INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY
1) History is a branch of learning that seeks to satisfy man’s curiosity about his past.
2) Herodotus (c480—425), a Greek scholar; made the first attempt to study history, tasked himself of telling the Persian wars by making enquires, called his enquires about the past historia from which the word history is derived, is considered as “the father of history”.
3) 18th century Europeans believed human society passed through three stages as it develops.
4) 1st-------Savagery, 2nd -----------Barbarism, 3rd ------------------Civilisation.
5) Savagery was a state of mans development in the woods or forest.
6) The Latin word for wood was Silva; the Roman word for savage was silvaticus.
7) Characteristics of Savages; they were neither farmers nor herders but hunter-gathers, fishers or nomads.
8) 16th century scholars regarded the state of savagery as the lowest state of culture.
9) From the Greek word barbaroi or barbarophonoi the word barbarian emerged.
10) characteristics of Barbarians; they( lived in hamlets, cultivated grain and domesticated animals such as horses ), where illiterates, spoke a foreign language and did not speech Greek, in some cases lived as nomads and drank the milk of mare, the Celts and Scythians where accomplished in art and craft
11) Types of Barbarians-----SCYTHIANS, SARMATIANS, CELTS and LIGURIANS (all originated in ancient India, Germany and Italian regions).
12) The word civilisation was derived from “Civilis” a Latin adjective for citizen or people of the city
13) Characteristics of civilization; develops out of a state of Barbarism, is capable of instructing in the arts of life, is enlightened and refined.
14) Civilization refers to the state or condition of social and intellectual refinement, it connotes high social development.
15) Culture can be used interchangeably with civilization.
16) Culture refers to the complex of shared values and practices that set a people apart from others.
17) Constituent elements of culture: Social behaviour, Religion, Values, Language, Ideas, ways of doing and making things.
18) Basic elements of culture; economic aspects(their means of feedings and sheltering), social aspect(their ways of living in peace with others), political aspect(their way of ruling themselves), artistic, religious and intellectual aspect(their perception, beliefs, values and ideas)
EARLY STAGES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
1) Man originated in Africa.
2) Possible origination in two periods. 1st ----------1 ½ million years ago(pre 1974), 2nd -----------3 million years ago(based on Lucy’s discovery in 1974)
3) Lucy, part of an American team of archaeologists discovered an upright walking ape in 1974,
4) Part of the teaching of the church was that man was created by God in the Garden of Eden.
5) Charles Darwin (1809-82), an English Naturalist postulated the theory of evolution in 1859 based on Natural selection.
6) Scholars have still not been able to find fossils that proved the transmutation from apes to humans.
7) Stages of human development: Palaeolithic Age(c400,000---7,000BC), Neolithic Age(7,000BC-500AD)
8) Characteristics of Palaeolithic society: the “band” was the social unit and practiced division of labour on gender lines, their dwelt in caves or shelters, they invented tools, bands spread all over the world by the end of the period.
9) Characteristics of the Neolithic Age: it began after the ice age, hunters and gatherers relied on Agriculture for survival
10) The earliest cultivated crops included wheat, barley, peas and lentils.
11) The earliest domesticated animals include sheep, pigs and goats.
12) Impact of systematic agriculture: it promoted the rise of (villages, towns and cities), it aided population growth through agricultural surpluses, it aided the craft industry and large scale trade, it made life more complex and necessitated the invention of writing.
13) Urban civilisations where aided by great rivers and first appeared in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley and the yellow river valley.
14) Rivers ensured: easy communication, soil fertility, irrigation, fishing, mud for bricks used in building.
15) Sumerians lived in south Mesopotamia.
16) Their civilisation emerged around 3500BC until 1700BC.
17) They reached civilization by 3100Bc and had cities as Lagash and Ur.
18) They flourished on agriculture and comprised of 15—20 small city-states politically independent but economically dependent.
19) The discovery of crafts in the “Royal graves of Ur” provides evidence of Sumerian art and craft.
20) Their crafts included: metallurgy, stone-carving, glass working, carpentry and wire ornamental works.
21) They understood the “closed mould” and cire Perdue method of casting.
22) They lacked metal and had to import from Asia Minor through India.
23) Sumerians worshiped gods like Enlil and Enki, they had traditional priest to perform rituals and offerings, they built Ziggurat(massive step tower) which where temples in honour of their gods
24) The earliest example of cire perdue casting was discovered at Tell Agrab.
25) It was an elaborate model of a car or chariot drawn by 4 onagers which dates from mid 3rd millennium.
26) Sumerians inventions; 1st ----------the wheel (they where first to invent this by inventing the potter’s wheel), 2nd -----------Glass manufacture, 3rd -------------------Glazing (covering of something with glaze).
27) Religion evolved as a response to threat posed by floods.
28) Sumerians made the oldest architectural invention, the brick column inspired by the trunk of a date plant.
29) Sumerian system of Government------a Governor (ensi) or King (lugal) ruled the city states, kingship was hereditary and rulers had absolute power and made laws.
30) Sumerian Social Structure was categorized into two groups; 1st -----------Nobility(the king and his kin, chief priest and high official), 2nd --------------------Freemen(Clients and Commoners)
31) Free citizens could not sell their land without their families’ approval; neither could they be deprived of their land without consent.
32) Clients comprised a freemen and women who served the nobility in exchange for permission to use some of their plots of land.
33) Slaves comprised captives, aliens, debtor and convicted criminals sometimes beaten and branded; they could buy their freedom with money. Some profited from trade, they automatically regained their freedom after three years.
