Great Landmarks in Human History

PALEOLITHIC ERA:

hunting & gathering, crude tools, magic and ritual, division of labor

NEOLITHIC ERA

¥ Development of food production

¥ Emergence of complex, specialized society

2 characteristics that led to development of "settlements"

¥ Irrigatable land

¥ Specialization of tasks ---> new, more specialized tools

¥ URBAN REVOLUTION - Early Bronze Age - c. 2500-2300 BC - "the birth of Civilization"

CIVILIZATION:

"a form of human culture in which many people live in urban centers, have mastered the art of smelting metals, and have developed a system of writing."

Mesopotamia - "between 2 rivers"

Cuneiform - birth of writing

SUMERIANS - "natives"

SEMITES - "New Kids on the Block"

1st Wave - Akkadians -----> SARGON

2nd Wave - Amorites or "Old Babylonians" (c. 1900 BC)

----> HAMMURABI (1792-1750 BC)

3rd Wave - c. 1600 BC - Hittites, Hurrians, Mittani & Kassites

4th Wave - Assyrians

Persia---->Macedonians---->Seleucids---->Parthians---->Romans---->Sassanids----> Arabs---->Mongols---->Ottoman Empire---->Great Britain---->Iraq

Amorites or "Old Babylonians" - Hammurabi

Assyrians ("Assyria" = "Land of Ashur")

Tiglathpileser (1115 - 1077 BC)

Ashurnasipal (1077 -

Ashurbanipal (668 - 627)

"New Babylonians"

626 BC - Nabopolasser wins control of Babylon from Assyria

His son, Nebuchadnezzar II, built huge walls and gates, conquered and destroyed Israel

Egypt - oldest continuous civilization on earth

¥ dependent on the Nile

¥ later urbanization

¥ use of hieroglyphics / demotic script

¥ development of papyrus

¥ advanced sciences, sites of libraries

¥ pharaohs, pyramids

¥ mythology - Osiris, Seth, Isis, Horus

¥ shifting religious coalitions

KUSH (Nubia, Wawat, Ethiopia)

¥ historical, biblical references

¥ great mystery: language still untranslatable

¥3 main periods:

Early: 2400 - 2000 BC; Middle: 2000 - 1668 BC; Classic: 1668 - 1570 BC

¥ ritual burial

¥ Egyptian encroachment - Snefru (c. 2575)

¥ Kerma

¥ Sesostris I (c. 1915) -- named region Kush

¥ Selima (Semna)

¥ invasion of Hyksos (c. 1700)

¥ Amenhotep I (1514-1493)

¥ re-emergence 1000-800 BC ---> Napata, Kashta

¥ invasions, destruction of Napata ---> Meroe

AEGEAN CIVILIZATION

CRETE - The Minoan Civilization

¥ Knossus

¥ Linear B

THE MYCENAE

INVASIONS (from Asia Minor - 2000 BC and Danube - 1400 BC)

1) Acheans - 2000BC

2) Aeolians - 2000BC

3) Ionians - 1400BC

4) Dorians - 1150BC

GREECE

800-600 BC - Archaic period

600-323 BC - Classical period

323-224 - Hellenistic Age

The "Hoplite Phalanx"

TYRANTS (700-500 BC)

Architecture:

1) Columns - a) Doric b) Ionian c) Corinthian

2) Buildings - a) Pantheon b) Temple c) Agora d) Theater

SPARTA (descendants of the Dorians)

1st Messenian War

¥ helots ¥ perioikoi

2nd Messenian War (c. 650 BC) - Helots revolt

Peloponnesian League

LYCURGUS - developed a constitution

- 2 kings - 5 ephors

- Gerousia - Apella

ATHENS

-until 600 BC, 9 ARCHONS

AREOPAGUS (council of nobles)

DRACO - c. 621

SOLON - c. 524

FAILURE to prevent factionalism-----> tyranny

PEISISTRATUS - 1st tyrant

CLEISTHENES - 2nd tyrant

¥ Council of 500

¥ "demes"

THE STRATEGOI

GREATEST EXTERNAL THREAT TO GREECE------->PERSIA

Cyrus the Great subdues Greece c. 540 BC

- Aristagoras - tyrant of Miletus -- enrages Persia

BATTLE OF MARATHON

Athens leads The Delian League

Cimon - son of Miltiades

 

 

Deterioration of Athens - Sparta Relations

A) DELIAN LEAGUE A LIABILITY

B) Cimon's enemies ----------> Ephialtes and Pericles

C) Thasos asks Sparta to attack Athens

PELOPONNESIAN WARS

404 BC - Athens starved into submission

Philosophy

"Classical"

Socrates

Plato

Aristotle

Hellenistic

Epicurius (Epicureans)

Zeno of Citium (Stoics)

Pyrrho of Elis (Skeptics)

Rome

Etruscans

Romulus & Remus

Monarchy -----> Republic (509 BC) -----> Dictatorship

Role of women, family

Pyrrhus and the Samnites

Carthage -- Hannibal & Hasdrubal, Punic Wars

Macedonia (168 BC)

Tiberius & Gaius Gracchus

Marius & Sulla

Pompey

Triumverates

First Triumverate

- Julius Caesar, Crassus, Pompey

Second Triumverate

-Antony, Octavian, Lepidus

Rome's greatest contribution - LAW

also:

architecture, language, city planning

The "Pax Romana"

WHY DID ROME FALL?

