1491

I. Native American Civilizations

A. Production of the Surplus


1. Maize--developed from a wild grass called teosinte, which produces a very small ear (smaller than the so-called “baby corn” sometimes served in some Chinese restaurants and in canned chow mein)--except no one eats teosinte because it takes more energy to harvest than it produces in grain. Early natives in the Valley of Mexico genetically modified the plant (it will not grow by itself past a couple of generations)



a.)Once invented, maize cultivation spread mainly northward from the Valley of Mexico, although the fact that it had to also be adopted to the shorter growing seasons north of the Ohio River slowed its spread.


b.) Introduction of maize cultivation allowed native peoples like the Mound Builders to flourish, and eventually many native peoples became semi-sedentary; i.e., while still relying on hunting to provide a source of protein, hunting game became a secondary food source, and people chose to remain relatively close to their crops to cultivate their main source of food.

c.) Cultivation dilemma partially solved by the adaptation of gender-specific roles (males hunted, females cultivated and gathered additional food); native peoples also eventually developed methods that minimized the labor necessary to grow the “three sisters.”






Olmec Civilization--the first great civilization of the Americas (that archeologists know about, anyway).
1. Located in the narrow “waist” of Mexico, recognizable civilization by about 1800 BCE.




2.Lived in towns and cities centered on temple mounds that they built. Created large stone heads with helmets, many over six feet tall, that are vaguely African in appearence and have sparked speculations that African peoples may have made contact with them.



3.Olmec practiced human sacrifice (as did the God of Abraham)

4.Intellectual feats--invented a dozen different systems of writing, tracked the orbits of planets, created a 365-day calendar (much more accurate than any used in Europe to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar), and wrote down their histories in accordian-folded books made of fig tree bark. Olmec scholars also invented the concept of zero, which didn’t appear in Europe until the 12th century (1100s)



General Point--the limitations of native civilizations--and civilizations in general--were largely a factor of their environment. For example, natives in Mesoamerica did not use wheels on carts--even though they had invented one and used it on all sorts of children’s toys--because they had no animals large enough to pull such carts, and it was just as effective for humans to use slides and log rolls.

II. Mesoamerican civilizations.




A. Mayan civilization--succeeded the Olmecs, centered in the Yucatan peninsula. Built huge temples and pyramids.

1. City of Kaan--the discovery of the City of the Snake, which covered as much as 25 miles and contained thousands of buildings, alterred the perception of Mayan civilization.

a.) By the year 2000, archeologists uncovered evidence that Kaan was involved in a devastating war that lasted more than a century, and which contributed to its downfall.



2. Mayan civilization was one of the world’s most intellectually sophisticated cultures; developed written language, science, math (invention of zero).

3. Mayans inhabited land that was poorly suited to intensive agriculture, but at the height of their civilization supported a population of upwards of a million people.

a.) Prolonged drought and war decimated the population; archeologists discovered that at the end, priest were inscribing gibberish on stone tablets--they appeared to have lost knowledge of literacy, but still attempted to follow their cultural function.



B. Toltec civilization--occupied the mile-high basin that Mexico City not sits on; their military expertise allowed them to defeat and subjugate most of their enemies.

1. Internal strife--including allegations of drunkeness and incest--led to the king leaving with a few followers, promising to return. He appears to have set up shop instead in the weakened Mayan sphere, and established a semi-Toltec fiefdom. But his promise to return was portentous for the Aztec civilization that followed.



C. Mississippian civilization--natives that lived in the fertile bottom land along the Mississippi River, near present-day St. Louis, established Cahokia about 1000 CE.



1. Cahokia at its apex supported upwards of 15,000 to 60,000 people. By c. 1400 CE, workers at the settlement had denuded the immediate area of trees for various building projects, which removed the means of preventing erosion during sometimes severe midwestern thunderstorms. Flooding and erosion during critical growing times meant the loss of the maize crop, and led to the destruction of the civilization

2. While at its apex, Cahokia was a major trade center, a place of exchange between the plains and the woodlands with the gulf coast--and even beyond, into present-day Mexico.

