Iron Age Empires
HISTORY 100
WORLD HISTORY
9 FEBRUARY
THE IRON-AGE
EMPIRES
DICTIONARY TIME-LINES
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
In this section, you should become familiar with the following terms:
- Iron Age Empires, The Classical Empires, Lao-tze, Confucius, The Era of
the Warring States, Zoroastrianism, Mauryan Empire, Buddhism, Hinduism, Aegean
Sea, hoplite, phalanx, Athens, democracy, aristocracy, Sparta, The
Peloponnesian War, and Alexander the Great.
And you should be able to discuss:
- The rise of the Iron Age Empires in China, India, Iran, and Europe.
- How Greece differed from other centers of civilization and what the
effects of those differences were.
- The Greek development of the hoplite phalanx, and how it and the building
of navies of rowed ships affected the political institutions of the
city-states.
- the origins and effect of rule by aristocracies and democracies in the
Greek city states.
- The results of the conquests of Alexander the Great.
TEXT
The title of Iron Age Empires is a bit misleading, since,
technically speaking, we are still in the Iron Age. The subject might be better
expressed as The Iron-Age Powers That Preceded and Laid the Foundations
For the Classical Empires That Followed, but that's far too long and
confusing.
What I would like to discuss are those powers that arose out of the era of
upheaval that attended the introduction of iron and allowed mass armies of foot
soldiers to dominate the field of battle. These states gradually expanded their
powers until they reached the point at which they had to become more concerned
with uniting their lands and peoples and less on extending their power still
further. When that happened, they became what we call The Classical
Empires, and we will be discussing them in a later lecture. Just to keep
things in order, let's simply review each region.
China
From about 800 B.C. to about 400, the Chou dynasty slowly lost power until it
was finally carved up by the rulers of the petty states that surrounded it.
These little kingdoms fell into a period of conflict known as The Era of
the Warring States that lasted from about 400 to 220 and was ended only
with the conquest of all of these states by rulers of the Ch'in dynasty (from
which our word "China" comes). The Ch'in emperors then began to expand,
particularly southward toward the Yang-tze River valley. It was during this
period that Chinese philosophy flourished in the persons of such men as
Confucius and Lao-tze.
India
From about 800 B.C. to about 550, the Aryans expanded, primarily eastward,
but they were unable to retain any unity to their conquests. By about 550, their
lands were divided into a number of small principalities, all of which were
usually ready to war with the other. Meanwhile, invaders from the west occupied
large sections of the Punjab. It was during this period that
Hinduism took formal shape and that Buddhism arose
and spread. This situation ended in about 320 B.C. with the great ruler
Chandragupta, who managed to unite all of the Ganges River Valley and
establish the Mauryan Empire, a state that would persist until
about 180 B.C.
Iran
The peoples of the Iranian plateau were divided among themselves and subject
to frequent attacks from outside powers such as Assyria until 550 B.C. It
was during this period that Zarathustra introduced a reform of
traditional Aryan belief called Zoroastrianism, a religious belief
that is still practiced and has, over time, exerted a great influence on
Christianity. In 500, the Medes and Persians, the two most
powerful peoples of the plateau, were united under Cyrus the Great. The
Persian empire expanded swiftly and soon controlled Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Asia
Minor. In 490 B.C., however, they came in conflict with the peoples of Greece,
before whom the Persian empire fell, at least temporarily by 323.
Europe
Civilization in Europe was concentrated in the region of the Aegean
Sea and differed in several ways from the other centers of civilization
on the Eurasian continent. The other civilizations occupied great river valleys
and extended their power and population into the surrounded plains. Greek
civilization was confined to a number of small islands and valleys, no one of
which was capable of supporting a large population. Consequently, Greek
civilization consisted of a number of independent city-states, a form of
political organization that had been superceded in most of the civilized world a
thousand years earlier. Such small tracts of land could not support much of an
increase in population and, from about 800 B.C. to 600, the Greeks solved this
problem by sending out settlers to found colonies elsewhere in the
Mediterranean. This solution proved insufficient, and, from 650 to about 500,
many if not most of the Greek city-states experienced internal conflict between
the economic elite and the masses, each contending for the control of the
limited land available.
With a limited population, it was difficult for any single city state to put
a large number of fighting men onto the battlefield, so the Greeks concentrated
on developing quality in place of quantity. This was accomplished partly by
exalting the communal spirit of the citizens of the state, and partly by
developing a slave economy that ensured that a large number of men would have
leisure time. The Greeks developed a heavy armor and long-spear for a
particularly well- equipped warrior called a hoplite. These
hoplites were trained in close-order drill so that they could move in unison in
a tightly-packed formation called a phalanx. As is usually the
case, the citizens who served as hoplites eventually gained political power
within the state. Although they did not include the entire free population, they
formed a larger body than most ruling elites and were able to shape their states
as they wished. As a result, the Greek city states in 500 B.C. displayed a
bewildering variety of forms of organization and principles of governance.
In 490 B.C., however, Darius sent an expeditionary force to punish
Athens for having assisted the Greek cities of Asia Minor that the
Persians were in the process of conquering. The Persians were decisively
defeated, and Darius's son, Xerxes, gathered a large army and invaded
Greece in 480. The Greek city-states united against the Persian invaders and, in
a series of desperate battles, defeated them and drove them off. In the course
of this war, Athens and some other cities developed navies consisting of ships
that were rowed. The commoners of these cities were recruited as rowers and they
soon gained political power, creating a rule of the people that the Greeks
called democracy.
The unity of the Greek states did not last, however, and the various states
were soon divided into two opposing camps, those ruled by an
aristocracy under the leadership of Sparta, and the
democracies, who joined together behind Athens. The two sides clashed in
The Peloponnesian War, which lasted from 432 B.C. to 404 and ended
with the defeat of Athens and the exhaustion of all participants.
In 336, The Greek Peninsula was conquered by Alexander the
Great, king of Macedon, who immediately began planning the
invasion of the Persian Empire. By 323, he had accomplished just that and was
working to unify his realms when he died. His conquests were divided up among
his generals. Although the Greek language and culture was spread through these
kingdoms and formed a common thread for all, unification proved impossible, and
there was warfare between and within these states until the conquest of the
entire region by Rome.
ASSIGNMENTS
REQUIRED
These assignments will give you an opportunity to survey the great ethical
religions that arose in the wake of the break-up of the old Bronze-Age Empires.
There is a great deal of browsing you might do if you have the time, but you
should concentrate on the origins and early history of the religion and its
basic beliefs.
For China, you might wish to begin with the review offered by Washing State
University's page on Chinese philosophy,
since Chinese religion and philosophy are not easily separated. India's
contribution to the ethical religions of the world is two- fold, Buddhism and
reformed Hinduism, for which you might wish to browse through Ancient India
Moving east to Iran, you might visit the site providing an overview of the
dualist religion of Zoroastrianism.
Finally, it would be useful to revisit the site on the Hebrews
RECOMMENDED
That is probably more than enough to keep you busy, but, if you have time,
you might wish to browse through a bit of the classic work of Confucius, the Analects. And, of
course, You really should make time to read at least a few passages from the
classic work of Taoism, Lao-tze's puzzling yet compelling Tao Te Ching, "The Way
and the Power." There are many other things to see on the web, but this is more
than enough for today.
You know, teaching one-semester classes covering all of world history is
pretty frustrating for instructors. We know so many nifty things that we would
like to show you and tell you about, but there's no time...
This text was produced by Lynn H. Nelson, Department of
History, University of Kansas.
8 February 1998
Lawrence
KS
