Societies and the environment have long had a powerful relationship with each other, one in which the environment held a large influence over the location and prosperity of a society, and societies in turn have put a lot of energy into shaping the surroundings to their advantage. One of the first ways this will be illustrated is in the tendency of geographical characteristics to attract people to certain localities and push them away from others. Secondly, taking it a step further, which civilizations became trade centers is shown to be directly connected with their geographical position, demonstrating the environment’s profound effect on trade and prosperity. Then, diving into the contrasting side, how societies responded to and, in turn, …show more content…
Driven by a need to combat the daunting amount of time it took to traverse in years past, roads were constructed to expedite travel. One such undertaking occurred in the form of the Persian Royal Road, which was constructed in the Mesopotamian area during the Achaemenid Empire, 558-530 B.C.E. This impressive road, which extended 1,600 miles from the Aegean coast all the way into Iran, was built by ruling Achaemenids in an successful attempt to connect their extensive empire and thereby further trade and communication. Indeed, with the aid of the royal couriers stationed along the road, a message could potentially travel the road in its entirety in just two weeks (Text, 135, 146). On a larger scale, by around 200 B.C.E a collection of both land and sea routes were known collectively as the silk roads, and stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to China and down into India and the islands of southeast Asia (Text, 237). Providing a safer and easier way to travel the vast lengths of Eurasia, the silk roads conveyed a vast amount of long distance trade, which played a part in a specialization of labor that improved standards of living, such as Chinese silk, spices from southeast Asia, and horses from Central Asia (Text, 238). Trade is not the only way the silk roads helped shape the ancient world; it also lent itself to the spread of different religions. Specifically, Christianity spread along the silk roads, and gained followings most notably in the Mediterranean area and the Roman Empire (Text, 240-241). This not only benefited its numbers then but also helped it on the path to becoming the largest religion in the world today. Unfortunately, religions and trade are not all the silk roads spread. With the second and third centuries C.E. massive outbreaks of disease in both China and the Roman Empire, which caused sizable drop in the populations of both civilizations, lead to a weakening of both,
The Silk Road made sure if you didn’t trade items you can hold, then you can trade items you can cherish. Finally, in the western civilizations (Rome), it was accessed by boat. Boats could carry a ton more items and it was less of a walk for the merchants/traders. However, the Silk Road did lead a small backup path up north of Parthia. Around 27 B.C.E., the Roman Empire had only begun, but the silk road had been a thing for a very long time before that.
Jared Diamond, author of the Pulitzer Prize Winning, National Best Selling book Guns, Germs and Steel, summarizes his book by saying the following: "History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves." Guns, Germs and Steel is historical literature that documents Jared Diamond's views on how the world as we know it developed. However, is his thesis that environmental factors contribute so greatly to the development of society and culture valid? Traditions & Encounters: A Brief Global History is the textbook used for this class and it poses several different accounts of how society and culture developed that differ from Diamond's claims. However, neither Diamond nor Traditions are incorrect. Each poses varying, yet true, accounts of the same historical events. Each text chose to analyze history in a different manner. Not without flaws, Jared Diamond makes many claims throughout his work, and provides numerous examples and evidence to support his theories. In this essay, I will summarize Jared Diamond's accounts of world history and evolution of culture, and compare and contrast it with what I have learned using the textbook for this class.
During this era of global history from 632 to 1352 C.E, it is seen that the societies began to interact with other cultures leading to cultural diffusion which would have both positive impacts, such as new trade goods, on societies along with negative effects, such as being conquered, on these societies as well. The documents provided show these benefits and harmful factors of cultural diffusion during this global era. Documents one, two, four, and five show some of the negative effects of global interaction. Within this group document one, four and five shows how societies have a direct negative impact on each other. On the other hand document three and six show how global interaction can have a positive impact on societies.
Han China and Rome, despite having some political and cultural differences, fell in ways that were almost directly parallel to one another. Both civilizations experienced declines in everything from culture and population to economy and government, as well as both suffering from attacks by nomadic invaders. However, each civilization's fall had their own unique factors, and the lasting impact of their falls differed greatly.
Barron’s Review Assignment Three “Evaluate the effects of the spread of scientific and technological innovations in Eurasia from 1000 to 1450”. It can be said that Eurasia underwent large changes between 1000 and 1450. Governments are changing their methods of control and trade networks, increasing globalization worldwide. Along with these new changes, scientific and technological innovations in Eurasia took flight and reached new heights unseen.
