StudySpace: Western Civilizations, 16 e.

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1. Introduction
1. Transformations in the Ancient Near East
2. New imperial powers
3. The "international system"
4. Iron and bronze
2. The Indo-European Migrations
1. Language
1. Sir William Jones discovers (1786) connection between Sanskrit, Latin and Greek
2. Shared features with Latin and Greek as well as Gothic and Old Persian
3. Was there a Proto-Indo-European language spoken by a single population?
4. Indo-European linguistic forms appear after 2000 B.C.E.
2. The rise of Anatolia
1. Natural resources
2. The Assyrian presence
1. Urban life (e.g., Cappadocia)
2. Trade networks between Anatolia and Mesopotamia
3. Carried Mesopotamian civilization into Anatolia and northern Syria
3. Hittites and Kassites
1. Indo-European speaking people
2. Hittite rulers establish themselves in cities of central Anatolia
3. Politically independent until 1700 B.C.E.
4. Intensely militaristic culture
5. Under Hattusilis I, Hittites extend power throughout Anatolian plateau
1. Controlling overland trade routes
2. Military conquest
6. Mursilis I (c. 1620-1590 B.C.E.)
7. Sought to control Upper Euphrates
8. Drove east to Babylon (1595 B.C.E.)
9. The Kassites
1. Unknown origins
2. Brought peace and prosperity
4. The Kingdom of Mitanni
1. An Indo-European minority
2. A warrior aristocracy
3. United Upper Euphrates and northern Syria into a single kingdom
4. Innovations
1. Horse-drawn chariots
2. Masters of horse training and cavalry tactics
5. Collapsed in the face of Hittite aggression
3. Egypt in the Second Millennium B.C.E.
1. Transformations
1. Foreigners
2. Middle Kingdom Egypt as anxious, uncertain place
3. The Hyksos (1700 B.C.E.) invasion
1. Legitimized rule in accordance with Egyptian precedents
2. Retained their foreign material culture
3. The Nubian kingdom
4. Hyksos driven out, thus establishing the 18th Dynasty
2. The New Kingdom (1550-1075 B.C.E.)
1. A radical departure in Egyptian history and culture
2. Pharaonic rule in Dynasty 18
1. New type of nobility -- an aristocracy of military commanders
2. Wealth acquired through war
3. Thutmosis I (c.1504-1491 B.C.E.)
1. Strategy of defense through offense
2. Learned tactics from the Hyksos
3. Queen Hatshepsut and Thutmosis III
1. Hatshepsut served as regent for Thutmosis III
2. Declared herself to be pharaoh in her own right
3. Displayed herself in pictures with a masculine figure and false beard
4. Ruled together with Thutmosis for twenty years
5. Military successes
6. The "Valley of the Kings" (near Thebes)
7. Thutmosis ruled alone after Hatshepsut's death in1458 B.C.E.
1. Removed her name from inscriptions
2. Seventeen military campaigns
4. Amenhotep II (c.1428-1397 B.C.E.)
1. Undermining the strength of the Mitanni
2. Unintended consequences: the Hittites and Assyrians
5. Amenhotep III (c.1387-1350 B.C.E.)
1. Effective administration
2. Exploiting advantages already won
3. Religious Change and Challenge
1. New wealth
1. Personal glorification of pharaoh
2. Military aristocracy
3. The temples
2. The temple of Amon (Thebes)
1. Amon identified with the sun-god Ra
2. An Egyptian national god
3. The priests of Amon
3. The reign of Akhenaten (1352-1336 B.C.E.)
1. Amenhotep IV inclined toward sun-god worship
2. Replaced Ra with the Aten, the physical sun-disc
3. From "Amon is pleased" to "His who is profitable to the Aten"
4. Builds capital between Memphis and Thebes (modern day el-Amarna)
5. The Amarna period
1. Monotheistic worship
2. The life-giving power of light
3. The affirmation of life
4. Queen Nefertiti
6. Akhenaten as revolutionary intellectual or reactionary?
7. Resistance to Akhenaten
4. King Tut (Tutakhaten/Tutankhamon)
4. The "International System" of the Late Bronze Age
1. The age of superpowers
2. International diplomacy
1. A balance of power stabilized trade and diplomacy
2. The language of diplomatic rank
3. International trade
1. Flourishing seaborne trade
2. Trade routes as conduits for culture and cosmopolitanism
3. Treaty between Ramses II and the Hittites
1. Geopolitical stability
2. Furthered economic integration
4. Expansion and fragility
5. Aegean Civilization: Minoans and Mycenaeans
1. Heinrich Schliemann and the ancient Greeks
1. Homer and Troy
2. The citadel at Mycenae
2. Sir Arthur Evans and the great palace at Knossos
3. The Minoan thalassocracy
1. High degree of material and architectural sophistication (the Palace Age)
2. Redistributive economy
3. Knossos
4. Overseas trade
5. Powerful navy
6. The bull cult and human sacrifice
7. Written language: Linear A and Linear B
8. Contacts with the Mycenaeans
4. The Mycenaeans
1. Intermingling between various Greek and non-Greek speaking groups
2. Mycenaean citadels
1. Warrior culture
2. Trade and piracy
3. Centers of government
4. Redistributive economy
3. Mycenaean imitation of Near Eastern examples
4. Warriors and mercenaries
5. Linear B tablets and economic and political rights
6. Greek gods
7. Mycenaean collapse
5. The Sea Peoples and the end of the Bronze Age
1. Waves of destruction -- obscure origins
2. Disruption of northern trade networks
3. The Greek "Dark Age"
4. The survival of Egypt
5. Assyrian effects
6. New traditions and new cultural experiments
6. VI. The Small-Scale States of the Early Iron Age
1. Geopolitical changes
2. The Phoenicians
1. Roots lay in the Ancient Near East
2. Independence of Phoenician cities
