Classical Trade Patterns and Contacts

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Classical Trade Patterns and Contacts

• Plus the Fall of the Classical Empires

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Classical Trade Patterns and Contacts

• An important change in world history during the
  Classical period was the expansion of trade
  networks and communications among the major
  civilizations.
• These trade networks were often controlled by
  nomads who lived in the vast expanses between
  civilizations or on their outskirts.

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Classical Trade Patterns and Contacts

• As a result of these growing networks, more areas
  of the world were interacting and becoming
  increasingly dependent on one another.
• Three large trade networks developed between 300
  BCE and 600 CE the Silk Road, the Indian Ocean
  trade, and the Saharan trade.

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The Silk Road

• The Silk Road
• This fabled trade route extended from Xian in
  China to the eastern Mediterranean.
• It began in the late 2nd century BCE when a
  Chinese general (Zhang Jian) was exploring the
  Tarim Basin in central Asia and discovered
  heavenly horses that were superior to any bred
  in China.

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The Silk Road

• This breed of horse was considered so superior
  that they caused a war (the first known war
  fought over horses).
• A Han Chinese army traveled over 6,000 miles to
  bring these horses back for the emperor (Wu Di).
• Today they are known as the Akhal teke, and they
  are still bred by Central-Asian nomads.

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The Silk Road

• The Heavenly Horses of the Tarim Basin

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The Silk Road
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The Silk Road

• Over 6,000 years ago silk was a valued fiber for
  fabric. 
• For many centuries, silk fabric was reserved
  exclusively for the emperor and his royal
  family. 
• Gradually silk became available for general use. 
  
• Farmers paid their taxes in grain and silk.

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The Silk Road

• In addition to clothing, silk was used for
  musical thread, fishing line, bowstrings and
  paper. 
• Eventually it became one of the main elements of
  the Chinese economy. 

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The Silk Road

• Silk farmers raise silkworms, which take about
  3-4 weeks to spin a cocoon. 
• Then the cocoons are carefully unwound to a
  length up to 3,000 ft long. 
• It takes several hundred cocoons to make a single
  shirt or blouse. 

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The Silk Road

• The shimmering appearance of silk is due to the
  triangular prism-like structure of the silk
  fiber, which allows silk cloth to refract
  incoming light at different angles, which
  produces different colors.

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The Silk Road

• Emperor Wu Di of the Han Dynasty decided to
  develop trade with countries to the west, and the
  building of a road across Asia was his main
  legacy. 
• It took nearly sixty years of war and
  construction.

13
The Silk Road

• Individual merchants rarely traveled from one end
  to the other (about 5,000 miles) instead they
  handled long-distance trade in stages. 
• The Chinese had many goods to trade, including
  their highly prized silk, and with the discovery
  of the heavenly horses, the Chinese now had
  something that they wanted in return.

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The Silk Road

• The Tarim Basin was connected by trade routes to
  civilizations to the west, and by 100 BCE, Greeks
  could buy Chinese silks from traders in
  Mesopotamia, who in turn had traded for the silk
  with nomads that came from the Tarim Basin.

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The Silk Road
16
The Silk Road

• Although the Romans and Chinese probably never
  actually met, goods made it from one end of the
  Silk Road to the other, making all the people
  along the route aware of the presence of others.

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The Silk Road

• Traders going west from China carried peaches,
  oranges, apricots, cinnamon, ginger, cloves,
  pepper, and other spices as well as silk.

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The Silk Road

• Spices were extremely important in classical
  times. 
• They served as condiments and flavoring agents
  for food, and also as drugs, anesthetics,
  aphrodisiacs, perfumes, aromatics, and magical
  potions.

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The Silk Road

• Traders going east carried alfalfa (for horses),
  grapes, pistachios, sesame, spinach, glassware,
  and jewelry.

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The Silk Road

• Inventions along the route made their way to many
  people.
• For example, the stirrup was probably invented in
  what is today northern Afghanistan, and horsemen
  in many places realized what an advantage the
  stirrup gave them in battle, so it quickly spread
  to faraway China and Europe.

