The%20past - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

About This Presentation
Title:

The%20past

Description:

Presentation Layout Template. The past – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:174
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 64
Provided by: edut1551
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: The%20past


1
The past
2
The present
3
The future
4
History of the Earth
5
Geological Time Scales
6
Human evolution
  • A small African ape living around six Ma was the
    last animal whose descendants would include both
    modern humans and their closest relatives, the
    chimpanzees.Very soon after the split, apes in
    one branch developed the ability to walk upright.
    Brain size increased rapidly, and by 2 Ma, the
    first animals classified in the genus Homo had
    appeared.
  • Modern humans (Homo sapiens) are believed to
    have originated somewhere around 200,000 years
    ago or earlier in Africa the oldest fossils date
    back to around 160,000 years ago.
  • By 11,000 years ago, Homo sapiens had reached
    the southern tip of South America, the last of
    the uninhabited continents.

7
Civilization
  • Throughout more than 90 of its history, Homo
    sapiens lived in small bands as nomadic
    hunter-gatherers.

Cultural evolution quickly outpaced biological
evolution, and history proper began. Somewhere
between 8500 and 7000 BC, humans in the Fertile
Crescent in Middle East began the systematic
husbandry of plants and animals agriculture.
8
Development of Science
  • Agriculture had a major impact humans began to
    affect the environment as never before. Surplus
    food allowed a priestly or governing class to
    arise, followed by increasing division of labor.
    This led to Earths first civilization at Sumer
    in the Middle East, between 4000 and 3000 BC.
    Additional civilizations quickly arose in ancient
    Egypt, at the Indus River valley and in China.

9
Sumer
  • The history of Sumer spans the 5th to 3rd
    millennia BC, ending with the downfall of the
    Third Dynasty of Ur around 2004 BC, followed by a
    transition period of Amorite states before the
    rise of Babylonia in the 18th century BC.

Gilgamesh was the fifth king of Uruk, ruling 126
years, according to the Sumerian king list,
placing his reign ca. 2500 BC.
10
Egypt
  • By about 6000 BC, organized agriculture and large
    building construction had appeared in the Nile
    Valley. Between 5500 and 3100 BC, during Egypt's
    Predynastic Period, small settlements flourished
    along the Nile, whose delta empties into the
    Mediterranean Sea. By 3300 BC, just before the
    first Egyptian dynasty, Egypt was divided into
    two kingdoms, known as Upper Egypt, and Lower
    Egypt. The historical records of ancient Egypt
    begin with Egypt as a unified state, which
    occurred sometime around 3150 BC.

11
Egypt Old Kingdom
  • The Old Kingdom is most commonly regarded as
    spanning the period of time when Egypt was ruled
    by the Third Dynasty through to the Sixth Dynasty
    (2686 BC 2134 BC). The Old Kingdom is perhaps
    best known, however, for the large number of
    pyramids, which were constructed at this time as
    pharaonic burial places.Sneferu is believed to
    have commissioned at least three pyramids while
    his son and successor Khufu erected the Great
    Pyramid of Giza, Sneferu had more stone and brick
    moved than any other pharaoh. Khufu, his son
    Khafra, and his grandson Menkaura, all achieved
    lasting fame in the construction of their
    pyramids.

12
The beginning of writing
  • Around the 4th millennium BC writing process
    first evolved from economic necessity in the
    ancient near east. The clay tokens were used to
    represent commodities, and perhaps even units of
    time spent in labor, and their number and type
    became more complex as civilization advanced. A
    degree of complexity was reached when over a
    hundred different kinds of tokens had to be
    accounted for, and tokens were wrapped and fired
    in clay, with markings to indicate the kind of
    tokens inside. These markings soon replaced the
    tokens themselves, and the clay envelopes were
    demonstrably the prototype for clay writing
    tablets.

