World History

Introduction to World History: The Ancient World

• Those who want to study the past can be divided into 2 groups: those who want to find out how similar we are to the people thousands of years ago and those who want to find out how different we are to these people.
• Many people assume due to the pace of social and technological change in the modern era, everything in history is lumped together. But many are surprised how much they can relate to the people and events. This makes history an exercise in empathy.
• This series covers from the first human civilisations 4000 BCE to 2000 BCE.
• The ancient world was a time where people learned skills from their families such as farming.
• Cities were small, because they had to depend on whatever food they could grow. They had to be defensible. They had to have a source of fresh water. It was not as common for people to leave their birthplace and become citizens of another city.
• Communities were stratified consisting of the aristocracy, priesthood, and merchants.
• Differences in social status, for example between men and women, citizens and foreigners, were mandated into law.
• Technological and scientific advancements did not spread as easily as today, however techniques such as making bronze or calendars did spread throughout the ancient world.
• Both astronomy and astrology were both considered sciences.
• Both art and decoration were indistinguishable. Art and literature were anonymous and were the product of many contributors over generations. But there is a change of style and taste over time. Ancient literature tended to be produced and enjoyed by a small minority, which meant reading aloud to others.
• Sea travel was an efficient form of trade and communication, although only in the times of the year where wind was favourable. Ships stayed away from open sea to avoid bad weather and pirates. Cities would favour the coasts.
• It was a sign of a stable society if its inhabitants could travel safely from one place to another. Given the risks of trading over long distances, merchants dealt in valuable and easily transportable goods, like precious metals, spices, and artworks.
• The earliest societies we know about had either no writing or complicated systems. However, there are remnants of inscriptions, pictures, and physical objects.
• The Ancient World (4000 BCE - 500 CE):
  1. Ancient Mesopotamia (Sumerians/Assyrians/Babylonians)
  2. Ancient Egypt and Eastern Mediterranean
  3. Ancient India
  4. Greece and Rome
  5. Early Chinese Dynasties
  6. Ancient Mesoamerica

Ancient Mesopotamia Part 1: The Sumerians (4100 - 1750 BCE)

• When is the beginning of history? The earliest civilisation to leave artefacts, harness agriculture, and build cities in Southern Mesopotamia (region between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers) were the Sumerians.
• The people in Mesopotamia were Semitic in origin and spoke a language related to Hebrew. However, the Sumerian language were neither Semitic nor Indo-European, so it is assumed that they were immigrants to the region.
• Sumerian cities consisted of authoritarian rulers who enforced maintenance of agriculture.
• Uruk with a population of 40,000 people was founded around 4000 BCE. Uruk, and other independent cities like Ur and Kish were centred around a large temple and their rulers called ensi (both priests and kings.) Each Sumerian city had an identifying symbol and each temple devoted to their patron god or goddess.
• Their way of life consisting of settled agriculture, urbanisation, and centralised government for each city state spread to different cultures in the Near East.
• They produced wool and beer, which is mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
• They traded with Lebanon for wood which was scarce in Mesopotamia, obsidian with Asia Minor, and Gold with India and Afghanistan.
• There is evidence of Sumerian influence on Egyptian art and hieroglyphics.
• During 2900 BCE power shifted from ensi to secular kings called lugals (great men) who established dynasties.
• Lugals help form the first law codes.
• In 2500 BCE a ruler of Lagash named Eannatum conquered Uruk and other Sumerian cities.
• This was the period where cuneiform became the common form of writing information. Reeds were cut into clay which could be baked to make them permanent. Although it started as pictures, the script eventually developed to the point that it could record literature.
• The Epic of Gilgamesh tells of an ancient king in Uruk who was so harsh that the gods sent a wild man Enkidu against him, but the two men become friends and have adventures together. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh goes on a quest to find eternal life and is unsuccessful.
• As the Sumerian culture mixed with the Semitic Akkadians who also lived in the area, cuneiform was adapted to write their language as well.
• Writing cuneiform was a difficult skill as symbols represent syllables rather than letters.
• The sovereignty of the cities in Sumer was brought to an end in 2200 BCE by the rise of the Akkadian city Akkad under the king Sargon the Great who established an empire.
• After around 200 years, the Akkadian Empire was brought to an end by the people called Gutians who invaded from the Zagros Mountains.
• During the Third Dynasty of Ur, they re-established a Sumerian Empire under the King Shulgi. This came to an end by the invasion of nomadic Semites from the coasts of Palestine and Syria, the Amorites in 2200 BCE.
• The Amorites were displaced by the Babylonian Empire founded by Hammurabi in 1800 BCE.