34) Sumer began to experience a series of external invasion around 2331BC.
35) Akkadians, led by Sargon (the first world conqueror) where the first to invader Sumer.
36) Sargon established the Semitic kingdom of Akkad and built Akkad as its capital after conquering Sumer.
37) Akkadians helped to spread Mesopotamian culture.
38) The “Fertile Crescent” refers to the belt of rich farmlands extending from Mesopotamia through Syria and down to Egypt.
39) Sargons had dominant rule in Mesopotamia from c2331---c2000, after c2000 BC Babylonians became more dominant.
40) Babylonians where Semitic migrants from Arabia
41) They entered Mesopotamia from about 1792BC and flourish along the middle of the Euphrates.
42) Hammurabi was an important Babylonian king.
43) His achievements include; conquering Akkad and Assyria and unifying Mesopotamia, establishing Marduk as Chief Babylonian god for all Mesopotamians, making Babylon the religious and cultural centre of Mesopotamia, helping to spread the Sumerian form of writing.
44) Sumerians introduced Cuneiform as a form of writing, it comprised of pictographic, ideographic and phonetic systems.
45) Sumerians introduced the concept of place value as a contribution to mathematical development.
46) They used geometry and trigonometry to helped the construct cities, temples, canals etc
47) Mesopotamians were polytheistic, and saw themselves as anthropomorphic-------humans with divine capabilities.
48) There where gods of music, law, sex, victory. Marduk assigned duties to the lesser gods.
49) Mesopotamians worshipped; to appease their gods and avert natural catastrophes.
50) Mesopotamians created Myths to; explain the creation of the earth, explain the origin of human beings.
51) King Hammurabi’s law code included; No equality before the law, No counsel in trials, protection of consumers against looting and cheating, regulating (farming, irrigation, cultivation of crops and rearing of animals), Marriage was a business arrangement between the groom-to-be and his future father-in-law, a husband could sell his wife and children to pay debts.
52) Under Hammurabi a father was free to; adopt and include children into his will, disinherit a son without just cause
53) Under Hammurabi a son; who struck his father lost his hands, who wrong his father the second time could be disinherited.
54) Under Hammurabi a woman; was expected to be strictly faithful to her husband, was restricted from business.
55) Adulterers where bound and thrown into a river. With the king’s approval a husband could spare the life of his wife.
56) Holidays and religious festivals provided relaxation and entertainment.
EARLY GREEK HISTORY(c 1650-500BC)
1) Greeks were the first to; address most question that pre-occupy today’s thinkers, seek to understand the universe and mankind in logical rational terms, develop the concept of politics, develop philosophy and science.
2) Greece (Hellas) comprised the Aegean Sea and its Islands. This hindered unity
3) Achaeans invaded the Greek peninsula and disposed the Pelasgians around 2000BC.
4) By 1650BC, they had been established at the Great city of Mycenae.
5) Pelasgians where small farming communities from Thessaly and Messenia.
THE MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION (c1650-1100BC)
6) The Mycenaean civilization characterized the first Greek speaking culture.
7) The Greek scholar Odyssey ,wrote lliad, an epic poem and described the civilization as the Heroic age
8) After reading the lliad, Schliemann, a German businessman excavated the region to reveal that the Mycenaens built cites and palaces at Mycenae, Thebes, Athens, Tiryns and Pylos.
9) The excavation revealed that; palaces served as a symbols of the kings power and economic centre of the kingdom, royal craftsmen manufactured jewellery and rich ornaments, fine pottery and forged weapons were made, hides and wools served as clothes, there was extensive division of labour, scribes kept records using a script called “Linear B”
10) Social structure; At the top---------king and his warrior aristocracy. Bottom-------slaves.
THE MINOAN CIVILISATION (c 1650-1450BC)
11) Also called the “Bronze Age” civilization, It flourished on the Island of Crete between 1650-1450BC.
12) Sir Arthur Evans excavated the island in the early 20th century.
13) His excavations revealed that; the king and his warrior aristocrats where at the top of society, the palace was the political and economic canter, bronze implements had been used, there was trading with Egyptian and Levantine cities
14) The main palace of Minoan was at Cnossos.
15) Around 1450 BC, Minoan-Mycenaean relation went bad after being good.
16) Mycenaean’s destroyed the main palace at Cnossus and ruled Crete for the next 50 years.
17) Mycenae commerce expanded throughout the Aegean Sea while Myceanean culture spread throughout central and southern Greece.
18) The Dorians destroyed the Mycenaean kingdoms around 1200BC leading to the Dark Age between 1100-800BC in Greece.
19) absence of scared books that chronicled the past prevented many Greeks form knowing their past. They relied on the lliad which was based on legends and myths.
20) The Polis emerged as the basic, typical political and institutional unit of Greece after the Dark ages(800BC)
21) Cities where Urban and agricultural center.Three main cites where Athens, Sparta, Thebes.
22) An Acropolis was a hilly point in a polis. originally, it was a place of refuge, with monuments(temples, altars, plagues) for dedication to gods of the polis.
23) An “agora”, was a public square or market place in a polis. originally, it was a meeting place of the warrior assembly and later, the political centre of the polis.
24) Aristotle was of the view that civilized life outside the polis was unthinkable.
25) The Greeks never had a divine ruler because of emphasis on the individual exclusiveness but experienced monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy, tyranny, democracy and had an imperial bureaucracy and a standing army.
26) The Dark Age was followed by the Lyric Age (800-500BC) a period of extraordinary expansion and prosperity.