13
to 2000 BC
  • The Egyptian calendar, the first known based on
    365 days (12 months of 30 days and 5 days of
    festival) is possibly instituted as early as 4241
    BC
  • Babylonians predict eclipses (2900 BC)
  • The Great Pyramid of Giza is built as a tomb for
    Khu-fu (2800 BC)
  • Units of length, weight and capacity are legally
    fixed in Mesopotamia (2400 BC)
  • A form of soldering to join sheets of gold is
    used by the Chaldeans in Ur (2400 BC)
  • Positional notation is developed in Mesopotamia
    unlike most other systems, the Sumerian system
    has a base of 60 instead of 10 (2400 BC)
  • Mesopotamian cultures learn to solve quadratic
    equations that is, equations in which the
    highest power is two (2000 BC)

14
The World in 2000 BC
  • Minoan Civilization in Crete
  • Old Babylonia in Mesopotamia
  • Harappa Period in India
  • Middle Kingdom in Egypt
  • Xia Dynasty in China
  • Olmec Civilization in Mesoamerica

15
Assyria
  • Assyria was a kingdom centered on the Upper
    Tigris river, in Mesopotamia (Iraq)

During the Old Assyrian period (20th to 15th
centuries BC), Assur controlled much of Upper
Mesopotamia and parts of Asia Minor. In the
Middle Assyrian period (15th to 10th centuries
BC), its influence waned and was subsequently
regained in a series of conquests.
16
Babylonia
  • Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in
    central-southern Mesopotamia, with Babylon as its
    capital. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi (fl.
    ca. 1696 1654 BC, short chronology) created an
    empire.

Hammurabi is known for the set of laws called
Hammurabi's Code, one of the first written codes
of law in recorded history. These laws were
written on a stone tablet standing over eight
feet tall (2.4 meters) that was found in 1901.
17
Hittites
  • The "Hittites" were an ancient Anatolian people
    who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of
    the Indo-European language family and established
    a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central
    Anatolia ca. the 18th century BC. The Hittite
    empire reached its height ca. the 14th century
    BC. After ca. 1180 BC, the empire disintegrated
    into several independent city-states.

Under Muwatallish (1306-1282), they fought the
Battle of Kadesh (1298 BC) against Rameses II and
won.
18
to 1000 BC
  • Around 1750 BC, under Hammurabi, star catalogs
    and planetary records are compiled.
  • Around 1700 BC, the Phoenicians are writing with
    a 22-letter alphabet.
  • Around 1600 BC, the zodiac is identified by
    Chaldean astrologers.
  • Around 1050 BC, the Duke of Chou in China builds
    the first magnetic compass.

19
Old Babylonian astronomy
  • Planetary theory
  • The first civilisation known to possess a
    functional theory of the planets were the
    Babylonians. The oldest surviving planetary
    astronomical text is the Babylonian Venus tablet
    of Ammisaduqa, a 7th century BC copy of a list of
    observations of the motions of the planet Venus
    that probably dates as early as the second
    millennium BC.
  • The Sumerians, predecessors of the Babylonians
    who are considered to be the first civilization
    and are credited with the invention of writing,
    had identified at least Venus by 1500 BC. Shortly
    afterwards, the other inner planet Mercury and
    the outer planets Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were
    all identified by Babylonian astronomers.

20
1000 BC
  • In Israel, David is the king
  • Egypt is a minor power
  • Alphabet is developed by the Phoenicians
  • Midas is the king in Phrygia
  • Dorians invaded Greece
  • Chou Dynasty in China

21
Median Empire
  • The Medes were an ancient Iranian people who
    lived in the northwestern portions of present-day
    Iran.
  • During the deciding battle of the war between the
    Medes and Lydians, a sudden solar eclipse took
    place. Both armies took this as a sign from the
    gods and they made peace. The chief result is
    that the date of this aborted battle is the
    earliest event in human history that we can
    confidently say happened on a particular day, and
    no other. That day was May 28th, 585 BC.

