8000 BCE

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8000 BCE 600 CE BROAD TRENDS
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GLOBAL POWER AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

• Early on, the most advanced civilizations were
  to be found in the Middle East (especially the
  river valleys of Egypt and Mesopotamia) and
  China.
• As time passed, other developed societies
  emerged. Especially powerful and sophisticated
  was the Mediterranean world (particularly Greece
  and Rome).

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• Cultures in North and South America were
  physically and culturally isolated from the rest
  of the continents.
• The cultures of Europe, North Africa, the Middle
  East, South Asia, and East Asia were all linked,
  directly or indirectly, by war, conquest, trade,
  travel, religious interaction, and cultural
  exchange.

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• By 600 c.e., several civilizations could claim to
  be among the worlds most powerful and advanced,
  especially China, Persia, and Byzantium. Europe
  was slowly recovering from the collapse of Rome
  in the late 400s.

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POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

• With the development of agriculture during the
  Neolithic revolution, advanced forms of political
  organization began to appear.
• Most governments were monarchies (rule by a
  single leader) or oligarchies (rule by a small
  elite). More representative forms of government,
  such as republics and democracies, were very
  rare.

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• In some cases, decentralized civilizations were
  governed by confederations of independent
  city-states (such as Greece) or feudal systems
  (such as Europe after the fall of Rome).
• Many civilizations, by means of military
  conquest, built empires. Among the largest and
  longest lasting were Assyrias, Persias, Romes,
  and Chinas.

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ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEVELOPMENTS

• Until the development of agriculture during the
  Neolithic revolution, systems of economic
  exchange remained quite primitive. Most
  prehistoric cultures, mainly hunting and
  gathering societies, lived at subsistence and
  possessed few goods. There was very little
  specialization of labor. Any trade tended to be
  limited, and based on simple barter.

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• The development of agriculture allowed the
  accumulation of food surpluses, which enabled
  some members of society to make a living by means
  other than growing food. The result was
  specialization of labor.
• Specialization of labor led to social
  stratification and the emergence of socioeconomic
  classes (ex. upper-class aristocracies,
  middle-class merchants and artisans, lower-class
  urban dwellers and peasants).

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• The switch from nomadic life to sedentary, or
  settled, life led people to develop the concept
  of private property.
• Resource consumption and extraction increased,
  causing human societies to have a greater (and
  often negative) impact on the environment.

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• As settled civilizations encountered each other,
  they traded with each other. Trade became one of
  the most important forms of interaction between
  civilizations. Trade networks tended to follow
  waterways, for ease of transport.
• Systems of currency (particularly coinage) were
  devised.

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CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS

• Even during the Stone Age, human beings expressed
  themselves artistically, by means of painting and
  music.
• Prehistoric societies buried their dead,
  worshipped gods, and practiced religious rituals.
  

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• Systematic scientific observation,
  experimentation, and thought emerged, especially
  in China, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean
  world.
• The worlds major religions were born (except for
  Islam).

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GENDER ISSUES

• The ability of humans to mate when and with whom
  they chose gave rise to family units during the
  prehistoric era.

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• Basic physical differences between the sexes led
  to a gender division of labor in most Stone Age
  societies.
• The emergence of agriculture deepened the gender
  division of labor. In most agricultural and
  settled societies, gender division gave rise to
  gender inequality.
• Organized religions often reinforced this sense
  of inequality.

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• In most societies up to 600 C.E., women were
  relegated to a secondary, subservient role. The
  degree of subservience depended on the society.
  In some cultures, women had at least some rights
  (divorce, inheritance, and ownership of property,
  for example).
• In other cultures, women had almost no rights or
  influence. Whatever the case, in almost no
  society were women granted a status equal to that
  of men.

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QUESTIONS AND COMPARISONS TO CONSIDER

• How do human societies develop into societies?
  What does it mean to be civilized?
• How do agricultural and urban societies compare
  with pastoral and nomadic ones?
• What is the importance of cultural interaction
  and diffusion versus that of independent
  innovation in changing societies technologically,
  scientifically, or culturally?

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• Examine and compare various forms of social
  inequality (slavery, caste systems, patriarchy,
  gender inequality) in different cultures.
• How have different societies organized themselves
  economically? What role did trade play? Be able
  to describe the features of at least one
  interregional trading system (for example, the
  overland route linking the Mediterranean and
  Middle East with East Asia).

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• How and why do empires and major civilizations
  decline or collapse? Good comparisons might
  include Egypt versus Mesopotamia or the Roman
  Empire versus Han China. More generally, why did
  imperial collapse prove more devastating in
  western Europe than it did farther to the east?