Chapter 4: First Empires and Common Cultures, 1200–350 bce
Chapter Summary
As a result of climate change and political conquests, largescale population movements across Afro-Eurasia, both forced and voluntary, became part of the regional integration of new imperial states.
Forces of Upheaval and the Rise of Early Empires
Migrations across Afro-Eurasia in the first millennium BCE resulted from a general warming trend, population growth, and soil exhaustion. As migrating groups overturned territorial states, new states emerged, in some cases as regional empires. Invaders from peripheral societies also disrupted trade and diplomatic relations, but the intermixing of these nomadic and urban societies led to rulers expanding their territorial kingdoms. Independent kingdoms were conquered, and different regions were integrated by political structures, religious beliefs, and language, although local customs and beliefs persisted. Regions such as South Asia and the Levant were integrated by custom and trade rather than political organization. Innovations in iron production also encouraged changes, especially in agriculture where the iron-tipped plow allowed larger and more integrated societies to emerge. The Bactrian camel also contributed significantly to the growth of trade as a beast of burden able to traverse deserts and withstand the frozen winters along the Silk Road. The development of forms of military and administrative controls over populations also provided a foundation for the first regional empires. War shaped human development as never before, and the new societies that formed produced doctrines and ideologies that reflected the regional integration of larger and larger states.
The Neo-Assyrian Empire
The Neo-Assyrian empire that reestablished stability in Southwest Asia and North Africa around 950 BCE subordinated and exploited peoples living in distant lands, establishing a regional empire.
EXPANSION INTO AN EMPIRE
The Neo-Assyrian Empire had a large, well-trained professional army that perfected the integration of infantry and cavalry with horse-drawn chariots. They also developed effective siege weapons. Tiglath Pileser III centralized power in royal hands, undermining the wealth of the nobility and the power of provincial governors. The ruthlessness of the empire, however, inspired hatred among conquered peoples, and once the empire’s reach exceeded its ability to control, the empire’s collapse came quickly and without warning.
INTEGRATION AND CONTROL OF THE EMPIRE
Unlike previous territorial states and kingdoms, the Neo- Assyrian Empire forced conquered peoples to pay tribute and integrated them into a cohesive empire. The ruler employed brutality to break the will of defeated people and destroyed their identity by relocating them.
Structure of the Empire In the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the lands in Assyria proper supplied the temple of Ashur with food and manpower. In the “Lands under the Yoke of Ashur” (outside of Assyria proper), vassal states paid exorbitant tribute that went to the king to pay the costs of his court and military.
Deportation and Forced Labor The extent of the Assyrian Empire required a large military force. As the empire developed, different ethnic groups were assigned to provide specialized military functions. Since many Assyrians joined the military, conquered peoples had to provide agricultural and construction work and often had to relocate to areas where their labor was needed.
Assyrian Ideology and Propaganda The Neo-Assyrian Empire promulgated an ideology to support its expansion. Only the god Ashur and his agent, the king, could bring order out of the cosmic chaos. Texts, architectural complexes, and visual images reinforced this ideology of the inevitable Assyrian triumph.
ASSYRIAN SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND POPULATION
Assyrian society rested on a rigid hierarchy. Early during the Neo-Assyrian Empire the nobles vied with the monarchy for power, but this competition ended with the reforms of Tiglath Pileser III. The state handsomely rewarded the military elites who, over time, became a noble class replacing the older landed elites. The bulk of the population consisted of peasants who worked the fields of the elites and were themselves divided into different categories. Women were more restricted and controlled than under early Mesopotamian rulers. All interactions between women and men outside of the family were highly restricted, and the Assyrians introduced the practice of veiling for respectable women. Queens also lived under these restrictions and rarely wielded political authority.
INSTABILITY OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
The geographic extent of the Assyrian Empire required army commanders to position troops far and wide. Discontent arose among the regime’s nobility as well as by subject peoples. The empire collapsed in 612 BCE as its capital, Nineveh, was conquered.