3. Was Cahokia a civilization?--Cahokia was not filled with tradesmen, as we usually picture a city being; however, being the first city-like entity north of the Rio Grande River, they had no idea of what a city was.





D. Aztec civilization--what we usually call Aztec is actually an alliance of three native peoples living in city-states around a large lake that was near present-day Mexico City, known as the Triple Alliance. Although this implies an equal share of the rule, in fact it was a very unequal partnership. The rulers in Tlacopan received one-fifth of the tribute, those in Nezahialcoyot received two-fifths, and the Mexica of Tenochtitlan received two-fifths.




1. Mexica people--arrived in the Valley of Mexico in the 12th century (1100s), and served as vassals of the people already living there. Feeling ill-treated, they made alliances with the aforementioned two other groups, and were able to overcome the Toltecs.

2. Usual practice of conquerers in the Valley of Mexico was to destroy the history of the conquered people; the Mexica went a step further and destroyed their own history so that they could re-invent themselves as a people of destiny.


3. Tlacaclel--when the Aztecs came to power, Tlacaclel believed the Mexica were destined for greatness, and was the principle developer of the ideology that the Mexica were responsible for maintaining order in the cosmos (meaning the daily rising of the sun)--but that this order could only be maintained by ritual human sacrifice.

4. Warfare--was the means of maintaining a steady flow of sacrificial victims. Mexica military technique was the mano a mano face-off, and the victims were usually beaten into submission--then taken into the victor’s home, and treated like family until sacrifice time. Warfare for native peoples was a means of displaying manhood, rather than killing one’s enemies.



5. Tenochtlitan, the capital of the Mexica, was far cleaner than its European counterparts--and far larger, as well; it probably was home to over 100,000 people by 1520. It had a large workforce to remove garbage, etc., and a sewer system to remove human waste (in Europe, they simply threw it into the streets, where it mixed with animal waste and garbage). But this system was teetering on the brink of collapse even before the Spanish showed up.

6.Vassal states--the ruling hand of Aztecs was rather heavy, with tribute and the constant threat of warfare to gain sacrificial victims, so when someone showed up promising to upset the balance of power, their were plenty of eager allies.



E. Inka civilization


1. The Inka Empire--was the largest empire in the world during its time, stretching nearly the entire west coast of South America; much of the empire was contained within the Andes Mountains, at heights were sustaining civilization is very difficult.

2. Inka reign--lasted just over one hundred years before its demise at the hands of Francisco Pizzaro; but as we shall see, like his cousin Cortez, he lucked into attacking an empire that was suffering from internal difficulties that contributed to its downfall.



3. Rise of the Inka--Inka was the name for the people, as well as incorporated into the name of the ruler.

a.) Originated near Lake Titicaca, in the Andes along the border of present-day Peru and Bolivia. Move then to area near Cusco (or Qosqo)


b.)Inka made enemies of the Chanka people, were suppose to be led into battle by Wiraqocha Inka and his designated heir (the Inka named their successors), Inka Urqon. The fled the Chanka, however, and the Inkas were led into battle by the youngest son, Inka Cusi Yupaki, who led them to victory. After being tipped off to his father’s plans to have him murdered, Yupaki foiled the plot, and his humiliated father fled. Yupaki then renamed himself Pachakuti (“Worldshaker”) in Runa Sumi, the Inkan language.


c.) The Hegemonic Empire--Pachakuti formed his empire largely by persuading other peoples to adopt Inka ways of life and Inka protections; then co-opting local rulers to do his bidding.


d.) Succession problems--naming the successor worked as long as it was a decisive decision--and the person named outlived the Inka. By the early 1500s, to successive ascensions to the throne were contested, setting off small civil wars in Inkan society; the second was only resolved just before the appearance of Pizzaro.

