Foundations+Unit


 * Summary:** Civilization had only started to accomodate itself at around the time of the __Neolithic Revolution__, (9000-4000BCE), mostly on part because agriculture had started to replace the modest amount of game and gathering societies, and through this sedantary practice, societies converged to introduce the small but growing intellectual/economic/social/political spheres of civilization. Most of these early groups had taken root into fertile-rich land, between the Tigris-Euphratus, the Huanghe, and the Nile, and one Civilization, __Catal Huyuk__ settling in Turkey had been just one of the many nations growing out in Middle China, The Mediterrean, the Sub-Saharan Desert. But one of the earliest and prominent of civilizations had taken its roots in the Mesopotamian region, where City-states, Social Systems, Code of Law, Sanskrit, Cuneiform, and a barter system had came to define the complex role of civilization in the pre-historic world.


 * Summary:** China was one of the earliest civilizations that emphasized on a prominent central government that would keep progress and maintain order at the same time. This occurance did not happen over a span of a hundred years though, it took its turn in stages, the first starting with the Zhou dynasty. The Zhou were the first dynasty to China, and it was new, very agricultural and politics was just starting to be experimented on. In the end though, the Zhou fell apart because of corruption and constant warfare amongst regional powers who sought to control the emporer's autocratic seat. It wasn't until the Qin dynasty took over that Politics started to grow further somewhat. Emporer Shi Huangdi, the first emporer of the Qin dynasty emphasized on legalism, a strong authoratative central government that will maintain order in an era of choatic struggle for power. He established a new system, qualification tests for bureaucrats, and enforced a strong army in order to maintain that social stability in which a country needs to survive. His dynasty though fell a little short in time. Right after his death, new powers sought to take control of the unpopular Qin dynasty. This new power was the Hans. The Hans focused on a further political role, creating more qualification tests and started to trainsition the central politics toward confucianism. this transition provided a strong backbone for the Hans, because 1. they weren't as harsh as the Qins, and 2. They still provided most of the same political laws that legalism drove. In the end, China became one of the most developed civilizations in the world because they had these stepping stones to build off of early on, allowing them to settle and base their cultures, intellectual atmosphere, and advance technology.

**Summary:** Active religious beliefs and cultural practices seperated India from China, who's main aspect of civilization had been to promote Unity in the form of Politics, and Social Equality. In India, the main partition had been to work willingingly to reach the state of Nirvana and to uphold cultural beliefs. Through these religious practices of Hinduism lead to the devlopment of the Caste System, under which the Brahman Priests were placed at the upper levels and created social inequality. They also influenced literature, art, and cultural ideaology, which then influenced the cultural importance of social interactions between nature and the gods. Also what seperated India from China was the way in which India ruled, through regionalism. Although Chandragupta had attempted to unite the entire sub-continent, it was short-lived, and further divisions in political power spread across the nation. Governmental institutions though were not what defined India to be India. Geographically the distinct features, made India so diverse. With the Himilayans in the north easy and the Sea in the south, not only was India cluturally diverse but it promoted a variety of agricultral products. Trade was also a prominent factor in India's classical life, since it was generally in the vicinity of the center of the classical civlizations, India had access to cultural aspects and goods from all over the Middle-east, Europe, and Asia. And only because India was so religiously active and culturally diverse, did it allow for India to live long term and develop a distinctivee society.  I n comparison to Classical China, Rome was primitive in sets of central government, in Intellectual curiosity and in Technology, but that's also why Rome is Rome, alongside with a distinguishable Social structure, a more “free” social system, and a cultural sense of Heroism. For China, the best was to rule was through Confucianism, where law was maintained through a strong central government, under one monarch who himself is not above the State. To Rome's direct democracy and the roman senate, their way of rule was tight and fit. There was no way Rome could possibly duplicate the elaborate structure of China's tight bureaucracy where 13,000 officials from all over the nation unite to establish law. After all Rome was still an extremely small state compared to China, only needing 500 of so representatives. Also China didn't adopt the usage of slaves, thus meaning they had to find several other ways to encourage trade, or agricultural prosperity. Rome on the other hand, had an abundance of slaves, and therefore never actually needed to develop new ways to benefit and improve the life style of it's citizens. In convergence though was both nation's tendency to fight for power. Except Rome and most of it's neighbors emphasized a strong distinction in heroism and power to an ordinary citizen. They believed in a cultural value of showing dominance and power in it's natural form, which led more or less to warlike conditions that could set off. They advanced greatly in military due to the constant fighting, and were generally much more powerful in terms of military strength than China. There was also the fact that in Rome, there was a “freer” social class system, where women were put to be the lowest of lows, and they actually had a say in family affairs. When compared to India now, Rome lacked on the front for religion, culture, but what kept them both similar was the trade, economic, and governmental factors. India had Hinduism, and Budhism; they believed in the afterlife, in gods, in nature; they had one central religion. Rome though had it's greek gods, Christianity, some Phonecian gods, Corinth Gods, gods of Africa, or the Middle East. They had everything, maybe because of their slave population, but either way they never developed a central religion where cultural access and spiritual freedom could be obtained. And Culturally, India had the access of religion as a source of worship and a source of architerture. They had books, poems, stories about the gods. They have rituals in which to perform, dieties in which to worship, and gods in which to sacrifice. Rome on the other hand seemed very isolated without any representation for one central religious divinity. Also what remained the same was the governmental structure with importance of city-states and common localism. Rome just wasn't going to establish the exact same culture as others, and neither will others to it. The Classical Period: Directions, Diversities, and Declines by 500 CE > fall of China and Rome, Gupta dynasty of India still lived on + took economic advantage and used prosperity to make more temples, but after Gupta Dynasty fell the classical age was done >3 reasons, 1 horseback warfare was unfamiiliar, development of civilization led to downfall
 * Summary:**

Expansion and Integration C- political culture of centralised power Scholarly I- key religious incentives w/ hinduism R- Cultural achievements C- expanded south + pushed northerners down to south to centralise them I- Southward w/ Hinduism as incentive R- Local autonomy w/ tolerance, elite network, grain growers <=> olive + grape growers Socially all the kingdoms had different social class systems w/ emphasis in slavery R- arisotocrats protected the poor to inspire loyalty I- religion + afterlife

Beyond the Classical Civilizations // Decline in China and India suffered from asian invaders (huns) 100 ce starts the decline politically, governmental control became more lenient and local rulers had choice of what to do peasents were taxed even more Daoist movement by peasents to shift corrupt poliices (184ce)30k protestors; failed and china just kept going down b/c of internal weakness Huns were able to invade the cvilization China reviived itself to Sui and Tang dynasties proving that = new art + lit + style + did not have to reinvent civilization 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 Buddhism declined but Hinduism was backed up by the government using the image of Devi to inspire hope and peace 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 b/c of denial of middle-eastern faith, middleeast didn't want to trade with India =economic decline
 * lack of intellectual achievements such as math

Decline of Rome population dclined, so were the armies b/c not enough good people out there corrupt government Taxation No sense of afterlife = no sense in living Series of plagues pretorian guard chose its ruler created confusion and were waiting for the right knig. Population of rome decresed from a millino to 250,000 focus on hiring mercenaries aristocrats didn't want to have kids thus weakened the future aristocrat life. Not a lot of religious and cultural activiities besides writing decentralization of political authority