22
Persian Empire
  • Persian Empire (ca. 550330 BC), was the
    successor state of the Median Empire. The empire
    took its unified form with a central
    administration erected by Cyrus the Great.
  • It was during the reign of Darius I that
    Persepolis was built (518516 BC) and which would
    serve as capital for several generations of
    Achaemenid kings. Darius I attacked the Greek
    mainland, which had supported rebellious Greek
    colonies under his aegis but as a result of his
    defeat at the Battle of Marathon, he was forced
    to pull the limits of his empire back to Asia
    Minor.

23
Etruscans
  • Etruscan civilization is the modern English name
    given to a civilization of ancient Italy in an
    area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. Their
    origin is unknown. But one hypothesis is that by
    1000 BC, refugees of the Phyrigian invasion from
    Asia Minor had reached the western shores of
    Italy and settled there.
  • According to tradition the Roman Republic was
    established around 509 BC, when the last of the
    seven kings of Rome, Tarquin the Proud, was
    deposed, and a system based on annually elected
    magistrates and various representative assemblies
    was established. A constitution set a series of
    checks and balances, and a separation of powers.
    The most important magistrates were the two
    consuls, who together exercised executive
    authority as military command. The consuls had to
    work with the senate, which was initially an
    advisory council of the ranking nobility, or
    patricians, but grew in size and power.

24
Greece
  • In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge
    from the Dark Ages. From about the 9th century BC
    written records begin to appear. By 800 BC, Homer
    had written the Iliad and Odyssey. By the 6th
    century BC several cities had emerged as dominant
    in Greek affairs Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and
    Thebes. Each of them had brought the surrounding
    rural areas and smaller towns under their
    control, and Athens and Corinth had become major
    maritime and mercantile powers as well.

25
to 500 BC
  • In 763 BC, the Babylonians record a solar
    eclipse, the oldest eclipse recorded.
  • Around 580 BC, Pythagoras is born on Samos.
  • Around 570 BC, Greek philosopher Xenophanes
    speculates that because fossil sea shells are
    found on the tops of the mountains, the surface
    of Earth must have risen and fallen in the past,
    one of the earliest ideas of earth science.
  • Around 500 BC, Pythagoreans are killed and
    dispersed by a mob in Croton, and Pythagoras
    flees to Tarentum.

26
The Presocratics Introduction
  • If we define physics as the study of matter and
    changes in matter, then we may search for its
    origins in a tradition of critical debate
    established by the presocratic natural
    philosophers who lived in early Greek colonies
    scattered, for the most part, around the Aegean
    Sea, before the time of Socrates. With the
    exception of the Pythagoreans, presocratic
    speculations in natural philosophy were distinct
    from the mathematical approach to interpreting
    nature in the astronomy of the ancient Near East.
  • To appreciate the presocratics, we should keep in
    mind something of (i) the geography of the
    Aegean, (ii) their significance for the history
    of science, and (iii) their social and religious
    cultural contexts.

27
Geograpy
28
Significance of the Presocratics
  • What is nature? For the Babylonians, natural
    phenomena such as the motions of the heavens were
    signs of the will of the gods, to be interpreted
    for the benefit of the king and empire. For the
    presocratics, natural phenomena were the result
    of some abstract first principle, a divine
    principle on which everything else depended but
    which itself did not depend upon anything else.
    We have noted their divine first principles
  • Thales of Miletos Water - Monism (related to
    the mythological Okeanos?)
  • Anaximandros of Miletos Apeiron - Monism
  • Anaximenes of Miletos Air - Monism
  • Herakleitos of Ephesos Fire Monism (Logos)
  • Parmenides of Elea, Zenon of Elea, Melissos of
    Samos It, The One - Monism, Plenism,
    Rationalism, Necessitarianism, Sufficient Reason,
    Akinesis, Eternity of the World
  • Leukippos of Miletos and Demokritos of Abdera
    Atoms Void - Pluralism, Void
  • Anaxagoras of Klazomenai All in All - Radical
    Pluralism, Teleology (Nous)
  • Empedokles of Akragos Roots (earth, air, fire
    water) - Moderate Pluralism, Tychism (Love and
    Strife)

