The Persian Empire
Time span: ~557 B.C.E. ~ 333 B.C.E.
Location: Iranian plateau, north of the Persian Gulf
Organization and Government:
• Absolute Monarch
• System of Governors (satraps)
• 23 provinces• Officials of lower ranks were from local authorities
• System of spies in remote areas• Bureaucracy
Economy:Their economy included a standard coinage, at the same time as there were vast improvements so that local economies could grow and benefit from intense commerce (1700 miles of royal roads, a canal linking the red sea and the Nile, and an extremely efficient postal service).
Other important aspects:
• It was the largest and most impressive empire
• The two most famous emperors were Cyrus 557-530 B.C.E. and Darius 522-486 B.C.E.
• Conquests reached from Egypt to India, 35 million diverse people
• The monarch: cult of kinship, only approached through an elaborate ritual-but they were highly respected
• Respect for the many non-Persian cultural traditions, which helped them be even more respected
• Persian imperial bureaucracy permeated and served as a model for many regimes in the region, such as the ones in the Islamic world.
The Greek Empire
Time span: ~800 B.C.E. ~ 336 B.C.E.
Location: Mediterranean basin, along the coasts of the Mediterranean and Black seas
Organization:
• Greece was originally organized in small city-states, which fiercely competed with each other.
Political situation Government:
• Popular participation in political matters was what contrasted the most with imperial Persia, in particular, free people, equality of citizenship before the law, and representation.
• Political participation varied in the city-states, some of them were governed by tyrants (dictators) for a period of time, some were governed by the wealthy and in the case of Sparta, they were governed by 28 elders over the age of 60, who were also wealthy and influential, and served for life.
• Athenian democracy was not like modern democracy. Women, slaves, and foreigners could not participate in politics, and it was not representative.
Pattern of migration:
The Greeks expanded, but instead of forming empires, they settled in distant lands, mostly emigrating in search for iron and land to work. They established settlements all around the Mediterranean and the Black sea.
Commonalities:
What all these small city-states had in common is that they spoke the same language and shared the same religion. Every four years they would get together to celebrate the Olympic Games, and would not fight during that period.
Other important aspects:
• The Greeks called themselves Hellenes
• They had a population of 2-3 million
• Geography played a major role in Greece being organized into the original city-states, they were located in a small peninsula, with deep valleys and steep mountains
• Athens was the cradle of democracy
• During the reformist movement (moving towards democracy) many things were accomplished: debt slavery was abolished, access to public office was opened to a wider group of men, and all citizens were allowed to take part in the Assembly (not just the elite).
COLLISION
a) The Greco-Persian Wars
In their expansion, Persians to the West and Greeks to the East, they fought on both, land and sea. The Greeks settled in Ionia sought the help of the mainland (particularly Athens) in battling the Persian army, and they succeeded to defeat them, which instilled in the Greeks a great sense of pride.
This is the time when expressions of Greek culture flourished, particularly in Athens, promoting the expansion of Athenian democracy. Ironically, since Athens led the naval efforts against the Persian Empire and its leadership was undisputable, Athens began to assume a dominant position over the other city-states, therefore turning into an empire of its own. Sparta, another city-state of great military power, fought against Athens for the independence of Greek city-states in the Peloponnesian wars (Hellenes against Hellenes). Athens was defeated, which subsequently facilitated the invasion by Macedonians from the North, given that all Greek armies were exhausted and divided.
b) Alexander and the Hellenistic Era:
• Phillip II led the Macedonian conquest of Greece, and unified the city-states under the same political umbrella.
• Just five years after the Macedonians took over Greece, Alexander the Great began the legendary ten year expedition against the Persian empire, succeeding in defeating it, and extending the Greek empire over Egypt, Anatolia, Afghanistan and India.
• Upon Alexander’s death, the empire was divided into three kingdoms ruled by Macedonian generals.
• The Hellenistic rulers that followed took advantage of the existing Persian avenues of long-distance commerce and communication, which facilitated the Greek expansion in the form of settlers who served as public officials, traders, or soldiers, and also the expansion of the Greek culture through the building of monuments and sculptures, markets and theaters.
• The Greek language was simplified, which helped with the expansion, as more people could communicate with each other.
Differences between Greek mainland/original city-states, and the conquered cities:
• The conquered cities experienced greater diversity
• Absence of independence
• Some imperial states, like the Ptolemaic in Egypt and Seleucid in Persia, maintained their older ways. Since the Greeks were a minority, they did not intervene, and separated themselves as an elite
• Aside from some separation, the Greeks encouraged intermarriage, which fostered cultural interaction and blending.
• In India, the Greeks were assimilated into a new caste, the warriors
• In Bactria, the Greeks converted to Buddhism
ROMAN AND CHINESE EMPIRES
Similarities:
• Flourished at roughly the same time (200 B.C.E.-200 C.E.)
• They occupied almost the same area, about 1.5 million square miles
• They encompassed a population of roughly the same size 50-60 million
• Both were brutal in their use of military force• Both defined themselves in universal terms
• Both invested in public roads, bridges, aqueducts, canals, protective walls, etc.