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The Silk Road

• The Silk Road was essentially held together by
  pastoral nomads of Central Asia who supplied
  animals to transport goods and food/drink needed
  by caravan parties.
• For periodic payments by merchants and
  governments, they provided protection from
  bandits and raiders.

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The Silk Road

• The nomads insured the smooth operation of the
  trade routes, allowing not only goods to travel,
  but also ideas, customs, and religions, such as
  Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam.

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The Silk Road

• Biological exchanges were also important, but
  unintended, consequences of the silk roads.
• Contagious microbes spread along the trade
  routes, finding new hosts for infection. 
• Until immunities were acquired, deadly epidemics
  took a terrible toll in the second and third
  centuries CE. 
• The most destructive diseases were smallpox,
  measles, and bubonic plague. 

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The Silk Road

• Smallpox, Measles, and Bubonic Plague

25
Indian Ocean Maritime Trade

• The Indian Ocean Maritime System
• Water travel from the northern tip of the Red Sea
  southward goes back to the days of the river
  valley civilizations.
• The ancient Egyptians traded with peoples along
  the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula.

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Indian Ocean Maritime Trade

• During the river valley era, water routes were
  short and primarily along the coasts.
• During the classical era, those short routes were
  connected together to create a network that
  stretched from China to Africa.

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Indian Ocean Maritime Trade

• Like the traders on the Silk Road, most Indian
  Ocean traders only traveled back and forth along
  on one of its three legs 1). southeastern China
  to Southeast Asia 2). Southeast Asia to the
  eastern coast of India and 3). The western coast
  of India to the Red Sea and the eastern coast of
  Africa.

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Indian Ocean Maritime Trade
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Indian Ocean Maritime Trade

• Countless products traveled along the Indian
  Ocean routes, including ivory from Africa and
  India frankincense and myrrh (fragrances) from
  southern Arabia pearls from the Persian Gulf
  spices from India and SE Asia and manufactured
  goods and pottery from China.

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Indian Ocean Maritime Trade

• Comparison between the Mediterranean and Indian
  Ocean
• Differences in physical geography shaped
  different techniques and technologies for water
  travel during the classical period.
• The Mediterraneans calm waters meant sails had
  to be designed to pick up what little wind they
  could, so large, square sails were developed.

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Indian Ocean Maritime Trade

• The most famous of the ships, the Greek trireme
  (from the Latin triremis3 oars), had three tiers
  of oars operated by 170 rowers.

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Indian Ocean Maritime Trade

• A mosaic of a Roman trireme from the Punic wars
  (battles with Carthage).

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Indian Ocean Maritime Trade

• In contrast, sailing on the Indian Ocean had to
  take into account the strong seasonal monsoon
  winds that blew in one direction in the spring
  and the opposite direction during the fall.
• Indian Ocean ships sailed without oars, and used
  the lateen sail (roughly triangular with squared
  off points).

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Indian Ocean Maritime Trade

• Lateen sails were more maneuverable through
  strong winds.

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Indian Ocean Maritime Trade

• The boats were small, with planks tied together
  with palm fiber.
• Mediterranean sailors nailed their ships
  together.

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Indian Ocean Maritime Trade

• Mediterranean sailors usually stayed close to
  shore because they could not rely on winds to
  carry them over the open water.
• The monsoon winds allowed Indian Ocean sailors to
  go for long distances across water.

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Trade Routes Across the Sahara

• Before the classical era, the vast Saharan desert
  of northern Africa formed a geographic barrier
  between the people of Sub-Saharan Africa and
  those that lived to its north and east.

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Trade Routes Across the Sahara

• The introduction of the camel to the area
  (probably in the 1st century BCE) made it
  possible to establish trade caravans across the
  desert.

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Trade Routes Across the Sahara

• Camels probably came to the Sahara from Egypt (by
  way of Arabia), and effective camel saddles were
  developed to allow trade goods to be carried.

