the first humans emerged in
africa around 2 million years ago
paleolithic era
- hunters and gatherers
- early stone toles and uses of fire
neolithic revolution
- emergence of agriculture independently in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, and the Americas
- pastoralism (herding) and new technologies
first states in
egypt and mesopotamia
traits of early civilizations included
- new social hierarchies
- specialization of labor
- record keeping
- religion
- legal systems
development of what religions
judaism, hinduism, buddhism, confucianism, daoism, islam, zoroastrianism, and christianity
interregional exchange
- new technologies facilitated long distance exchange
- goods and culture were exchanged along these routes
major trade routes
silk roads, indian ocean, trans-saharan, mediterranean routes
agriculture meant stable food supply which led people to having
more children, population grew rapidly
hierarchy
societies were broken into groups of people distinguished by class
code of hammurabi
- legal code
- laid down clear lines for law breaking
- “an eye for an eye”
emergence of written language was originally purposed to
keep track of agricultural supply
formation of early empires
areas in close proximity especially those that held similar religious beliefs united to form empires
what would kings do to consolidate their power in early empires
they would claim divinity
importance of pastoralists
- people who’d still hunted and gathered
- by going to and from between major civilizations, they fostered important connections and cultural exchanges between empires
caste system
- all living things were ordered into a hierarchical structure
- a living being could move up or down the structure not in this life, but in a series of successive lives depending on their behavior
buddhism
- emerged from Hinduism
- taught reincarnation but different to hinduism
- “life is suffering, the reason we suffer is because we desire, to stop suffering we must kill desire” by living a life that follows a set of behaviors called the eightfold path
Confucianism
- teachings of confucius
- unified china after a period of turmoil known as the warring states period
- became the bedrock of chinese society
- hierarchical system: “if everybody in a society plays their particular role and plays it rightly, society will be at peace”
- ordering of human creations
Daoism
- emerges in East Asia
- people must look away from human creations and look to the order of nature for how to live
animism and shamanism
- africa and the americas
- taught that the natural world had spiritual power embedded in it
- shamans were the priestly folk that had access to control and direct that spiritual power
the Achaemenid Empire
- 550 to 330 BCE
- Persian Empire
- so large that the emperor used regional leaders called satraps to govern the affairs of diff districts
- produced elaborate highway systems to move armies quickly to distant parts
- overextended themselves and became vulnerable to attacks
alexander the great
- greek hero
- conquered the Achaemenid Empire
- a century later, the Parthian Empire rose and took back most of what was taken by alexander
Qin Dynasty
- emerged in 220 BCE after the warring states period
- mandate of heaven
- Qin Shi Huangdi: est. the philosophy of legalism
- didn’t last very long, ended in 206 BCE
Mandate of Heaven
the heaves would provide the people a leader who would rule them with justice, until the ruler started governing badly and they’d lose the mandate