29
Greece
  • Athens and Sparta would soon have to become
    allies in the face of the largest external threat
    ancient Greece would see until the Roman
    conquest. After suppressing the Ionian Revolt, a
    rebellion of the Greek cities of Ionia, Darius I
    of Persia, King of Kings of the Achaemenid
    Empire, decided to subjugate Greece. His invasion
    in 490 BC was ended by the Athenian victory at
    the Battle of Marathon under Miltiades the
    Younger.
  • After this war Athens and Sparta fought for a
    long time for a hegemony in Greece. These wars
    weakened both of them. The weakened state of the
    heartland of Greece coincided with the Rise of
    Macedon, led by Philip II. Alexander, son and
    successor of Philip, continued the war with
    Persians. Alexander defeated Darius III of Persia
    and completely destroyed the Persian Empire,
    annexing it to Macedon and earning himself the
    epithet 'the Great'.

30
Hellenistic Greece
  • After the death of Alexander his empire was,
    after quite some conflict, divided amongst his
    generals, resulting in the Ptolemaic Kingdom
    (based upon Egypt), the Seleucid Empire (based on
    the Levant, Mesopotamia and Persia), the kingdom
    of Pergamon in Asia Minor and the Antigonid
    dynasty based in Macedon.

31
Rome
  • Roman Republic was established around 509 BC. The
    Romans gradually subdued the other peoples on the
    Italian peninsula, including the Etruscans. In
    the second half of the 3rd century BC, Rome
    clashed with Carthage in the first of three Punic
    Wars. These wars resulted in Rome's first
    overseas conquests, of Sicily and Hispania, and
    the rise of Rome as a significant imperial power.
    After defeating the Macedonian and Seleucid
    Empires in the 2nd century BC, the Romans became
    the dominant people of the Mediterranean Sea.

32
Syracuse
  • Syracuse has been inhabited since ancient times
    and had a relationship with Mycenaean Greece.
  • Hiero II seized power in 275 BC. Hiero
    inaugurated a period of 50 years of peace and
    prosperity, in which Syracause became one of the
    most renowned capitals of Antiquity. Under his
    rule lived the most famous Syracusan, the
    mathematician and natural philosopher Archimedes.
    Among his many inventions were various military
    engines, later used to resist the Roman siege.
  • Hiero's successor, the young Hieronymus (ruled
    from 215 BC), broke the alliance with the Romans.
    The Romans besieged the city in 214 BC. The city
    held out for three years, but fell in 212 BC. It
    is believed to have fallen due to a peace party
    opening a small door in the wall to negotiate a
    peace, but the Romans charged through the door
    and took the city, killing Archimedes in the
    process.

33
to 380BC...
  • around 500 BC Pythagoreans teach that Earth is
    a sphere and not in the shape of a disk...
  • around 480 BC Greek philosopher Oenopides is
    believed to be the first to calculate the angle
    that Earth is tipped wrt the plane of its orbit,
    his value was 24 degrees
  • around 450 BC Pythagorean philosopher Philolaus
    suggests that there is a central fire around
    which the Earth, sun, moon and planets revolve,
    he also believes that Earth rotates
  • around 390 BC Plato founds a school in a grove
    on the outskirts of Athens since the groove once
    belonged to the hero Academos, the school is
    named the Academy...
  • around 390 BC Greek astronomer Heracleides
    suggests that Venus and Mercury may orbit the
    sun...
  • around 380 BC Democritus recognizes that the
    Milky Way consists of numerous stars, that the
    moon is similar to Earth, and that matter is
    composed of atoms...

34
to 300 BC ...
  • around 370 BC Aristotle discovers that free
    fall is an accelerated form of motion, but
    believes that heavier bodies fall faster than
    lighter bodies...
  • in 352 BC Chinese observers report a supernova,
    the earliest known record of such a sighting...
  • around 330 BC Kiddinu of Babylon works out an
    early version of the precession of the
    equinoxes...
  • in 334 BC Aristotle founds the Lyceum in
    Athens...
  • in 318 BC Prince Xuan establishes in the
    capital of the Qi state in China an academy of
    scholars...
  • around 300 BC Euclid's Elements summarizes and
    organizes the mathematical knowledge developed in
    Greece it includes information on plane and
    solid geometry and the theory of numbers it will
    be the basic textbook in mathematics for the next
    2000 years...