3. Aristocratic form of government
4. Egyptian connections and the papyrus trade
5. Textiles
6. Cities
1. Planted Mediterranean trading colonies
2. Established Carthage in modern Tunisia
3. May have ventured as far as the Atlantic
3. Cultural influence
1. Greek trading partners
2. Near Eastern influences
3. The alphabet
4. The Philistines
1. Great national enemy of the Hebrews
2. Retention of a separate identity
3. Introduced grapevines and olive trees to the Levant
4. The Pentapolis (heavily fortified citadels)
1. Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath
5. Virtually no written records
6. The Philistines and the Hebrews
5. The Hebrews
1. Origins: the Old Testament as historical resource
1. God and His chosen people
2. The covenant
3. The Creation and the Flood
4. The Twelve Tribes
2. Hebrews and Philistines
1. Samuel and King Saul
2. David and triumph over the Philistines
3. King David
3. Consolidation of the Hebrew kingdom
1. David strengthens his new kingdom (c. 1000 B.C.E.)
2. Reduces Philistine influence
3. Defeats the Moabites and Ammonites
4. Builds Jerusalem as the political and religious capital
5. The Ark of the Covenant and Jerusalem
6. Reorganized priesthood of Yahweh
4. The reign of King Solomon (973-937 B.C.E.)
1. The temple complex at Jerusalem
2. Institutes oppressive taxation
3. Maintained a large standing army
4. Forced labor
5. The northern (Israel) and southern (Judah) Kingdoms
7. The Assyrian Empire
1. A Semitic speaking people
2. The fight for existence
3. The middle Assyrian period (1362-859 B.C.E.)
1. Assuruballit I (1362-1327 B.C.E.)
1. Extended power over northern Mesopotamia
2. Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244 B.C.E.)
1. Conqueror of the first order
2. Sacked Babylon
3. Assurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.E.)
1. Revived Assyrian strength
2. Founded the neo-Assyrian empire
4. The Neo-Assyrian empire (859-627 B.C.E.)
1. Assyrian throne seized by Tiglath-Pileser III (744 B.C.E.)
1. Conquered various western kingdoms
2. The dynasty of Sargon II (722-705 B.C.E.)
1. The Sargonids
3. Government and administration
1. An armed state
2. King as hereditary monarch and earthly representative of the god Assur
3. Divination and oracles
4. Extensive bureaucracy
5. Rigidly patriarchal
4. The Assyrian military-religious ethos
1. Holy war and the exaction of tribute through terror
2. The Assyrian army belonged to Assur
3. The worship of Assur among conquered people
4. Assyrian warfare
1. Butchering and torturing enemies
2. Strategy and tactics
3. Heavily armed and armored shock troops
4. Archery and chariots
5. Catapults and siege engines
5. The end of Assyria and its legacy
1. Sennacherib (704-681 B.C.E.)
1. Rebuilt Nineveh
2. Assurbanipal (669-627 B.C.E.)
1. Strong military presence
2. Internal reforms
3. The library at Nineveh
3. General hatred of the Assyrians
4. Nineveh captured and burned (612 B.C.E.)
5. The Chaldean empire (612-539 B.C.E.)
8. The Persians
1. The origins of the Persian empire
1. Emerged from obscurity when Cyrus became ruler of all Persians
2. Threw off the lordship of the Medes
3. Lydian gold and silver
4. Croesus launches a war against the Persians (546 B.C.E.)
5. The annexation of Lydia to the Persian empire
6. Cyrus invades Mesopotamia (539 B.C.E.)
2. The consolidation of the Persian empire
1. Cambyses -- a worthy successor to Cyrus
2. Darius I (521-486 B.C.E.)
1. Consolidating military gains
2. Improving state administration (satraps)
3. Allowed various people to retain local institutions
4. The erection of Persepolis
5. The "Royal Road" (Susa to Sardis)
6. Postal systems and spy networks
7. Punishing Athens
8. Marathon (490 B.C.E.)
3. Zoroastrianism
1. Zoroaster sought to purify traditional customs
1. Eradicating polytheism, animal sacrifice, and magic
2. There is one god -- Ahura-Mazda ("the wise lord")
1. Light, truth and righteousness
2. The counter deity -- Ahriman
3. A personal religion
4. Important to the conduct of Persian government
5. Toleration
6. The resurrection of the dead on "judgment day"
9. The Development of Hebrew Monotheism
1. From monolatry to monotheism
1. A world conditioned by polytheism
2. Monolatry -- exclusive worship of one god without denying existence of others
3. The Levites and the Yahweh cult
4. Transcendent theology
5. Ethical considerations and commandments
6. Regional distinctions in the Yahweh cult
7. The Assyrian threat
8. Demands for an exclusive monotheism
9. The prophets
1. Religious and political figures
2. Only by worshiping Yahweh could the Hebrews combat Assyrian religious imperialism
3. Amos and Hosea
4. Isaiah and Jeremiah
5. Ezekiel and the second Isaiah
6. Doctrines
1. Absolute monotheism
2. Yahweh is the god of righteousness
3. Yahweh demands ethical behavior
7. Amos and the "prophetic revolution"
2. Judaism takes shape
1. Josiah, King of Judea (621-609 B.C.E.)
1. A committed monotheist
2. Used Jeremiah and other prophets at his court
3. Purified cult practices
4. Book of Deuteronomy discovered
2. After Josiah
1. Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar conquer Jerusalem
2. The Babylonian Captivity
3. Ezekiel -- salvation only through religious purity
4. Jewish religious teachings as ethical obligations toward God
10. Conclusion
1. The age of empires
2. The "international system"
3. New religions

 

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