slavery --- “The relative unproductiveness of the land had one other very important side effect. The surplus output that could be obtained after feeding a peasant family and its children was quite small. But it could be increased considerably by working the land --- and later the mines and large craft establishments --- with the labor of childless adults. The enslavement of war captives provided just such a labor force --- slavery in Greece, as later in Rome, became a major source or the surplus”
Athens --- It became the leading city of Ancient Greece in the first millennium BC. Its cultural achievements during the 5th century BC laid the foundations of western civilization
Athenian working classes and “democracy” --- “In some states, most notably Athens, the pressure from below resulted in even more radical changes --- the replacement of both oligarchy and tyranny by ‘democracy.’ The word, taken literally, means ‘people power.’ In reality it never referred to the whole people since it excluded slaves, women and resident non-citizens --- the metics, who often accounted for a large percentage of the traders and craftsmen. It did not challenge the concentration of property --- and slaves --- it the hands of the rich either --- but did give the poor the power to protect themselves from the worst extortions of the rich”
Solons reforms (594 BCE)
Sparta
helots
Ionian Revolt: The Ionian Revolts were triggered by the actions of Aristagoras, the tyrant of the Ionian city of Miletus at the end of the 6th century BC and the beginning of the 5th century BC. They constituted the first major conflict between Greece and Persia.
Persian Wars --- Darius & Xerxes
Greek hoplites
Battle of Marathon (490 BCE)
Battle of Thermopylae (480 BCE)
Themistocles (525 - c.460 BCE)
mines an Laurian
trireme
Battle of Salamis (480 BCE)
Delian League
Island of Delos
Pericles (495 BCE-429 BCE)
“Golden Age” literary, theatrical and artistic achievements of Athens were due in part to __________ and __________
Peloponnesian War (431 BCE - 404 BCE)
Socrates (469 BCE – May 7, 399 BCE)
Peloponnesian League
Fall of Athens
Philip II of Macedon (382-336 BCE)
Alexander (356 BCE -323 BCE) --- get the Persians!
Indo-European migration/Vedic Age (1500-500 BCE) --- The “Aryan” invaders who destroyed the Indus civilization in around 1500 BCE were originally nomadic herders, living on milk and meat and led by warrior chieftains. They had no use for the ancient cities, which they had ransacked and then abandoned. Neither did they have any use for the written word, and the script used by the old civilization died out.
Rig Veda (hymns dedicated to various deities and describing _________ practices
Brahmin caste (ritual and sacrifice)
Indian caste system
varna/caste --- Compliance with the demands of the Aryans was brought about by force, and backed by religious designation of the ordinary ‘Aryans’ as a lower caste of vaishyas (cultivators) and conquered peoples of the as a bottom caste of sudras (toilers). Caste arose out of a class organization of production in the villages and its persistence over millennia was rooted in this.
jati --- The very success of the new agricultural methods in providing a growing surplus for the rulers also led to the growth of non-village based social groups. The rulers wanted new luxury goods and better armaments, and encouraged crafts like carpentry, metal smelting, spinning, weaving and dyeing.
karma & moksha
Several religious sects began to emerge and the best known of these were the Jain followers of Mahavira (599 BCE-527 BCE) and the Buddhist followers of Gautama (563 BCE to 483 BCE). They opposed blood sacrifices and animal slaughter. They counterposed ahimsa (non-killing) to warfare. They rejected caste distinctions --- their founders were not Brahmins.
Jainism
Siddartha Gautama (563 BCE to 483 BCE)
Central Buddhist teaching: life is _________ and __________ is caused by desire
Mahabharata: one of the two major ancient Sanskrit epics of India, the other being the Ramayana. Traditionally ascribed to Vyasa, it is the longest literary epic poem in the world. Besides being hailed as one of the greatest literary accomplishments of humanity, it is also of immense religious and philosophical importance in India. In particular, the Bhagavad Gita, which is one of its chapters is a central sacred text of Hinduism.
Bhagavad-Gita --- Arjun learns from Lord Krishna that __________
karma
dharma
reincarnation of the atman depends on ________ standing in society
Chandragupta Maurya (ruled 322–298 BCE) --- Establised empire based in Northern India east of the Indus (Alexander’s successor on the west side). The Maurya monarchy obtained the enormous surplus necessary to maintain itself by an unprecedented expansion of the economic activiy of the state, with state control of agriculture, industry and trade., and monopolies in mining and salt, liquor and mineral trades. --- maintained top to bottom with tax collectors and spies --- a vast bureaucracy
Mauryan Empire: the greatest empire in ancient India, and lasted until 185 BC --- The Maurya state was not, in its early years, purely parasitic, and undertook some measures which were positive for society as a whole. It used some of the huge surplus for the development of the rural economy --- founding new settlements, encouraging sudras to settle as farmers with land granted by the state, organizing irrigation projects and controlling the distribution of water.
Emperor Ashoka 264-227 BCE (fifty years after the death of Chandragupta). Ashoka converted to _________________. The repudiation of caste distinctions could aid the monarchs in their struggle to stop the upper castes in each locality from diverting the surplus into their own pockets. It could gain the backing of the new social groups of the towns for the empire. Even the doctrine of nonviolence could help an already suddessful conqueror maintain internal peace against possible challengers
Collapse of Mauryan Empire after death of Ashoka --- feudalization of society for half a millennia
Gupta Empire: The Gupta Empire was an Indian empire ruled by the Gupta dynasty in ancient India from around 320 to 550 CE.
