Classical Civs Political Structures

1. Classical Civilizations –
Political Structures

2. The Dynasties and Empires
China
 Qin
 Han
Persian Empire
India
 Mauryan
 Gupta
Greece/Alexander
 City-States of
Greece
 Alexander’s
Conquests
Roman Empire
 Republic & Empire

3. Greek City-States

4. Alexander’s Empire

5. Persian Empire

6. Han China
India

8. Some Similarities…
Centralized Monarchies
 Exceptions?
Bureaucracy (administrators, tax
collectors, judges, governors, etc.)
 Most extensive?
Taxation
Religion reinforced political
authority
 Examples?

9. Other similarities . . .
Military conquest and
expansion of territory.

10.  Central
government
sponsored public
works projects

12. Relatively unified law code used
throughout the empires.

13. Persia
Centralized Authority of an Absolute monarch…
 Emperor connected to the god Ahura Mazda &
extensive bureaucracy
 Ruled over 35 million people-respected diverse
cultural traditions of subject people
 Royal Road

15. Political Developments-Qin & Han
Strongest central
authority
 *Standardization
 Economic control -
iron, salt, and silk
trade
 Expansion of
bureaucracy
 Education and
examination
system created a
scholar gentry
class of
government
workers.

16.  Mandate of Heaven  Dynastic Cycle
continued

17. Indian Political Developments
Central
authority with
“independent”
regional rulers.
Caste
structured
society
Local trade
unrestricted

18. Greece
 Independent CITY-STATES
 Variety of governments including-
Monarchy & Democracy
 Little diversity in culture and religion
 Citizenship and SLAVERY

19. Greece
 Why did Greece and Rome, that had forms
of democracy, also have the most people
held in slavery?

20. Alexander the Great expanded
Greek Civilization for a short time.

22. Political Developments in the Roman
Empire
 1st
a Republic, then
a Empire w/ a
monarch
 Citizenship &
Slavery
 Strongest Law
code

23. Political Developments in the Roman
Empire
 Local rulers
maintained regional
rule with Roman
oversight
 Diversity in religious
beliefs and
languages
 Local trade relatively
unrestricted – except
for the trade of
grains

24. The Collapse of Empire-Rome and
Han China-The Differences
Rome
 No large scale,
centralized
authority ever
rules over W.
Europe for any
significant
time…ever!
Han China
 After several hundred
years, a new dynasty
emerges with a return to
a single emperor, a
bureaucracy selected by
education and exams,
and Confucian beliefs