Indian Dynasties
Under the Maurya and Gupta dynasties, India developed
into a center of trade and had contacts with civilizations in Africa, the Middle East , Central and Southeast Asia.
The caste system, the village, and the family influenced
many aspects of Indian life( and still continue to influence Indian life today.
Brahmans = priests
Kshatriya = warriors, nobles
Vaishya = craftspeople &
merchants
Shudra = servants
The Maurya Empire
The Mauryanempires was founded by Chandragupta Maurya.
Maurya rulers created a strong central government.
These rulers:
supervised the building of roads and harbors.
collected taxes and managed state-owned factories.
created royal courts.
created a secret police force to report on corruption, crime,
and dissent, or opposing ideas.
trained warriors to guard the royal palace.
Asoka
Asoka (272 – 232) kept careful records of his edicts, making him the king for which the most is known.
He began an aggressive campaign to conquer the rest of the subcontinent.
Asoka became so troubled by massive bloodshed of his conquests, that he converted to Buddhism.
The spread of Buddhism under Asoka greatly influenced the religious history of Asia.
It also produced the first written literature in India
Kingdoms of the Deccan
People were Dravidians with different languages and traditions.
Each kingdom had its own capital and magnificent temples.
Rulers improved harbors to support overseas trade.
Merchants traded with the Roman Empire and China.
Women enjoyed high status and economic power.
Deccan writers left a rich and diverse literature.
Rulers were tolerant of all religions and foreign settlers
The Gupta Empire
The last of the Mauryan kings was assassinated in 184 B.C.
India again became a collection of unfederated kingdoms.
Chandragupta I (320-335) revived the empire in the north.
He revived many of Asoka’s principals of government.
Later, his grandson, Chandragupta II (376-415) extended the kingdom to an Chandragupta II empire.
Golden Age of the Guptas
LEARNING Scholars taught many subjects at Hindu and Buddhist schools.
MEDICINE:Doctors treated illnesses with herbs, performed surgery, set broken bones, and vaccinated against smallpox.
MATHEMATICS: Mathematicians invented the system of numbers we use today and developed decimal system and concept of zero.
ARCHITECTURE:Builders designed magnificent stone temples and dome shaped shrines called stupas.
CARVING & PAINTING: Artists painted murals, or wall paintings and created carvings telling the story of the life of the Buddha.
LITERATURE
Writers collected and recorded fables and folk tales. Kalidasa wrote classical plays.
The Caste System and Daily Life
Caste rules governed every aspect of life–where people lived, what they ate, how they dressed, and what work they did.
Life for the lowest ranking caste, the “Untouchables,” was harsh and restricted.
People knew that they could not change their status in this life. However, they believed that they could reach a higher state in a future life by fulfilling the duties of their present caste.
Each caste had its own leaders and its own occupation, and caste members cooperated to help one another.
Family Life
The ideal was the joint family, in which extended family all lived under one roof.
The family was patriarchal. The father or oldest male had absoluteauthority.
Family wishes came before individual wishes.
Early on, children learned family duties, such as obedience of caste
rules. This was called filial piety.
Parents had a duty to arrange good marriages for their children, based on caste and family interests.
The status and freedom of women decreased over time. A woman’s
duties were to marry, obey her husband, and raise children.
Suttee was the practice in which wives of prominent men who died, would throw themselves into the funeral pyre. If they failed to kill
themselves, they would be scorned
The Fall of the Gupta Empire, 550 C.E.
The Gupta Empire was invaded by the White Huns in the 5thcentury.
They held them off, but at a tremendous cost, whichweakened the state.
Taxes were insufficient to pay for adequate military defense.
Land divisions increased the power of provincial officials.
The empire finally fell to the Huns by the end of the 5thcentury.
Indian Religious Beliefs, Hinduism and Buddhism are two of the major religions in the world.
Hinduism grew out of many varied beliefs of different peoples who settled in India. It has many gods and goddesses and many forms of worship. Despite this diversity, all Hindus share certain basic beliefs:
All the universe is part of the unchanging,all-powerful spiritual force called brahman.
The ultimate goal of existence is to achieve moksha, or union with brahman.
To achieve moksha, people must free themselves from selfish desires.
One must obey the law of karma.
Reincarnation allows people to continue working toward moksha through several lifetimes
Indian Religious Beliefs
Siddhartha Gautama, a religious reformer, sought spiritual enlightenment.
His teachings gave rise to a new religion, Buddhism that spread through Southeast and East Asia.
The Teachings of Buddha
The Four Noble Truths:
1. Life is full of suffering.
2. The only cure for suffering is to follow the Eightfold Path, a middle road between a life devoted to pleasure and a life of harsh self-denial.
3. It is important to live a moral life.
4. Enlightenment is achieved through meditation.
The ultimate goal is nirvana, union with the universe and release from the cycle of rebirth.
The Early Greeks
Greek History
These periods of Greek history are important because they give you a reference for the rest of Greek history that we have talked about
Archaic Greece 3000-1600 BCE
Mycenaen Greece 1600-1200 BCE
Dark Ages 1200-800 BCE
Greek Renaissance 800-600 BCE
Classical or Hellenic Greece 600-323 BCE
Hellenistic Greece 323-31 BCE
The Minoans
Part of the archaic period of Greek history
Have long been seen as one of several peoples who helped to found the Greece that we are more familiar with
have been the subject of extensive archeological digs
The Minoans are also part of mythological tradition
The Minoans established a brilliant early civilization on the island of Crete.
The Minoans traded with Egypt and Mesopotamia. They acquired ideas and technology that they adapted to their own culture.
The Minoans helped to shape the first Greek civilization.
Theseus and the Minotaur
According to legend, King Minos ruled Athens and forced the Athenians to deliver seven youths and seven virgin maidens every nine years.