Ancient Mesopotamia Part 2: The Assyrian Empire (2000 - 600 BCE)

• The further we go back in time, the less writings we have of civilisations. The Ancient Greeks knew only a small amount of the civilisations of Mesopotamia, since writing was developed centuries after their existence. Our understanding relies heavily on archeology.
• The name Assyria began with the Semitic city state of Assur in Upper Mesopotamia. It was an independent city state built around the Temple of Ashur.
• It was first mentioned in the early 3rd millennium BCE, part of the sphere of influence of the Sumerian cities of Lower Mesopotamia. Then, with Sumer itself, it became part of the Akkadian Empire.
• Those in Assur and Akkad spoke Akkadian and were part of the same ethnic group.
• The Assyrians became independent after the invasion of Akkad by the Gutians in 22nd century BCE and then once again a province of Ur in the 21st century BCE.
• At the end of the 19th century BCE, Shamshi-Adad expanded the Assyrian Empire and built ziggurats.
• The Empire was brought to a temporary end by Hammurabi in 1800 BCE. This regime did not last, and in 1720 BCE Adasi founds a new Assyrian dynasty.
• In the 15th century BCE, Assyrian and Egypt entered an alliance against the expanding Mitanni Empire in Anatolia, which was defeated and had to pay tribute for decades afterwards.
• The 14th - 11th century BCE are considered the Middle Period of the Assyrian Empire when it defeated the Mitanni, took over part of the Hittite Empire, and surpassed the power of Egypt and Babylonia.
• Bronze Age Collapse occurred during the 12th century BCE, where Egypt was invaded by sea peoples, the Hittite Empire and the Myceanean and Minoan civilisations came to an end. There were population movements within Greece and Caanan.
• The Middle Assyrian Empire is known for its military conquest, territorial expansion, and legal codes. Carved reliefs associated with Assyrian palaces were developed.
• The 300 years between the 10th and the 7th century BCE was known as the Neo-Assyrian Empire, where a resurgence of the Assyrian Empire was defeated by the alliance of its neighbours.
• Tiglath-Pileser III deported several of the Northern Israel tribes as punishment for rebellion. Sargon II and his son Sennacherib put an end to Israel and deported most of the inhabitants, which became the legendary 10 Lost Tribes of Israel.
• Sennacherib moved the capital to Nineveh. There he built a great palace, and the gardens that he created may have inspired the story of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
• The Nineveh palace was the site of the first collection of cuneiform tablets, known as the Library of Ashurbanipal. It was the source of the two famous texts of Mesopotamian literature, the Enuma Elish (Babylonian creation story) and the Epic of Gilgamesh. Both of these works bear similarities to the Israelite mythology recorded in the Book of Genesis (in Hebrew), which was composed around the time that the Israelites were in exile in Mesopotamia.
• These texts were written in Akkadian, which were the Assyrian's traditional language, by the 8th century BCE the Empire was using Aramaic. This was due to the fact Assyrians' policy of resettling populations of conquered territories had introduced Aramaic to a much larger area of their domain. It was also easier to write because it had a 22 letter alphabet, while Akkadian was continued to be written in syllabic characters of cuneiform.
• Under Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian Empire reached its greatest territorial extent, but after his death in 627 BCE, conflict arose with his succession. The Babylonians, under Nabopolassar took advantage and broke away from Assyria, as well as Egypt. Scythians came from the Black Sea to raid Asia Minor, and the Medes and Persians in Iran attacked.
• In 612 BCE, Medes and Persians, Scythians, and Babylonians carried out a co-ordinated attack on Nineveh and destroyed it.
• In 609 BCE, what was left of the Assyrian Empire became a part of the Median Empire, 50 years after that Cyrus the Great conquered the Medes and founded the Achaemeneid Dynasty, until it was defeated by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE.

Ancient Mesopotamia Part 3: The Babylonian Empire (1200 - 500 BCE)

• Babylon was founded around 1900 BCE around the time Sumerian and then Assyrian States emerged as regional powers in the 3rd century BCE.
• It became important when Hammurabi conquered Syria in the west and Elamites/Gutians in the east, forcing the King of Assyria to abdicate his throne.
• Hammuarbi made Marduk an important deity. The Enuma Elish was written during this period where Marduk defeats a sea monster Tiamat, and creates the Earth, sky, and humans.
• The Code of Hammurabi assigned punishments for every offence, took an active role in punishing criminals, harsh punishments, and parallels Exodus and Deuteronomy.
• Around 1600 BCE, the Hittites conquered the city who replaced the rulers with their allies, the Kassites. They were a people from northwest Iran, who were ethnically unrelated to the Mesopotamians. The fact that the Amorites, Assyrians, and Kassites were able to take control of central Mesopotamia has been attributed to its lack of natural defences.
• Later in the 13th century BCE, Babylon was made subject of the Assyrian Empire. It changed hands several times until the collapse of the Empire under Ashurbanipal's death in 631 BCE.
• Babylon took advantage of the succession crisis and expanded into what is known as the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Nebopolassar, its first leader was part of the joint force of Medes, Persians, Babylonians, and Scythians, who attacked the Assyrian heartland and destroyed Nineveh in 612 BCE.
• Under Nebopolassar's son, Nebuchadnezzar II, Assyria was divided up between these peoples and Babylon become one of the most important cities in Mesopotamia.
• In the 6th century BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II brought an end to the Israelite Kingdom of Judah. He is vilified in the bible as the destroyer of Jerusalem and the Temple. However, inscriptions tell us he was a builder.
• The last Babylonian king was Nabonidus, with his king Belshazzar, and in 539 BCE, Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon. Cyrus reversed Israelites' exile and allowed them to return and rebuild Jerusalem. These events are recorded in biblical books of Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah.
• The Babylonian exile lasted 70 years and this was the period where Judaism was developed. Jewish beliefs about the creation of the world, origins of humanity, and the origins of the universe were influenced by the Babylonians. Babylon or Babel as it is portrayed in the bible, was the first city, and the tower built was a ziggurat.
• Babylonia remained a part of the Persian Empire until Alexander the Great's conquest in the 4th century BCE. Then it was incorporated into the Seleucid Empire.