• Both sought to integrate and unify• Both invoked supernatural sanctions to justify their rulings: The Romans through making their deceased emperors as gods, and the Chinese by investing their emperor with the title “The Son of Heaven,” governing by the “Mandate of Heaven.”
• Both adopted a foreign religion: the Romans adopted Christianity, and the Chinese adopted Buddhism
They were barely aware of each other, and had almost no contact with each other.
Differences:
• The Romans built an empire by conquering different lands and peoples, the Chinese fought to restore a previously existing empire that was at the time divided into seven kingdoms.
• The Romans were a minority in the empire, whereas the Chinese were already Chinese and shared much of the culture.
• The process of acquiring religion was different: Christianity was born as a sect that spread slowly until it obtained state support in the fourth century C.E. In China, Buddhism was introduced by Central Asian traders coming from India, and it flourished after the Han dynasty collapsed.
Rome:
The Roman Empire rose when the roman aristocrats threw off the monarchs and established a republic in which the executive authority consisted of two consuls, advised by an assembly called the Senate. They had a written code of law, which granted citizens protection and rights. The Romans built their empire over a span of 500 years, and it spanned over the entire Mediterranean basin.
As it happened with Athens and democracy, Rome could not sustain a republican government when it became an empire, and differences and inequalities brought civil war to it. Although the empire tried to save face by maintaining the senate and public assemblies, the sole authority rested on the emperor, and was backed by his army.
The Roman administration was in the hands of regional elites and the army. With regards to law, the Romans developed a body of law that applied to all people in the empire, and the law dealt with matters of justice, property, commerce, and family life.
In terms of language, Latin gave rise to a variety of languages, like Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, etc., and it was the vehicle that helped them maintain separate identities.
China:
The “first emperor” Shihuangdi, after winning the war against the other kingdoms in his quest to reunify China, imposed a uniform system of weights, measures, and currency, as well as standardizing the written form of Chinese language. His dynasty did not last long, and it was the dynasty that followed, the Han, that consolidated imperial China and established the political patterns that lasted into the twentieth century.
The Han dynasty’s biggest accomplishment was an elaborate system of bureaucracy, where officials were trained in an imperial academy, which provided standardized training. This system helped maintain the empire together, and it was civil service (versus the elite or military administration of the Romans).
Chinese language, even if it was spoken in different dialects, could be understood by literate people in its written form. In this case, Chinese language served to reunify Chinese people and their cultural identity.
Collapse of empires:
Common factors that led to the partial fall of the Roman Empire, and the fall of the Chinese Empire under the Han dynasty:
• They got too big
• They got too overextended
• They got too expensive to sustain with the available resources
• There was a lack of technological breakthrough that could supply the resources needed
• The growth of the landowning families led to impoverished farmers, and diminished the authority of the central government
• There was rivalry among elite factions, which created instability and eroded imperial authority
• Epidemic diseases
• Growing threat from nomadic or semi-agricultural peoples occupying the frontiers
Differences:
Chinese Empire:
• After over 300 years of political chaos, war, and disunion, China became an empire again under the Sui dynasty; followed by the Tang and the Song dynasties well into 1279 C.E.
Roman Empire:
• Although half of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, lasted almost another thousand years, no large-scale, centralized imperial authority ever ruled again over all of Western Europe, they dissolved into kingdoms.
INDIA
• The largest of First Civilizations flourished in the Indus River valley
• By 600 B.C.E., the classic civilization of South Asia had begun to take shape:
*They were a fragmented collection of towns, cities, small republics, and kingdoms.
*They were very diverse in terms of ethnicity, cultural background, and language
*They were organized socially in a caste system
*Their religious tradition was Hinduism
• Northern India had been conquered by the Persians and later on by Alexander the Great, therefore they had Persian and Greek influences
• From 326 B.C.E.to 184 B.C.E., India (except for the southern tip of the sub-continent) was ruled by the Mauryan empire
*They had a powerful army
*They had a system of bureaucracy
*They operated many industries
Ashoka:
• Is the best known of the Mauryan rulers, because he left a record of his activities and his thinking
• After a particular bloody battle:
*he converted to Buddhism
* he turned to more peaceful practices
* he had a philosophy of nonviolence and of toleration for the other religions practiced in India
* he eliminated animal sacrifices
* he abandoned royal-hunts
* eliminated most meat from the royal menu
* he ordered the digging of wells, the planting of trees, and the building of rest stops along the empire’s major highways
After Ashoka’s death, the Mauryan Empire broke apart into competing regional states. Other factors that contributed to India’s never reaching an empire again were:
• India’s cultural diversity-difficult to unite
• Frequent invasions from Central Asia
• Caste system linked to occupational groups-local loyalties versus a wider identity
Although there were other attempts at empires in India, they were short-lived. Even if they lacked imperial ruling, India still evolved into a complex civilization. They had an extensive network of trade, particularly cotton and textiles; the political aspect was dominated by the wealthy and the merchants; Indian advances in mathematics and astronomy were impressive; and their creativity generated the Hindu and Buddhist traditions that later extended to other parts of Asia.
Quiz questions:
1. What facilitated the invasion of Greece by the Macedonians?
2. What was the role of language, culture, and ethnic composition in all these empires? What purpose did it serve?
3. What were the similarities between India and Western Europe that prevented them from reaching imperial status after their empires failed?