35
Aristotle
  • Aristotle (384 BC 322 BC) was a Greek
    philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of
    Alexander the Great. His writings cover many
    subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry,
    theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics,
    government, ethics, biology, and zoology.
    Together with Plato and Socrates, Aristotle is
    one of the most important founding figures in
    Western philosophy. Aristotle's writings were the
    first to create a comprehensive system of
    Western philosophy, encompassing

morality and aesthetics, logic and science,
politics and metaphysics. Aristotle's views on
the physical sciences profoundly shaped medieval
scholarship, and their influence extended well
into the Renaissance, although they were
ultimately replaced by Newtonian physics. In the
zoological sciences, some of his observations
were confirmed to be accurate only in the 19th
century.
36
to 140 BC ...
  • around 270 BC Aristarchus of Samos challenges
    Aristotle's teachings by asserting that the sun
    is the center of the solar system and that the
    planets revolve around the sun he estimates the
    distance of the sun from Earth by observing the
    angle between the sun and the moon when it is
    exactly half full...
  • around 250 BC the Mo Ching, a collection of
    writings by followers of Mo-tzu, contains a clear
    statement of the first law of motion later
    formulated by Newton...
  • in 240 BC Chinese astronomers observe Halley's
    comet in its first known recorded visit...
  • around 240 BC Eratosthenes of Cyrene (Libya)
    calculates the circumference of Earth from the
    difference in latitude between Alexandria and
    Aswan and finds a figure 46,000 km close to the
    present value...
  • in 165 BC Chinese astronomers record sunspots,
    probably the first accurately dated record...
  • around 150 BC Hipparchus of Nicea draws up a
    listing of fixed stars and discovers the
    precession of the equinoxes...

37
Roman Republic
  • Meanwhile the slaves sometimes rose in rebellion.
    The first rebellion lasted from 135 to 132 BC
    when slaves in Sicily rebelled. Sicilian slaves
    rebelled again in 103 BC but they were crushed in
    99 BC. Finally Spartacus led a rebellion of
    Italian slaves in 73 BC. However the rebellion
    was crushed in 71 BC.
  • In the first century BC the Roman republic slowly
    broke down and power was increasingly in the
    hands of successful generals. In 60 AD another
    powerful general, Gnaius Pompey formed a
    triumvirate with two other men Crassus and Julius
    Caesar. The triumvirate only lasted about one
    year but it was renewed in 56 BC. However Crassus
    died in 52 BC and Pompey was made sole Consul.
  • Meanwhile the third member of the triumvirate,
    Julius Caesar conquered Gaul. His military
    victories made him very popular with his men.
    However in 49 BC the Senate voted that Caesar
    should give up command of the army and return to
    Rome without his troops. Caesar refused and
    instead marched on Rome.

38
Roman Empire
  • Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. After his death
    Gaius Octavius (Octavian), Julius Caesar's
    great-nephew, Octavian became the first Roman
    emperor (in all but name). In 27 BC he was
    granted the title 'Augustus'. The Roman republic
    was at an end.
  • Augustus kept the senate but he held the real
    power. He controlled the army and the civil
    service. Augustus managed to restore order to the
    Roman empire and when he died in 14 AD it was
    peaceful and prosperous.
  • Diocletian split the empire into two halves,
    western and eastern. Constantine united them in
    324 but they split again after his death.
    Gradually there was less and less co-operation
    between the two halves.

