Intro to part 2 recaps about the first civilizations and goes on to say how impressive, but vulnerable these civilizations were. When the civilizations broke down there was a thousand year gap before anything new arose. Between 500 B.C.E. to 500 C.E. new societies began to rise. Larger and new urban centers and states emerged and replaced what we know as the first civilizations. In chapter 3 it takes about what empires are. An empire is a term for a larger and aggressive states that conquer, rule and extract resources from other states. These include empires such as the Persian and Greeks. The Persians and the Greeks were essentially rivals. The Persian Empire was the largest of its time conquering and expanding its empire. The Persian empire was extremely successful and was wealthy and powerful. The Persians had a solid infrastructure, imposed taxes and expanded their commerce. The Greeks took a different route they did not aggressively attack other civilizations, but gradually took over smaller city-states and civilizations. They practice deforestation in order to get some resources for the empire. The Greeks also practiced citizenship unlike the Persian empire they were inclusive with their people in the decisions that had to be made. Every four years the rivalry and conflict was put aside when they both competed in the Olympic games. The Persian empire collapsed after the Greco-Persian war. The Greeks had fought them off in both land and sea causing the empire to drop in population and eventually collapse. Meanwhile the Roman and Chinese empires consolidated into one. These empires were not like the Persians and Greeks. The Roman Empire expanded themselves like the Greeks, slowly taking over smaller city states. The Chinese Empire came to be because the seven competing kingdoms fell under one empire. They unified because the seven kingdoms began to collapse due to the constant war. The Roman and Chinese empires operated somewhat similarly and eventually consolidated under one, creating a stronger and powerful empire.
Chapter 8 was about how China could possibly be the next superpower. Many things lead me to believe this. To start off Chyna dominated the sea roads which was the exchange system within the Indian ocean. Because of this exchange China had one of the largest cosmopolitan urban centers. Since many people visited the centers it caused China’s economy to shoot up because they were making so much money from it. Another thing that would help what is the revival of Confucianism. Confucianism would help with the order and social class of China making it more organized and efficient to handle large problems. China also had an examination system which was to help give out jobs to people meaning to get a high powered job you must be educated and take the exam. China was also very advanced, they found a way to feed their oversize population using rice. This rice came from Vietnam and grew two times faster than normal. It was also drought -resistant so there was never a reason people would die of s...
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