Gibbon - Christianity

Other causes cited...

 

 

Christianity

1) missionary zeal

2) exclusivity

3) willingness to suffer martyrdom

4) most from peasant class

5) irrational, "blind" optimism

6) uncompromising ethical code

7) tight organization

8) development of monasteries

Barbarians

Goths - "come to enjoy, not destroy"

Visigoths pushed west in L4C by Huns

Battle of Adrianople - 378

¥ Visigoths, under Alaric, take lands by force

¥ Rome sacked in AD 410

Franks invade Gaul in 486

¥led by Clovis. Controlled Gaul by 511

Ostrogoths seize Italian peninsula

¥ Theodoric their leader

¥ inventive, aggressive, unorganized

¥ comitatus, virgeld, compurgation

BYZANTINE EMPIRE

I - Constantinople --- 6C Dominance

II - Arab Expansion

III - Crusades

Founded by Constantine

Christianity made state religion by Theodosius

Justinian (527-565) & Theodora

¥ Corpus Iuris Civili

¥ extension of empire

¥ Hagia Sophia

1054 - East and Western churches split -----> iconoclasm

1071 - Seljuk Turks win Battle of Manzikert

1453 - Constantinople falls

ISLAM

610 - birth of Islam

622 - the hegira (Year 0 in the Islamic calendar)

Mohammed leads Dar a Islam

Beliefs:

1) God is supreme

2) There 1 God -- Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet

3) Koran (Qur'an) in holy book

4) Prayer, fasting, pilgrimage (haj), almsgiving (zaka)

5) Temple on Friday

6) All Moslems equal before God

7) Holy war (jihad) replaces blood feuds (razzia)

8) Polygamy allowed

Feudalism, Manorialism

"An honorable relationship"

Lord

Vassal

Serf

Technological, political, economic, social, religious developments

Eschete

Primogeniture

Fealty

 

 

Simony

Pluralism

Lay investiture

Henry I , Otto

Peter Damian, Humbert of Moyemontier

¥ Rise of papacy

¥ Hildebrandt ---> Pope Gregory

(Henry IV emperor -- too young to act)

1075 - Dictatus Papae

1076 - Diet of Tribur

1077 - Canossa

1122 - Concordat of Worms

THE CRUSADES

Peasants' Crusade (1095)

First Crusade (1096-1099)

¥ Pope Urban II makes plea at Council of Clermont

¥ Christians take Jerusalem in 1099

¥ Crusader Kingdoms est'd. (Antioch, Jerusalem, Tripoli, Edessa)

Second Crusade (1147-1149)

¥ Promoted by Bernard of Clairveaux

¥ Conflict between King Louis VII & King Conrad III

¥ Emergence of Knights Templar

Third Crusade (1189-1192)

¥ Saladin unites Muslims against Crusaders

¥ 1187 - Horns of Hattin -----> Muslim armies seize vast territories

¥ Conflict between Philip II and Richard the Lion-Heart

Fourth Crusade

¥ Venetians encourage the sacking of Constantinople

¥ Alexius promises to finance Crusade if they win him the throne

Children's Crusade (1212)

William the Conqueror

¥ born the illegitimate son of Robert I of Normandy

¥ 1035 - Robert dies

¥ 1042 - William knighted

¥ William unites with Baldwin of Flanders and seeks the hand of his daughter, Matilda

¥ 1051 - Baldwin and William in England: Edward the Confessor promises William the English crown

¥ 1064/65 - Harold Godwin, who is Earl of Wessex & Edward's brother-in-law, visits Normandy and acknowledges William's claim to the throne

¥ 1066 - Edward the Confessor dies.

A - Norwegians invade:

Tostig and Harald III Hardraade, Battle of Stamford Bridge

B - William invades -- Battle of Normandy

 

 

Henry II -- Theobald -- Thomas Becket

King John -- Magna Carta

High Middle Ages

Science --> Rise of the University

¥ 1st - University of Bologna

¥ reason for foundation

¥ Based on scholasticism

¥ Trivium and qudrivium

Thomas Aquinas -- "The Summa"

THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR

¥ 1204-Loss of Normandy by King John

¥ 1259-Henry III loses all French holdings except Gascony

¥ 1328-Edward III lays claim to French throne

¥ 1337-Philip VI seizes Gascony, starts war

War changes feudal system:

Reliance on peasant footsoldiers rather than knights

First Phase:

1346 - Battle of Crecy - Archers decimate French.

1356 - Battle of Poitiers - Edward the Black Prince victorious

1359 - Peace of Bretigny

Second Phase:

1364 - Charles V recovers lost territory

1415 - Henry V invades, wins at Agincourt

1429 - Joan of Arc makes her way to the court of the dauphin

Problems in the Church

I. Heresy

- Albigensians and Cathars

Response: the Inquisition

later the "Society of Jesus"

II. Church and State embroiled in conflict

- Frederick II vs. Pope Gregory

- Pope Boniface VIII vs. Philip the Fair

¥ UNAM SANCTAM

- "Babylonian Captivity of the Church"

- "The Great Schism"

- Conciliar Movement