39
to 70 AD ...
  • around 130 BC, Hipparchus uses a total eclipse
    of the sun and parallax to determine correctly
    the distance to and the size of the moon...
  • around 100 BC, the Chinese begin to use
    negative numbers...
  • in 56 BC, De rerum natura (On the nature of
    things) by Lucretius Titus is written...
  • around 10 AD, Liu Hsin is the first person
    known to have used a decimal fraction...
  • around 50 AD, Pliny the Elder writes Naturalis
    historia, a work of 37 volumes summarizing all
    that is known in his time about astronomy,
    geography and zoology...
  • in 79 AD, Pliny the Younger writes the first
    detailed account of the eruption of Vesuvius that
    destroyed Pompeii...
  • in 79 AD, Pliny the Elder died of asphyxiation
    while observing an eruption of Mount Vesuvius...

40
Migration Period
  • The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian
    Invasions was a period of human migration that
    occurred roughly between AD 300 to 700 in Europe,
    marking the transition from Late Antiquity to the
    Early Middle Ages. These movements were catalyzed
    by profound changes within both the Roman Empire
    and the so-called 'barbarian frontier'. Migrating
    peoples during this period included the Huns,
    Goths, Vandals, Bulgars, Alans, Suebi, Frisians,
    and Franks, among other Germanic and Slavic
    tribes.

41
The Almagest
  • Almagest is the Latin form of the Arabic name of
    a mathematical and astronomical treatise
    proposing the complex motions of the stars and
    planetary paths, originally written in Greek by
    Ptolemy of Alexandria, Egypt, written in the 2nd
    century. Its geocentric model was accepted as
    correct for more than a thousand years in Islamic
    and European societies through the Middle Ages
    and early Renaissance. The Almagest is the most
    important source of information on ancient Greek
    astronomy. The Almagest has also been valuable to
    students of mathematics because it documents the
    ancient Greek mathematician Hipparchus's work,
    which has been lost. Hipparchus wrote about
    trigonometry, but because his works have been
    lost mathematicians use Ptolemy's book as their
    source for Hipparchus' works and ancient Greek
    trigonometry in general.

42
to 600 AD ...
  • around 190 AD, Chinese mathematicians use
    powers of ten to express numbers...
  • around 300 AD, the Maya develop the day-count
    calendar this calendar dates events back to
    3000BC...
  • in 497 AD, Aryabhata recalculates Greek
    measurements of the solar system although the
    mostly accepts Ptolemy's scheme of the universe,
    he also puts forward the idea that Earth
    rotates...
  • in 529 AD, the Academy and the Lyceum, the
    schools started by Plato and Aristotle at Athens,
    are closed by the emperor Justinian...

43
7th Century
44
Arab Empire
  • Muslim conquests (632732) also referred to as
    the Islamic conquests or Arab conquests, of
    non-Arab peoples began after the death of the
    Islamic prophet Muhammad. He established a new
    unified polity in the Arabian Peninsula which
    under the subsequent Rashidun (The Rightly Guided
    Caliphs) and Umayyad Caliphates saw a century of
    rapid expansion of Muslim power.

45
Expansion of Islam
46
End of 8th Century
47
End of 9th Century
48
End of 10th Century
49
to 1000 AD ...
  • ... around 690, the first uses of a "goose-egg"
    sign for zero appear in Cambodia and Sumatra,
    although the Chinese had longed used an empty
    space as a placeholder and later Mesopotamian
    numeration also used a sign as a placeholder it
    is not clear when 0 comes to be understood as a
    number and not just a placeholder...
  • ... around 830, Al-Khowarizmi's Al-jabr wa'l
    muqabalah, known in the West as Algebra, gives
    methods for solving all equations of the first
    and second degree with positive roots...

50
Islamic Science 610-700
  • There are several rules in Islam which lead
    Muslims to use better astronomical calculations
    and observations. The first issue is the Islamic
    calendar.
  • The other issue is moon sighting. Islamic months
    do not begin at the astronomical new moon,
    defined as the time when the moon has the same
    celestial longitude as the sun and is therefore
    invisible instead they begin when the thin
    crescent moon is first sighted in the western
    evening sky.
  • In approximately 638 A.D, Caliph Umar introduced
    a new lunar calendar based on the Islamic
    viewpoint. This calendar has twelve lunar months,
    the beginnings of which are determined by the
    sighting of the crescent moon.