The Persian Empire
Under Cyrus the Great, the Persians of the Iranian plateau united together and defeated their rivals the Medes, establishing an empire that stretched from Anatolia to the Indus Valley. The Persians relied upon persuasion, backed by force, to dominate subject populations and formed an empire by modifying the institutions and ideology of local peoples to their own customs.
THE INTEGRATION OF A MULTICULTURAL EMPIRE
Identified as a model benevolent ruler, Cyrus the Great liberated subjects from their own oppressive kings. His successor, Darius I, expanded the empire, put down revolts, and introduced an innovative administrative system to manage his vast domains. The administrative system combined central and local administration to exploit the strengths of the diverse local traditions that composed the empire. All subject peoples entered the empire on equal footing as long as they gave loyalty and tribute to the king. The administration adapted to many different languages, although Aramaic slowly became the empire’s lingua franca. Close associates or relatives of the king ruled provinces of the empire, and the activities of local officials were closely monitored from the center.
ZOROASTRIANISM, IDEOLOGY, AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE
The Persians drew their religious ideas from their pastoral and tribal roots, which reflected the traditions of warrior and priestly classes. The region’s traditional beliefs were formed into a formal religious system by Zoroaster, and Zoroastrianism became the religion of the Persian Empire. Promoting a belief in one god, Zoroastrianism was dualistic in nature with good and evil engaged in a cosmic struggle for the universe. Humans functioned as independent actors whose good or evil acts would result in rewards and punishments in the afterlife. Persian kings were expected to exercise their absolute authority according to Zoroastrian notions of ethical behavior, as well as demonstrate their skills as horsemen. The hereditary nobility surrounding the king provided crucial support to the success of the empire. Also important were the wealthy merchants who orchestrated trade. Darius supported the high status of these two groups but also undermined their independent political authority.
PUBLIC WORKS AND IMPERIAL IDENTITY
The Royal Road that stretched from western Anatolia to the Iranian plateau played a key role in unifying the vast lands of the Persian Empire. The Persians also built water tunnels and canals as public works projects. And the Persian capital at Persepolis expressed the new imperial identity of a rich conglomeration of gladly obedient peoples.
Imperial Fringes in Western Afro-Eurasia
The peoples living on the fringes of the regional empires in Southwest Asia, although influenced by those empires, developed their own political and cultural systems.
MIGRATIONS AND UPHEAVAL
The migration of peoples from Central Europe southward into the Mediterranean region threw existing societies into turmoil. These people then adopted boats as their primary means of transportation. Called the Sea Peoples, they threatened Egypt and then settled in the Levant, where they became known as the Philistines. As a prolonged economic downturn weakened the societies of the eastern Mediterranean between 1100 and 900 BCE, a more violent society emerged, such as that characterized in the Iliad.
PERSIA AND THE GREEKS
Similar to the dynamics in many borderland areas, the Greeks sometimes cooperated with and borrowed from their more powerful Persian neighbors and other times strongly resisted Persian political intrusions and cultural influences. Beginning in 499 BCE Greek city-states began to resist Persian authority. Following Greek military victories in the early decades of the fifth century BCE, Persian authority waned over the next 150 years as the Greeks gained territory in eastern Anatolia.
THE PHOENICIANS
A mixture of local peoples and the Sea Peoples who settled in the southern Levant, the Phoenicians flourished under imperial rule, retaining their independence as a vassal state while they developed trade throughout the Mediterranean. They established trading colonies around the southern and western rim of the Mediterranean that attracted goods from interior lands. The Phoenicians paid tribute to the Assyrian kings in return for some political autonomy. The Phoenicians also developed and spread the use of an alphabet that provided a simplified record of spoken languages.