27) Greeks expanded throughout the Mediterranean in the 8th century BC due to land shortage and adventure.
28) Two lyric poets, Archilochus and Sappho; rejected the notion that poetry belonged solely to gods or great heroes, shared their experiences, thoughts and wisdom with others, wrote on their own experiences
29) The territories of Sparta expanded during the Lyric Age. Formerly Sparta faced over population and hunger.
30) Sparta begun a conquest of Messenia (to the west) in 735BC, it succeeded after 20 years and turned its people into helots or state serfs.
31) The messenian revolt in 650BC resulted in the Lycurgan regime reforms; Spartan non-nobles demanded and received equal right as nobles, political distinctions where eliminated, all citizens where legally equal, oligarchy replaced aristocracy as 2 kings and 28 elders formed a council of government.
32) A council deliberated on foreign and domestic affairs.
33) An assembly comprised all citizens, they deliberated on legislation submitted by the council,
34) Ephor refers to a five member council elected by the assembly.
35) Spartan men devoted their exclusive time to military training, at age 7 boys trained until they became soldiers at age 24.
36) Spartans hated wealth and luxury but glorified war and patriotism.
37) Athens changed from Aristocracy to Democracy in the Lyric Age as peasants demanded a codified law.
38) Until the 7th BC, aristocrats; owned the best land, governed the polis in an assembly, interpreted the law, forced small farmer to economically depend on them, sold or exiled some families for indebtedness.
39) Draco, an aristocrat, published the first law code in 161.
40) The Draco’s code was harsh and didn’t fully satisfy peasant as some demanded redistribution of land.
41) Solon (c638-559BC) an Athenian aristocrat and poet; was well respected and opposed tyranny, used his poems to condemn aristocratic greed and dishonesty, was elected “archon” (Chief Justice of Athenian polis) by the aristocrats.
42) Solon made reforms to; free all people enslaved for debt, recall all exiles, cancel all debts in Athens, divided society into four legal groups according to wealth, admitted the poorest and least powerful group into the old aristocratic assembly and allowed them to participate in the election of magistrates,
43) solon refused to become a tyrant and left Athens
44) Hippias(son of Pisistratus) succeeded his father as a tyrant but was overthrown.
45) With the people’s support of the people, Cleisthenes , an aristocrat won power in 508BC.
46) He created an Athenian democracy and adopted the deme as the basis of his political system and for citizenship. he promoted freedom of speech.
47) The demes where regrouped into 10 tribes that served as a link to the central government.
48) The central government comprised; an assembly of all citizens, a council of 500 members.
49) the assembly voted to ostracise potentially dangerous politicians.
50) Difference in Athenian and modern democracy; In theory poor and rich enjoyed political power and responsibility but in practice aristocrats held most important offices, Athenian democracy denied political rights to women, slaves ect, foreigners where rarely given citizenship and rulers where not chosen through adult suffrage, every citizen was expected to be able to perform the duties of a Magistrate, in Athens citizens voted and served while the majority determined the law
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD IN GREECE (500-338BC)
51) During this period Greek intellectuals and artistic efforts attained their fullest and finest expression.
52) Greeks in Ionia and other cities became more curious about their existence and viewed the universe in terms of Natural law and not mythology. Drama was invented in this period.
53) The three greatest dramatist of Athens were Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides
54) Ionian Greeks rebelled against the Persian Empire in 499BC.
55) In 490BC, Persians where defeated in the battle of Marathon and failed to invade Athens.
56) The Spartans lead the Greeks to resists King Xerxes(486-464BC) in 480BC.
57) Greeks defeated the Persian navy at Salamis in 480BC and at Plataea in 479BC.
58) Wily Themistocles was leader of the leading naval power in the Aegean Sea(the Athenian navy)
59) Athenians lead Greeks in 478BC to liberate Ionia from Persian rule in Persian territory.
60) Athenians formed the Delian League in 478BC but used it as an imperialist tool after expelling the Persians from the Aegean Sea by 459BC.
61) Pericles (494-429BC), king of Athen, continued an expansion and fought against some allies of Sparta in 459 BC, this resulted in an Athens-Sparta war.
62) Pericles died two years into the Peloponnesian war and was succeed by Alcibiades.
63) The Peloponnesian war a 27 year old war that Spartans engaged Athens in.
64) The classical period coincided with the age of Pericles(494-429BC)
65) life under Pericles; the Acropolis became centre of Greek religion and art, Greeks built small temple that honoured the goddess Athena and Athenian victories, the Parthenon a Doric temple was dedicated to all the gods, Drama became tied to religious festivals of the city, subsistence farming was practiced, slavery was practised, hunting was a major sport, slaves where protected by law and could buy their own freedom, women where protected by law and passed citizenship rights to their children, a woman’s main function where to (raise children, oversee domestic slaves and hired labour), work wool with her maids into cloth.
66) the religion under Pericles; there was no uniform faith or creed, Greeks worshipped and had cults for (Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Athena )etc that varied in each polis, Greeks had no established priesthood, Olympic games were held to honour Zeus, only Greeks could join mystery cults, members of mystery cults had to master a body of arcane(secret or esoteric and secret ritual to purify them for initiation to the cult) while banned from forbidden to disclose information about the cult
67) Alcibiades absconded to Sparta and plotted with Persia to defeat Athens.
68) Spartans defeated Athens in 404BC, under the command of Lysander.
69) Herodotus covered the major events of the war while Thucydides chronicled the history of the Peloponnesian war.