They became prey of the Minotaur in the labyrinth, and Athens escaped further sanctions through their obedience. The Minotaur was a terrible monster with the body of a man, and the head of a bull, born from the union of Pasiphae and the bull offered as a gift to Minos by Poseidon.
The sacrifices of the Athenians ended only when Theseus, son of Aegean ruler of Attica, traveled to Crete as part of the youths to be sacrificed, but once in the labyrinth he killed the Minotaur and managed to find his way out of the labyrinth with the aid of Ariadne, the daughter of Minos. Ariadne fell in love with Theseus as soon as he arrived, and gave him a ball of thread which he unraveled behind him as he walked through the labyrinthine corridors. Exiting then became a simple matter of following the thread backwards towards his freedom.
In a tragic turn of events, Theseus sailed back to Athens forgetting in his elation to replace the black sails with white ones as a signal of victory. His father Aegean who was watching for the returning ships from the Sounio rock saw the black sail, and in despair for what he thought was a failed mission that resulted to the death of his son, ended his life by jumping into the sea. The sea henceforth is named Aegean sea in his memory.
Classes 2 and 6 you exam goes to this point
Class 5 , you exam included the following
Minoan History
c. 3000 B.C., Crete was settled by a people from Asia Minor
By 2000 B.C. they lived in cities and traded with other nations in the Mediterranean.
They had a written hieroglyphic language that evolved into a linear form. §
They built magnificent palace centers at Knossos, Phaistros, and, Kato Zakros.
Their government system was ruled by priests and consisted of bureaucratic monarchies, who served as “chief entrepreneurs” or CEOs
They built large navies of armored merchant ships and traded throughout Asia Minor and Egypt.
They had large multi-room homes – even the peasants. § They are the first civilization that appears to have “leisure time”
The decline of the Minoans
The concentration of wealth produced a society with social equality, which was unknown in the in ancient world.
No gender inequality seems to have existed.
Palaces had no defensive works, throughout much of their history.
Their concentration of economic resources on mercantilism and their generous distribution of wealth among their people may have led to their downfall.
Earthquakes and volcanoes weakened their cities. Eventually the Minoans were conquered by the Mycenaens
As historians, we are still trying to figure out exactly what happened to the Minoans, we are also still trying to figure out why there was a decline in Minoan civilization
Women in Minoan Civilization
Crete was a class-based society with little inequality.
Women played an important role in city public life, serving as priestesses, functionaries, & administrators.
They participated in all the sports men did, including bull-jumping.
They also participated in every occupation & trade available to men, including skilled crafts, entrepreneurs, bureaucracy, priesthood.
The Mycenaens
Are another of the founding civilizations for Greece
Like with the Minoans the Mycenaens have been the source of much historical, mythological and archeological curiosity
Archeologists have searched for years to the site of ancient Troy
The Mycenaens conquered the Greek mainland and Crete.
Mycenaen civilization dominated the Aegean from about 1400 B.C. to 1200 B.C.
They traded with Sicily, Italy, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.
Mycenaens absorbed Egyptian and Mesopotamian influences and passed them on to later Greeks.
Differences between the early Greeks
Most of what we know about this culture comes from Homer’s epics.
The archeological sites at Troy and Mycenae indicate a strong influence on their culture from the Minoans.
There were differences. The government consisted of monarchs who ruled over large administrations.
Mycenean kings accumulated vast wealth, but it was not shared by the rest of society.
Mycenean kings were warlords, constantly ready for battle or invasion.
Cities had heavy defenses.
Mycenean Religion
Early Myceneans had a sky-god, who would become Zeus.
Later, they adopted the Minoan goddesses. Particularly the snake goddess
Offerings and sacrifices were made to the gods, and may have involved human sacrifices.
The Greek Dark Ages
Between 1200 and 1100 BC populations in cities dwindled & they could no longer support artisans and craftsmen.
Writing was abandoned leaving no history to explain it the 500 years of mystery.
Greeks returned to an agricultural or nomadic life in small tribal groups.
Many Greeks took to the sea and migrated to the islands of the Aegean.
Dorians, invaders from the north, soon followed bringing new weapons and tools.
Greek Civilization
Ancient Greece
- Greece is part of the Balkan Peninsula. Mountains divide the peninsula into isolated valleys.
- Off the Greek mainland are hundreds of small islands.
- The geography of the region prevented the Greeks from creating a large, united empire.
- Instead, they built many small city-states, cut off from one another by mountains or water.
- The seas linked the Greeks to the outside world. The Greeks became skilled sailors, traveling and trading all over the Mediterranean.
The development of the City States
- The Greeks developed an alphabet based on the Phoenician’s that became the basis for all western alphabets.
- Between 750 B.C. and 500 B.C., the Greeks evolved different forms of government.
- At first, the ruler was a king, who exercised central power, or a monarchy.
- Slowly, power shifted to a class of noble landowners, who defended the king, but in time, they won power for themselves, creating an aristocracy.
- As trade expanded, a new class of wealthy merchants, farmers, and artisans came to dominate some city-states, creating an oligarchy
Athens
- Society grew into a limited democracy, or government by the people.
- Only free, native-born, landowning men could be citizens.
- Male citizens over age 30 were members of the assembly.
- Rulers encouraged trade with other city-states.
- Women were considered inferior.
- Boys received education in many areas, not just military training.
Sparta
• Rulers were two kings and a council of elders.
• Rulers formed a military society.
• Conquered people were turned into slaves, called helots.
• Rulers forbade trade and travel.
• Male, native-born Spartans over age 30 were citizens.
• All boys received military training.
• Girls were raised to produce healthy sons for the army.
• Women had the right to inherit property