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Trade Routes Across the Sahara

• Arabian or dromedary (Arabia or N. Africa).
• They are faster and can travel more miles in a
  day than the Bactrian camel.
• Good in deserts, flat land or rolling hills, they
  are not good on slippery surfaces.

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Trade Routes Across the Sahara

• Bactrian (Central Asia).
• Bactrian camels are better suited for cold
  climates with rugged terrain.
• They have shorter legs and stout bodies and they
  can walk over slippery surfaces that dromedary
  camels can't handle.

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Trade Routes Across the Sahara

• A major incentive for the Saharan trade was the
  demand for desert salt, and traders from
  Sub-Saharan Africa brought forest products from
  the south like kola nuts and palm oil to be
  traded for salt.

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Trade Routes Across the Sahara

• Extensive trade routes connected different parts
  of Sub-Saharan Africa, so that the connection of
  Eastern Africa to the Indian Ocean trade meant
  that goods from much of Sub-Saharan Africa could
  make their way to Asia and the Mediterranean.
• Many of these trade routes still function today.

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The Incense Roads

• There has been an Incense Trade Route for as long
  as there has been recorded history. As soon as
  the camel was domesticated, Arab tribes began
  carrying incense from southern Arabia to the
  civilizations scattered around the Mediterranean
  Sea.
• By the time of King Solomon, the incense route
  was in full swing, and Solomon reaped rich
  rewards in the form of taxes from the incense
  passing into and through his kingdom.

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The Incense Roads
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The Incense Roads

• The records of Babylon and Assyria all mention
  the incense trade but it wasn't until the
  Nabataean tribe of Arabs dominated the Incense
  Road that Europeans took notice.
• Up until 24 BCE the Nabataeans moved large
  caravans of frankincense, myrrh and other
  incenses from southern Arabia and spices from
  India and beyond to the Mediterranean ports of
  Gaza and Alexandria.

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The Incense Roads

• The Nabataeans carved the famous building of
  Petra out of solid rock (located in todays
  southern Jordan).

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The Incense Roads

• The Roman historian Pliny the Elder mentioned
  that the route took 62 days to traverse from one
  end of the Incense Road to the other. Rest
  stops were every 20-25 miles.
• At its height, the Incense Roads moved over 3000
  tons of incense each year. Thousands of camels
  and camel drivers were used. The profits were
  high, but so were the risks from thieves,
  sandstorms, and other threats.

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The Incense Roads

• The legend of the three Magi (Kings or Wise Men)
  traveled along the Incense Roads to Bethlehem,
  bringing frankincense and myrrh.

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The Incense Roads

• Both frankincense and myrrh are derived from the
  gummy sap that oozes out of the Boswellia and
  Commiphora trees, when their bark is cut.
• The leaking resin is allowed to harden and
  scraped off the trunk in tear-shaped droplets it
  may then be used in its dried form or steamed to
  yield essential oils.
• Both substances are edible and often chewed like
  gum.

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The Incense Roads

• They are also extremely fragrant, particularly
  when burned, with frankincense giving off a
  sweet, citrusy scent and myrrh producing a piney,
  bitter odor.
• Myrrh oil served as a rejuvenating facial
  treatment, while frankincense was charred and
  ground into a power to make the heavy kohl
  eyeliner Egyptian women famously wore. 

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The Incense Roads

• Though perhaps best known for their use in
  incense and ancient rituals, these
  substancesboth of which boast proven antiseptic
  and inflammatory propertieswere once considered
  effective remedies for everything from toothaches
  to leprosy.
• Frankincense and myrrh were components of the
  holy incense ritually burned in Jerusalems
  sacred temples during ancient times.

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The Nomads

• During the classical period, a number of major
  migrations of pastoral peoples occurred and no
  one is sure why.
• Several of these directly impacted the major
  civilizations (and in the cases of Rome and
  India, destroyed them).

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The Nomads

• The most characteristic feature of pastoral
  societies was their mobility.
• Their movements were not aimless wanderings (as
  is often portrayed) they systematically followed
  seasonal environmental changes.
• Nor were nomads homeless their homes were
  elaborate felt tents (called gers) that they took
  with them.