ISRAEL AND JUDAH
The origins of Israel are disputed; however, the people who eventually formed Israel were established in the central hill country of southern Canaan by 1200 BCE and expanded from this base until a kingdom was established under David around 1000 BCE. As one of many small border kingdoms of the Neo- Assyrian Empire, the people of Israel merged aspects of Mesopotamian culture with their own distinctive traits. David and his son Solomon unified the local populace through military action and diplomacy, but the kingdom soon broke apart into the northern land of Israel and the southern land of Judah. After attempted rebellions, Israel was destroyed by the Neo- Assyrians and its population dispersed. Judah rebelled against Assyria’s successor, Babylon, and much of its population was exiled into Babylon until the new Persian Empire permitted the Judeans to return to Judah. The Judean religious beliefs transformed during this tumultuous political era. They increasingly moved toward monotheism as encouraged by Israelite prophets, who also promoted concern with the moral wellbeing of the people. The national god, Yahweh, became more an all-powerful creator of the universe and a personal god who established religious rituals and moral precepts such as those in the Ten Commandments. In response to their political difficulties, the Judeans elevated Yahweh to the one true God with whom they had a special covenant: Yahweh promised to deliver them from exile in return for their devotion to him and his “Law.” Foundations of Vedic Culture in South Asia (1500–400 BCE) The nomadic Vedic people, calling themselves Aryans, entered South Asia around 1500 BCE. Vedic culture in South Asia did not have to build on and adapt to an older civilization as the Harappan culture had vanished before the Vedic people arrived. An Indo-European speaking people, the Vedic people lacked an urban tradition but had a strong ritual tradition and a body of oral literature called the Vedas. The Vedic people allied with the indigenous people in the Indus Valley, who showed them how to live and prosper in the new environment. The Vedic people held on to their own language and religion, which eventually became dominant in South Asia but absorbed local elements. The Vedic migrants did not give South Asia any greater coherence or create a unified regional kingdom. Materially, Vedic culture was rudimentary. The Vedic elite prized horses and established long-distance trade routes to ensure access to the horse-producing regions to the northwest. Vedic people learned agricultural techniques from indigenous peoples but gained access to the iron plow from people to the west. Trade grew along with agricultural productivity, promoting economic and social integration.
SPLINTERED STATES
The Vedic peoples created regional oligarchies and chieftainships, fighting fiercely with indigenous peoples and among themselves. Fragmented kingdoms eventually formed, grounded in kin, clan, and lineage structures that established hierarchies and divisions which defined the social order.
CASTES IN A STRATIFIED SOCIETY
The Vedic people arrived in South Asia with a homogenous social structure, but as they settled into the new land, more complex and stratified arrangements appeared. Castes were formed, associated with specific lineages. Dominant clan members became Kshatriyas who had power and controlled the land. Lesser clan members became Vaishya households obliged to work the land and herd livestock. As agriculture expanded, family workforces hired laborers from outside the Vedic lineages who became known as Shudras. The priestly families formed the final caste, the Brahmans, whose ability to communicate the heavens elevated them to the pinnacle of the social pyramid. These four castes, or varna, bore little resemblance to the social structure of the Vedic pastoral ancestors. Powerful monarchies emerged around kings, and the Brahmans codified customary social sanctions, eventually collected together in the Laws of Manu.
VEDIC WORLDS
A Vedic culture transmitted by the Brahman caste came to unify South Asia culturally. The Vedas contained the sacred knowledge of the people, and the Brahmans were responsible for memorizing the entire text. Some of the beliefs of the non- Sanskrit-speaking people were incorporated into the last of the Vedas. In the middle of the first millennium BCE, a collection of works known as the Upanishads was produced to account for the changes in Vedic society, including establishing reincarnation as a cornerstone of the Vedic belief system.
The Early Zhou Empire in East Asia (1045–771 BCE)
The Zhou initially allied with the Shang dynasty in their fight against the nomadic incursions on the western borderlands, but the Zhou turned against the Shang and defeated them about 1045 BCE. At first, the Zhou dynasty was a decentralized polity split into regional powers. Following the model of the Shang, the Zhou established a patrimonial state centered on ancestor worship and expanded the Shang’s tribute system in which regional leaders provided tribute in return for land, divination, and protection from nomadic invaders. On such a foundation an integrated and durable political structure could be built, and the Zhou began the extended process of integrations that formed “China proper.” Balancing between dynastic central authority and powerful local lords, the Zhou achieved integration but not quite unification.