1421

The following are a series of embedded video from YouTube of the video shown in class, 1421

Episode 1:


Episode 2:


Episode 3:


Episode 4:


Episode 5:


Episode 6:

Early History of Africa

I. Africa

A. Production of the surplus--throughout the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, Europeans argued that Africans were “a people without a history”--or, at least a history that did not involve their dominance by Europeans.


1. West Africans--developed metalworking capabilities around 1000 BCE, about the same time as Eurasia--but independently of Eurasia, because they used significantly different techniques.

2. Agriculture--Sub-Saharan Africa domesticated different plants than Eurasia, because the plants that grow naturally through much of Eurasia will no grow in tropical or sub-tropical climates.


3. Trade--the creation of the surplus gave sub-Saharan Africans the opportunity to develop trade networks on the eastern coast of the continent--and connected them to traders from the Arabian Peninsula, India, and even the Far East.

a. The Slave Trade--from very early times, Africans provided other African people to slave traders. The early slave trade took place with Arab traders, who then transported the enslaved across the Sahara and sold them in slave markets in Middle East and Southern Asia--in relatively small numbers.

b. Early Plantation Slavery--also from early times, African slaves provided the labor on sugar plantations on some Mediterranean islands to cultivate sugar cane. As sugar cane cultivation moved out of the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic Ocean, slave traders and plantation owners thought nothing of transporting African slaves to these new centers of sugar can cultivation.




B. Climatic Differences

1. Eurasia v. Africa--the east-west orientation of the Eurasian land mass meant that people on the continent shared many food-raising techniques; Africa, because of its north-south orientation, did not share this advantage.

2. The Latitudinal Disadvantage--this north-south orientation of the continent means that many of the food crops grown domesticated in the Fertile Crescent did not become known in southern Africa until European contact


3. The Sahara--the northernmost portions of the continent of Africa are orientated toward the Mediterranean Sea, and share the foodstuffs and cultural practices of that region. Separating this fertile region from the rest of the continent is a huge swath of desert--the Sahara. Again, this inhibited the spread of Euro-Asian foodstuffs into regions on the continent where they could have grown


4.Equatorial jungles--another large part of the continent of Africa lies within dense equatorial jungles; while these areas are a rich source of plant foodstuffs for the peoples living within, again, most of these plants are not those first domesticated within the Fertile Crescent.


a. Domesticated animals--Equatorial jungles are also not conducive to raising domesticated animals--particularly cattle, which are a ready source of protein and clothing for those Africans residing just south of the Sahara--when they were able to import them. Again, those Africans living south of the tropic belt were not introduced to cattle until European contact

The Islamic Revolution

We Remember

Manhattan, September 11, 2001, approximately 9:00am







I. The Arabian Peninsula

A. Nomadic pastoralists--domesticated camels about 1000BCE, but lived by herding livestock from oasis to oasis across the peninsula.



1. Social Organization by clan--no real state at this time, obligations instead due to clan; social disruptions (murder, theft, etc.) seen as an insult to one’s clan, had to be avenged through retaliation and blood feuds.

2. Religious beliefs--prayed to a variety of local or clan deities, which they carried with them from place to place--like the Ark of the Covenant.

3. Sedentary groups--besides the nomads, the peninsula also contained more sedentary groups, who lived with there herds near the oasises. Some of these areas grew into towns and cities, reliant upon trade and some small manufacturing



B. Mecca--at the southern edge of the peninsula was the trading city of Mecca

1. Nomadic values of clan allegiance did not translate well with the emerging trading cities of the Arabian Peninsula. many of the people of these cities had already converted to some variety of Judaism or Christianity.

2. Towns like Mecca became centers for religious ferment as different theological philosophies vied for allegiances, which created a state of flux in these settlements.

3. This conflict was exacerbated by the deteriorating political situations in both Persia and Byzantium (the Eastern Roman Empire), which added to the sense of conflict.


