1. Unit 2: Classic Civilizations 600 BCE - 600 CE
Ted Walker, Spencer Buted, Leanne Sigman

2. Qin China 221 - 206 BCE (only 15 years!) Founder = Qin Shi Huangdi
Legalism
Centralized
Unified China
Started Great Wall

3. Han Dynasty 206 BCE - 220 BCE Golden Age!!!!! Emperor Wu
Centralize and Expand
Silk Roads
Coins, paper, clocks, seismographs
Capital = Chang’an (size of Rome)
Educated Bureaucracy

4. Japan
Isolated - yet influence from China on writing, bureaucracy, artistic expression, Buddhism, and Confucianism
Buddhism blends with Shinto

5. Mediterranean 740 - 146 BCE Phoenician Maritime Trading Culture
Alphabet
City States
Greek/Hellenistic
Foundation of the West
Architecture, Politics, Democracy, Philosophy, Drama, Math
Greco-Persian Wars
Peloponnesian Wars - weaken city states
Conquered by Alexander the Great

6. Persia 550 - 331 BCE Achaemenid dynasty founded by Cyrus
Conquered Lydians
Provincial gov’t: divided empire into 20 regions and authority given to officials called satraps
Darius the Great ( BCE) expanded empire from Turkey and Libya to India - largest empire at this point
Patriarchal
Collapsed to Hellenistic conquerer Alexander the Great
Then Sassinid Empire (rival of Rome and Byzantine)

7. Rome
509 BCE CE
Monarchy - Romulus = founder and 1 out of 7 kings
Republic - senate overthrew monarchy
Empire - established by Augustus 27 BCE
Paterfamilias - male control in household
Upper class women had more power than in Greece
Slave labor
Plebian and Patrician classes
Eastern Roman empire became Byzantine (in 330) b/c of external threats, lack of unity,
Western collapse in 476

8. Mauryan Empire Chandragupta = founder
Emperor Ashoka seen as greatest and converted to Buddhism (Buddhist empire too)
Bureaucracy w/ tax on agricultural production
based on military conquest
encouraged trade with China
attacks from outside enemies

9. Gupta Empire
Hindu
smaller, less centralized; focused on diplomacy to maintain authority
created decimal system
more patriarchal
status of women declined
attacked by White Huns

10. Ghana Senegal River gold and salt trade and other great resources
berbers, camels - spread of Islam
well trained army
King collects taxes, owned all gold
Civil War = decline

11. Mali
Defeated Ghana
Atlantic coast to Timbuktu - learning center, large city
wealth from salt and gold trade
each village had own ruler (still paid taxes to king)
Mansa Musa - centralized gov’t, kingdom w/ provinces

12. Songhai Niger River Valley Islamic Benefitted from Muslim trade routes
Timbuktu and Djenne
professional army, yet overthrown by north African armies

13. Technology Coins - Persia “Arabic” numerals - South Asia
Phoenician alphabet
Compass, paper, porcelain, canals, horse collar, stirrup - China
Astrolabe, lateen sail, concrete - China/Southwest Asia

14. Downfalls Attacks from Huns Deterioration of political institutes
Protection of borders = bad
Diseases following trade routes

15. Common Features
Patriarchal family structure - male authority in family and other areas
Agricultural based economy - even with complex job specialization
Complex governments - new ways to keep large lands together politically
Expanding trade base - The Silk Roads, Indian Ocean, Trans-Sahara, Sub-Saharan