3. How did the Classical empires
compare in number and size?
Make notes about the size, boundaries, and
location of each classical empire.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9. What techniques did Classical empires use
to administer their territories?
• What new political methods were created in
order to rule the larger empires in the Classical
Era?
• How did imperial governments let their
population know that the government was “in
charge?”
• What role did trade play in creating and
maintaining empires?
10. What new political methods were created in order to
rule the larger empires in the Classical Era?
• Administrative institutions
– centralized governments, elaborate legal systems,
and bureaucracies
11. The Han Restore Unity
It’s the same old story.
• Liu Bang, the first Han
emperor, establishes
political and social stability
• After Liu Bang dies, his wife
seizes power from their
son through a palace plot
• Wudi continues Lui Bang’s
centralized policies and
expands the empire
through war
hausa.cri.cn
12. Highly Structured Government
• Han emperors use
bureaucracy to run the
empire
• Civil service job applicants are
tested on their knowledge of
Confucianism
• Top-down rule – each level of
bureaucracy has authority
over the level below
flennoy10.wikis.birmingham.k12.mi.us
13.
14. Persia: Cyrus 580-529 BCE
• Tolerant ruler
• Allowed conquered peoples to keep their
institutions
• Greeks called him a “Law-Giver” and the
Hebrews called him “Anointed of the Lord”
• Allowed more than 40,000 to return to
Palestine
15. Persia: Darius 526-485 BCE
• Established a tax-collecting system
• Divided the empire into districts called
SATRAPIES
• Built the great Royal Road system and also
created a standard monetary system adopted
by the Lydians
• Established a complex postal system.
• Created a network of spies called “the King’s
eyes and ears”
17. Delian League
• By 479 BC, Greeks defeated Persians on land in
Asia Minor and stopped their advance.
• Athens emerged from the war as the most
powerful city-state in Greece.
• To continue the struggle against Persia, it
organized the Delian League, an alliance with
the other Greek city states.
• Athens dominated the Delian League and used
its wealth to create an Athenian empire.
18. How did imperial governments let their population
know that the government was “in charge?”
• Diplomacy; developing supply lines; building
fortifications, defensive walls, and roads
• Drawing new groups of military officers and
soldiers from the local populations or
conquered peoples
• Well trained and extensive military
– Military presence on Roman roads was so
extensive,
– Travel and trade were safer, much faster
19.
20. Cyrus’s Cylinder
• Found in Babylon
• Tells how Cyrus helped the people he
incorporated into the Persian Empire
21.
22. What role did trade play in creating
and maintaining empires?
• Promotion of trade
and economic
integration by
– Building and
maintaining roads
and
– Issuing currencies.
– Colonies and
maritime trade
25. Phoenicians
• Eastern Mediterranean Canaanites
(Greeks called them Phoenicians)
• Manufacture and seaborne
commerce
• Purple dye from the murex snail
• Writing system – symbols for
sounds
• Conflict over territory and
resources with Greeks in the West
28. Trade
Trade grew in Han period
Han products
• Agriculture basis of economy
• Ironworkers made iron armor, swords
• Growth of trade increased prosperity
• Artisans made pottery, jade and
bronze objects, lacquerware
• Led to contact between China, other
civilizations
Production of silk
• Most prized Chinese product
• Secret method for making silk
• Revealing secret punishable by death
Major industry
• Raised silkworms, unwound threads of
cocoons
• Dyed threads, wove into fabric
• Fabric beautiful, soft, strong
• Clothing costly, in high demand
29. What unique social and economic
characteristics existed in empires?
• What function did imperial cities perform?
• What social classes & occupations were
common in empires?
• What labor systems provided the workers for
Classical Empires?
• Describe the gender and family structures of
Classical Era empires.
30. What function did imperial cities
perform?
• centers of trade, public performance of
religious rituals, and political administration
for states and empires
32. The Rise of the Greek Polis
Athens
Naxos
Eboea
Larissa
Syracuse
Corinth
33. Athens
The City Pericles Built
Direct Democracy – Citizen assembly
voted directly on laws
Huge construction projects – Acropolis
and Parthenon rebuilt
Emphasis on arts, architecture,
philosophy and medicine
34. What social classes & occupations
were common in empires?
• empires displayed hierarchies that included
cultivators, laborers, slaves, artisans,
merchants, elites and caste groups.
• range of labor systems to maintain the
production of food and provide rewards for
the loyalty of the elites including corvée,
slavery, rents and tributes, peasant
communities and family and household
production
35. Han Society
Social Structure
• Han society highly structured, clearly defined social classes
• Emperor at top, ruled with mandate from heaven
• Upper class of palace court, nobles, government officials, scholars
• Second, largest class consisted of peasants, who grew empire’s food
Other Classes
• Third class composed of artisans, made useful items, luxury goods
• Merchants occupied fourth class, trade not valued by Confucianism
• Slaves at bottom of society
• Military not an official class, but part of government and offered way to rise in
status
36. Social Classes under the Han
Emperor
Governors
and Kings
Nobles, Scholars,
and State Officials
Peasants (Farmers)
Artisans and Merchants
Soldiers
Slaves
37.
38. The Rich
• Large landowners were not
required to pay taxes
• The more land they
acquired, the more the tax
base decreased
• Poor are taxed more
• Gap between rich and poor
increases
trocadero.com
39. What labor systems provided the
workers for Classical Empires?
• Rome
– Wide spread use of slave labor from conquered
territories
– Slave labor forced small farmers out of business.
Led to mass unemployment and poverty.
40.
41. Describe the gender and family
structures of Classical Era empires.
• Patriarchy continued to shape gender and
family relations in all imperial societies of this
period.
42. Han Culture
• Confucian teachings place
women at home taking care of
their families
• Some women (upper class)
broke away from this
• Daoist and Buddhist nuns were
able to gain education and lead
lives away from their families
lukeduggleby.com
43. Roles of Women under the Han
Traditional Roles
Women with Power
Paradox?
• Confucianism limited
women to the home
and to subservience to
men (fathers, husbands,
sons)
• Some women wielded
political power because
of court alliances
• e.g., Empress Lu
• Women worked hard
for their families with
little reward
• Nuns
• Educated
• Lived apart from
families
• Ban Zhao
• Helped finish her
father’s History of the
Former Han Dynasty
• Wrote Lessons for
Women
• Urged women to
obey the Confucian
social order
• Also encouraged
women to be
industrious
• Went against
convention by
writing
professionally
• Medicine practitioners
• Shop managers
• Writers
44. • Athens
• Government:
• Limited democracy (only male
citizens could participate),
Council of 500 which made the
laws, voting Assembly.
• Soldiers:
• Citizen soldiers – only during
wartime
• Slaves:
• No political rights or freedoms.
Owned by individuals
• Women:
• Cared for the home, limited
political rights.
• Education:
• Upper class boys only. Military
training and preparation for
government involvement.
Knowledge was important for a
democratic government.
• Sparta
• Government:
• Two kings (military generals)
and a council of elders. Citizens
were male, native born, over
30.
• Soldiers:
• Military society, all males
prepared to be soldiers from
birth. Soldiers from age 7 – 30.
• Slaves
• Owned by the State
• Women:
• Prepared physically for fighting,
right to inherit property, must
obey men.
• Education:
• Boys only. Military based
training from age 7. Taught to
fight. Prohibition against trade,
travel and mixing with other
city-states.
