Why study Empires? (Not the TV show on Fox)

According to Strayer, when one thinks of an empire they associate it with "political or cultural oppression." Empires were overbearing and overpowering states so it makes sense that they would be seen as oppressors. For the most part, that is exactly what they did. They enforced their own religious beliefs or cultures onto their controlled populations and took their resources from them without giving anything in return. They were the bullies of the relationship which is probably why in modern times, the idea of an empire is condemned for its negative connotations. They created a large amount of bloodshed and warfare on their people and it seemed like they got what they deserved when their power crumbled and the civilization went extinct.

The Persians vs The Greeks

Persians:

• Huge in size and power, seen as the most impressive of all the empires because of how elaborate it was
• The King was the almighty power and everything that he did was to be obeyed or he would have you killed
• Had an administrative system with Persian governors in charge of the twenty three provinces and then officials were chosen from each local region with king having a group of imperial spies as well
• It was also very diverse because it allowed "many non-Persian cultural traditions"
• They had a very developed system of infrastructure with a monetary system, taxing, and a canal connecting the Nile and the Red Sea. There was also a "royal road" for communications and commerce
• They had intricate palaces and monuments which showed their imperialism

Greeks:

• Made up of any small competing city-states
• There was more participation from the public in politics
• Called themselves Hellenes
• Because of its geography including mountains and valleys, its peoples were separated into smaller settlements
• They ruined their lands by smelting metals and deforesting which caused soil erosion and a decrease in the amount of healthy farm land
• All of the states were constantly fighting but they shared the same language and gods
• Every four years they stopped fighting to compete in the Olympic games
• They settled instead of conquesting
• Created the idea of "equality of all citizens before the law"
• Politics slowly became more democratized after an almost civil war and reform
• Excluded women, slaves and foreigners which were a huge portion of the population

Conflict between the two:

• Started because of their patterns of expansion
• Persia took control over some Greek settlements on the coast and they rebelled
• With the help of Athens, they defeated the Persians in both the land and the sea
• Gave the Greeks and enormous amount of pride
• Created the East/ West divide that shapes European and North American thinking 

The conquest of Alexander the Great:

• He defeated the Persians
• Greek culture spread rapidly throughout the surrounding areas that Alexander and other Hellenistic rulers established
• Greek was seen as the "language of power and elite culture"

Romans and Chinese

Romans:

• Started out as a small impoverished city-state
• Took five hundred years to build the empire
• They didn't have a blueprint for how they wanted to grow, they just kind of expanded in a defensive manner
• They saw each addition as an opportunity for better resources and more political representation
• They had lots of motivation to achieve a higher status
• Their army was their most valuable asset because they were ruthless and successful
• Extremely patriarchal society with the men having the ideals that they were warriors and had complete control of the household
• Common Era gave elite women more power outside of the household
• When it became an empire people were uneasy because it lost its republican values

China:

• Started out as seven competing kingdoms that needed to be unified
• Qin Shihuangdi was able to accomplish that in ten years
• He created an "effective bureaucracy, subordinated its aristocracy, equipped its army with iron weapons, and enjoyed rapidly rising agricultural output and a growing population."
• Scholars who opposed him were killed and their books were burned
• Constructed the Great Wall of China
• Had a system of weights, measures and currency and a standardized language

Comparisons:

• Defined in universal terms
• Invested in public works
• Supported as rulers by supernatural forces
• Both absorbed foreign religions
• Different relationship between themselves and their societies
• In China they were assimilated very rapidly if not already Chinese
• In Rome the assimilation was slower and less controlling
• Language served different purposes
• Both left major affects on the environment

Empires Collapsing

Factors:

• Too big, too expansive, couldn't be sustained easily, no technology breakthroughs
• Rivalries created instability
• Threat of nomads or semi-agricultural peoples

Effects of Collapse:

• Extinction of central political body
• Decline of urban life
• Declining population
• Declining area of rule
• Less trade
• Lost security from population

India

Building of an empire:

• Started as fragmented towns, cities, states, republics
• A large amount of diversity in ethnicities, cultures, and languages
• Known for its distinctive religious tradition: Hinduism
• Socially organized by a caste system
• The Mauryan Empire was the closest they came to being like other empires
• It had a "civilian bureaucracy" with spies to report back to rulers
• Economy based on spinning, weaving, mining, shipbuilding, and armaments
• Gupta Empire came after and created a large focus on the arts, literature, architecture, sciences, math and medicine
• Main point of trade in Indian Ocean area
• Just because it didn't have an imperial identity didn't keep it from lasting for a long period of time

Each of these empires was created and maintained in a different fashion but they all found a way that worked for them to sustain themselves until their eventual collapse.

Writing for Young Egyptians

The question I'm going to answer on the Egyptian text "Be a Scribe" is:

• What does learning to write offer to a young Egyptian? What advantages of a scribal position are suggested in the document?