ZHOU SUCCESSION AND POLITICAL FOUNDATIONS
Rather than outsiders, the Zhou were allies of the Shang who came to surpass them politically. The Zhou legitimized their overthrow of the Shang by claiming moral superiority. They gained allegiance from lords of older states and established new lords by awarding lands to relatives and key followers.
THE ZHOU “MANDATE OF HEAVEN” AND THE LEGITIMATION OF POWER
The Zhou established an ideology to support a morally correct transfer of political power called the “mandate of heaven.” According to this doctrine, heavenly powers conferred legitimate rights to rule on their chosen representatives. The ruler was duty-bound to uphold heaven’s principles of harmony and honor. Any ruler who let instability creep into earthly affairs or let his people suffer would lose the mandate. Henceforth, dynastic legitimacy depended on ruling in accordance with principles of good governance and upright behavior. These ideals created political and ideological tools that favored a secular empire since the ruler could not claim divine status. The mandate of heaven also defended the continuity of political structures since the immorality of the ruler, not the structures themselves, justified a transfer of power. The Zhou expanded the use of writing from divination to a variety of political practices. King Mu established a more formal system of bureaucratic government and instituted a formal legal code, expanding further the use of writing. Since their authority derived from heaven, the Zhou rulers believed it was important to gain accurate knowledge of the stars and perfect the astronomical system for the calendar. Improving upon the Shang calendar enhanced Zhou legitimacy as did extensive bronze metalworking.
SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION
As the Zhou consolidated political order, social differentiation increased. Beneath the Zhou ruler and his royal ministers were five ranks of nobles who owed allegiance and warriors to the Zhou ruler. Next in the hierarchy came high officers at the Zhou court as well as various ministers and administrators. An additional hierarchical system existed in the military. Most people worked the fields of the great landowning families. A hierarchy of occupational groups developed, ranging from landowners at the top to those lacking fixed occupation at the bottom. The Zhou state played a major role in pulling the region and its diverse people together, especially through family structures. The Zhou perpetuated an elite organized around kinship principles. Gender roles were strictly marked as was the obedience owed by children to parents. Wealthy families, however, offered women a greater range of actions. Zhou achievements were incremental, and a slow-motion agricultural revolution enabled the Chinese population to soar. Landowners and rulers organized the construction of dikes and irrigation systems to control the floodplain of the Yellow River. China was becoming so wealthy that nomads on the frontier became dependent on trade with its fertile heartlands.
LIMITS AND DECLINE OF ZHOU POWER
Zhou power outside its immediate domains remained limited, serving as the first among many regional allies. Zhou subordinates had genuine resources that they could turn against Zhou authority. In the ninth and eighth centuries BCE, the power of the Zhou royal house over its regional lords declined as the Zhou court increasingly became a theater state in which impressive rituals were supposed to conceal its lack of military power.
Conclusion
Regional empires pioneered ways of expanding territorial states beyond their ethnic or linguistic homelands, permitting parts of Afro-Eurasia to intensify their interactions and exchanges. The Assyrian and Persian empires created ideologies, political institutions, and cultural ways that facilitated their territorial expansion across large regions and exploited human and material resources at great distances from the imperial centers. Alternately, in South Asia the gradual and sustained evolution of spiritual continuity provided a durable model of integration as did the evolution of statecraft in China. And in the Mediterranean, in South Asia, and in China, men and women developed their own sophisticated state structures in relative isolation from Assyria and Persia. Thus, in the first millennium BCE, as Assyria and Persia erected monuments to political centralization, southwestern Asia was essentially becoming less central to human history because of the many independent sources of writing, learning, and spiritual thought developing around it.
Section Menu
Chapter 
Organize
Learn
Connect
Instructors now have an easy way to collect students’ online quizzes with the Norton Gradebook without flooding their inboxes with e-mails.
Students can track their online quiz scores by setting up their own Student Gradebook.