C. Mohammed the Prophet--an orphan, formerly a member of one of the lesser trading families in Mecca

1. Visions from Allah--which he dictated to others to develop the Koran (Q’ran).

2. Mohammed’s visions were undoubtedly shaped by the religious ferment of his hometown, and by his exposure to the various religious practices there.

D. Shared religious tenets (practices and beliefs)--the message that Mohammed preached had many commonalities with Judaism and Christianity.

1. One single god (Allah)

2. Universal obligations to all fellow believers substituted for those owed to one’s tribe or clan

3. Appealed to the poor by providing protection against arbitrary oppression, but did not spurn rich as long as they practiced charity toward the poor.

4. Some appeal to women; although Mohammed still preached inferiority of women to men, it also demanded that men respect rather than mistreat women.

E. Political program--Islam had more of a political agenda than did either
Judaism or Christianity. Mohammed called for reforming society, replacing “barbarism” of competition, often armed, between tribes and ruling families, with an ordered umma community ruled under a single written code of laws.

1. Political program but Mohammed and his followers came into conflict with the ruling families in Mecca, and he and his followers were banned to Medina

2. Mohammed returned to Mecca in 630 and captured the city.

a) Mohammed’s success lay in not only his ability to attract a number of young men with religious fervor, but also in striking alliances with other groups who wanted to throw off their oppressors--or just get a cut of the loot.

3. Mohammed died in 632 CE, but his caliphs Abu Baku and Umar retained Mohammed’s allies, and re-directed their energies toward Damascus, the Persian capital of Ctesiphon, the Egypt city called Babylon (now a part of Cairo), and Alexandria, all of which Muslim invaders captured between 636 and 642 CE.

a) This demonstrates not only the tremendous mobility of Muslim forces, but also the immense unpopularity of the remaining “Roman” rulers in these cities.

b) The Muslims ruled with a relatively light hand at first, leaving peasants their land and only demanding a relatively light tax to be paid as tribute, while confiscating state lands and those belonging to nobles who continued to resist them.

c) Religious tolerance--like the Romans, Muslim rule was marked by tolerance of other religious practices--particularly for other “people of the book,” Jews and Christians.

F. Muslim dissent

1. Shi’atu Ali--the party of Ali, or just Shi’a. After Mohammed’s death, a power struggle ensued for control of his legacy. The caliph Umar was murdered in 644, and power shifted to Uthman, and early supporter of Mohammed, but also a member of a powerful Mecca merchant family; his rule was greatly resented by a number of believers, who believed Uthman represented many things that Mohammed had opposed--and resulted in his murder in 656. Power was then bestowed upon Mohammed’s cousin and son-in-law, Ali, who was murdered by some of his followers, known as Khariyites, who objected to Ali’s attempts to reconcile with the sect’s enemies. In his place a cousin of Uthman assumed power, and established the Umayyad dynasty.

a) The Umayyad’s were, of course, illegitimate in the eyes of many, and this further split the Islamic movement.

2. Rise of the Abbasids--Abu I Abbas was able to exploit this disenchantment with the Umayyad line to foster the ascent of his family to a position of power.

a) Reformed the movement to provide non-Arabs the same treatment as Arabs, and opened the way for more than a century of economic advancement.


b) Baghdad became the center of learning (from about 800 CE), where knowledge from other civilizations--Greek, Roman, Indian, Chinese--was translated into Arabic

c) The economic growth also fostered by the geography of Baghdad, which is located in the heart of Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates Rives (making producing a surplus easier, and therefore fostering its growth as an urban area), plus the fact that it lied along a major overland trading route between east and west.

d) Era of relative peace--although a number of European peoples would dispute this assessment, the Abbasid period ushered in a period of relative peace--or, at least, internal peace within the movement. Muslim forces did move into the Iberian Peninsula, eventually controlling the entire area except for the northwestern corner, which remained under Christian control, from 711 CE. After that period until the beginning of the Crusades, Islam and Christian forces remained at peace. Europe entered the so-called “Dark Ages,” and had little of value for Muslims to lust after; Europe, for the most part, was a cultural backwater during this period.