70) Thales (7th Century), the first pre Socratics, leaned maths and astronomy from the Babylonians and geometry from the Egyptians.
71) Anaximander; was the first pre Socrates to use general methods necessary for abstract thought, theorized that the basic element of the universe is boundless or endless, believed the earth floated in a void and was held in a balance from space, was of the view that humankind evolved naturally from lower organisms.
72) Hippocrates; was a pioneer in the science of medicine, taught natural means could be used to combat diseases, based his opinions on religion or magic, insisted that natural science was distinct from philosophy.
73) Sophists; were paid itinerant professional teachers of logic, philosophy and rhetoric, believed human beings were the right subject of study and it was possible to teach excellence, used philosophy and rhetoric to prepare the youth for life in the polis, emphasized logic and semantics, criticized (traditional beliefs, religion, ritual and myths), argued that everything was relative and not absolute
74) Socrates(470-399BC);spent his life in investigation and definition, believed that essential subjects of study was human beings and the environment, by questioning he sought to find truth and happiness, to him “Supreme God” was the pursuit of excellence, excellence included the quest for knowledge to achieve true happiness,
75) Socrates was trailed and executed in 399BC for introducing new gods and corrupting the youth of the polis.
76) Plato(427-347BC) a student of Socrates believed that; reality existed only in non verbal form, visible and tangible things are copies of “forms” &”ideas” which are constant and indestructible, the mind and not senses could perceive eternal “forms”(reality was found only in the non-material world),an individuals role in life was determined by education, wisdom and ability, men and women where equals
77) Plato founded the Academy as a philosophical school, wrote “The Public” to define the ideal polis being one whose rulers where philosophers and whose society was divided into Rulers, Guardians and Workers.
78) Aristotle(384-322BC), was a student of Plato.
79) He described his view of the ideal polis in “The Politics”, as such; he was of the view that people with talent and education brought about balance in the ideal state also he tried to understand the changes of nature, he developed a theory which sought to explain the notion of mater, form and motion and also tried linking Abstract Truth and concrete Perception(developed by Plato) and “on the Heaven”, his theory on cosmology included Ether as an additional building block of the universe(besides air, fire, water and earth) and also believe that the universe being spherical and eternal revolved and that the earth was the centre of the universe.
80) This notion that the earth was the centre of the universe prevailed till the 15th Century AD when Nicolaus Copernicus a polish astronomer disproved it.
THE FALL OF GREECE
81) Sparta’s attempt to create an empire after the Peloponnesian war alienated her from her allies.
82) In 371 BC, Epaminondas commanded the Theban army to destroy Sparta’s army in Boeotia on the plain of Leuctra leaving Thebes the most powerful state in Greece.
83) There was a stalemate in Greece after the death of Epaminondas in 362BC, three year s later Philip II became King of Macedonia (a colony in Greeks northern boarder).
84) Demosthenes, an Athenian patriot called for an opposition to King Philip.
85) In 338BC Philip’s army defeated the Athenian--Thebes’s alliance at Chaeronea a boeotian city and ended Greek freedom and independence.
86)
EGYPT
1) Egypt flourished between c 3100BC---1200BC. It is sometimes described as “the gift of the Nile”
2) Importance of the Nile; It did not poses a threat to life and property, it supported agriculture, it unified Egypt by establishing close links between settlements,
3) By 3100BC, there were about forty stable agricultural settlements in Egypt.
4) Egypt had; Stone for construction, Gold (Au) for Jewellery, Clay for pottery.
5) Egypt lacked but acquired; Copper (Cu) from Sinai and timber from Lebanon.
6) Characteristics of Egypt’s geographical location that prevented invasion and large scale immigration; the Nubian desert and the cataracts discouraged entry from the south, the eastern desert and the Sahara shielded Egypt, for centuries for centuries Egypt utilized her resources as it enjoyed peace.
7) The History of Egypt is usually divided into 6 periods, the: Archaic Period,
Old Kingdom (c2660—2180BC), First Intermediate (c2180—2080BC), Second Intermediate (1640—1570BC), New Kingdom (c1570—1075BC)
8) During the Archaic Period Egypt was unified under Pharaoh Menes and developed the 24 alphabetical signs. Menes meant “Great House”, it was in reference to his magnificent palace.
9) During the Old Kingdom there was prosperity, art flourished, religious believes evolved and pyramids where construct.
10) Pyramids were huge tombs for burying Pharaohs’. 80 of them where built in totality. Famous ones built by Zoser, Sneferu and Khufu.
11) During the first intermediate there was confusion and bedlam, however during the middle kingdom (2080—1640BC) there was political recovery and stability.
12) During the second intermediate the Hykos invaded Egypt.
13) During the New Kingdom Egypt expanded to become an empire by the 18th dynasty and pharaoh Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti imposed monotheism on Egypt. They declared Aton, the sun god as the only god in Egypt around c1360BC.
14) The Pharaoh was an absolute monarch and a divine ruler. He was represented by the earthly sun and worshipped.
15) Amon-Re was the chief god of Egypt. Amon and Re where two gods combined to form one god.
16) Osiris (god of fertility and judge of the dead) was associated with the Nile. He rewarded the just with everlasting life.
17) Isis, wife of Osiris, revived him each year that he died.
18) Anubis (god of mummification) was assisted by Osiris.
19) Egypt nature gods where protected by taboos, of kept in temples and mummified after death. They included; crocodiles, cats, bulls, vultures.
