The Classical Period: Directions, Diversities, and Declines by 500 C.E.
Chapter 3 – Ancient Indian to ca C.E. 200, Chapter 4 – The Rise and Growth of China to ca. C.E. 200, Chapter 7 – The Glory of Rome and Chapter 9 – The Islamic World
The basic themes of the three great classical civilizations of China, India and the Mediterranean involved expansion and integration. Throughout the classical world, these themes faltered between 200 and 500 C.E., signaling the end of that era. The response of major religions to political decline formed a leading direction in the next phase of world history. Meanwhile, developments outside the classical orbit gained new prominence.
Common themes for the classical civilizations include territorial expansion and efforts to integrate the peoples of the new territories. Responses to expansion included philosophers who commented on the policy, like Confucius, Buddha, and Socrates. Integration involved tow basic issues: first, how to govern the new territories, and second, how to create social cohesion throughout the empire. In retrospect, it appears the Chinese and Indians were more successful at establishing social cohesion than the Mediterraneans were.
Nomadic peoples were often agents of contact between civilizations and between farming peoples and town dwellers. Both Chinese and Roman armies battled hostile nomads who threatened to disrupt trade. Religions, art, agriculture, technology, and, most infamously, disease spread along trade routes established by nomads. Sedentary civilizations adopted military tactics and material from nomadic peoples and developed their own to deter them, like the Great Wall and gunpowder, in China.
A combination of external weakness and invasion led to the decline of classical civilizations in China and then India. From 200 to 600 C.E., al three classical civilizations collapsed entirely or in part, and all three were invaded by outside groups from central Asia. The central Asian nomadic Huns attacked all three classical civilizations. About 100 C.E., the Han dynasty began serious decline. Weakened central government, social unrest led by overtaxed peasants, and epidemics were the most prominent sources of decline. Unlike those in Rome, the cultural and political structures in China were too strong to be fully and permanently overturned. The decline in India was not as drastic as in China. By 600, Huns destroyed the Gupta Empire. For several centuries no native Indian led a large state there. Hinduism gained ground as Buddhism, unappealing to the warrior caste, declined in its native land.
Decline in Rome was multifactorial. Population declined, leadership faltered, the economy flagged, tax collection became more difficult, and, as a result and perhaps most significantly, despondency pervaded much of the citizenry. The decline in Rome was more disruptive than in China or India and was more pronounced in the Western portion of the empire than in the eastern. In Italy, Spain, and points north, the fall of Rome shattered unities and reduced the level of civilization itself. Emperors Diocletian and Constantine slowed the spiral of decay but only temporarily; the latter moved the capital to Constantinople and allowed Christianity. When Germanic tribes invaded in the 400s, there was little power or will to resist. In the eastern half, a remnant of the empire survived as the Byzantine Empire. In earlier days of the Roman Empire, two Middle Eastern civilizations, the Parthian and the Sassanid, attempted to revive the Persian Empire. Each served as bridges between the Mediterranean and the East. The Sassanids were in turn overthrown by Islamic Arab conquerors.
Movie clip – Decline of Rome’s Empire.asf
Movie clip – Why do Civilizations end?.asf
As the classical civilizations declined, what developed into the world’s major religions – Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam – flourished and shaped the global map of faith into the one we recognize today. People sough solace in the spiritual world as they saw their temporal world collapsing. Christianity, once persecuted in the West, became widespread. Similarly, Buddhism grew in China and the East. Islam surfaced and became a dynamic force in the areas in between. With Hinduism, Islam shared some commonalities: intense devotion, piety, and a hope for better life after this one. Each also responded to political instability and to poverty. Each often took on features of local cultures, in a process called “syncretism.”
Buddhism
Altered as it traveled beyond India, and Buddha himself became more of a savior figure than a teacher of a way. Women in China were especially drawn to this faith in that many felt it led to a more meaningful life. Ultimately, with the revival of dynasties in China, Buddhism was persecuted, but it remained a minority current. It had a greater influence in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.