The skill of learning to write provides a better life for young Egyptians then if they were to master another profession. They do not have to suffer like the washermen, the cobblers, the merchants, the outworkers, peasants, and the soldiers. Each one has many difficulties associated with their profession that make them unhappy and inferior to being a scribe which is why it is seen as being a privilege to learn how to write. Being a scribe gives them more satisfaction than "bread and beer" or "clothing and ointment." According to the document, it is "worth more than an inheritance in Egypt, than a tomb in the west." As a scribe, an Egyptian would be valuable and highly-esteemed with the King himself and have fine clothes and horses and slaves and many other gifts given to him by the King. It is an honor to be a scribe! They receive the knowledge and superiority without doing the hard work which is definitely an advantage.

Sumer, Nubia, Norte Chico, Indus Valley, early Chinese civilization, Oxus and Olmec

     The first known civilizations occurred at around the same time in seven different parts of the world which is very fascinating to think about because the people were different and their societies were different, yet they managed to create a new lifestyle right around the same time as several other groups. It's still not really clear how they began but what seems to be the main factor is the Agricultural Revolution because they needed a surplus in food to be able to successfully support a large group of people living and growing together.
    One common factor that the majority of the civilizations shared is that they created temples, residential compounds, as well as other forms of extensive architecture and tombs for their leaders which shows another connection between the groups. Some of them created the first forms of language or writing whereas others did not. Their economies were also focused on different things based on where they were located land whether it be closer to the coast or one that had soil fit for large amounts of agriculture. Norte Chico for example had an extremely rich fishing industry whereas Egyptian and Mesopotamian societies were based on grain farming. Ritual sacrifice was another commonality that occurred with the growth of civilization because the leaders were associated with sacredness.
    A sad factor of civilization was that it brought the issue of inequality with its specialization of skills. Classes were distinguished by the type of clothing they wore, the houses they lived in, and the jobs that they had. Slavery also emerged with civilization growth. The gender systems became patriarchal.
  Leadership and the state became the rulers of the first civilization and they created and enforced the laws as well as keeping the peace. They were ordained by the gods. Writing was also seen as a gift from the gods which is understandable because it made things easier.
   Civilizations were progress because they brought better nutrition and better lives to people and allowed for the creation of new technology and specialization but they also created gender inequality, class structure and a wide variety of problems for its populations.

Who's the Better Leader

In reading the accounts of Emperor Claudius' achievements and comparing them to the actions of Shao Xinchen of the Han Dynasty, it's in my opinion that Xinchen was the better leader. Claudius was able to accomplish some very remarkable things during his reign but he did it to ultimately give himself the glory and forced thousands of men to the perform grueling tasks without breaks to finish his products. He wanted the attention for his "good deeds" whereas Xinchen accomplished less public works but he was a more beneficial leader because he was focused on the people. He went out personally to check on the waters in his domain and was interested in making sure that everyone had an equal opportunity to water. He went out into the field and worked himself so he could see firsthand how the people were living and ways to make their lives better.

Nisa's Life

The story of Nisa and her life was very interesting because it was from her perspective and it showed how she felt to be a woman during that time period. When she was talking about marriage and how she changed over the process, it was interesting to see that at the beginning she was scared because she didn't know him or love him. That idea of marrying someone not for love was found in a lot of different cultures and is still found in modern day populations but it isn't something that happens normally in our everyday lives. Something that was similar to our culture was when she suffered the loss of her husband and how it affected her because she had grown to love him and it devastated her when he died and left her alone with her newborn. It was also interesting to hear her talk about having a lover because that's something that can ruin marriages today but it's funny to think that even people in that culture were doing it.

The Three C's

Stereotyping is never a good thing. When it occurs in school, it leads to people's feelings getting hurt or the horrible concept of racism. That's why when it occurs in reference to history, it causes problems because it means that change is not being accepted. Change is one of the three c's in world history and if groups of people with different cultures are seen as never changing or adapting over time, then they are being stereotyped over a certain characteristic that once defined them  but might not still be the truth. Change is important in history because it shows how the world and all of the countries and cultures that make it up have been able to improve with their experiences and important events that they live through.

Comparison is the second c and it can be misunderstood like change because it does not just involve looking at the similarities between people or things but it also involves comparing the differences. Looking at the differences can provide a greater account of why people have done the things that they have done or strayed from the normal path that everyone else took to solve a dispute for example. You have to find categories that you think would be beneficial when it came to comparison and then decide the appropriate way to present it.

World History also majorly involves digging into the connections that very different peoples have because it can show similarities in the human race as a whole and it can help to explain their interactions and encounters. It protects from the view that every community is its own isolated entity that shares no characteristics from the rest of the species. They didn't develop alone without any interaction to anyone else.

These three concepts bring together all of the varieties of stories in world history.

Can't wait to study the paleolithic, neolithic, ancient, classical and modern (post-modern) eras throughout the semester in this class!