20) Pharaohs’ were buried with all that the soul (KA) required for survival in the afterlife. before 3000BC servants, herdsmen and their flocks where sacrificed for this purpose, however during the old kingdom, status of scribes, officials, soldiers and servant replaced real humans in the pharaohs’ burial chamber.
21) Egyptians embalmed a corpse to preserve it and wrapped it in cloth to enable the KA survive.
22) Embalmed corpses were referred to as mummies. There where substituted with stone statutes in the event that they got broken.
23) Sketches on tomb walls were made to remind the KA about daily life on earth.
24) Egyptian art portrayed objects in their true likeness (Naturalism).
25) Famous art forms included; Bronze figures, obelisks and sphinxes.
26) Before 3000BC urban houses in Egypt where rectangular in shape. Between mid 16 & 11 century BC massive stone building were built.
27) The three forms of Egyptian writing where Hieroglyphics, hieratic, Demotic.
28) Hieroglyphics combine pictures and sound symbols. They were deciphered in the 19th and early 20th century AD.
29) Hieratic was a shorthand writing used mainly by priests.
30) Demotic was a faster cursive developed around 600BC.
31) Egyptian alphabets became a model for Phoenician alphabets. Phoenician alphabets were transmitted to Greeks in the late 8th century BC.
32) Greeks included vowel sounds to the letters of the alphabets.
33) Egyptians invented pen and paper from Papyrus reed and ink from a mixture of water, gum and carbon(C). This promoted literature.
34) Egyptians developed the decimal system by using 10 as a unit of calculation.
35) Egyptian priest established a calendar of 365 days in c2776BC consisting of 12 months of 30 days each except the 12th month that had 35 days and invented the water clock and sun dial.
36) A Greek named Thales invented geometry out of Egyptian rectangle calculation methods.
37) Egyptian trade import; Sinai---- (Cu), turquoise. Libya and Palestine-----olive oil. Lebanon (Phoenicia) ------Cedar wood for ship building. India-------Spices and incense. Mesopotamia (Punt) ------apes, ivory, incense, (Au), slaves and leopard skin. Nubia--------Au, Cu, Ivory, slaves, oxen and goats.
38) The Egyptian army was introduced during the New Kingdom in the expulsion of the Hyksos. It had a Calvary and infantry.
SMALL KINGDOMS IN THE NEAR EAST
HYKSOS
1) Large scale movement of people in the near east began in the 2nd millennium BC.
2) The Hyksos were a Semitic people from the Arabian Peninsula. About 1800 they began to migrate and about 1640 settled in the Nile Delta.
3) They ruled Egypt for about 70 years (1640—1570).
4) The Hyksos where expelled and replace by the 18th dynasty of Egypt which included Ahmose, Thutmose I, Thutmose II and Akhenaten.
5) The Hyksos; introduced bronze technology to replace Copper (Cu) in Egypt, introduced horse-drawn chariots, worshipped Egyptian gods, modelled their monarchy on the Pharaohs.
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HITTITES
6) The Hitties where Indo-European people who began to expand eastwards from Anatolia about the same time as the hyksos entered the Nile Valley.
7) Their original home was probably the Steppes region near the Caspian sea.
8) They infiltrated Anatolia (modern turkey) in c 2700BC.
9) They were the first people in the near east to master iron technology.
10) The Hittites built an empire that ended the dynasty of Hammurabi (1792-1750BC).
11) In 1300BC, the Hittites defeated Egypt in the battle of Kadesh.
12) In 1200BC, Hittite and Egyptian empires became victims of Indo-Europeans and sea people including Semitic speaking Hebrews.
13) Hittite kings where monarchs, they combined roles of army commander, chief judge and chief priest.
14) Hittite Queens performed important religious duties and often engaged in diplomacy.
15) The Aristocrats where a privileged group below the King and Queen and included the king’s kin.
16) The kings kin: where disobedient, dominated royal administration, often rebelled against the king.
17) Warriors where last in Hittite social order. They had the right to a Pankus (a warriors’ private gathering).
18) The Pankus; met to hear a kings will but could not vote, could punish criminal like a law court.
19) Independent state of Syria, Lebanon, and Hebrew emerged after the ruin of the Hittites and Egyptian empires in the 13th century.
PHOENICIA
20) Phoenicians were; Semitic-speaking people, good sailors, great merchants, great explorers.
21) They founded Cathage in 813BC. other cities are Syria, Lebanon and Byblos
22) Achievements, Phoenicians developed; an urban culture based on commerce, new alphabets in which each letter designed one particular sound, spread the iron technology westwards to the Greeks and southwards to African.
23) By 250BC most of west Africa had mastered Iron technology
24) By 500AD sub-Saharan African was producing steel.
PALESTINE
25) Philistines and Hebrews, two main tribal groups occupied the Palestinian region.
26) Philistine were part of the people referred to us sea people who raided Egypt.
27) They built 5 cities near the sea but gave up sea faring to become farmers and herders.
THE HEBREW OR ANCIENT JEWISH KINGDOM
28) Hebrew is derived from “Habiru” meaning a class of homeless, independent nomads.
29) the biblical Hebrew; had their original home in Northern Mesopotamia ,where led by Abraham into Canaan in modern Israel after wandering 40 years in the desert, built a political confederation for protection.
30) In Canaan Hebrews became known as children of Israel after their patriarch Jacob (Israel).
31) Moses led the 12 tribes of Israel (descendants of the 12 great-grandson of Abraham) out of Egypt in the 13th Century.