51
Islamic Science 700-825
  • This period was most notably the period of
    assimilation and syncretization of earlier
    Hellenistic, Indian and Sassanid astronomy
    occurred during the 8th and early 9th centuries.
  • Historians point out several factors that
    fostered the growth of Islamic astronomy. The
    first was the proximity of the Muslim world to
    the world of ancient learning. Much of the
    ancient Greek, Sanskrit and Middle Persian texts
    were translated into Arabic during the 9th
    century. This process was enhanced by the
    tolerance towards scholars of other religions.
  • Another impetus came from Islamic religious
    observances, which presented a host of problems
    in mathematical astronomy. In solving these
    religious problems the Islamic scholars went far
    beyond the Greek mathematical methods.

52
Islamic Science 8251025
  • The period throughout the 9th, 10th and early
    11th centuries was one of vigorous investigation,
    in which the superiority of the Ptolemaic system
    of astronomy was accepted and significant
    contributions made to it. Astronomical research
    was greatly supported by the Abbasid caliph
    al-Mamun. Baghdad and Damascus became the centers
    of such activity. The caliphs not only supported
    this work financially, but endowed the work with
    formal prestige.

53
11th Century
  • In the history of European culture, this period
    is considered the early part of the High Middle
    Ages. There was a sudden decline of Byzantine
    power and rise of Norman domination over much of
    Europe, along with the prominent role in Europe
    of notably influential popes. In what is now
    Northern Italy, a growth of population in urban
    centers gave rise to early organized capitalism
    and more sophisticated, commercialized culture by
    the late 11th century.
  • In this century the Turkish Seljuk dynasty comes
    to power in the Middle East over the now
    fragmented Abbasid realm, while the first of the
    Crusades were waged towards the close of the
    century.

54
11th Century
  • Chola-era India and Fatimid-era Egypt, had
    reached their zenith in military might and
    international influence. The Western Chalukya
    Empire (the Chola's rival) also rose to power by
    the end of the century.
  • In this century the Turkish Seljuk dynasty comes
    to power in the Middle East over the now
    fragmented Abbasid realm, while the first of the
    Crusades were waged towards the close of the
    century.
  • In Japan, the Fujiwara clan continued to dominate
    the affairs of state.
  • In the Americas, the Toltec and Mixtec
    civilizations flourished in central America,
    along with the Huari Culture of South America and
    the Mississippian culture of North America.
  • In Ukraine, there was the golden age for the
    principality of Kievan Rus.
  • In Korea, the Goryeo Kingdom flourished and faced
    external threats from the Liao Dynasty
    (Manchuria).
  • In Vietnam, the Li Dynasty began, while in
    Myanmar the Pagan Kingdom reached its height of
    political and military power.

55
End of 11th Century
56
12th Century
  • Europe undergoes the Renaissance of the 12th
    century. It included social, political and
    economic transformations, and an intellectual
    revitalization of Western Europe with strong
    philosophical and scientific roots. For some
    historians these changes paved the way to later
    achievements such as the literary and artistic
    movement of the Italian Renaissance in the 15th
    century and the scientific developments of the
    17th century. In this century there was a
    continuous fight between the papacy, Holy Roman
    Emperor (mostly today's Germany), Norman Italy
    and the Byzantine Empire. All through this time,
    the Mongols in the East were uniting their forces
    for the next century.

57
Science in 12th Century
  • After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire,
    Western Europe had entered the Middle Ages with
    great difficulties. Most classical scientific
    treatises of classical antiquity, written in
    Greek, had became unavailable.
  • This scenario changed during the renaissance of
    the 12th century. The increased contact with the
    Islamic world in Spain and Sicily, the Crusades,
    the Reconquista, as well as increased contact
    with Byzantium, allowed Europeans to seek and
    translate the works of Hellenic and Islamic
    philosophers and scientists, especially the works
    of Aristotle.
  • The development of medieval universities allowed
    them to aid materially in the translation and
    propagation of these texts and started a new
    infrastructure which was needed for scientific
    communities.