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The Nomads

• Pastoral societies didnt have the wealth for
  professional armies or bureaucracies.
• They valued an independent way of life.

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The Nomads

• Despite their limited populations, the military
  potential from the mastery of horseback riding
  (or camelback) enabled nomadic peoples to wage
  mounted warfare against much larger, more densely
  populated civilizations.
• Virtually the entire male population (and many
  women) were skilled hunters and warriors.

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The Nomads
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The Nomads

• Practicing the skills necessary for warriors
  since early childhood, many nomadic tribes
  extracted wealth through raiding, trading, or
  extortion from neighboring agricultural
  societies.

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The Xiongnu

• One such large nomadic group were a people known
  as the Xiongnu, who lived north of China in the
  Mongolian steppes.
• Provoked by Chinese penetration of their
  territory in the 2nd and 3rd centuries BCE, the
  Xiongnu created a military confederacy that
  stretched from Manchuria deep into Central Asia.

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The Xiongnu
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The Xiongnu

• Under the leadership of Modun (r. 210-174 BCE),
  the Xiongnu took fragmented tribes and
  transformed them into a more centralized and
  hierarchical political entity.

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The Xiongnu

• All the people who draw the bow have now become
  one family, declared Modun.
• Tribute, exacted from other nomadic peoples and
  China itself, sustained the Xiongnu.

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The Xiongnu

• In the 1st century BCE, a Chinese Confucian
  scholar described the Xiongnu people as
  abandoned by Heavenin foodless desert
  wastes, without proper houses, clothed in animal
  hides, eating their meat uncooked and drinking
  blood.

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The Xiongnu

• From the King and downward they all ate the meat
  of their livestock, and clothed themselves with
  their skins, which were their only dress. The
  strong ones ate the fat and choose the best
  pieces, while the old and weak ate and drank what
  was left. The strong and robust were held in
  esteem, while the old and weak were treated with
  contempt. Sima Qian, Chinese historian.

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The Xiongnu

• The Han tried dealing with the Xiongnu by
  offering them trading opportunities, buying them
  off with lavish gifts, contracting marriage
  alliances with leaders, and waging periodic
  military campaigns against them.

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The Xiongnu

• Even though the Xiongnu would disintegrate under
  sustained Chinese counterattacks, they created a
  model that later nomads (like the Turkic and
  Mongol tribes) would emulate.
• By the third century CE, the Xiongnu helped
  hasten the collapse of the weakened Han dynasty,
  causing China to fall into chaos for several
  centuries.

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The Xiongnu

• As the Han were falling apart, nomadic peoples
  had a relatively easy time breaching the Great
  Wall.
• A succession of barbarian states developed in
  north China.
• The barbarian rulers gradually became Chinese,
  encouraging intermarriage, adopting Chinese dress
  and customs, and setting up their courts in a
  Chinese fashion.

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The Huns

• Probably the most famous nomadic warriors of this
  period were the Huns.
• During the late 4th century CE, they began an
  aggressive westward migration from their homeland
  in central Asia.
• The Huns might have been motivated to migrate
  because drought led to competition over grazing
  lands.

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The Huns

• Whatever their motivation, they exploded out of
  the Russian steppes (descendents of the fabled
  Scythians) into Europe, settling in modern-day
  Hun(gary) around 370 CE.
• Fierce fighters and superb horseman, the Huns
  struck fear into both the German tribes and the
  Romans.

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The Huns

• Their appearance forced the resident Visigoths,
  Ostrogoths and other Germanic tribes to move
  westward and southward and into direct
  confrontation with the Roman Empire.
• To the Christian scholar St. Jerome (340-420 CE)
  the Huns filled the whole earth with slaughter
  and panic alike as they flitted hither and
  thither on their swift horses.