32) Hebrews lived in Palestine with other Semitic people including the Amorites.
33) Judaism was based on a covenant-----a formal contract between Yahweh and Hebrews concluded on Mount Sinai through Moses. The Hebrew agreed to worship Yahweh alone, obey his commandment and in exchange he offered to protect them.
34) The Ten Commandments where viewed as an ethical code of law and custom that originated with Moses
35) Hebrews considered graven images Idolatrous
36) They did not consider it a duty to proselytize(to try to convert somebody to a religious faith or political doctrine)
37) the Hammurabi code influenced the Torah or Mosaic law (earliest part of the Hebrew law code)
38) The Mosaic Law became more humane by the help of prophets in the 11th -5th century BC.
39) Tribe ownership of land and water sources was replaced by communal ownership and then family ownership.
40) The extended family was replaced by the nuclear family and it served as the primary social institution.
41) Elders of the towns applied a father’s power of life or death over his family as urban life developed.
42) In times of nomadism a man was entitled to one wife but any number of concubines however a move to urban life promoted polygamous marriages to satisfy the need for children.
43) Marriage was not a religious ceremony and the groom’s father provided no dowry.
44) Divorce was available to only husbands.
45) First born son’s had special rights.
46) Infanticide was forbidden and baby boys where circumcised 8 days after birth.
47) Craftsmen usually lived in particular areas and by the 6th century BC, formed associations called guilds.
48) Israel and china’s wise men disapproved commence as to them it was exploitative and immoral.
49) The Amorites, kinsmen of the Babylonians had been living in Palestine since c1800BC
50) Saul, a farmer in the tribe of Benjamin, became first king of Israel in the cause of the 11th BC.
51) Saul centralized Israel politically and waged several wars against philistines.
52) David (1012—972BC) from Bethlehem succeeded Saul and established Jerusalem as capital.
53) He consolidated and expanded the empire.
54) Solomon(c972—932BC) David’s son; built a great temple in Jerusalem as a symbol of Hebrew Unity, established 12 administrative districts in place of the 12 tribal divisions, dominated trade and commerce, built cities, fortresses and roads.
55) After Solomon’s death in 932BC the Kingdom split in two. Israel in the northern half with Samaria as its capital and Judah in the southern half with Jerusalem as its capital which developed into the centre of Judaism, its people worshipped Yahweh and became known as Jews.
56) In the 8th Century BC Assyria attacked and destroyed Israel while Judah survived.
ASSYRIA AND PERSIA(c 770-550BC)
57) Assyrians were Semitic speaking natives of Northern Mesopotamia. Assyria was located between the Tigris and Euphrates
58) Nineveh was the Assyrian capital. Some other cities where Ashur and kalah.
59) Assyrian warfare enabled Tiglath Pilesser III & Sargon II and their successors to create a huge empire east and north of the Tigris to central Egypt. Other prominent kings where Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal.
60) By the 8th century BC the Assyrians empire consisted of provinces and dependencies.
61) By 716 BC Assyria had the best and most brutal military system comprised of infantry and Archers.
62) The Assyrian army; invented new siege machine and battering rams, used excavation to undermine city walls, trained engineers to bridge rivers with pontoons(flat bottomed boats), devised inflatable skins for crossing rivers.
63) Assyrians constructed Royal roads to: link all parts of the Empire, easily gather intelligence, suppress revolts.
64) Assyria ruled the entire Near east for nearly 200 years
65) In 612, the Medes and Babylonians formed an alliance to destroy the Assyria.
66) The Medes and Persians where Indo-Europeans. Medes settled in the North and Persians settled in the south. Their use of horse gave them an advantage.
67) Around 1000BC the Medes migrated from the steppes and settled In Iran, between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf.
68) Iran was the most important highway between the east and the west based on its geography and topography
69) Around 710 BC the Medes unified under one king. They subjugated the Persians in the south.
70) The ruins of Nineveh where excavated in AD 1839.
71) The ruins revealed that Babylon replaced Assyria around 612BC, also Nebuchadnezzar II (605-526BC) reined supreme in the near east in the 6th century BC.
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE(c 550BC)
72) The Persian Empire encompassed Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran and western India.
73) It was divided into 20 provinces each ruled by a governor.
74) Persia emerged powerful under King Cyrus (559-530BC).
75) King Cyrus freed Persians from the rule of the Medes nine years after ascending the Persian throne.
76) Cyrus extended his conquest to the west coast of Anatolia and conquered Lydia and Ionia in c 546BC
77) King Cyrus protected the Jews in Palestine.
78) His son Cambyses subdued Egypt, another son Darius turned western India into the province of Hindu Kush
79) Darius and his son Xerxes (486---464 BC) invaded Greece but never gained full control of it.
80) The main highway----the “Royal Road” spanned some 1677 miles from the Greek city of Ephesus to Susa in Western Iran and divided into 111 post stations.
81) Iranian-religion was initially polytheistic. Ahuramazda was the chief god (creator and benefactor of all living things), Mithra the sun god was in charge of Justice and redemption. Some gods represented the moon, earth, water, wind, fire.
82) Zoroaster (Zarathustra) laid the foundation for a new religion around 600BC.
83) He preached that: life was a battleground between good and evil, each individual had to choose between the two, Ahuramazda would judge the dead by weighing their life’s in a balance.
84) King Darius converted to Zoroastrianism in the 6th Century BC. It popularized the religion and marked the beginning of monotheism.
ANCIENT INDIA TO c 200AD
85) Ancient India comprised of Modern India, Nepal, Modern Pakistan and Afghanistan. It had 3 geographic zones.
