Chapter Seven Outline

Chapter Seven Outline: Classical Era Variations

1. Opening of the Chapter
1. Still 6 million Mayan people left in Latin America
2. 1994: The Zapatista Army of National Liberation
1. Rebellion of the Mayas to revive their culture
2. Mayas began making history again
3. Classical Era: People usually think of the Greeks, Romans, Persians, etc.
4. Many other civilizations around the world that existed at the same time
1. Mesoamerican Maya, Peruvian Moche, African Meroe, Axum, and Niger River valley
5. Human cultures around the world evolved similarly
1. Hunting and Gathering -> Agriculture
2. Uprising of organized civilizations
6. Major differences between the continents
1. 80% of population in Eurasia, 11% in Africa, 5-7% in the Americas
2. Americas had no pastoral societies, less developed in writing and tools
3. Highly developed in the Eastern Hemisphere
4. Africa received domesticated animals with Eurasia
7. To what extent did the histories of Africa and the Americas parallel Eurasia?
8. In what ways did they forge different Paths?
2. The African Northeast
1. “Africa” usually refers to the land mass and not a cultural identity
2. Hosted numerous separate societies
1. Grew out of the environmental variations in the continent
1. Mediterranean climate in the northern and southern most parts, deserts, rain forests, grasslands, and mountains
3. Most tropical of the world’s supercontinents
1. High temperatures, rapid decomposition of vegetation
2. Less fertile soils
3. Disease carrying insects and parasites brought health issues
4. Close proximity to Eurasia
1. Northern parts were associated with Roman Empire
1. Wheat, olives, slave labor
2. Christianity spread to Africa from Eurasia
5. Arabia
1. Domesticated camel came to Africa from Arabia
1. Brought nomadic and pastoral way of life
2. Made Saharan commerce possible
6. Egyptian, Roman, Arab merchant trading
1. With East Africa
2. Brought Africa into the Indian Ocean trading networks
3. Meroe: Continuing a Nile Valley Civilization
1. Nubian Civilization
1. Traded and fought with Egypt
2. When Egypt fell under foreign control, Nubian civilization became centered in Meroe
3. Governed by a monarch
1. Buried with sacrificed humans
4. Had merchants, weavers, potters, masons, servants, laborers, slaves
5. Smelting of iron for tools and weapons was lucrative
6. Rainfall-based agriculture
1. Didn’t need to concentrate too heavily on the Nile
7. Very wealthy and great military power
1. Distant trading connections
2. Iron weapons and cotton cloth
3. Access to gold, ivory, tortoise shells, ivory
8. Declined due to deforestation because of the need for wood
9. Three separate Nubian states emerged, Coptic Christianity reigned
10. Later, Christianity disintegrated and Nubia became part of the Islamic world
4. Axum: The Making of a Christian Kingdom
1. Marked the emergence of a new African civilization
2. Located in what is now Ethiopia
3. Highly productive agricultural system
1. Plow-based farming
2. Wheat, barely, millet, teff
4. Adulis: The largest African port by the Red Sea, close to Axum
1. Merchants wanted goods from the interior of Africa
2. Taxes on these products provided a major source of income for Axum
5. Capital city of Axum
1. Huge monuments and buildings
1. Obelisks: Royal graves over 100 ft tall
6. Language was called Geez
7. According to the Romans, Axum was considered the greatest empire third to them and the Persians
8. Introduced to Christianity by the Red Sea trade and the Roman Empire
1. Christianity still remains in most of the area
9. Made imperial expansion into Meroe and Yemen
10. Decline of empire came after
1. Exhausted natural resources, Islam changed trade routes
5. Along the Niger River: Cities Without States
1. West Africa, urbanization
1. Many people came from the Sahara for water
2. Cattle, sheep, goats, and farming skills
2. Distinct city-based civilization, no larger states
3. No larger, imperial system like Egypt, Rome, or Axum
1. “Cities without citadels”