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The Huns

• Led by the infamous Attila (406-453 r.
  433-453 CE), to the Romans, he was known as the
  Scourge of God.
• Attila by Delacroix

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The Huns

• When he came of age, Attila acquired a vast
  empire, that stretched through parts of what is
  now Germany, Russia, Poland, and much of
  south-eastern Europe.
• This is a medal cast during the Renaissance that
  in Latin calls him the Scourge of God.

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The Huns

• Even though he was extremely wealthy, Attila led
  a very simple life.
• In the tradition of nomadic warriors, he drank
  mare's milk, blood, and ate raw meat.
• He wore plain clothes and animal skins.
• His belief system was unknown but he demonstrated
  little, if any, concern for local religions or
  Christianity.

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The Huns

• As Attila closed in on the Byzantine Empire, the
  Byzantine emperor (Theodosius II) paid Attila an
  enormous sum of to leave Byzantium alone
  (660 lbs of gold/year).

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The Huns

• The unsteady peace only lasted a few years as the
  Huns attacked Persia (but were repelled), so they
  pressed west and south (into todays Balkans),
  destroying virtually everything in their path.
• From there, the half million Hun forces stormed
  through Austria, Germany, and Gaul (France).

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The Huns

• Attila went all the way to the outskirts of Paris
  (Orleans) before a combined Roman/Visigoth army
  turned him back (451 CE).
• Undeterred, he would now focus on Italy.

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The Huns

• Setting his sights on Italy, Attila destroyed
  several Italian cities in Lombardy (452 CE) on
  his way to Rome.

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The Huns

• In a celebrated meeting with Pope Leo I, the Pope
  begged Attila to spare Rome and withdraw from
  Italy (which he did probably because of an
  epidemic).

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The Huns

• Attila died in 453, not on the battlefield, but
  on the night of his 7th marriage.
• He got drunk (and he rarely drank), fell to the
  floor, and died of a bleeding hemorrhage from his
  nose (he choked on his own blood).

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The Huns

• After the death of Attila, the leadership of the
  Huns fell to his three inadequate sons, who split
  their empire.
• The empire ended in 469 CE with the death of
  Dengizik, the last Hunnish king.
• The empire of the Huns in Europe withered and
  disappeared, absorbed into other ethnicities,
  like Germanic tribes.

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Germanic Tribes

• Even though the Huns became less of a force after
  the death of Attila, they showed the
  vulnerability of the Romans, and the Germanic
  groups took full advantage.
• They spent much of their time fighting each
  other, behavior the Romans encouraged hoping to
  keep them weak.

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Germanic Tribes

• But by the 4th-5th centuries, they roamed
  throughout the western Roman provinces without
  much resistance from Rome.

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Germanic Tribes

• Tribal war chiefs began creating their own
  kingdoms that eventually evolved into the
  European countries youre familiar with (the
  Franks settled in France, the Lombards in Italy,
  the Angles Saxons in Britain, the Visigoths in
  Spain, etc.)

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The Fall of Rome

• Rome would finally fall to the Germanic tribes of
  General Odoacer in 476 CE when he overthrew the
  last Roman emperor in the West.

85
The Fall of Rome

• Even though the fall of Rome had been decades in
  the making, the year 476 is considered a major
  turning point in the West.
• By 476, most of what characterized Roman
  civilization had weakened, declined, or
  disappeared.

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The Fall of Rome

• Any semblance of large-scale centralized power
  vanished as ineffective emperors were more
  concerned with pleasure than wise rule.
• There was social and moral decay and a lack of
  interest within the elite classes to participate
  in government. Courtesy and dignity were
  reduced.
• Roman dependence on slave labor remained high.

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The Fall of Rome

• Disease and warfare reduced the Roman Empires
  population between 25-50.
• Land under cultivation contracted, while forests,
  marshland, and wasteland expanded.
• Small landowners, facing increased taxes, were
  often forced to sell their land to the owners of
  large estates, or latifundia. (great disparities
  in wealth)
• The self-sufficiency of the latifundia (estates)
  lessened the need for central authority and
  discouraged trade.