86) In the north the Himalayas, in the centre the great valleys of the Indus and Ganges, in the south, the coastal plains and the dry and hilly Deccan Plateau.
87) The Himalayas was a ring of mountains 25,000ft above sea level and together with the southern monsoons it served as India’s greatest source of water supply. It also protected India from wanderers and cold winds from the north.
88) The best agricultural lands are found in the Punjab and Indus valley.
89) The Indus civilization passed through 2 phases. 1st Phase(c 2500-1500BC), 2nd Phase(c 1500-500BC)--(ARYAN CIVILISATION).
90) Phase I coincided with the old and middle kingdoms of ancient Egypt.
91) The foundations of phase one where probably laid by west Asian immigrants. They embarked on large-scale agriculture and developed a script.
92) Citadels where built for the defence of cities.
93) Indians had respect for animals and lived in harmony with nature.
94) The Indus civilisation maintained cultural and trade contact with Mesopotamia to the west.
95) Phase I begun to deteriorate around 1700BC and by 1500BC had completely deteriorated.
96) Phase II begun when the Aryans (who where tall, statured, blond haired Nordic wanders) entered into the Indus Valley.
97) Aryans where part of the: Scandinavian race who called themselves Aryans or noble, Indo-European migration.
98) Aryans where called Indo—European and later Indo Aryans, they spoke a language called Sanskris.
99) Aryans lived in tribes each headed by a Raja (chief), each tribe consisted of social groups namely Priest or Brahmins, Warriors, Commoners and Saves.
100) Achievement of the Aryan civilisation: first they founded Delhi, second they integrated their culture with that of the Dasus (the dark skinned aborigines of India), third they established kingdoms ruled by absolute monarchs, they developed India into a land of villages to carter for conquered and acquired lands.
101) Indians developed the cast system to separate Aryans from non Aryans.
102) A caste was a hereditary class of social equals.
103) By 500BC, Four main castes existed: Brahmins (priest), Kshatriya (warriors), Vaishya (peasants), Shudra (serfs).
104) The fifth caste comprised outcaste or untouchables. Outcasts where new comers in the society or persons expelled from their caste, they performed menial jobs in society.
105) Indians practised slavery to some extent.
106) Aryan gods symbolized natural phenomena such as Fire, water, Dawn, war. Indra was the Aryan god of war.
107) The wheel of life (a relentless cycle of life and death) came as a result of Brahmins reforms.
108) This idea was explained by two doctrines: Samsara and Karma.
109) Samsara (transfiguration of souls) suggested that a man’s soul moved in a continuous cycle from creature to creature.
110) Karma is the believe that the balance of good and bad determined mans status in the next life.
111) Man could escape continuous reincarnation through extreme asceticism and yoga or intense meditation.
112) If an individual perused any of the doctrines successfully, his Atman dissolves in the Brahma, thus it allowed him or her to be absorbed into a timeless and changeless state.
113) This was achieved by studying the Vedas (sacred revelations) and doing penance.
114) In the 6th and 5th century BC, 3 religions developed in India out of old Vedic religion; 1st --------------Hinduism, 2nd ----------Jainism, 3rd-------------Buddhism.
115) Buddhism and Jainism began as schools of moral philosophy, they both rejected by later accepted the existence of gods.
116) The central beliefs of Hinduism are: the Vedas (500BC)(earliest recorded scriptures) are sacred revelations, the Caste system is prescribed by the Vedas, Hinduism is a guide to life.
117) Hinduism taught that one; may pursue material gain honestly and honourably, may pursue pleasure with the aim of perpetuating the family, must study the vedes in one’s youth, must live a complete ascetic life in one’s old age.
118) The Bhagavad-Gita is India’s most treasured sacred hymn served as a spiritual guide.
119) In the 3rd BC, Hinduism viewed certain gods as personal manifestations of Brahma namely: Shiva (cosmic dancer who creates and destroys), Vishnu (the preserver and sustainer of creation, Krishna (a manifestation of Vishnu).
120) Hinduism emphasized a god-force in all life and observed a tradition of non-violence to all living creatures.
121) Jainism was founded by Vardhamana Mahavira(c 540-468 BC).
122) He taught the following; both animate and inanimate things are subject to Kharma, the universe and its contents are composed of souls usually mixed with matter, the only way to attain release is to rid oneself of all matter, the need for an ascetic life void of evil.
123) A Jain could become a vegetarian to avoid doing violence to life.
124) Buddhism was foundered by Siddhartha Gautama (563-483 BC), he was formerly a Ksatriya , but left Hinduism and settled life to become a wandering ascetic. He found universal enlightenment through meditation.
125) Buddha means the enlightened one.
126) Buddhists recognize four noble truths caused by human weakness: pain, suffering, frustration, anxiety
127) An 8 fold remedy to this is to: Under the evils you are suffering, decide firmly to free yourself from suffering, choose “right livelihood, endeavour to eliminate desires that are harmful and distracting, Have the right awareness, Mediate deeply on the impermanence of everything in the world
128) Nirvana refers to the state of happiness that one acquires after “right contemplation”----the 8th step.
129) Buddhists; see human beings as a collection of physical and mental parts, rejected the Hindu doctrine of transfiguration, believed gods are subject to change like humans, believed gods could help humans out of trouble but could never help people achieve enlightenment, did not regards as judges who monitor human life.
