Background Flashcards
What were the most common pre-modern types of government?
Monarchy (central leader)
Oligarchy (Rule by a small elite)
Empire (acquiring new territory by military conquest or diplomatic pressure)
What state-building techniques were used?
Most of these remain standard today:
* law codes
* bureaucracy
* systems of tax collection
* reliance on elite classes to share political and administrative responsibility
* creation of infrastructure for transport and communications
* mobilization of labor (military service or large-scale building projects)
* Use of religion and other sociocultural norml to justify right to rule
feudalism
System in which weak monarchs delegate uch of their political power to noble elites
Example of a more decentralized type of governance
city-states
Coexist co-operatively at some times and compete fiercely at others
Example of a more decentralized type of governance
Centralized/Decentralized governance
Many pre-modern societies were more loosely organized
Examples are feudalism and city-states
Many regions were bound together more by cultural and linguistic ties than straightforward political unity
Classical periods
Characterized by socioeconomic advancement, high degree of political cohesion, and enduring cultural legacy
Typically remembered as golden ages of unity and stability long after collapse or disintegration
Background for Europe
City-states of ancient Greece followed by state of Rome created a civilizational bedrock whoe intellectual, artistic, and political influence is important even today
After Rome fell in the late 400s CE, most of Europe fell into a long medieval era that continued until the 1300s and 1400s CE
Medieval period was market by extreme instability until after 1000 CE
Who was Jesus Christ
Jewish
From Nazareth in Middle East
Founder of Christianity
Humble background
Taught that charity and compassion were more importantthan obeying rabbis and observing customs
Teachings popular among common people, poor and women
When came to preach in Jerusalem during Passover, Jewish religious authorities demanded Romans arrent him; Romans did so and put him to death by crucifixion
Roman response to Christianity
- After Christ’s death, Roman law banned Christianity
- Over next 300 years gained a large following
- Apostle Paul made it easier to convert Greeks, Romans and others in Roman Emprire by decreeing Christians did not have to observe Jewish dietary restrictions or circumcise male believers
- Caught on with those who felt powerless in Rome
- Offered hope of happy afterlife
- As became more hierarchical took a patriarchal stance and barred women from positions of leadership including priesthood
- In 313 CE Roman emperor Constantine legalized Christianity
- By end of 300s was only legally permitted faith in Roman Empire
- Church was further formalized, Bible was compiled, and scholars such as Augustine generated further Christian doctrine
What happened to Christianity after collape of Rome
- In western Europe, Roman Catholicism remained dominant and provided cultural unity to Europe
- In east, church evolved into Eastern Orthodoxy and several other eastern churches and was based in cities like Constantinople
- Split between Roman Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity became final in Great Schism of 1054
Background of Middle East
- Home to world’s oldest civilizations - Mesopotamia and Egypt
- Mostly under rule of Persia for many centuries with intervals of rule in some territory by Alexander the Great and later the Roman Empire
- With rise of Islam in 600s CE most of region came under control of Arab-dominated political-religious states called caliphates
- Abbasid Caliphate was grandest and most powerful (750 - 1258), ruled from Baghadad (Iraq) and had a golden age in 800s