G. Center of Learning--after the fall of Rome, European elites largely concentrated upon consolidating their political power within their particular fiefdoms. Muslim leaders, on the other hand, were commissioning scholars to translate ancient works into Arabic, as well as consolidating the knowledge the Arabs themselves had already gained.

1. Did the Irish Save Civilization? Or Did Islam?

2. Sharia law--certainly has a bad connotation today, but when it was formulated it reflected the values of traders, merchants, and artisans, whom it protected from arbitrary rule by elites.

H. Decline of Islam

1. Lack of technological advancements--while trade expanded (benefiting merchants), after the initial infrastructure improvements were made in the countryside, the infrastructure was ignored by ruling elites in favor of ever more opulent palaces and monuments to themselves.

a) Local officials began enriching themselves more with bribes and diverting a larger portion of state revenues to themselves.

b) decreasing productivity on farms; increased salinity of the soil due to irrigation.

2. Economic decline--Political instability--Further Economic Decline: as tax revenue fell, the imperial court increasingly attempted to finance itself at the expense of merchants, and gave governors the responsibility for finances; the governors used this power to further line their pockets.

3. 11th Century (1000 CE)--the empire had largely fallen apart; Muslims remained in power in some places for another 500 years or so (Iberia), and some places continued to flourish (Egypt, Selukman Turkey), but the creative synergy that had characterized Islam was gone.




II. Africa

A. Production of the surplus--throughout the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, Europeans argued that Africans were “a people without a history”--or, at least a history that did not involve their dominance by Europeans.

1. West Africans--developed metalworking capabilities around 1000 BCE, about the same time as Eurasia--but independently of Eurasia, because they used significantly different techniques.

2. Agriculture--Sub-Saharan Africa domesticated different plants than Eurasia, because the plants that grow naturally through much of Eurasia will no grow in tropical or sub-tropical climates.

3. Trade--the creation of the surplus gave sub-Saharan Africans the opportunity to develop trade networks on the eastern coast of the continent--and connected them to traders from the Arabian Peninsula, India, and even the Far East.




B. Climatic Differences

1. Eurasia v. Africa--the east-west orientation of the Eurasian land mass meant that people on the continent shared many food-raising techniques; Africa, because of its north-south orientation, did not share this advantage.

Christianity and the Fall of the Roman Empire

A. Roman Empire



1. Wars of conquest--The Roman practice of expropriating land from conquered peoples initially kept the plebians who did most of the fighting content, since they shared in a portion of the spoils of war. As time wore on, however, plebians received less and less land, while land prices in these conquered areas increased, causing them to go into debt and often lose the land they previously had received.

2. Slavery--became increasingly important to the ruling elite, who used slaves on the land they acquired to produce the surplus that provided them with the patrician lifestyle.

a) By the 1st century BCE there were more than 2 million slaves out of a population of 5.25 million people in the empire (or nearly 40% of the population)

b) Slavery led to the gradual impoverishment of free labor in Rome; the free populations stagnated, and many poor parents abandoned their children that they could no longer afford; these children often ended up being sold in slave markets.

C. Fall of the Roman Empire--according to the English historian Edward Gibbon, the fall of the empire was caused by its adoption of Christianity; the real cause was the internal difficulties caused by the reliance on slavery to produce a surplus (undermining the living that peasants could make from the land, and increasing the disparity in wealth distribution), while the costs of maintaining the empire were rising due to the necessity of a mercenary army and paying bribes to the “barbarians” to keep them pacified.

1. Mercenary Army--as slavery impoverished the plebian class (driving down wages and the capability of plebians to retain their land), plebians became less likely to serve in the army, and the population of plebians stagnated, so there were fewer of the to serve, anyway); this necessitate hiring mercenaries in ever greater numbers.

2. Empire’s main source of income--was from agriculture. Although the ruling class and its civilization was based in cities, the economy was based almost entirely upon rural agriculture, and most of the population was made up of peasants--and the income of the ruling class depended almost entirely upon rents collected from these peasants.


