Land of the Nile

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Land of the Nile
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Great Pyramid of Khufu, Giza
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The empires of southwest Asia
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(No Transcript)
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Assyria and its rivals
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Persia (1 of 2) - 559 B.C.
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Persia (2 of 2)
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Ancient Greece

• importance to Western culture
• Individualism and Humanism
• the rise of Reason
• decline of superstition/religion

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Ancient Greece
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Important Precursors

• Minoan Crete
• Mycenaean Greece

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Minoan Crete

• ca. 2900 B.C. to 1450 B.C.
• contemporary with Egypt
• major, non-river valley culture
• highly sophisticated
• literate
• surplus agriculture
• industry
• over-seas commercial trade

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Minoan Culture

• elaborate towns and villages
• complex religious ideas
• sophisticated art
• sports and leisure
• high status for women

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Minoan Culture, cont

• unwalled cities
• no foreign invasions
• few weapons
• no civil conflict

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Contributions to Greeks

• linguistic
• olives, grapes, figs
• place names
• overseas movement

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Mycenaeans

• Bronze Age Greeks
• 2000-1100 B.C.
• small, warrior states
• war, trade, piracy
• literate

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Mycenaeans, cont

• the Heroic Age
• the Age of Myth
• the development of Greek Religion
• beginnings of a common culture

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The Archaic Period

• ca. 850 B.C.
• beginning of classical Greek history
• foundations of Western culture

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The Polis

• the city-state
• city and dependent territory
• independence of each city
• warfare and rivalry

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Plan of Acropolis 5th Century B.C.
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The Ethnos

• Greek tribal structures
• villages
• common cult centers
• fringes of the Greek world

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Rise of Literacy

• the alphabet
• Literature
• Homer - the Iliad, the Odyssey
• Lyric poetry
• Sappho

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Age of Colonization

• ca. 750-650 B.C.
• Spain to Russia
• spread of Greek culture
• contact with foreign peoples

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Varieties of Constitutions

• Plato, Aristotle, Polybius
• based on observation of types in Greece
• monarchy (rule by one)
• aristocracy (rule by the best)
• constitutional government (rule by a body of law)
• tyranny (extra-legal rule by one man)
• oligarchy (rule by a faction)
• democracy (rule by the people, without law)

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Athens and Sparta

• both dominate the Greek world

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Sparta

• no colonization, conquest of neighbors
• constitution
• a perpetual military state
• all citizens are subordinated to the state
• no private property

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Rise of Tyrants

• many states moved from monarchy to tyranny
• rise of disenfranchised classes ?
• rise of a new military form
• the Hoplite soldier

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Greek Hoplites
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Athens

• evolution from monarchy to democracy
• aristocracy, with elected rulers

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Plan of Acropolis
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The Persian Wars, 490-479 B.C.

• Ionian Revolt
• invasion of Greece
• Marathon
• the defining moment for Western culture

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The Rise of Athens

• war of liberation and revenge against Persia
• transformation into the Athenian Empire
• burden of fighting Athens
• burden of cost the Allies

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The Peloponnesian War

• Sparta and her Allies
• Athens and her Allies
• devastated Classical Greece
• devastated both Sparta and Athens

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The Fourth Century

• power vacuums, struggle for hegemony
• military monarchies
• Thessaly
• Macedonia

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The Rise of Macedonia

• Alexander the Great (336 BC)
• the turning point of both Ancient and World
  history
• no Alexander, then its a very different world

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Conquests of Alexander

• the Persian Empire, plus a little extra
• rapid spread of Hellenism (Greek culture)
• the Successor Kingdoms
• establishment of a permanent link
• West to China

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The Empire of Alexander
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The Empire of Alexander
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Greek Culture and Civilization

• foundations of Western thought
• asked important philosophical questions for the
  first time
• gave the answers--that made sense--for the first
  time

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Greek Religion

• Homer
• polytheistic
• poly many
• theist god
• civic
• tolerant

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Greek Religion, cont

• fully humanized gods
• not concerned with morality
• no regular priests or clergy
• no church and state

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Philosophy

• some people were not satisfied by religion
• answers the Big Questions
• deals with areas not covered by religion

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Philosophy

• love of wisdom
• search for causes
• search for why things happen
• application of reason and demonstration
• critical thinking

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Socrates (496-399 B.C.)

• the turning point
• movement toward ethics and metaphysics (the
  nature of existence and truth)
• away from natural sciences
• What is necessary to live the virtuous life?
• Goodness innate in the human mind

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Plato (427-347 B.C.)

• taught in the dialogue form
• concerned with how one acquires knowledge
• chief concern ethics

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Aristotle (384-322)

• primary concern everything
• Created LOGIC
• organization of human knowledge
• division of learning into fields and subfields

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The Roman Empire defeated the Greeks in 146 B.C.
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Eurasian Trade
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The coming of the Barbarians
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Romes successors