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The Fall of Rome

• With less trade, urban life diminished and Europe
  reverted back to a largely rural existence.
• Rome had been a city of over 1 million people by
  the 10th century it had less than 10,000.
• Romes great monumental architecture crumbled
  from lack of care.

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The Fall of Rome

• Long distance trade dried up as Roman roads
  deteriorated, and money exchange gave way to
  barter.
• The Germanic peoples the Romans had long
  considered barbarians emerged as the dominant
  peoples of Western Europe (which caused Europes
  center of gravity to move away from the
  Mediterranean toward the north and west).

90
The Fall of the Gupta

• By the late 5th century, the Huns were pouring
  into the Indian subcontinent.
• Defense against the Huns bankrupted the Gupta
  treasury, and they collapsed by 600 CE.
• But the Gupta collapse was far less devastating
  than that of Rome or Han China.
• Even though centralized Gupta rulers declined in
  power, local princes (the Rajput) became more
  powerful.

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The Fall of the Gupta

• Even though political decline occurred as a
  result of invasions, traditional Indian culture
  continued (because people cared more about caste
  and Hinduism).
• Buddhism declined in India (because it was
  associated with foreigners), while Hinduism added
  to its numbers.
• The next challenge for Indias traditional
  culture would come during the post-Classical
  period when Islam arrives.

92
The Fall of the Han

• The Han dynasty was the first of the great
  civilizations to go.
• Its decline began around 100 CE, and many of the
  causes were similar to Romes
• Increasingly weak leadership at the top and less
  interest in Confucian intellectual goals.
  Courtesy and respect were lessened.
• Heavy taxes levied on the peasants.
• Poor harvests.

93
The Fall of the Han

• Unequal land distribution.
• Population decline from epidemic diseases.
• A decline in trade led to declining urban
  vitality.
• Pressure from bordering nomadic tribes.
• These symptoms all led to massive social unrest,
  as peasants and students protested governmental
  policies that further impoverished the farmers.

94
The Fall of the Great Empires

• In the centuries between 200-600 CE, all three of
  the great civilizations collapsed, at least in
  part.
• The period of expansion and integration of large
  territories was coming to an end.
• Why? What forces pushed once great societies into
  decline? Do societies have some kind of common
  lifespan that pushes them ultimately into aging
  and decay?

95
The Fall of the Great Empires

• The western part of the Roman Empire fell, the
  Han Dynasty ended in disarray, and the Gupta
  Empire in India fragmented into regions.
• The fall of these empires marks a great divide in
  human history.
• Some common reasons included

96
The Fall of the Great Empires

• I. Attacks by nomadic groups The migration of
  the Huns from their homeland in Central Asia
  impacted all three civilizations as they moved
  east, west, and south.
• In China and India, attacks by the Huns were
  directly responsible for the end of those empires.

97
The Fall of the Great Empires

• The movement of the Huns caused other groups to
  move out of their way, causing a domino effect
  that put pressure on Rome.
• Rome was done in by Germanic invaders from the
  north.

98
The Fall of the Great Empires

• II. Serious internal problems All the empires
  had trouble maintaining political control over
  their vast lands, and were ultimately unable to
  keep their empires together.
• Less talented leaders were a factor in the
  decline of all three empires, especially Rome.

99
The Fall of the Great Empires

• No governments had ever spread their authority
  over so much territory, and it was inevitable
  that their sheer size could not be maintained.
• There was an increased selfishness on the part of
  the elites, who became less willing to serve in
  government or military positions.

100
The Fall of the Great Empires

• The morale of ordinary citizens deteriorated and
  a sense of helplessness and inevitability to the
  situation overtook the empires.

101
The Fall of the Great Empires

• III. The problem of interdependence The
  classical civilizations all ended before 600 CE.
• When one weakened, it impacted them all, as trade
  routes became vulnerable when imperial armies
  could no longer protect them or when economic
  resources necessary for trade were no longer
  available.

