Classical+Periods;+Direction,+Diversities,+Decline


 * notes on decline of classical civilizations**
 * The Classical Period: Directions, Diversities, and Declines by 500 CE **


 * Expansion and Integration **
 * 1) All civilizations attempted to expand their boundaries, but as an after effect were weakened by the expansion, adding more regions for the central government to look after.
 * 2) China emphasized greater centralization, creating a more political atmosphere around the nation.
 * 3) China remained intending to integrate territorial expansion which devoted elite forces being sent south of the region in order to establish a connection amongst the central government and the country folk.
 * 4) They all promoted a central language that would spread out across China, promoting even further unity.
 * 5) India remained lcoalized and regional, while advocating the belief of Hinduism to establish common interest and loyalty amongst it's people.
 * 6) Hinduism adressed Territorial expansion through religious missionaries.
 * 7) The Mediterrean Civilizations were also localized and regional, plus there was a smaller population to look after.
 * 8) They supported loyalty of the State through establishing cultural achievements in which both its population would enjoy and express in unity.
 * 9) But also this sort of regionalism was more prone to dissapating than others, because of the smaller population size which tended to change cultural values more often than most societies.
 * 10) Rome tolerated a large portion more of the local units in order to gain trust and loyalty
 * 11) They expanded their elite core and created strong commercial trade links between its people + surrounding civilization
 * 12) Integration through social levels was especially hard, due to the constant inequalities amongst genders and the social system of each civilization, *see bottom, notes during presentations*
 * 13) Confucianism in China expressed mutual respect between social classes and age groups, family units and further links amongst other social values.
 * 14) Almost all civilizations acknowledged inequality as a norm, it's just the matter of how they viewed inequalities in each seperate nation, such as Hinduism in India with the afterlife, and economic.political opportunities in the roman period.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">Almost all civilizations acknowledged inequality as a norm, it's just the matter of how they viewed inequalities in each seperate nation, such as Hinduism in India with the afterlife, and economic.political opportunities in the roman period.


 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">Beyond the Classical Civilizations **


 * 1) **//<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">Decline in China and India //**
 * 2) //**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">suffered from asian invaders (huns) **//
 * 3) //**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This nomadic warrior group spread across Europe, invading many civilizations along the way, including Rome. They often times harassed other nomadic warrior groups as well, such as the gothic invaders, and that caused the fall of Rome. **//
 * 4) //**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">They destroyed China and India, causing the fall of the Gupta Kingdom and of Han China. **//
 * 5) //**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">It was also due to Internal weaknesses in which the Huns were able to finally conquer both China and India **//
 * 6) //**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">100 ce starts the decline of China **//
 * 7) //**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Intellectual Life diminished in Han China, causing less of a political establishment that was both strong and central towards education which causes regulatory values. **//
 * 8) //**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">politically, governmental control became more lenient and local rulers had choice of what to do **//
 * 9) //**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">peasents were taxed even more **//
 * 10) //**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">many lost their farms and lands due to this corruption leading to a more tragic and anrgy life amongst the masses of peasants. **//
 * 11) //**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Daoist movement by peasents to shift corrupt poliices (184ce)30k protestors; failed and china just kept going down **//
 * 12) //**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">They attacked weaknesses of the central govnerment, but many of the protests failed thus stunting population growth and prosperity weakened. **//
 * 13) //**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">China reviived itself to Sui and Tang dynasties proving that = new art + lit + style + did not have to reinvent civilization **//
 * 14) //**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">India was less drastic than China, instead they had invaders become integrated into their warrior society, the Rajput where emphasis on military power scared competition to fight for rule **//
 * 15) //**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Buddhism declined but Hinduism was backed up by the government using the image of Devi to inspire hope and peace **//
 * 16) //**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Islam and Allah faith from the middle east challenged hinuism in India leading to a social disunity and start of the end of the end of the decline. Regionalism still had its effect, people were sepereated **//
 * 17) //**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">b/c of denial of middle-eastern faith, middleeast didn't want to trade with India =economic decline **//
 * 18) lack of intellectual achievements such as math


 * **// Decline of Rome //**
 * // population dclined, so were the armies b/c not enough good people out there //
 * // not enough peolpe to support a strong national army to back off agaisnt the Huns and incading tribes of nomadic warriors. //
 * // corrupt government //
 * // Taxes become hard to collect, thus lessing the national treasury which was used to purchase mercenaries for the army //
 * // Mercenaries were the main cause of disloyalty amongst the national army. People who were paid often tended to switch sides thus making shifts in nations + peolpe were poor //
 * // Taxation //
 * // No sense of afterlife = no sense in living //
 * // Series of plagues //
 * // brought diseases which caused the death of over 1/3rd of the population at the time //
 * // pretorian guard chose its ruler created confusion and were waiting for the right knig. //
 * // Population of rome decresed from a millino to 250,000 //
 * division of east/ west empires worsened conditions of western empire
 * //attempts to regulate economy reduced economic initiative and lowered production//
 * //tax revenues declined//
 * //army deteriorated further//
 * //Germanic invasions beginning in 400's saw resistance in German mercenary army//
 * // aristocrats didn't want to have kids thus weakened the future aristocrat life. //
 * // Not a lot of religious and cultural activiities besides writing //
 * Rome's fall in western part of the empire of Italy, Spain, and parts of north, reduced level of civilization
 * Italy, France, etc. were ruled by Germanic kingdoms
 * Christianity spread in these areas
 * could not maintain art, literature division of east/ west empires worsened conditions of western empire
 * //attempts to regulate economy reduced economic initiative and lowered production//
 * //tax revenues declined//
 * //army deteriorated further//