The Classical Era was a time of greatness. Great empires rose to power, the likes of which the world had never seen before. In the west, Rome emerged as the dominant power. Originating in the Italian peninsula, the Roman Empire would eventually stretch from Britain to Mesopotamia and Egypt, a huge empire maintained through a vast network of roads. This empire was made of hundreds of different cultures. In the east, the Han dynasty ruled China, Vietnam, and northern Korea. Han China was united not only by government, but also by culture. Confucianism, a belief system focused on maintaining order, was extremely influential, as was another belief system called Daoism, to a lesser extent. During the Classical Age, the creation of powerful empires allowed for safer trade. Safer trade allowed huge amounts of cross-cultural interaction, trade and the sharing of ideas. But as other empires had done before, and as many did after, the empires of Rome and Han China fell. Rome and Han China had both similarities and differences. The most important similarity was plagues and diseases, and the most important difference was the destruction of culture.
During the classical era, there were shifts worldwide with regards to economic imports and exports. As many societies transformed from hunting-gathering societies into specialization societies, global trade networks expanded. This led to the founding and growth of many complex trade networks, both on land and by sea. Two notable trade networks were the Mediterranean Sea network and the Silk Road. The Mediterranean Sea is in Europe, and the trade network lined the shores of Turkey and North Africa. The Silk Road was trans-Asian. It reached from China to the Eastern Mediterranean. While these networks had multiple similarities in their expansion and spread of religion and ideas, there were many differences. These included the type of materials
The Silk Road got its name from the amount of silk used for trade during the Han dynasty. This route was used to travel from West to East on land they traveled to India, Persia, Arabia, and Europe, while traveling by sea they traveled through Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. These paths were used by merchants, pilgrims, monks, soldiers, nomads, and urban dwellers.... ... middle of paper ...
Ancient Greece and China had similar problems. They both had to deal with civil wars. They also dealt with rivers flooding. Lastly, they both had to deal with plague that killed a lot of the population in the Ancient lands.
The Mongols influenced the world in many great ways, one of them was their vast trade system. They relied quite heavily on trade, not only to gain resources, but also to get their inventions and objects to the Europeans and then hopefully spread from there. The Mongols enhanced the trading system by composing the “Silk Road”. The Silk Road was a path/road that the Mongols had control of and it was a trade route that many travelers and traders took. Along the Silk Road, the main resource that was traded was silk, hence the name “Silk Road.” The
The Han Dynasty governed China for more than four hundred years. It rose to power in 206 BC and stayed until 220 AC. The Han Dynasty played a vital role in China’s development. This dynasty pioneered a political system and social structure that lasted in China for almost 2,000 years. The Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire were considered two of the most strongest civilizations at that time. The Roman Empire lasted from 27 BC to 393 AD. This empire changed the way Romans lived. The Romans made rapid advancements in science and technology. Both of these civilizations successfully took control of their countries. While they both have an abundant amount of similarities, they is an overwhelming amount of differences that set these two empires apart. The decline of these two civilizations were both caused by internal affairs. The Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire both ruled close to the same time span, they both had highly centralized political systems, and they both were the most advanced civilizations in their region of the world. Their similarities did not overshadow their differences however. The Roman Empire had a senate that served as their legislative body and in China, the emperors ruled over the city. The Han Dynasty implemented national equality, and used Confucianism thoughts to keep the country united, while the Romans divided their citizens into different social classes and kept ethic discrimination. While both civilizations had strong social class separators, the Roman Empire made their’s more apparent. Both civilizations were strong and advanced for their time, however, they both ruled their countries differently.
...ther religions since they never really comitted to one main religion. Han China spread Confucianism by leading Confucius lives, they used Confucius ideas for their law codes and taught Confucius ideas to their children. The Confucian ideas spread by the Han helped rulers like Wudi have long reigns of power by embracing rule by morals and ethics. It also helped spread written exams as ways to determine peoples places and jobs in society based off of merit as opposed to putting anyone anywhere just to give people jobs. China also had a growing population of Daoists who believed in the power of nature. As time progressed both of their societies changed their religions. Rome slowly progressed from a basic Hellenistic polytheism to the once persecuted Christianity. Meanwhile China, which was mainly a Confucian and Daoist led society began to accept and embrace Buddhism.
2. Second plague pandemic known as BLACK DEATH, from 1345 to 1840. It spreads from Central Asia to the Mediterranean and Europe and probably also to china. It is originated in or near china and spread along SILK ROAD. It may have reduced the world’s population from 450 million to 350 million. Because of this disease, China lost around ½ of its populati...
It is not possible to think clearly about the Silk Road without taking into consideration the whole of Eurasia as its geographical context. Trade along the Silk Road flourished or diminished according to the conditions in China, Byzantium, Persia, and other countries along the way. There was also competition for alternative routes, by land and sea, to absorb long-distance
The decline and fall of the Mediterranean and Chinese civilizations was a result of population decrease, weak government, a frail economy, and invasion. A combination of these causes sparked the slow decline of these once great empires. Unlike that of China, the decline of Rome was much more upsetting, having a much larger impact on the surrounding world. Decrease in population made it more difficult to have a strong military. The army that was already intact was demanding payment, which greatly weakened the budget of Rome.