102
The Fall of the Great Empires

• Pandemic diseases (probably smallpox or measles
  from India) spread along trade routes, killing
  thousands that would not have been affected had
  they not been in contact with others.
• Modern estimates are that each civilization lost
  as many as half of their inhabitants during the
  late classical period.

103
The Fall of the Great Empires

• Both Rome and China experienced economic and
  social dislocation brought on by massive death.
• Labor was difficult to find, and people pulled
  back from production and trade arrangements that
  marked the empires at their height.

104
The Fall of the Great Empires

• Governments had difficulty collecting taxes.
• Local landlords would compensate for their
  declining revenues by increasing pressure on
  local populations.
• In Rome and China, tension between large
  landowners and peasants created instability and
  unrest (Red Eyebrows and Yellow Turbans).

105
The Fall of the Great Empires

• Despite their similarities, decline and fall had
  very different consequences for the three
  civilizations.
• India and China lost their political unity, but
  they did not permanently lose their identity as
  civilizations, and both eventually reorganized
  into major world powers.

106
The Fall of the Great Empires

• Only one(western) Romedid not retain its
  identity after it fell.
• Why? What were the differences?
• The Roman Empire never regained its former
  identity and instead fell into many pieces that
  retained separate orientations.

107
The Fall of the Great Empires

• The authority of the state dwindled, and
  localized conditions prevailed.
• The eastern empire (Byzantium) created by
  Constantine (r.312-337 CE) maintained many of the
  institutions and cultural values of Rome.
• He tried to use Christianity to unify the empire.

108
The Fall of the Great Empires

• Although early Christians were persecuted, the
  Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in
  313, which announced the official toleration of
  Christianity as a faith.
• Constantine became a Christian (probably on his
  deathbed), and thereafter all emperors in the
  East and West (except one) were Christians.

109
The Fall of the Great Empires

• In 381, the emperor Theodosius made Christianity
  the official religion of Rome, too late to be the
  glue to hold the crumbling empire together, but
  in time to preserve Christianity as a faith.

110
The Fall of the Great Empires

• Justinian (r. 527-565) tried to recapture the
  glory of Rome but was unsuccessful.
• He was successful in codifying Roman law (known
  as Justinian codes).

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The Fall of the Great Empires

• Another part of the answer lies in what happened
  next in the story of world historypolitical
  power isnt the only glue that holds a
  civilization together.
• In the period before and after 600 CE the most
  important sources of identity were religious.

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The Fall of the Great Empires

• Around the year 600 CE older religions and
  philosophies (Christianity, Buddhism,
  Confucianism) grew in influence and transcended
  political boundaries.
• An important new religion was on the horizon
  (Islam).

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The Fall of the Great Empires

• Islam was destined to become the force behind one
  of the largest land expansions in history, a path
  made easier because it appeared at a time when
  the old political empires of Rome, China, and
  India had fallen.

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The Fall of the Great Empires

• In this new era of religious unity, Rome fell
  short.
• Christianity had become its official religion in
  the 4th century, too late to be a unifying force
  for the failing empire.
• When political and military power failed, nothing
  was left except crumbling architecturesymbols of
  the past.

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The Fall of the Great Empires

• India was bound together by Hinduism and the
  intricate caste loyalties that supported it.
• So the fall of the Gupta had only a limited
  impact on Indias development.
• Indias trade worsened a bit but India remained a
  productive economy.

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The Fall of the Great Empires

• The fall of the Gupta was followed by several
  centuries (nearly a millennia) in which no large
  empires were created in India except as a result
  of Muslim (the Mughals), and later, British
  invasion.

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The Fall of the Great Empires

• Confucianism had become such a part of the
  identity of China, that the fall of Han dynasty
  was not a fatal blow to its civilization.
• Chaos did characterize the period, but the
  Chinese civilization continued and would reassert
  itself when political stability returned.

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The Fall of the Great Empires

• The fall of the Han was followed by 350 years in
  which the central government didnt operate.
• China was divided into regional entities and
  landlord power increased.
• In the 6th century CE, a new dynasty, the
  short-lived Sui, was established.