//** Notes on the rest of chapter 5 **//

Chapter 5; Decline, Direction, Diversities Daoism:
 * 1) - In the age of the decline of China, 184 CE Daoism grew more popular in China. The **Yellow Turbans**, head of the Daoist movement promised a golden age in which “was to be brought about by divine magic”, appealing to those who wanted social change because of heavy taxation or because of the way they were treated. This movement grew as large as 30,000 students, but it never bore great fruits. Chinese population + prosperity still rapidly declined
 * 2) - Daoist appealed to mostly the poor in terms that they can receive ground through the belief in natural order/magic

Hinduism: Buddhism:
 * 1) - Spread of Hinduism addressed territorial issues, meaning that Hinduism allowed for India to expand beyond its boundaries, while keeping a loyalty through religion.
 * 2) - Through Merchants + Physical trade, Hinduism and Buddhism spread from India into Southeast Asia, Africa, Northern Europe, which aided in expanding the kingdom without physical warfare; **//Regions close to classical civilizations often resembled that of its superior//**.
 * 3) - The ability to worship a god, any god, allowed for the Indian population to satisfy the need to pray and beg, thus widening the Hindu Religion
 * 4) - As an effect of the above, Hindu Leaders strengthened religious devotion. The only effect of that was that then Intellectual Matters declined.
 * 5) - The religion guided people through prayer and an afterlife which appealed to the those in need of guidance and a future.
 * 6) - The idealism in Women also changed, where Women became a little more important in social/domestic life as opposed to the old belief that women were to be controlled by the man.
 * 1) - To China, the Buddhist movement only served to hurt it in its most dire times. They further diversified the religious unification in which Confucianism had brought, thus decreasing the time it took for China to fall.
 * 2) - Buddhism in India declined further, because there was no sentimental value in which the people could appeal towards for prosperity.
 * 3) - After the death of Buddha, **bodhisattvas** had developed, which lead people to attain nirvana (eternal enlightenment) through meditation and prayer. Buddhist ideals stressed salvation. And the bodhisattvas only added to the effect of Buddhist popularity.
 * 4) - “the great physician for a sick and impure world” – remember that Buddhism started from Siddhartha Gautama who was a prince that viewed society from above, and only after once looking beyond the window of importance had seen that people were suffering, thus Buddhism was created as a way to curb depression and aristocracy.
 * 5) - Buddhism disrupted Confucian impact on women by attacking the patriarchal nature. They stressed that women to had souls, and syncretized the blending of old patriarchal nature to a more modern day approach to women.

Christianity: (200BCE -600CE)
 * 1) - Christianity did not bring together an entire nation with the same effect as it’s counterparts. Not until 1,000 CE did Northern Europe develop a sense of unification through religion.
 * 2) - It was Diocletian, ruler of Rome from 284 – 305 BCE who emphasized in adopting Christianity. He tried to use the religious effect of Christianity to further unify the region, hoping that the population will follow in his footsteps. It’s not like the once Greco-Roman Empire will immediately turn into a Christian Nation though, well not yet of course. He even created the City of Constantinople in the East to establish a secondary control over the Empire which might have Christian influence, in fact control of church became a way of life.
 * 3) - Spread from the Middle East as a response to the Jewish Religion, who emphasized the ideal that a savior will come from above and determine Mankind’s fate. This established fear and responsibility throughout the Christian Nation.
 * 4) - Then again, God was also to be seen as a single Supreme Being in which loved humankind. Thus making it so people would feel humble/owing to God. This emphasized life and equality for all people.
 * 5) - Because of the size of the Roman empire, Christianity was able to travel through to Europe, The Middle East, Persia, Axum, and Ethiopia, expanding a further kingdom of Christian worship = unification/ attempt at unification
 * 6) - By the time of Constantine, 10% of the Roman empire accepted the religion, where also the fall of Rome added onto the effect, while also adding to spiritual equality, modified the priority of central importance of State in Rome, so that one’s on interior being was greater than that of the State. + Often times slaves found it more bearable to have God’s benevolence.
 * 7) Islam:
 * 8) - After 600CE, Islam, an entirely different religion from the rest had made it so that it became the most popular religion during that time period.

**//Classical Civilizations often tended to “cement it’s civilizations” through the use of Religion to promote a cultural sense of fateful belonging, which establishes loyalty to local/political units.//** **//Religion was taking new focuses on life, rather than adopting to old tradition, religion was transitioning in relation with current social/political/cultural values.//**