Christianity
Played a major part in the formation of postclassical civilizations in eastern and western Europe. It emphasized missionary activity even more than Buddhism did. Its beginnings were in the early days of the Roman Empire, near the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. Jesus preached compassion with great conviction and charisma, but in his lifetime he had relatively few followers. Over time, his message of the spiritual equality of all people and an afterlife of heavenly communion with God replaced the comparatively unsatisfying traditional polytheistic religion of the Romans.
Islam
Islam created a new empire encompassing Asia, African, and European territories. In the classical period, the three civilizations were roughly in balance; with Islam there was a world leader. In the seventh century C.E., the Arab followers of Muhammad surged from the Arabian Peninsula to create the first global civilization.
The Life of Muhammad and the Genesis of Islam
In the sixth century C.E., camel nomads dominated Arabia. Cities were dependent upon alliances with surrounding tribes. Pressures for change came form the Byzantine and Sassanid Empires and from the presence of Judaism and Christianity. Muhammad, a member of the Banu Hasim clan of the Quaraysh, was born about 570. Left an orphan, he was raised by his father’s family and became a merchant. Muhammad resided in Mecca where he married a wealthy widow, Khadijah. Merchant travels allowed Muhammad to observe the forces undermining clan unity and to encounter the spread of monotheistic ideas. Muhammad became dissatisfied with a life focused on material gain and went to meditate in the hills. In 610, he began receiving revelations transmitted from god via the angel Gabriel. Later, written in Arabic and collected in the Quran, they formed the basis for Islam.
Persecution, Flight, and Victory
As Muhammad’s initially very small following grew, he was seen as a threat by Mecca’s rulers. The new faith endangered the gods of the Ka’ba. With his life in danger, Muhammad was invited to come to Media to mediate its clan quarrels. In 622, Muhammad left Mecca for Media where his skilled leadership brought new followers. He returned to Mecca in 629 and converted most of its inhabitants to Islam.
Arab and Islam
The new religion initially was adopted by town dwellers and Bedouins in the region where Muhammad lived. But Islam offered opportunities for uniting Arabs by providing a distinct indigenous monotheism supplanting clan divisions and allowing an end to clan feuding. The “umma,” the community of the faithful, transcended old tribal boundaries. Islam also offered an ethical system capable of healing social rifts within Arab society. All believers were equal before Allah’ the strong and wealthy were responsible for the care of the weak and poor. The Prophet’s teachings and the Quran became the basis for laws regulating the Muslim faithful. All faced a last judgment by a stern but compassionate god.
Universal Elements in Islam
Islam, by nature, contained beliefs appealing to individual sin many differing world cultures. They included its monotheism, legal codes, egalitarianism, and strong sense of community. Islam, while regarding Muhammad’s message as the culmination of divine revelation, accepted the validity of similar components previously incorporated in Judaism and Christianity. Islam’s five pillars provide a basis for underlying unity: 1. acceptance of Islam; 2. prayer five times daily; 3. the fast month of Ramadan; 4. payment of a tithe (zakat) for charity; and 5. the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.
The World Around 500 C.E.
Developments in many parts of the world by 500 B.C.E. produced three major themes in world history. First, there were responses to the collapse of the classical empires. Societies reworked their key institutions and values after internal decline and external invasion. Second, there were the creation of and reaction to the new religions that developed. Third, increased skill in agriculture and the development of early civilizations or new contacts prepared parts of Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas for future changes.
Global Connections: The Late Classical Period and the World
Each of the classical civilizations radiated trade and other influences to areas larger than their own boundaries. For example, China had contact with Korea and Vietnam, and central Asian nomads linked East and West through the Silk Roads and other means. Decline of classical authority meant overland routes became more precarious; thus, increasingly, sea lanes were used, especially in the Indian Ocean. At the same time, missionaries and nomadic raiders took advantage of more porous borders. These changes set new bases for connections within Afro-Eurasia.
Key terms
Checking for Knowledge
True or False
All three classical civilizations originally stressed equality of the sexes.
The only reason for the decline of the classical civilizations was the invasions by nomadic tribes.
The fall of classical China resulted in a collapse of its social structure as well.
India’s fragmented political system allowed its culture to continue after the decline of the Gupta Empire.
Rome’s decline can be attributed to a combination of internal and external forces.
The Byzantine Empire effectively controlled the entire Middle East.
Buddhism was more popular outside India than within.
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