3. Trade--consisted largely of luxury goods consumed by the ruling elite. The vaunted infrastructure of roads and aqueducts was used to support the army, rather than to transport goods, which stifled trade (the cost to move a ton of wheat 300 miles, for example, doubled its price).

4. Cities--were largely parasites on the countryside, rather than a source of innovation--technology was not created in Roman cities and then moved out into the countryside.

5. Expenses of slavey--as Rome conquered all the areas that it could reasonably hope to administer, the sources for new slaves dried up and purchasing slaves became more expensive.

6. Rents--became a heavier burden for peasants; peasants were expected to pay taxes to both the imperial government and local officials. This burden grew at the imperial level from about 10% to more than 33%--and they still had to pay local taxes.


D. Western and Eastern Empires--in response to these increasing pressures, in 330 CE the emperor Constantine moved the capital of the empire east to the Straits of Bosporus; ruling the western part of the empire from this vantage point, and the empire was split into two halves


1. Barbarian invasions--in the west, “barbarians” proved to be a threat to retaining control of the empire. They were temporarily bought off with bribes (after one group was successful in sacking Rome), but eventually they decided to exercise control over their areas themselves.

2. Mercenary armies--with no reason to have any allegiance to Rome itself, mercenaries were used by ambitious commanders to sack and pillage the very areas they were suppose to be protecting.

II. Rise of Christianity

A. Monotheism--the belief that one supreme being is responsible for the creation of mankind. Judaism and its offspring, Christianity, are but two varieties of monotheism that began in the Middle East.


1. Zoroasterism--founded by Persian man named Zoroaster. Zoroasterism is thought to be the oldest “revealed” religion (that is, a supreme being appeared before Zoroaster and told him to found religion). Zoroaster lived between 1500 and 1000BCE, it is though

a) It is also thought that the other regional monotheistic religions borrowed heavily from Zoroasterism, including the concept of God and Satan, virgin birth, messiah (christos, in Greek)

B. Judaism--if Genesis is to be believed, god revealed himself to Abraham. God is named Jehovah or Yaweh. Judaism developed a number of practices that set them apart from their neighbors, particularly in regard to diet (the various kosher prohibitions against consuming pork, shellfish, mixing preparation areas for meat and dairy products, etc.) and the bris milah, or male circumcision. While Jewish theology proved somewhat attractive to religious converts, the dietary restrictions and the circumcision requirement inhibited its popularity.

C. Christianity--or Judaism lite; similar theology with fewer dietary restrictions and no circumcision requirement helped it become more popular than Judaism.

1. The Messiah--a number of men within a couple of hundred years either side of the supposed time of Jesus called themselves the Messiah (Christos, the Christ); some even led rebellions against the Romans and ruling class Jews like Herod.

2. The Jewish Connection--Christianity borrowed heavily from Judaism, and lays claim to its inheritance (Jesus, Christians claim, is the Messiah that the Jews were awaiting), and spread earliest among the Jewish diaspora.


3. Persecution of Christians--while early Christians were sometimes persecuted, that persecution was not systematic; Roman’s tended to tolerate different religious practices, as long as the religion and its belief system did not constitute a threat to Roman political control.

4. Constantius--this emperor’s deathbed conversion--after a lifetime of debauchery and sinful pleasure--ensured that Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.



a) Son Constantine moved seat of government east to a city he had build, which he humbly named Constantinople; eventually the Empire split in two, and then slowly disintegrated.


b) Rome remained the location of the Bishop of Rome, who claimed descent from the first of Jesus disciples, Peter, the “rock” of the church--and therefore, supremacy in religious matters--but whose alleged supremacy was ignored by the bishops of churches in the east.

Greece, Rome, and Western Civilization

I. Greek City States

A. Emergence--many of the same forces that aided the emergence of a new civilization in Greece were similar to those forces that helped to create new civilizations in northern India and China--diffusion of new techniques in iron working and agriculture, the growth of trade, the growth of craft skills, and the development of an alphabet

B. Barrenness of land--in contrast to the development of other civilizations, however, Greece offered little in the way of agriculture--which led Greeks to “colonize” other lands.