4. Jenne-jeno and others had economically specialized settlements
1. Iron smithing, cotton weavers, potters, leather workers, etc.
5. Stimulated by West African commerce
1. Larger cities emerged
6. South of the Equator: The World of Bantu Africa
1. The most significant development of the classical era
2. 400 closely related languages that are all known as Bantu
3. Spread to Eastern and Southern Africa for the most part
4. Slow movement of people, not a conscious migration or invasion
5. Gave all of Africa a cultural and linguistic commonality
7. Cultural Encounters
1. Bantu speaking cultures interact with societies
1. Bantu (agriculture) and hunting and gathering societies share ways of life
2. Bantu farmers’ advantages
1. Agriculture was more productive, supports more people
2. Brought diseases to people who were not immune
3. Hunting and gathering was almost obsolete
3. Some hunting and gathering cultures (the San) existed into modern times
4. Batwa (Pygmy) were forest experts, worked with the Bantu
5. Bantu influenced by many cultures
1. Switched to grains instead of yams, domesticated farming animals
2. Bantu culture spread across Africa
8. Society and Religion
1. Many new specific societies and cultures
1. Zimbabwe and Lake Victoria areas
2. East Africa coast
3. Kenya
2. Religion was based on spirits of ancestors and pieces of nature
1. Less focused on a specific God
2. Made sacrifices to deceased ancestors
3. Believed in witches
9. Civilizations of Mesoamerica
1. Many important civilizations before the well-known Inca and Aztec empires
2. Highly developed agricultural system
3. All civilizations traded with one another, had similar religions
10. The Maya: Writing and Warfare
1. Classical era civilization
2. Calendar, writing and mathematical systems
3. Extravagant architecture
1. Temples, pyramids, plazas, etc.
4. Human engineering involved in agriculture
1. Drained swamps, water management system
5. Arranged in city-states
1. Frequent wars
6. Rapid collapse in numbers and strength after a large drought in 840
11. Teotihuacan: America’s Greatest City
1. In 400 years population grew to 100,000 to 200,000
2. Most about it is still unknown
3. Had artisans who specialized in different techniques
4. Little evidence of rulers (oligarchy)
5. Greatly influenced the rest of Mesoamerica
1. Armies influenced surrounding areas
2. Traded with other societies
3. Other people adapted their architectural styles
6. Mysterious fall in 650 c.e.
7. Aztecs named the city, means “city of the gods”
12. Civilizations of the Andes
1. Rich marine life
1. Lots of birds and fish for food
2. Central Peruvian coast: Notre Chico
3. Chavin
1. Complex temples, many ceremonial centers discovered
2. Religion based on nature, mainly forests and deserts
4. Moche
1. Andean civilization, north coast of Peru
2. Complex irrigation system
3. Ruled by warrior priests
4. Sacrifices, rituals, burials, use of hallucinogenics
5. Nazca, Huari, Chimu in the same area
13. North America in the Classical Era: From Chaco to Cahokia
1. Eastern woodlands of North America, Central America, Caribbean and Amazon
2. Hunting and gathering groups still populated the Americas
14. Pit Houses and Great Houses: The Ancestral Pueblo
1. Southwestern North America
1. Maize (corn) civilization
2. Established villages
1. Pit houses in smaller villages
2. Ceremonial structures in larger villages
3. Many trading structures
4. Major pueblos emerged
5. Largest town was Pueblo Bonito
6. Warfare increased and eventually ended the society
15. The Mound Builders of the Eastern Woodlands
1. Agricultural revolution in the Mississippi River Valley
2. Large mounds marked the creation of new societies
1. Elaborate mounds, geometric earthworks
2. Artifacts found in them
3. Strategic astronomical orientation
3. Chahokia
1. Created larger population with maize farming
2. Central mound: pyramid that was four stories high
3. Trade network that spread for miles
4. Stratified class system
5. “Great Suns” were the main chiefs
6. Very strong military