58
13th Century
  • After its conquests in Asia the Mongol Empire
    stretched from Eastern Asia to Eastern Europe
    under Genghis, Ogodai and Kublai Khans.
  • In England, John I was forced to sign the Magna
    Carta (1215), which guaranteed the rights of the
    nobility and of free-men generally, against
    encroachment by the arbitrary power of the crown.
  • During the crusades, Constantinople fell to the
    crusaders and they destroyed all the ancient
    Greek culture in the last city which preserved it.

59
Science in the 13th Century
  • The most important scholar of the period was
    Roger Bacon who upheld the principle of
    experimental science. He attempted to write a
    universal encyclopedia of knowledge and pointed
    out the deficiencies of the Julian calendar then
    being used.
  • Alfonso X, the King of Castille was most famous
    for sponsoring the publication of planetary
    motions based on Hipparchus and Ptolemy. The
    necessary math was so complicated that Alfonso is
    supposed to have remarked that if God has asked
    his advise, he would have recommended something
    much simpler.

60
14th Century
  • Europe in 1300 was well on the way to rapid
    expansion. It was rapidly increasing in
    intellectual and mathematical sophistication.
    Technically, thanks to water power and the
    mechanical discoveries that flowed from it,
    Europe was in the midst of the Medieval
    Industrial Revolution. One reason there seems to
    be such a break between the Middle Ages and the
    Renaissance was that there was in fact a break.
    The 14th Century was a time of turmoil,
    diminished expectations, loss of confidence in
    institutions, and feelings of helplessness at
    forces beyond human control.
  • Two great natural disasters struck Europe in the
    14th Century. One was climatic the Little Ice
    Age. If the Little Ice Age weakened Europe's
    agricultural productivity and made life
    uncomfortable, the Bubonic Plague brought life to
    a virtual standstill.

61
Science in the 14th Century
  • The first half of the 14th century saw much
    important scientific work being done, largely
    within the framework of scholastic commentaries
    on Aristotle's scientific writings. William of
    Ockham introduced the principle of parsimony
    natural philosophers should not postulate
    unnecessary entities, so that motion is not a
    distinct thing but is only the moving object and
    an intermediary "sensible species" is not needed
    to transmit an image of an object to the eye.
    Scholars such as Jean Buridan and Nicole Oresme
    started to reinterpret elements of Aristotle's
    mechanics. In particular, Buridan developed the
    theory that impetus was the cause of the motion
    of projectiles, which was a first step towards
    the modern concept of inertia. The Oxford
    Calculators began to mathematically analyze the
    kinematics of motion, making this analysis
    without considering the causes of motion.

62
15th Century
  • Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman
    Empire, falls to emerging Ottoman Turks, forcing
    Western Europeans to find a new trade route.
  • Spanish and Portuguese explorations led to first
    European sightings of the Americas and the sea
    passage along Cape of Good Hope to India, in the
    last decade of the century. After this first
    sightings by Europeans, transportation increased
    to Europe from America. Native indigenous
    cultures that lived within the continent of the
    Americas had already developed advanced
    civilizations that attest to thousands of years
    of human presence sophisticated engineering,
    irrigation, agriculture, religion and government
    existed before the arrival of the Spanish and the
    Portuguese.

63
The Renaissance
  • The 14th century saw the beginning of the
    cultural movement of the Renaissance. The
    rediscovery of ancient texts was accelerated
    after the Fall of Constantinople, in 1453, when
    many Byzantine scholars had to seek refuge in the
    West, particularly Italy. Also, the invention of
    printing was to have great effect on European
    society the facilitated dissemination of the
    printed word democratized learning and allowed a
    faster propagation of new ideas.
  • But this initial period is usually seen as one of
    scientific backwardness. There were no new
    developments in physics or astronomy, and the
    reverence for classical sources further enshrined
    the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic views of the
    universe. Philosophy lost much of its rigour as
    the rules of logic and deduction were seen as
    secondary to intuition and emotion.
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com