1. Contact with Phoenician traders--who were widely travelled within the Mediterranean, and who exposed the Greeks to a wider diffusion of knowledge and techniques

2. Dispersal of Greeks--as mercenaries and exiles also led to the collection of disparate knowledge in Greece.


C. Importance of slavery--unlike other great civilizations, the creation of the surplus in Greece was largely reliant upon the use of slaves.

1. Slavery existed before civilization, but was used largely to supplement other labor, or to provide personal service to the ruling elites; agricultural work and artisnal crafts were left to the free and semi-free citizens

2. Slaves were usually non-Greeks seized as prizes of war. Their polyglot origins kept plotting among slaves at a minimum.



3. Spartan exception--there were no slaves in Sparta (located on the most fertile plain in Greece), although the ruling class lived off the tribute from “Helot” cultivators--and the ruling class emphasized austerity to minimize stress in the society.

4. Why no slave revolts?—Greeks obtained slaves as spoils of war, from much of the Mediterranean basin. Often, the only common language these slaves shared was the Greek of their captors. While slaves performed much of the agricultural work that provided the food surplus—and the ability for the Greeks to spend time on philosophy and mathematics.

D. Gifts of the Surplus--without slaves to produce the surplus, their would be little of what we think of as the flowering of Greek civilization.

1. Aristotle and Polybus spoke to the “necessity” of slavery

2. Democracy--most Greek city-states were ruled by oligarchies, who taxed those under them for state expenditures that benefited mainly themselves. This created pressure from below to reform government; in Athens, this led to “democracy” (rule by the people) for male citizens--excluding women and slaves.

a) This in turn led to reaction from the economic elites, who accused those politicians who saw themselves as representing the non-elites of “demagoguery” and “rule by mob,” and often looked to forces outside Athens to help them overthrow democratic forces.

3. Advances in science, math, philosophy.



II. Roman Empire--Rome largely appropriated most of their cultural and political institutions from the Greeks; Rome’s innovations lie in administering a huge empire and in feats of civil engineering (roads and aqueducts). The Romans, however, did little to advance the knowledge that they appropriated from other peoples.

A. Roman Republic--after defeating the Etruscans in the 6th century BCE, Rome established a republic, and used the infantry conscripted (drafted) from the independent peasantry to fight wars of conquest to bring other settlements into the Roman sphere of influence.

1. Patrician control--this Roman Republic was not a true republic, in that not all people were represented in the political institutions, which were controlled by a few patrician families.

2. Patrician greed--as commanders of the Roman Legion, patricians took the lion’s share of conquered land.

3. Plebian resistance--patrician greed fed resistance to their rule by the lower sort, or “plebians,” but with relatively minor changes (allowing a few select plebians the right to hold political office) the patrician families were able to retain control of the government.



B. Roman Empire

1. Wars of conquest--The Roman practice of expropriating land from conquered peoples initially kept the plebians who did most of the fighting content, since they shared in a portion of the spoils of war. As time wore on, however, plebians received less and less land, while land prices in these conquered areas increased, causing them to go into debt and often lose the land they previously had received.


2. Slavery--became increasingly important to the ruling elite, who used slaves on the land they acquired to produce the surplus that provided them with the patrician lifestyle.

a) By the 1st century BCE there were more than 2 million slaves out of a population of 5.25 million people in the empire (or nearly 40% of the population)

b) Slavery led to the gradual impoverishment of free labor in Rome; the free populations stagnated, and many poor parents abandoned their children that they could no longer afford; these children often ended up being sold in slave markets.

Maps, Time, and World History

Use this link to go to the Bridging World History website. From that page, at the lower left-hand corner, you will find the link to the video. It may take more than one attempt to get the video up and running--the website seems not to be running at optimal capacity.