130) Reasons for the spread of Buddhism; it had popular appeal and simple message, unlike Hinduism it was open to anyone, it tacitly rejected the caste system
131) Buddhism split into two branches; Thereveda (Conservative) and Mahayana(less dogmatic), after Buddha’s death.
132) The Mahayana branch was called the larger vehicle because of its view that there where many ways to salvation.
133) Thereveda was popular in south East Asia while Mahayana was popular in China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam.
CHINA------FROM EARLY TIMES TO 200AD
1) In the west, China was separated from India by the Himalayas and Pamirs.
2) In the North china was separated from Russia by the Gobi desert and the Mongolian plateau.
3) In the south the forest and His river helped to protect china from outsiders.
4) Chinese society developed along the yellow river in the North and Yangtze River in the south.
5) The yellow river was tamed with dykes to enable wheat and millet to be cultivated
6) The Yangtze river was used to cultivate rice.
7) Three main dynasties ruled Egypt: The Shang(c1523—1027), The Chou, The Chin
8) The Shang were indigenous people of china. Their kings lived in great style and ruled with assistance from the aristocracy and bureaucracy.
9) Early Chinese worshipped a dead king and practised ancestral worship by entreating the dead to intercede with the gods on their behalf.
10) Shang-Ti was the most supplicated, being the supreme god
11) Writing materialized from the use of oracle bones in Shang religious practices for divination.
12) Originally the writing was pictographic and easily remembered; each sign had a phonetic value. Writing facilitated record keeping.
13) Both Koreans and Japanese adopted forms of Chinese writing.
14) The Chou Dynasty deposed that of the Shang in the 11th Century BC based on the “Mandate of Heaven”.
15) The Chou where farmers and herders from the WEI region.
16) The “Mandate of Heaven” emphasized that; the rule of china was the gift of heaven considered as a god, this gift required the Emperor and his successors to expand China’s border if possible while promoting prosperity and maintaining order for noblemen and peasant alike, Failure to meet these obligations leads to chaos and insecurity as such the last emperor loses power to the first man who should be able to restore order and prosperity, the first man succeeds because heaven transferred the mandate to him.
17) The Chou built their first capital near Sian in western china.
18) The Chou built their second capital at Loyand on the northern plain south of Anyang.
19) The Chou king; created a Chinese version of feudalism, delegated authority to (members of the royal family, loyal and talented subjects) referred to as lords, gave lords huge tracts of lands as gifts,
20) Lords pledged loyalty and military assistance to the king which became a written record.
21) The civil service began to emerge in the Chou dynasty as well as employment on merit and not birth.
22) Insecurity and poverty forced literate and talented aristocrats to migrate to boarder states where they were employed as military officers, administrators, ministers.
23) Achievements, the Chou dynasty; established armed camps to prevent revolts, built road and canals, introduced coined money to stimulate trade, introduced iron technology(wrought iron &cast iron), promote intellectual activities as(Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism) developed.
24) In 771 BC, they Chou dynasty abandoned its western capital as rebel lords defeated and killed the king.
25) The Era of the warring states refers to 181 years (402-221 BC) that china faced chaos and disorder.
26) In 256BC, the Chou king was forced to abdicate the thrown to the Chin ruler.
27) In 221BC, the Chin ruler conquered all states in china and after 35 years became sole ruler.
28) The chin ruler assumed the title chin Shin Huang Ti or First Emperor.
29) He built the great wall while his prime minister, Li Ssu helped him build a highly centralised state by weakening the power of the nobility and making them leaders of provinces.
30) The Chin dynasty; carried out a population census to enable the imperial civil service plan it’s activities, standardized (the Chinese script, weights, measures and coinage axle lengths of carts), made improvements in agriculture and industry as peasants land rights were expanded, constructed the great wall (1400 miles above sea level)
31) Chinese encroachment on Hun lands lead to a conflict with the Huns and the establishment of the great wall.
32) In the 4th century Chinese states built walls for protection.
33) misdeeds, the chine ruler; reportedly buried 460 Confucians alive, burnt many Confucian text, enforced the tenets of legalism to suppress other systems of thought, oppressed the common people, imposed heavy taxes on peasants.
34) Chin Shin Huang Ti or First Emperor died In 210 BC.
35) The new emperor was defeat by Liu Pang, a peasant and petty official in a peasant revolt who in 206BC established the Han dynasty.
36) The Han Dynasty made no serious reforms but laid the foundation for the Chinese empire.
37) Emperor Han Wu Ti pushed the Huns further north after embarking a 14 year war in 133BC.
38) The Hans established trade links with the Indian sub region and Japan
39) Chinese armies conquered Canton, South east coast of china, western Korea.
40) Chinese rule extended beyond its natural frontiers when North Vietnam was conquered by 111BC.
41) Indian culture prevailed among Malayan people in modern southern Vietnam and Kampuchea.
42) The Han Empire gave china unmatched peace and prosperity.
43) War and enormous imperial building projects weakened the Han Empire in the Christian era.
44) Agricultural productions declined as peasants were used as soldiers and workers.
45) Emperor Wang Mang(AD 9-23); failed to re-establish state monopoly on grain to control prices, wished to abolish slavery, redistributed land to peasants, was killed in a peasant revolt.
46) China split into 3 kingdoms from AD 221-280(three kingdom era) as a result of disorder and barbarism.
47) In the north----the kingdom of WEI, Upper Yangtze River valley-----Kingdom of Shu, lower Yangtze River Valley--------kingdom of WU.
48) The nomadic Toba from Mongolia created a northern dynasty and adopted Chinese way of life.
