Chapter 5 – The Classical Period: Directions, Diversities, and Decline by 500 C.E .

Chapter 5 – The Classical Period: Directions, Diversities, and

Decline by 500 C.E.• Basic themes throughout – expansion and

integration• Expansion – philosophers commented on policy –

Confucius, Buddha and Socrates.• Integration involved two basic issues –how to

govern new territories – how to create social cohesion

• Chinese and India more successful than Mediterraneans

Shintoism – Japanese religion that provided for worship of political rulers and spirits of nature. This was the basis for the worship of the Japanese emperor as a religious figure. Rice god major diety.

Tori Gate entrance to a Shinto Shrine

By 600 C.E. Japan was ready for elaborate contact with China

Animism: a belief in the existence of many spirits and demons which are found in the natural world.

Olmec: Central American’s first civilization 800-400 BCE. Developed agriculture, accurate calendars. Powerfully influence on later civilizations in the Americas.

Teotihuacan: Followed the Olmec. Built the first great ciyt in the Americas and developed the first alphabet -400 BCE -400 CE

Beyond the Classical Civilizations• Axum and Ethiopia: Axum

defeated Kush around 300 BCE. Ethiopia in turn defeated Axum. Both these African kingdoms had active contacts with the eastern Mediterranean world until after Rome fell.

• The activities of Jewish merchants brought some conversions to Judaism in Ethiopians

• Christianity was to Ethiopia from Greek-speaking merchants

• Sahara – Vast desert region of north Africa – extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Nile river

Mayan Pyramid

Maya – 300 – 900 CE – Classic culture emerging in southern Mexico and Central America contemporary with Teotihuacan; extended over broad region; featured monumental architecture, written language, calendrical and mathematical systems, and highly developed religion.

Inca: American culture centered in the Andes mountains. Domesticated the Llama

• The Polynesians reached Fiji and Samoa by 1000 BCE, they spread their civilization to Hawaii 400 CE, by traveling in large outrigger canoes.

• Highly stratified caste system under powerful local kings

Decline in China and IndiaChina IndiaHuns attacked Decline in India not

as strong as in ChinaSocial unrest, overtaxed peasants

Huns destroyed Gupa Empire

Epidemics, weakened central government

For several centuries no native led an empire in India

China revived, first under Sui dynasty and later with the Tang.

Hinduism gained ground as Buddhism was unappealing to warrior caste

Yellow Turbans – During the decline of classical China, the Yellow Turbans were a Daoist group that promised a golden age that was to be brought abut by divine magic

Sui and Tang: Chinese dynasties that followed that fall of the Han. Under Tang leadership especially, China enjoyed one of the most glorious eras in its history. Confucianism and the bureaucracy were revived.

Decline and Fall of Rome• Population declined• Leadership faltered• Economy flagged, tax collection became more difficult• Despondency pervaded much of citizenry• The fall of Rome shattered unities and reduced the level of

civilization itself• Emperors Diocletian and Constantine slowed the spiral of

decay• Germanic tribes invaded in the 400s, little power or will to

resist.• Empire survived in the east as the Byzantine Empire

Syncretism: The blending of cultures. Syncretism connects most strongly with religions; for example, Christianity’s adaptation of some of the features of the Roman religion.

The New Religious Map• Classical civilizations declined – world’s major religions

Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam flourished• People sought solace in the spiritual world as their

temporal world collapsing.• Christianity became widespread in the west• Buddhism grew in China and the East• Islam surfaced and became a dynamic force in the

areas in between.• With Hinduism, Islam shared some commonalities;

intense devotion, piety, and hope for a better life after this one.

• Each responded to political instability and to poverty. Each often took on features of local cultures, in a process called “syncretism”

Hinduism Buddhism Daoism

Changed little in is major tenets

Altered as it traveled beyond India

Reacted to Buddhism by organizing its beliefs

Stayed in India

Buddha became more of a savior figure

Developed a clear hold on the peasant population of east Asia

Women in China - drawn to more meaningful life

Christianity and Islam• Missionary activity even more than Buddhism• Jesus preached compassion with great

conviction and charisma, but had few followers in his lifetime

• Spiritual equality and afterlife replaced unsatisfying traditional polytheistic religion of the Romans

• Appealed to women, who were offered leadership opportunities in convents and who were encouraged to worship together with men, which was unlike the practices in many faiths of the time.

• Jesus of Nazareth - Jewish teacher who preached reforms in Judaism. His followers believed him to be the Messiah, the savior sent by God to redeem humanity.

• Paul – Early Christian leader who saw the faith in a different light. Instead of a reform of Judaism, Paul helped turn the faith into a new religion that welcomed non-Jews.

• Pope – Meaning papa or father; bishop of Rome and head o;f Roman Catholic church.

• Benedict: Founder of monasticism in what had been the western half of the Roman Empire, established Benedictine Rule in the 6th century; paralleled development of Basil’s rules in Byzantine Empire.

• Augustine: One of the greatest Christian theolgians. Bisho of Alexandria, Egypt.

• Coptic Christianity: Largest branch of African Christianity, centered in Egypt.

Islam: Monotheistic religion in which the supreme being is Allah and the chief prophet and founder I Mohammad; developed in the Arabian peninsula in the 7th century C.E.

The World Around 500 CE• The major themes in world history

1. Responses to the collapse of the classical empires

2. Reaction to new religions that developed

3. Increased skill in agriculture the development of early civilizations prepared parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia and the Americas for future changes.

Global Connections:• Each of classical civilization radiated trade• Decline of classical authority meant overland routes became

more precarious; this sea lanes were used especially in Indian Ocean

• Missionaries and nomadic raiders took advantage of more porous borders