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The Fall of the Great Empires

• With the Sui came the reestablishment of most of
  the cultural values and institutional workings of
  the Han.
• Like India, decline and fall was a relatively
  temporary setback to the civilization.

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The Fall of the Great Empires

• During the classical era, an important change
  occurred in two of the religionsChristianity and
  Buddhismthat allowed both to spread to many new
  areas far from their places of origin.
• These two religions followed the Silk Road and
  the Indian Ocean circuit, and their numbers grew
  greatly.

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The Fall of the Great Empires

• Both were transformed into universalizing
  religions, with core beliefs that transcended
  cultures and actively recruited new members.
• As a result, both religions grew tremendously in
  the years before 600 CE, positioning them to
  become new sources of societal glue that would
  hold large areas with varying political
  allegiances together.

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The Fall of the Great Empires

• Meanwhile, some important ethnic religions, such
  as Judaism, the Chinese religions/philosophies
  (Confucianism and Daoism), and Hinduism created
  strong bonds among people, but had little
  emphasis on converting outsiders to their faiths.

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The Fall of the Great Empires

• Three durable changes constitute the reason
  historians use the fall of the great empires to
  mark the end of the Classical Period and the
  beginning of the subsequent one.

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The Fall of the Great Empires

• I. In most of the civilized world, there was
  less and less emphasis put on empire building or
  expansion.
• Societies were less capable, or less interested,
  in maintaining large, integrated political
  structures.

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The Fall of the Great Empires

• II. The deterioration of this-worldly conditions
  (especially economic and political decline)
  pushed people to think about cultural
  alternatives to the political values of the
  classical period.
• The end of the classical period and the beginning
  of the post-classical period would be marked by
  greater religious emphasis.

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The Fall of the Great Empires

• III. The collapse of the Roman Empire created a
  permanent division of the Mediterranean world
  into three different entities
• A. Western Europe
• B. Southeastern Europe/northern Middle East
• C. North Africa and the rest of the Mediterranean
  coast.

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The Fall of the Great Empires
128
The Fall of the Great Empires

• This division of the Mediterranean had
  tentatively existed with the Greeks, through
  Hellenism, and with the Romans.
• But the collapse of Rome caused the split into
  three geographic regions to be permanent and this
  would mark history right up to the present day.

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The Bantu

• The Bantu most likely originated in an area south
  of the Sahara Desert near modern day Nigeria.

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The Bantu

• They probably migrated out of their homeland (as
  early as 2000 BCE) because of desertification, or
  the expansion of the Sahara Desert that dried out
  their agricultural lands.
• They traveled for centuries all over sub-Saharan
  Africa, but retained many of their customs,
  especially language.

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The Bantu

• As their language spread, it combined with
  others, but still retained enough similarity to
  the original that the family of Bantu languages
  can still be recognized over most of sub-Saharan
  Africa.

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The Bantu

• Unlike the surges of the Huns and Germanic
  people, the Bantu migrations were very gradual.
• By the end of the classical period, the Bantu
  migrations had introduced agriculture, iron
  metallurgy, and the Bantu language to most of
  sub-Saharan Africa.

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Polynesians

• Even though their movements didnt impact
  civilizations on the Eurasian mainland, the
  peopling of the islands of the Pacific Ocean was
  quite remarkable.
• Like the Bantu, Polynesian migrations were
  gradual, but between 1500 BCE and 1000 CE almost
  all the major islands west of New Guinea were
  visited, and many were settled.

134
Polynesians
135
Polynesians

• Polynesians came from mainland Asia and expanded
  eastward to Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa.
• They left no written records, so our knowledge
  relies on archeological evidence, accounts by
  early European sailors, and oral traditions.

136
Polynesians

• Their ships were great double canoes that carried
  a platform between two hulls and large triangular
  sails that helped them catch and maneuver in
  ocean winds.

137
Polynesians

• The distances they traveled were incredibly long,
  and by the time the Europeans had arrived in the
  18th century, the Polynesians had explored and
  colonized every habitable island in the vast
  Pacific Ocean.